Welcome to September!
This is the first post if the month and it’s quite fitting because the shade we
are inspired by today is very close to September’s birthstone. The shade we are
looking at is called “Deep Blue” and that’s exactly what it is, a deep blue
(almost sapphire) metallic shade.
Our minds immediately
drew us to the “Blue” so we decided to try out and share some of our favourite
blueberry recipes.
The one that
we tried out is called a Blueberry Streusel Bar. We have made it a couple of
times before and it was always a hit so we thought we’d share this one and make
it again.
You will
need...
2 ½ cup of
flour
2/3 cup of
granulated sugar
½ tsp. of
salt
2 ¼ sticks
of butter/margarine softened
1 cup of rolled
oats
¼ cup of
packed brown sugar
¾ cup of
blueberry jam (I have found this difficult to find so that’s why I don’t make
these often)
¾ cup of
fresh or frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp. of
lemon juice
First off,
preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Then line a
13x9 pan with a foil sling and then grease.
Whisk the
flour, granulated sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Beat in all
but 2 Tbsp. of the butter/margarine with your mixer so that it looks like wet
sand.
Remove 1 ¼ cups of the mixture for the topping and place in a separate bowl for now.
Take the
rest of the mixture and press into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for
14-18 minutes. We let ours stay in the entire time so that the edges would
actually brown.
While this
is baking, you can make the filling.
In a small
bowl mash up the jam, blueberries, and lemon juice.
In the bowl
with the extra mixture, add in the two remaining Tbsp. of butter/margarine and
squish with your fingers into small clumps.
Once the
crust has finished baking, then spread the jam filling over the warm crust and sprinkle
with the streusel. Put back into the oven and bake for 22-25 minutes.
Allow to
cool for 2 hours and then cut into squares.
You could
also cut them into bigger squares and while still warm, top with ice cream for
more of a dessert type treat. Also, I collected all of the streusel bits that
were loose and fell off the bars while I was cutting them up and used it as a
topping for yogurt!
Another
recipe with blueberries that we love is my grandmother’s Miamoto Pie.
It’s super
easy and yummy!
All you need
is a baked pie crust. If you make your own, that’s great. If you don’t have
time, then you can get a frozen one and follow the baking instructions on the
box. Allow the crust to cool. You can even make it the day before and put it in
the fridge.
For the
filling, you will need two bricks of cream cheese. Whip that up until fluffy
and then add in ¾ cup of icing sugar. Whip that some more and then add in 2
tsp. of vanilla.
Pour this
mixture into the cool pie crust and top with 1 can of blueberry filling. I use
the one pictured above.
You can eat
it as is or you can put it in the freezer overnight and have a delicious frozen
cheesecake pie (this is how I always eat it).
Another
popular way to utilise blueberries is in muffins. Here’s Nicole’s go to recipe
for Blueberry Muffins.
1 ¾ cup of
flour
3 tsp. of baking
powder
½ tsp. of
salt
¼ tsp. of
baking soda
¼ cup of butter or margarine
½ cup of
granulated sugar
1 egg
¾ cup of
milk
1 tsp. of
vanilla
¼ tsp. of
lemon juice
1 cup of
fresh or frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp. of
flour
In a large
bowl mix flour, soda, powder, and salt. Then make a well in the center.
In a separate
bowl, cream butter and the sugar. Beat in the egg until smooth and then mix in
the milk, lemon juice, and vanilla and then pour into the well.
Stir to
moisten. The batter will have lumps!
Stir in the
blueberries and then fill greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 20
minutes or until nicely browned.
One last
recipe that Nicole came across and tried out is a Blueberry and Peach Crisp.
This needs:
For the
filling...
2 cups of
frozen peaches
4 cups of
frozen blueberries
¼ cup of sugar
2 Tbsp. of
cornstarch
¼ tsp. of
salt
½ tsp. of
cinnamon
For the
topping...
¾ cup of brown
sugar
½ cup of
gluten free oat flour (you can use oats ground up in a food processor)
¾ cup of
gluten free oats
¼ tsp. of
salt
2 tbsp. of
coconut oil, melted
¼ cup of
butter
In one big
bowl mix all of the filling ingredients together until everything is coated.
In a separate
smaller bowl, mix the topping ingredients so that it looks like wet sand.
Pour the
filling into a pie dish. Sprinkle the topping over it evenly.
Bake at 350
degrees for 50-60 minutes or until bubbling and the top is golden..
Cool for
10-15 minutes and then serve with vanilla ice cream.
There you
have, some of our favourite blueberry sweet treats!
