Blueberry Crisp

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AllenOK

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I just made this! I "winged it", so to speak, as I don't have a recipe for it. I used frozen berries, as that's all I had. It's great! To bad I don't have any ice cream.

Blueberry Crisp
Yields: 4 - 6 servings

Now that I live in Michigan, I’ve been exposed to a lot of the different berries that can be grown here. I’ve developed a soft spot for blueberries. I’m even thinking about growing some.

½ c all-purpose flour
1/8 t baking powder
1/8 t baking soda
½ c packed brown sugar
½ c quick-cooking oats
¼ c butter, softened
1# blueberries, fresh or frozen
½ c sugar
1 t lemon juice, or to taste, optional

If using frozen blueberries, thaw them.
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Sift together 1 c of the flour, baking powder, baking soda, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or your hands. It should have a mealy texture, similar to coarse sand. Set aside.
Mix the blueberries with the sugar and lemon juice. Pour into an 8 x 8” baking dish. Add the topping over the berries. Bake for 30 minutes, check, and give them another 15 minutes if needed (usually for the frozen berries). Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
This dessert just begs for some ice cream!
 
Sounds great, Allen! If you grow blueberries, be sure to stick in a raspberry bush or two, too. Both take some TLC, but the payoff will be amazing berries next summer!:chef:
 
Hi Allen,

Thanks for getting creative and "winging" this yummy looking blueberry recipe. They are far and above one of my fav fruits, and this recipe certianly gets added to my list of blueberry treats :)
 
PA Baker, don't need to plant raspberries, as we have a few canes coming up already. Either the previous homeowner had planted some, or more likely, a little bird did a #2 in one of our flowerbeds. Our neighbor has a few canes as well, so maybe a berry or two dropped off into our yard. Raspberries grow wild everywhere up here, so it's not hard to find some. They're almost a weed, as there's so many of them.
 
Allen: Would you mind if I offered some ways to enhance your blueberry dessert?



To convert it into a cobbler, roll out a cornmeal biscuit topping.



Serve with cinnamon-peach ice cream, splashed w/ crème de cassis liqueur.



Use a ratio of about 1-pound chopped rhubarb to 1 cup blueberries w/ 2/3 cup sugar (or to taste) for the filling and flavor it w/ ½ tsp. each cinnamon & vanilla, plus a good tbsp of lemon juice. Sprinkle over a crumble topping made from 1/3 cup softened butter and ½ cup each flour & sugar. Serve the crumble with frozen yogurt.



Blueberries also ally deliciously with apples & raspberries. It’s great fun to create various buckles, cobblers, crisps, grunts, and pies using combinations of berries. Be sure to make some blueberry syrup for pouring over pancakes & waffles during the long winter months!



 
Great suggestions Konditor,

Would you per chance happen to have a recipe for cinnamon-peach ice cream? It sounds so divine :)
 
IC, here's a peach ice cream recipe I had in my files. You could just add some ground cinnamon to it to taste (2 tsp--1 Tbsp perhaps?). Just freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions.


[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]Peach Ice Cream Recipe[/size][/font]

[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]Serving Size : 8[/size][/font]
[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]MAKES 2 QUARTS -[/size][/font]
[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]Double or Triple for size of your ice cream freezer [/size][/font]

[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]1 cup Sugar[/size][/font]
[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]2 Tbsp Flour[/size][/font]
[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]1 cup Milk[/size][/font]
[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]2 cups Mashed peaches[/size][/font]
[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]2 Tbsp Lemon juice[/size][/font]
[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]1/2 pint Whipping cream -- (half-pint carton)[/size][/font]

[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=-1]Mix sugar, flour and milk and cook on medium heat until thick, stirring occasionally. Add mashed peaches, lemon juice and whipping cream. This makes 2 quarts.[/size][/font]
 
This is our formula... "Neutro" is an ice cream stabilizer which helps to obtain the right texture... if you can't find anything similar a small amount of gelatine will help to keep it from too "icy". After you blend the ingredients let it rest in the fridge for at least 6 hours before you put it in the ice cream maker, or give it a good whip in a cold bowl and freeze.

350g ripe Peach (peeled, pitted and sliced)
80ml Whole milk
20g Powdered skimmed milk
120ml Cooking cream (fresh cream with 25% milkfat)
80g Inverted sugar
110g sugar
3g Neutro
+pinch of cinnamon
 
Thank-you both! Those look awesome :)

I don't actually have an ice cream maker, but I've had plenty of luck making different varieties without one.

