Blueberries Galore!

Last weekend I was racing my mountain bike, and the first field that the course went through was filled with blueberries. There was nothing for it but to go back there after I was done and fill a shopping bag with blueberries. There were so many blueberries that I could just run my hand through the leaves and the berries would fall into the bag. Pure heaven! My one complaint is that we've had so much rain that they were slightly too swollen, not a bursting with flavor as most wild blueberries most years. But who am I to complain? They were still so much better than those bloated store-bought berries!

So how to use them up? It was a dilemma. I don't normally bake with blueberries, since they're expensive, but I didn't think I could eat all of these raw before they spoiled, and since they were so water-swollen I didn't know how they would freeze. The first thing I tried was a blueberry bar recipe from the Canadian Baker's blog. These were delicious, and the crust held up surprisingly well, despite my misgivings. I changed the quantities around a bit, having only an 8x8" pan rather than a 9x13" pan, expecting to use half the recipe, but I ended up using half the recipe for the crust and topping and all the blueberries (1C of blueberries just didn't look like enough). Since I made some changes, here is my changed recipe, which is almost the same as the original.

Blueberry Crisp Bars

Crust
1/2C + 2 tbs flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 stick (1/4C) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

Blueberry Filling
6 tbs granulated sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp lime zest, if you have it (lemon zest would also work)
2C blueberries

Crumb Topping
3/4C flour
2 tbs firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbs granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 350F.

To make the crust, cream the sugar with the butter, then add the flour and salt, and mix until it forms a crumbly dough. Press it into a greased 8x8" baking dish.

In a bowl, dump all the filling ingredients together and mix them to combine, then pour them over the crust. 2C of berries will make a pretty thick layer of blueberry, you could definitely get away with 1-1.5C of blueberries instead (using 1.5 tsp of corn starch for each cup of blueberries).

For the topping, mix the flour, sugars, ginger, cinnamon and salt, and then pour the melted butter of top of that and stir it around until it forms a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle the crumbles liberally over the top of the blueberries. Bake the bars at 350F for 45-50 minutes, until the blueberries are bubbly and the topping is browned. Allow the bars to cool (completely, if you have willpower of steel, which I don't) before cutting them up. I highly suggest a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice cream to go with the warm bars...

Makes 16 bars.

Blueberry-Applesauce-Bran Muffins

The blueberry crisp bars popped into (and out of) existence on Monday. Tuesday we were going over to a friend's house for dinner, so I essentially made the same recipe except that I put a pie crust on the bottom and called it a pie. Two more cups of blueberries gone. Raw blueberries were slowly disappearing, but I still needed to get rid of many more berries. Since the tea kettle was still in the car (unpacking from a 24-hour mountain bike race is a long process), I couldn't make oatmeal for breakfast, so I decided to make breakfast muffins. For a muffin to qualify as a breakfast muffin for me, it needs to be mostly whole grain crap and not be loaded with sugar or fat--at least my breakfasts have to be healthy. The problem with low-fat muffins is that the texture can be slightly gummy if you don't watch out, and they don't keep as well. But right out of the oven, a block of wood would taste delicious!

Ingredients

1C whole wheat flour
1/2C oat flour (grind up some rolled oats in the food processor for 10-20 seconds)
1/2C white flour
1/2C oat bran
1/4C sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
A couple shakes of cinnamon
1C blueberries
3/4C milk (skim worked)
2 eggs
1C applesauce

Any leftover streusle crumble you have from the blueberry bars (optional)

Mix together the flours, oat bran, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in the blueberries. In a 2-cup measure, measure out the milk, the applesauce, and beat in the eggs. Add the wet to the dry, mixing as little as possible, and then fill muffin tins to the top (makes 12 muffins). I had extra streusel topping, so I put some of that on top. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown on top.

Ed ratings: He really liked the blueberry bars, and was impressed that the crust didn't get soggy. He also really liked the blueberry muffins, but I think that if you put blueberries in a muffin that boy would eat sawdust, so its not exactly an accurate rating. I told him they were all healthy and whole-grain and stuff, and he just shrugged and took a couple to work to munch on.

I thought the muffins were delicious, they definitely tasted whole-wheat-ish, but in a good way, and even fully cooled they were good, and not gummy. The crunchy topping was awesome, as it always is. They didn't last long enough to get a day two evaluation.

Why do all my muffin pictures always end up as a series of muffin demolition shots? Probably has something to do with the fact that I can't not bite into a steaming blueberry muffin if its sitting in front of me...