Blue Blueberry Muffins

I have recently been reading Joanne Fluke's "Bakery" mystery novels. The third book in the series (there are 11 to date) is called "The Blueberry Muffin Murder" - and the murdered woman is found with one of bakery shop owner Hannah Swensen's new Blue Blueberry Muffins in her hand - a lively search for the murderer ensues - all I can tell you is that the muffin did NOT do it.

All of the books come complete with the recipes for the tasty treats that Ms. Swenson sells in her shop, The Cookie Jar. I haven't tried these out yet, but they sounded good - heavy on the butter and sugar, how could they not be?

Blue Blueberry Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees - rach in middle position.

3/4 cup melted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 cup sugar
2 beaten eggs (whip them up with a fork)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (if frozen, do not thaw)
1/2 cup blueberry pie filling
2 cups plus 1 Tblsp. flour (no need to sift)
1/2 cup milk

Crumb topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup softened butter (1/4 stick)
**Now here's where I would add about 1/2 tsp of cinnamon - it would really be good with this muffin)

Grease the bottom only of a 12 cup muffin pan (or line the cups with cupcake papers). Melt the butter. Mix in the sugar. then add the beaten eggs, baking powder and salt and mix thoroughly.

Put one tablespoon of the flour in a plastic bag with your cup of fresh or frozen blueberries. Shake it gently to coat the blueberries, and leave them in the bag for now.

Add half the remaining two cups of flour to your bowl and mix it in in with half the milk, then add the rest of the flour and milk and mix thoroughly.

Here comes the fun part. Add 1/2 cup blueberry pie filling to your bowl and mix it in (Your dough will turn a shade of blue, but don't let that stop you - once the muffins are baked, they'll look just fine. When your dough is thoroughly mixed, fold in the flour-coated fresh or frozen blueberries.

Fill your muffin tins three-quarters full and set them aside. If you have dough left over, grease the bottom of a small tea-bred loaf pan and fill it with your remaining dough.

For the crumb topping, Mix the sugar and the flour in a small bowl. Add the softened butter and cut it in until it's crumbly (you can also do this in a food processor with hard butter using the steel blade)

Sprinkle the crumb topping over your muffins and bake them in a 375 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes (the tea bread should take about ten minutes longer than the muffins.

When the muffins are baked, set the muffin pan on a wire rack to cool for at least 30 minutes. They will come out of the pan much easier that way.

The author suggests freezing the rest of the blueberry pie filling in paper cups filled with 1/2 cups measured out in each one - Keep them in a plastic freezer bag and that way the next time you want to make some muffins just thaw out one of the pre-measured 1/2 cups for your next batch.

If you are looking for some fun summer reading, bake up a batch of these Blue Blueberry Muffins and sit down with a cup of tea and one of Ms. Fluke's delicious murder mysteries - you won't know where the day went.

Recipe copyright Joanne Fluke, 2002.

Blueberry Bliss

One of the very best web sites for baking is the Land 'o Lakes site and their collection of blueberry recipes is outstanding. There are 52 fantastic blueberry recipes and you can access it by clicking here and typing in blueberry as the key word in the search bar!

Lemon-Blueberry Cream Pie

I got this recipe out of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine years ago before blueberries were the "favored fruit" - It is, quite honestly, one of the best pies I've ever had. Fresh blueberries are folded into a thick lemony filling that's been given a little more tang and richness with sour cream. Best eaten the day it's made, make your best pastry pie shell for this pie, but if "push comes to shove" I think that a graham cracker crust would be OK too.

(BTW, If you don't have a microplane grater, get one. If nothing more, just for grating lemon rind. Then grate all the rind off the lemons as they come in the house - put it in the freezer wrapped in plastic wrap - it will last for a month or so - put it in salad dressings, on chicken or fish - works on limes, oranges too - and although I've never used it - fresh nutmeg) Anyhow, I digress - here is the recipe for Lemon-Blueberry Cream Pie

LEMON BLUEBERRY CREAM PIE

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
1/4 cup butter, cut up
1 Tbsp finely grated fresh lemon peel

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 8oz. carton sour cream
2 cups fresh blueberries

1 9-inch baked pie shell

Sweetened whipped cream (optional)
Lemon slices, to garnish (optional)

To make the filling:

In a saucepan combine 1 cup sugar and cornstarch. Add milk, egg yolks, butter or margarine, and 1 tablespoon lemon peel. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly; cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat; stir in lemon juice. Transfer to a bowl; cover with plastic wrap and cool. When cool, stir sour cream and blueberries into mixture; pour into baked pastry shell. Cover and chill at least 4 hours. If desired, stir a little lemon peel into sweetened whipped cream. Pipe or spoon atop pie. Garnish with lemon slices.


Number of servings: 8

SALMON WITH CRANBERRY-BLUEBERRY VINAIGRETTE AND BABY GREENS

I found this recipe in a newsletter I subscribe to - It sounded awfully good - I tweaked it a little to suite my family's tastes. I have not tried this, but I think if you were to double the dressing recipe and use part of it to lightly brush on the salmon before it bakes, it would make a nice marinade. Make sure you keep the marinade part separate from the dressing you put on the salads though, so your salad dressing is not contaminated with unbaked fish.

