It started out as a lovely idea. The state where I live may be stingy with jobs, but she is mighty generous with her fresh water, Christmas trees and blueberries. While I love the beach and a proper Frasier Fir, I’ve never really taken full advantage of the whole blueberry thing.
So today, in a moment of random summer giddiness, I suggested to my girls that we go blueberry picking. They were all over it.
We drove to a farm 20 minutes outside of Jcrewviille and started picking…and picking…and picking. I had no sense of the quantity we were amassing, but I wasn’t concerned. The rural setting, the rather primitive set-up (woman in tight pink t-shirt hands you plastic buckets, mumbles and points to a big field of bushes) – it all spelled cheap to me, so when my girls asked how much, I said “Fill up your buckets, Girls.”
And we did.
Three buckets later and I now own $22 worth of blueberries. Twenty-two dollars. That’s like a whole outfit from Old Navy. My husband is going to kill me. I need to distract him, seduce him with quick-thinking blueberry trickery: cakes, cobblers, pies and what else?
Blimey, I don’t know. I need suggestions, good recipes. I know I can freeze them, but please give me some yummy ideas to whip up. Stephanie: I’m counting on you!
Quick, help me hide the $22 worth of beautiful, fresh blueberries before my husband get home.
Small Town. Small Times. 
I have zero help for you here, because I don’t like blueberries at all.
But I did put out an action alert to my blueberry living baker friends for you 🙂
You’re so kind. I’ll wait right here.
You can’t go wrong with Alice Waters. EVER. Her blueberry pie recipe is:
Preheat the oven to 400
Stir together then let stand for 10 minutes:
6 cups blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tb quick-cooking tapioca, pulverized
2 tsp lemon zest
1 Tb lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
*
Pour the mixture into a 9-in pie or tart crust.
Cut into small cubes and sprinkle over the berries:
2 Tb unsalted butter
Cover the pie with a top crust (or don’t – I don’t always). If you’re doing that, brush the top crust with a beaten egg.
Bake on the top rack of the oven for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 and bake for about 45 minutes, a little shorter if you’re not using a top crust. (Eyeball it – the juice should be bubbling and visibly thick.)
You cannot go wrong with this recipe (and you can substitute almost any kind of fruit, adjusting the sugar up or down for the type of fruit).
Wow, Alice Waters. I’ve always been too intimidated to crack open one of her books. This however, looks totally doable and delicious. Does “pulverized” tapioca mean I pulse it in the food processor or smash it around a bit with something smashy? I like that the recipes calls for 6 cups of blueberries. Six cups down and only 42 more to go….Thank you!
Smitten Kitchen has some great recipes. Some of them don’t specify blueberry in the title, but can use any kind of berry
http://smittenkitchen.com/recipes/#Fruit
Mmmmmm. Kitty, kitty. I’ll check it out. Thanks!
You’re never going to believe this, but I’ve never baked with blueberries. I know! But I love a challenge and I love Food Gawker, so I went browsing for some recipes and these ones were calling my name…
Blueberry Scones
Cheesecake with Blueberries
Wait, these look even better:
Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
Mom’s Blueberry Sweet Rolls These look HEAVENLY!
Open-faced Blueberry Pie
Now, if those don’t inspire you, you might be a lost cause. (Can I come over and sample the goods when you’re done???)
(By the way, if these links don’t work, I’m going to be so mad!)
Wait, You haven’t baked with blueberries? What would the boyfriend say?
The links all work and whoa, darling! Nicely done. Those blueberry cheesecake bars could be worth $22 alone. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks!
Blueberry muffins are currently baking away in the oven. (It’s really too hot for all this baking.) It was the boyfriend crack. Sigh.
So……? How were they?
I’m late to the party, so I have nothing to add. I always:
1) make pies. Pies use tons of berries because they break down. I don’t really use a recipe, I just fling the berries in a crust, dump some sugar and cinnamon on top, dot with butter, and put the top crust on. Have I mentioned I’m a lazy baker?
2) make muffins. Make double or triple batches and freeze them, that way when you are having a lazy breakfast day, you can just microwave them for 20 seconds and TADA! Muffins for breakfast.
3) freeze them. That way we have blueberries later in the season for emergency muffin or pancakes. Lay them out on a sheet pan for the initial freeze, then dump them into a container.
You are only fashionably late, my friend, and I’m always glad when you show up.
In talking to my friend from Connecticut this morning, it occured to me that $22 does not sound like a lot of berries if you pay $4 a pint like she does. I paid $1.50. Right now, I can’t find room for the berries. I have a sheet pan in the freezer. On the counter: two gallon-sized ziplocs, my giant fruit bowl and my trifle bowl — are all filled to capacity.
I have a crumble or a pie planned for tonight, we just ate a ridiculous amount of pancakes and I’m looking for a good salad combination for lunch. Meanwhile, did I mention aside from the $22 horror – even worse will be the + five pounds I have worked so hard to get off?
But hey, I hadn’t thought of freezing muffins — probably because I don’t bake. I could probably freeze some pancakes, too – right? Freezing baked goods. Who knew? Thank you.
I have just got to try the blueberry sweet rolls!! They sound scrumptious. I can freeze them too, probably, so won’t have to eat them all at one go – but then again………
Easy there, Mamacita.
We can only go blueberry picking for about a month here and I’ve always seemed to miss it. Maybe it was a good idea as I’d be all out of recipe ideas too! How about blueberry pancakes, smoothies, blueberry crumble, blueberry trifle, blueberry scones . . .
Smoothies! Great Idea. HA! No baking. Oh, so I’m overwhelmed by all this baking.
Try this one: Blueberry Boy Bait. Perfect for the situation and for putting the blueberries to good use!
http://www.cookscountry.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=3546&bdc=42552
Mmmmmm. Looks like seriously yummy Boy Bait, but I’ll have to make it without my daughters. The’re not allowed to bait boys until long after college. /strong>
The blueberry boy bait sounded intriguing, so I caved and made it last night. Excellent.
And what about the boy?
Fruit pizza minus the strawberries, kiwi, or oranges? Or maybe 20 fruit pizzas like that.
You and the fruit pizza! Sounds yummy but only if I can scatter the blueberries quickly and randomly. Twenty pretty, symmetrical blueberry pizzas and I might go bonkers.
What about the boy you asked? Did I not say “excellent”?
Some day when you are old enough I will explain.