Blueberries and Raspberries

[lollya]

I am a glutton for blueberries. I adore them. I just got my new issue of Cooks Illustrated and am joyously jumping to try the blueberry scones...But I'm wondering what other wonderful recipes may be out there that I am missing, beyond the muffins??? Any salads? Cakes?

Also, I just purchsed a raspberry bush for our yard. Oh, how I wanted the blueberry one, but I'm a first time gardener (outside of pots) and wasn't sure if I had the acidic soil required for them to grow. Thus, a raspberry bush was the second choice (and a good one)....so...if you have any wonderful recipes for raspberries...I'd LOVE them as well.

Chowhounds, my berries are in your hands.
Hope they don't stain em.

Thanks, as always.

[JasmineG]

There's a blueberry buckle that I made over and over again last summer (and have already made once this summer, and I can't wait to make it again). I got the recipe from the Washington Post, but have made a few changes (which are integrated into the recipe below):

Batter
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of one lemon
2 cups blueberries (1 pint)

Topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into dice

Method:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish (I've also done it in a round 9 inch tart pan, and it was great).

In the bowl of a electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and mix until combined.

In a small bowl, sift or whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with the milk, mixing until smooth and blended. At the end, add the vanilla and lemon zest.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and spread with a rubber spatula so that it evenly covers the pan. Sprinkle berries over batter.

To make topping, whisk together sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add butter and work with a fork or your fingers until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle topping over blueberries. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until berries are bubbling and topping is golden brown.

Let cool slightly and serve warm or at room temperature.

It's seriously addictive.

[lollya]

yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ::smacks lips::

[cocktailqueen77]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and mention something non-food but very delicious with blueberries...

A blueberry/basil mojito.

Muddle half a handful of blueberries and a couple basil leaves with three lime wedges and a generous scoop of sugar. Add rum (or any alcohol for that matter, but rum helps with add more sweetness to the drink) and ice, shake, then pour all the mixture into the glass and top off with a splash of soda water (maybe more ice if neccesary).

Yummy pre-dinner drink!! You can add raspberries to it as well, perhaps, or just do raspberries and basil instead. There can be many variations to this cocktail, but I prefer the blueberry/basil combination.

[ctbrit]

For something sweet & really easy with blueberries - I'm sure you could use raspberries too - blueberry pudding cake (it's from Gourmet) : http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec...

It looks pretty weird (v. slack) going into the pan but comes up great & stores well for a couple of days.

Also if you're interested for something a little more sophisticated with raspberries have you thought of bakewell tart - it's an English dessert - pastry shell, raspberry layer (you can use jam/jelly but I like fresh berries better) topped with an almond flour sponge - I have a recipe at home somewhere - let me know & I'll annotate it for posting...

J

[lollya]

Um, YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM have both ingredients, will make tonight....

[Louise]

Pie. Dumplings. Cobbler. Slump.

[lollya]

oooooh what is SLUMP?
I'm intrigued. Sounds slumpy.

[Louise]

A slump belongs to the family of fruit + sweet dough or batter topping dishes that includes cobblers, crisps, buckles, and pandowdies. A recipe for blackberry slump is here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/106912

It is also classically made with apples:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_cr...

My understanding about pandowdies is that when the topping is almost cooked, it is broken into rough chunks and pushed under the surface of the cooked fruit which by that time would have exuded a bunch of liquid.

As for slumps, am not sure of why they got that name, though it looks like the topping starts as a completely liquid batter--perhaps it 'slumps' into the fruit? Fanny Farmer might have an idea.

[macca]

This recipe comes from Chowhound EllenMM- and is really good and really easy. I usually triple the icing section, as the family loves lemon, and loves icing. Great to use in the late summer if you can get your hands on some of the small, sweet Maine blueberries.

BLUEBERRY POUND CAKE

2 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. butter or stick marg., softened
1/2 c. (4 oz) l/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
1 large egg white
2 tsps. vanilla extract
3 c. all-purpose flour, divided
2 c. fresh of frozen blueberries
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (8 oz.) carton lemon low-fat yogurt
Cooking spray
1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar
4 tsp. lemon juice
__________________________________________________

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat gran. sugar, butter and cr. cheese until
well-blended. Add eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, beating
after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract.
3.Coat blueberrries w/ 2 tbs. flour in a small bowl. Combine remaining dry ingred. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture
alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix in blueberry mixture.
4. Pour batter into a 10-inch tube pan with removable bottom, coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees
for 1 hour and 15 min. or until a cake tester in ctr. comes out clean.
5. Cool cake in pan 10 min. on a wire rack; remove sides of pan. Cool 15 more min.; remove cake from bottom of pan. Combine
powdered sugar and lemon juice; drizzle over warm cake. Yield: 16 servings.

