Comfort food - Blackberry Crisp

In one of those all too frequent impulse buys at Costco, I found myself grabbing a large clamshell package of blackberries. They looked really good. Then I got home and realized that there was no way I could consume all of those raw by myself (the kids don't like them raw), so I started searching for the perfect recipe to use them in. I found a blackberry crisp recipe in Taste of Home and modified it slightly to suit my taste as well as to improve the nutrition profile. Really, I don't think adding flax seed and using whole wheat flour compensates terribly well for the sugar and butter, but it made me feel better about eating it. It earned enthusiastic thumbs up from my kids, hubby and friend, making it a crowd pleaser/keeper recipe. Here you go:

4 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon cornstarch or Ultragel
1T. water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 c. ground flaxseed
1/2 cup butter

Dump the blackberries into a 2 quart baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, water and lemon juice, then stir into the black berries until well combined. Spread the blackberries into an even layer.

In a small mixing bowl, soften the butter in the microwave. Then stir in the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and flaxseed until well combined. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the blackberries. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, until the blackberry filling is bubbly and the topping is golden. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.