Blueberry Crisp

We’ll have a July 4th holiday theme for the biweekly Tea I bake for (for cancer patients and their caregivers at Stamford Hospital). The women who coordinate these events, sponsored by Hadassah, have asked us (the bakers) to consider red, white and blue based desserts and confections.

I thought about the time one of my daughters volunteered me to do a red, white and blue dessert for her grade school class (I think that one was for Flag Day). What I came up with then was something in the shape of a sheet cake, but made of strips of watermelon and cream cheese; the star field was a bunch of blueberries piped on top with tiny cream cheese stars that I squeezed out of a pastry tube.

It looked like a flag all right. And the kids ate it all. But I really didn’t like the combination of soft, watery watermelon together with thick, dense cream cheese.

So, for the Tea I am going to stick to something much more mundane, but which I know is absolutely delicious, especially because local blueberries are now available and I just bought myself some.

Blueberry Crisp it is.

By the way, I looked up the word “biweekly” before I used it, wondering if it was actually every two weeks, as I thought, OR twice a week. Several dictionaries say it is BOTH meanings. Which might be fine if we are talking about baking a cake or something. But what if your doctor says “take these pills biweekly.” Do you take them every two weeks or twice a week?

Blueberry Crisp     

• 2 pints fresh blueberries

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 1 cup bran flakes or raisin bran

• 1/2 cup quick cooking or rolled oats

• 1/2 cup chopped nuts such as almonds, cashews or pecans

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the blueberries, sugar, flour, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and lemon juice in a 6-cup baking dish. Set aside. Crush the cereal flakes slightly and put them in a bowl. Add the oats, nuts, brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and toss ingredients to distribute them evenly. Pour in the melted butter. Mix until the dry the ingredients are coated with the melted butter. Place the cereal mixture over the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is crispy and brown. Let cool slightly but serve warm (may be rewarmed). Serve plain or with cream, ice cream, whipped cream, or sorbet.

Makes 6–8 servings.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

There’s always an apple pie for dessert when my cousin Leslie comes for the weekend. She loves it. I love it. Her husband Neil sometimes eats a slice. My husband Ed never eats pie, so it’s basically just Leslie and me and we usually polish off an entire pie over the weekend (I serve it for breakfast and dinner because, why not?)

But Neil really prefers something made with blueberries and that has a crispy or crumbly top. So I often bake crisps and cobblers for him.

This past weekend though, I made this Blueberry Crumb Cake. Everyone loved it so much that lots of it got eaten and Leslie and I didn’t even finish our pie!

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Crumb Layer:

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 cup finely chopped nuts

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9”x13” cake pan. To make the Crumb layer, place the sugar, flour, nuts, cinnamon and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal. You can also do this by hand, by mixing the dry ingredients and working in the butter with your fingers or a pastry blender.

Cake:

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

2 cups blueberries

To make the cake, melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon peel in the bowl of an electric mixer. In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and stir only to combine: do not overbeat. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan. Top with the berries and press them down into the batter gently. Cover with the streusel. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes 12-16 servings

Blueberry Crisp

What’s one of the best things you can do with boxed breakfast cereal? Use it as crust for fruit crisps!

My Mom used cereal crust over apples and when I went to visit my parents on cool autumn days the perfume of this dish baking in the oven would reach me all the way out past the garage. As soon as I opened the car door I’d know I was in for a really good treat for dessert. 

She served the dish still warm, with cold cream on top.

Those were good days.

When I wrote my last cookbook, Hip Kosher, I decided to include My Mom’s special recipe but use it with blueberries, not apples. And this week, when I saw some good looking blueberries on sale, I decided to make that dish for my weekend company. I used Raisin Bran, rolled oats and almonds.

This was a big hit. 

Btw, for variety, you can make a simple change by adding some sliced peaches.

BLUEBERRY CRISP  

2 pints fresh blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup bran flakes or raisin bran

1/2 cup quick cooking or rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped nuts such as almonds, cashews or pecans

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the blueberries, sugar, flour, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and lemon juice in a 6-quart baking dish. Set aside. Crush the cereal flakes slightly and put them in a bowl. Add the oats, nuts, brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and toss ingredients to distribute them evenly. Pour in the melted butter. Mix until the dry the ingredients are coated with the melted butter. Place the cereal mixture over the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is crispy and brown. Let cool slightly but serve warm (may be rewarmed). Serve plain or with cream, ice cream, whipped cream, or sorbet.

Makes 6–8 servings.

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

Notice all the blueberries in the market? Boxes and boxes of them! The bins are overflowing.

That’s probably because more blueberries are being grown these days, according to this article in the Fruit Growers News. And that’s because blueberries are more popular than ever, probably because of their reputation as a healthy food.

That’s good. That blueberries are healthy. Because they are so good, especially when they’re slightly tart. Mmmm, I remember many a summer night when my Mom served me blueberries and sour cream (sprinkled with sugar) for dinner. Haven’t had that in years. These days it’s more like blueberries and plain, non-fat Greek style yogurt. No fat. And surely no sugar. 

But during winter it’s more likely that I’ll use blueberries in pancakes. Or even better, muffins, which I can freeze and then have one whenever I want.

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

1/2 cup butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole or 2% milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease 10-12 muffin tin cups. Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Mix the flour, sugar, lemon peel, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine ingredients thoroughly. In a second bowl mix the milk, egg, egg yolk and melted butter and stir to combine ingredients throughly. Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and mix just to combine ingredients (it will be very thick). Fold in the blueberries. Spoon into the muffin tins, about 2/3 the way up. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until browned and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 10-12