[lollya]

macca!
YAY FOR BPC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it's in my collection i'm acquiring...all these great suggestions!

[macca]

You will love it. I have gotten so many recipes, techniques and ideas from this site.

[emily]

I have a few blueberry plants and I've just been making small blueberry pies. They are so good with the home-grown berries that I haven't really branched out. If you put the plants in pots in acidic soil, they're quite easy to grow. Rick Rodgers' Kaffeehaus has a recipe for Blueberry Meringue Slices (buttery cake base, blueberries and a soft meringue topping) that looks really good.

[lollya]

but how do i know about the acidic soil? I live in minnesota, so I think I'd have to put them in ground for them to live over the winter? I'm so new...and green, or is it blue?? heh.

[emily]

You should be able to buy an acid soil at your local nursery -- mine carries acid-loving plant mix (peat moss and pumice) for azaleas, etc. They should be fine in pots over the winter. In fact, my nursery suggests putting them in pots since our native soil (which isn't acidic) won't intefere with growth.

[lollya]

GENIUS! Would I store them in the basement or garage??? Emily, you are so helpful, thanks.

[emily]

You'd have to ask your nursery -- I'm in CA, so no need to overwinter here. They should be able to withstand freezing temps, though, since they're grown in the NE.

[cheryl_h]

Blueberry pie is a great summer treat, especially with homemade ice cream. I make this with the wild blueberries from Maine and it is one of our summer highlights.

There's a simple way to use raspberries as a filling for dacquoise (meringue made with ground nuts). You make two dacquoise rounds, whip sweetened cream to soft peaks and sandwich the rounds with the whipped cream and a layer of fresh raspberries. Another dessert that tastes like summer. A simple puree of raspberries with a little sugar or honey tastes wonderful as a sauce on buttermilk panna cotta (just made this a couple of weeks ago).

[adamclyde]

I love the blueberry banana bread I found in Sunset magazine a year or two ago. Great flavor, minor twist on normal banana bread, moist, etc...

here's the link: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/rec...

[lollya]

OH Adam, you've stolen my heart with this recipe. WONDROUS. banana and blueberry?!?! DELICIOUS!

[SteveInSoCal]

the Silver Palate New Basics cookbook has a great lemon bluberry bread (it's much more of a cake) as well as a few other good blueberry recipes. I've subsittued raspberries or blackberries with great results

[lollya]

That sounds soooo good. I will have to track this one down. I don't own the SPNB book - so I'm on a mission.

[chocoannie]

This recipe is an absolute favorite in my family. Go ahead and make two--it freezes well (if there is actually any left over)

[amyzan]

Blueberries are great in coffeecakes, especially recipes with sour cream. I've also seen recipes where you make vanilla custard and pour it once chilled over blueberries, and serve topped with a sprinkling of brown sugar. Blueberry cream cheese tarts are fabulous. I made one for a dinner party years ago and it was a hit. My neighbor asked somewhat abashedly to take home the leftover tart; she liked it so much. The recipe was from the Greens cookbook, if I recall.

[lollya]

YUM! That tart sounds easy to figure out, I'm going to try it this weekend. Thanks AMY!

[elizabeththinks]

On the epicurious site there is a great blueberry almond coffee cake, that is almost muffin like. It's delicious and easy!

[purple goddess]

mix blueberries and raspberries together, along with other seasonal berries or maybe a perfect pink peach (cut into segments) and drizzle with balsamic reduction.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Pancakes, because they're so quick and there is so little between you and the blueberries.

Good in Irish soda bread.

Sauce for pork chops--little red wine, some blueberries, a clove, touch of honey if needed, optional finish with butter. A few blueberries go a long way in such sauces.

[janeer]

There's a recipe for berry pancakes on my blog (May). Raspberries are great added to other pies, particuarly apple, and the same combination makes beautiful applesauce. If you like NY-style crumbcake, I like to put a layer of blueberries lightly cooked into a loose preserve between the cake and the crumbs.

www.littlecomptonmornings.blogspot.com

[lollya]

oh, i just was at your site yesterday...yay! on my way to check them out.

[KrazyB]

I recently made Blueberry Almond Cookies. They were delicious and adored by all. They are light and cakey ... a perfect summer cookie. I dusted Sugar In the Raw on the top for a sugary coating.

Here is the recipe from another posting: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/39709...

[lollya]

That sounds lie a really great recipe, thank you Krazy.