SALMON WITH CRANBERRY-BLUEBERRY VINAIGRETTE AND BABY GREENS
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
For Dressing:
6 tablespoons Ocean Spray® 100% Juice Cranberry & Blueberry
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 salmon filet, 20-24 ounces
1 lemon - slice into 8 slices (removing the ends first), divided
Lightly sprinkle with Garlic salt

4 cups mixed baby greens
1/4 cup blueberries

DIRECTIONS:

Whisk together juice, 4 tablespoons olive oil, vinegar, honey, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in small bowl; set aside.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper, with enough on the ends to meet in the middle and seal. Spray with cooking spray. Place the salmon filet skin side down, in the center of the sheet. Sprinkle with garlic salt and place 4 of the lemon slices down the center. Fold the foil (or parchment) to the center and seal, folding up all edges to create a packet. Bake for about 25 minutes per pound (aprox 40-45 minutes for 24 oz. filet or until the salmon flakes easily) Slow baking at a lower temperature makes the fish stay moist. When the fish is done, replace the baked lemon slices with fresh ones (sliced 1/2 way through and twisted so they look pretty) Divide the salmon into four portions and place on dinner plates.

Divide greens between plates and drizzle greens and salmon with vinaigrette; sprinkle with blueberries.

Makes 4 servings.

The Power of Blue

Blueberries rank No. 1 in antioxidant benefits compared to 40 other fresh fruits and vegetables (USDA Human Nutrition Center). Antioxidants help neutralize harmful "free radicals" that can lead to cancer and other age-related diseases. The total antioxidant capacity of blueberries is twice that of spinach and three times that of oranges.

Blueberries are also rich in pectin, a soluble fiber that has been shown in several research studies to be effective in lowering cholesterol.

Live Longer, Live Better - Eat Blueberries!

Blueberry Jello Salad

The blueberries are blooming! I'll try & get out to take some pictures of them in the next day or so - they have very pretty little bell shaped flowers. Hopefully the bees are busy too - without bees, there would be no berries (or apples, or cherries etc. etc. etc.) Blueberry honey is very good - just a very faint fruity fragrance to it.

I found the following recipe in "The Church Supper Cookbook" It is a collection of over 375 great potluck recipes from families and churches across the country. It was originally published in 1980 as "The Yankee Church Supper Cookbook" and was edited by David Joachim. It has a lot of those recipes like Four Bean Salad that you can't find in cookbooks today (trust me, I have a LOT of cookbooks and one day I looked & looked for that recipe - finally found it in a homemade cookbook from the UU church in Bellingham - aptly named "The Garden of Eatin") - anyhow, there are a half dozen blueberry recipes in this cookbook, so I'll share some of them with you in the coming weeks. I haven't made this recipe, but it looks awfully good. (of course you have to remember I come from a little town in Eastern Washington and a Scandanavian background - no potluck was complete without at least 3 or 4 jello salads)

I would think that you could save out a little of the gelatin mixture and mix it in with the cream cheese mixture for a very lovely shade of lavendar. Wouldn't that be pretty?

BLUEBERRY SALAD Serves 8-10

2 ea (3 oz each) packages black raspberry gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 ea (20 oz) can crushed pineapple
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries
½ cup water

8 oz. package cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup chopped walnuts

Mix gelatin with a little bit of cold water for 3-5 minutes, then add boiling water and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Add pineapple (with juice) and fresh blueberries with the half cup of water. Pour into a 9” x 13” pan and chill until set. Beat together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla, and spread over the gelatin and fruit mixture. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Refrigerate until time to serve.

From “The Church Supper Cookbook” Edited by David Joachim copy write 1980
Marcia Fletcher, St Anne’s Episcopal Church, Calais, Maine

Blueberry Sour Cream Cake

Although I don't have any pictures of this cake, I've made it and remember that it was delicious. It is made in a spring form pan So it is somewhat like a coffee cake but more a dessert, I think.

BLUEBERRY SOUR CREAM CAKE - serves 8 - from the kitchen of M.T.

CAKE BASE:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup butter, soft(room temp)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

2 cups fresh blueberries, picked clean of any stems, etc. Rinse if they are dusty (**do not confuse dust with the white, waxy coating on the outside of blueberries which is called "bloom." This is part of the berry's natural defense mechanism, which protects the berries from sunlight, holding in valuable moisture and extending their shelf life. Bloom is completely natural and not at all harmful. You should not try to wash it off your berries. Raspberries sometimes have bloom as well, though it's not as prevalent as with blueberries.)

CUSTARD:
2 cups sour cream (I would NOT use fat free)
2 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease (with butter) a 9 or 10 inch springform pan.

1. Combine flour and baking powder - set aside.
2. In a medium size bowl, cream the butter & sugar until smooth. Blend in the egg and vanilla, then blend in the flour mixture.
3. Pour the batter into your springform pan.
4. Top the batter with the blueberries
5. Make your custard topping by combining the sour cream, eggs, 1/2 cup of sugar and the tsp of vanilla. Blend well; pour over the blueberries.
6. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees or until the edges are lightly browned. Let it sit for at least an hour at room temperature before you remove the outer ring of your springform pan.





** Info on the white coating on blueberries came from QueryCat.com where you can search for over 5,000,000 questions and answers - quite the neat site, I think.