More Blueberries — Blueberry Pie

Blueberry Pie

 Because I seriously need to take a break from working on my Ed.D. qualifying exam, here is my favorite blueberry pie recipe (baked yesterday afternoon for an impromptu barbeque when the Virginia son-in-law made a quick trip down to Florida).   This recipe is adapted from the blueberry pie recipe in the 1986 printing of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook (page 85).

 Ingredients

Pastry for an 8 to 9-inch two-crust pie

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

4 cups fresh blueberries (or frozen, defrosted & drained)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

For blackberry, boysenberry, loganberry or raspberry pie:  Substitute 4 cups of berries for the blueberries. Increase sugar to 1 cup and omit the lemon juice.

Directions

Prepare pastry.  In my case, that means taking the box containing two rolled up pie dough crusts out of the refrigerator 20 minutes before I need them – I used to make piecrust. It was not very good, and I did not enjoy rolling it out.  In fact, I do not like to make anything that needs to be rolled out with a rolling pin, although I do have a couple of beautiful rolling pins (a cool wooden one from Williamsburg and one made from solid marble)!   I discovered these pie-crusts-in-a-box years ago (I even prefer the Walmart store brand to the other major dough-in-box/can-company-brand, and it is significantly cheaper) and the rolling pins have been relegated to the role of kitchen decor (which must be dusted on occasion!). 

So, while your dough is coming to room temperature :-) put the berries in a large mixing bowl.  Add sugar, flour, lemon juice and cinnamon.  I know it says that the cinnamon is optional, but unless you are allergic or really cannot stand the taste of cinnamon, PUT IT IN!  You will not be sorry! Mix well, “mooshing” (is that a word??) some of the berries to get the juices running.

 Lightly grease pie plate and line with one of the pie dough crusts.  Turn the blueberry mixture into the pastry lined pie plate.  Dot with butter.  Cover with top crust and make several slits with a knife.  Seal the two crusts together and flute.  Cover edge with strips of aluminum foil to prevent excessive burning – remove last 10 minutes of baking.  Instead of foil to prevent excessive browning, I use one of these great piecrust shields from Pampered Chef.  Bake at 425° for 35-45 minutes, until crust is lightly browned and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.  Makes 6 servings (according to the cookbook, but easily makes 8 servings). 550 calories (ouch!) per serving, if you cut 6 servings instead of 8. 

  YUMMY!!

Tags: Baking, Blueberries, Debbie

Banana Blueberry Bread

What else are we going to do with all of those blueberries??  I got this recipe 25 years ago from a Navy wife/neighbor, the same summer we had to buy the freezer because I discovered the joys of “u-pick” blueberries.  This is one of those play-around recipes.  If you only have a few blueberries, throw in a handful and add an extra banana.  A friend substituted strawberries for the blueberries.  I have made this recipe on the West Coast and used walnuts, and living in the South, pecans are the nuts to add.  However, the nuts are optional, and it is good without them (but not AS good).  You may have noticed in one of Marissa’s earlier posts that her mother (me!) would leave the nuts out of things because she really didn’t like them…lucky for her (and all of the good nutty things she has missed out on!) her tastes are changing!  There are a lot of “goodies” in this recipe – my heavy duty Kitchen Aid mixer easily mixes a two loaf batch, but if you are mixing by hand, or with a hand mixer, you may want to mix one batch at a time.

Ingredients

½ cup shortening

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 cup ripe bananas, mashed

½ cup oats, uncooked (quick or old fashioned, not instant)

½ cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

1 ½ cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼  teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries (if using frozen, defrost & drain)

 Directions

Cream shortening, gradually adding sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. Stir in banana. Add salt, baking soda, oatmeal, nuts, and flour. Do not over beat (mixture will be lumply). Gently fold in blueberries.

 Spoon batter into lightly greased loaf pan. Makes one 9” loaf. Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until pick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack before trying to slice.  Batter also makes great muffins!

Tags: Baking, Blueberries, Debbie

Blueberry Cobbler

I interrupt “30 Days & 30 Bites” to bring you … blueberries, and MORE baking! I’m the “mom”! Today we went blueberry picking for the second time this season at our favorite blueberry farm: A & N Blueberry Farm .

Blueberries from our favorite farm!

Right now I’ve got about 8 pounds of blueberries drying on my kitchen island. Yep, that’s right, I break the rules and wash my blueberries before freezing any that won’t be used in the next few days. I first went blueberry picking about 30 years ago. I brought home so many that we had to go out and buy a freezer (they are not nearly as expensive per pound if you have thought out your storage options in advance!). That first time I followed ”the rule” and bagged them up unwashed and put them in the freezer to be enjoyed during the cold winter months (well, we were living in Florida then too, so at least they were cooler winter months).  I was distressed to discover that it was not always convenient to have to wash them before using in a recipe. The following year we picked right after a rainstorm and the berries were all wet anyway. My solution:  I wash the berries as soon as I get home and then dry them on a double layer of beach towels (we’re back in Florida so there are plenty of those around!) under a ceiling fan. When the berries are completely dry I bag them up, 1 cup to each small freezer bag, with four 1-cup bags in a large freezer bag … makes it easy to pull out the right amount for muffins, pancakes or a pie…or a cobbler! 

So, what are we going to do with 15 pounds (7 pounds picked during the first trip of the season) of blueberries?? Bake! My new favorite cobbler recipe, adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe. 

 Blueberry Cobbler

 Ingredients:

4 cups of blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/3 cup, plus 4 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 ½ cups, plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2/3 cup milk (I used 2%)

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional – my favorite blueberry pie recipe has cinnamon in it, so I decided to add to this recipe … perfect!)

 Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°. Lightly grease an 8-by-8-by-2-inch square baking dish

Mix the blueberries with 1/3 cup of the sugar and 2 tablespoons of the flour. Spoon into the baking dish.In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining flour and 3 tablespoons of sugar with the baking powder, ½ teaspoon of the cinnamon and the salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.

Add the milk and vanilla and stir to form a wet, sticky dough. Drop rounded teaspoons of the dough over the top of the blueberry mixture to cover. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon on top of the cobbler and place on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden-brown and the fruit filling is bubbling up through the crust. In my “hot” oven, this only took about 35 minutes.

Let the cobbler cool for at least 20 minutes. Serve warm (with ice cream!) or at room temperature.

Tags: Baking, Blueberries, Debbie