Florida Blueberry Cobbler

Some time back, hubby and I were at the store and saw blueberries were on sale.  Since hubby loves blueberries, we of course got some.  At that store, they have a little recipe kiosk, so hubby browsed through it to decide what we should do with our blueberries.  He came across two recipes: one for a pie and one for a cobbler.  He opted for cobbler.  Now, this is not a cobbler like the one I always make; some might say this one is traditional.  It's syrupy fruit on the bottom with crispy, buttery crust on top.  Quite delicious!

 Florida Blueberry Cobbler
(From the Florida Agriculture Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture)

Filling

• 1 stick butter
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 4 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup sugar

Crust

• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375F.  Place the butter in an 8x8 baking glass dish and melt in the microwave.

For the filling: in a large mixing bowl, combine the lemon juice and blueberries.  Add the sugar and mix well.  Pour the blueberry mixture into the baking dish. DO NOT STIR.

Combine the crust ingredients in a small bowl.  Pour over the blueberries and bake for 45 minutes or until brown.

Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or plain. 

It is best served warm, or at least the same day.   The blueberries get a little syrupy  (i.e., runny), so watch yourself (and any nice clothes)!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish

The recipe is late, I know. I'm not going to make any excuses, because by now you should understand how it goes.

This recipe is pretty tasty, though I'd tweak it some if I made it again. The recipe makes 2 loaves; I brought one to work and it disappeared very fast.




Please note: not only does this recipe make 2 loaves, it also needs 2 days. So, prepare yourself for that.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish

Sponge

• 1 tbsp instant (rapid rise) yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 cup warm milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Dough

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temp

Blueberry Filling

• 2 cups blueberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Egg Glaze

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk

Cream Cheese Filling

• 3/4 cup cream cheese, softened
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp of the egg glaze

Day 1

For the sponge, mix together the sugar, yeast and flour in a nicely sized bowl. (I did this in my kitchenaid mixer bowl). Pour in the warm milk (110-115F) and beat until smooth. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Now, to make the dough, add the eggs, salt, sugar, and 1 cup of flour to the sponge and beat until smooth. Add the butter 1 small chunk at a time and beat well after each addition. Then add the remaining flour, a bit at a time. Mix until a soft, kneadable dough forms.

Knead the dough for about 5-8 minutes. (I cheated and used my mixer!). You'll want the dough to be smooth. Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover it. Let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch the dough down, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2

Time to make the blueberry goop! In a medium saucepan, combine all of the blueberry filling ingredients. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat to cool.

For the egg glaze, gently beat the egg and milk together in a small bowl.

In yet another bowl, combine the ingredients for the cream cheese filling, making sure all ingredients are fully incorporated.

Pull your dough out of the fridge and gently deflate it. Divide it in half (I do this by not-so-gently using a bread knife to cut down the center of the bread while it's still in the bowl. That's just me though).

Take half of the dough and roll it out into a rectangle until it is only 1/4-1/3 inch thick. Slather half of the cream cheese mixture into the middle third of the loaf. Then, spread half of the blueberry mixture on top of that.

As this is a braid, you'll need to cut slits up the sides of the dough. Cut diagonally away from the fillings. It works well to cut the slits about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart. Now, alternatingly fold each strip over the filling, making a braided appearance. (the recipe I linked has good pictures of this.)

Repeat the whole process with the other half of the dough.

Brush both loaves with the egg glaze. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350.

Before placing the bread in the oven, brush again with the glaze. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Now, we all know my oven is finicky. So, here's how I did it: I put each loaf on its own rack (they couldn't fit side by side). I baked them in 10 minute increments, then switched their positions. After 20 minutes, I lowered the temp to about 275 because they were browning a good deal. I checked for doneness by looking at the point where the strips connect on top of the loaf.

The end. Enjoy!

Blueberry Lemon Yogurt Loaf or "Dan Loaf"

This isn't cake and it isn't bread. It IS super-moist. I've seen this recipe floating around for awhile, but I followed the SmittenKitchen's recipe for it, which was adapted from one of Ina Garten's recipes.

Blueberry Lemon Yogurt Loaf:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 extra large eggs
• 2 tsp grate lemon zest (2 lemons)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1 tbsp flour, to coat blueberries
  

glaze

• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan. The recipe says to line the bottom with parchment paper and then grease and flour again, which I did and which seemed pointless. You decide

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, sugar, eggs, zest, vanilla, and oil. Slowly whisk in the dry ingredients.

In a bowl (most sensically the one you whisked the dry ingredients together in) gently toss the blueberries in the tbsp of flour. Gently mix the blueberries into the batter.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50ish minutes, until a skewer (or whatever) comes out clean. After it's fully baked, let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

While the bread starts to cool, gently heat the lemon juice and tbsp of sugar in a small sauce pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

After 10 minutes, flip the cake onto a cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet. Brush or drizzle the "glaze" over the top of the loaf. Let cool completely.

Blueberry Cobbler

I don't remember which came first: Bobby wanting blueberries or my buying them.. but anyhoo, he wanted a blueberry cobbler. Finally, today he got it. I followed my regular cobbler recipe, but instead of the peaches, I put in a cup or so of blueberries and a bit of lemonade to replace the peach juice that usually goes into it. It's tasty, but I still prefer the peach version!

Blueberry Muffins

Lately there seems to be a good deal of blueberry goodness on TasteSpotting, so when I spied some affordable blueberries at the grocery store, I decided to pick some up. Given a few options, hubby decided on muffins. My prior muffin experience consisted of opening a pouch, mixing in some milk, and baking. Homemade muffin? Heck yeah, I thought. So off I went to find a muffin recipe, having no idea as to what would make a good blueberry muffin. Now, I should let you know that a week or so ago, I had an AMAZING blueberry muffin from the coffee shop next door to my office. It was so light and fluffy and simple that I've craved one ever since. (Have yet to snag another one, though I did get a poppyseed muffin that had the same batter, just different mix-in. poppyseed was also amazing). I ended up using a Martha Stewart recipe from Confessions of the Cookie Jar. Now, I usually scorn Martha Stewart; she irks me in so many ways. But, I discovered the Asparagus Gruyere Tart was a recipe of hers, and so I thought I'd give Martha the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she is as great as people believe. Maybe she can win me over with her blueberry muffins. The tart was a good start. And so I made the Martha Stewart muffins.


Martha has not won me over. I'm writing the tart off as a freak incident, a rare moment when Martha and I align. These muffins were ... okay. Honestly, I prefer the ones from the pouch. My blueberries were a bit tart, but the muffin batter itself just wasn't enough of anything to be remarkable. It was like a muffin you might get in a big muffin pack from a mediocre store's bakery. It really doesn't help things that I still have a strong memory of that delicious, divine muffin of the blueberry gods. Perhaps I'm being too harsh. Are my muffin standards too high? Obviously not if I enjoy the ones from the pouch.

Here's the recipe anyway; maybe it'll rock your socks off.

Blueberry Muffins:

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Now, the website didn't have any instructions, so I just did the usual baking thing:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour muffin tin.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in milk.
In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add flour mixture to wet mixture; stir until JUST combined.
Lightly coat the blueberries in flour (supposedly this helps them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin. I don't know.) Mix in blueberries. Be careful not to overmix!!
Spoon mixture into muffin tin; don't worry it won't rise too much.
Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. I watched these babies quite closely. After about 20 minutes, I checked them every few minutes with a toothpick to see if it came out clean. I'd say mine took 25 minutes.