Urmaniac, is Inverted sugar powdered (icing) sugar?
 
Hi Jess! Inverted sugar is a heavy syrup, Cris makes it his own. We usually use a regular white sugar, mix it with water and let it cook for some time. Using this kind of syrup is one of the technics he learned from the ice cream making book (which I mentioned in the e-mail), to maintain a correct balance of solid and water contents in the ice cream. If you are interested I will ask Cris for more detailed info and pass it on to you!! ;-)
 
Sounds like he's making a basic simple syrup.

"Invert" sugars are those sugars that are fluid at room temperature. Honey, Corn syrup, molasses, etc.
 
Sounds like he's making a basic simple syrup
My thoughts too :) My mom always made that as a poor-man's pancake syrup. Licia, is the ratio of water to sugar different than a classic sugar syrup?
 
We use roughly 2 sugar to 1 Water, which means, for example 2kg of sugar to 1 litre of water.... is that the same as your basic sugar syrup?
 
Re: Frozen Accompaniments for Blueberries

For the past 12 years, nearly every batch of cooked-custard ice cream I’ve churned out, has contained skim milk powder. I always modify ice cream recipes to include the milk powder in the custard base. Why? Together with egg yolks, skim milk powder creates ice cream that is smooth, properly textured, and rich tasting. The powder’s protein aids stabilization of the emulsion without adding fat. So, you can use half cream & half skim milk to produce excellent ice creams! It really is one of the golden keys to making first-class ice creams.


Re Cinnamon-Peach I.C., would you prefer a French-style (i.e., using crème-anglaise base) or a Philadelphia-style (i.e., eggless)?

More or less typically, a peach custard i.c. would include:

3 ripe peaches
½ cup superfine sugar
1 cup purified water
1½ quarts crème-anglaise (cooked w/ cinnamon bark, then strained)



A Philadelphia-style version is well-represented by Bruce Weinstein’s formula, which includes…

1½ cups heavy cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large, peeled-&-pitted peaches
¼ cup peach nectar
¼ tsp vanilla extract


[Source: The Ultimate Ice Cream Book (Morrow, 1999); p. 97f.]

For a buttermilk (eggless) representation, please see the delicious recipe on Rick Rodgers’ Web site. (He remains one of my favorite contemporary food writers.) Although I have checked recently to verify, I should think it very probable that Emeril Lagasse also offers peach ice cream recipes on his expansive pages.

I have a recipe for cinnamon i.c. in a European book that looks dependably accurate.

For other excellent ice creams compatible with blueberry desserts, refer to the "Creamy Peach I.C." in Southern Living: 30 Years of our Best Recipes (p. 100); "Banana-Rum I.C. (Gourmet - April, 1991);"Pina Colada I.C." in Southern Living’s Cool It With Dessert; the cinnamon-flavored "Dulce de Leche I.C." in 125 Best Ice Cream Recipes by Marilyn Linton; and two ginger ice creams: Saveur (Jan./Feb., 1996) & Gourmet (Nov., 1998).

"French Bread w/ Peach Compote & Cinnamon I. C." is a splendid composition from Dutch chef Jonnie Boer:

http://www.globalchefs.com/recipe/dessert/web/des019frew.htm


Sorbets, too, can hit the mark served with blueberries: "Tangerine-Raspberry" in Mable & Bar Hoffman, The Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Cookbook (2004); "Peach-Bellini" in Frozen Desserts by C. Liddell & Robin Weir; "Sorbet aux Poires" in Le Cordon Bleu at Home (p. 237). A banana frozen yogurt would also scoop nicely with blueberries.

Here's my Blueberry-Rhubarb Sauce (that's also great on oat-bran waffles):
1 quart fresh or unthawed frozen wild blueberries (highbush blueberriess, even if they’re organically grown, are flavorless)
1 quart chopped strawberry-variety rhubarb
4 cups granulated white sugar
½ cup purified water (if needed)

In large, heavy saucepan, stir berries & rhubarb together. Place over low flame and cook, stirring often, until the liquid starts to ooze from the fruit. Add the sugar, tasting to determine if the mixture is sweet enough. Now, if the fruit is quite dry, you may have to add some water to prevent scorching. Continue to cook until the fruit has broken down somewhat, showing the consistency of a pourable sauce. Cool slightly before serving; refrigerate the remainder.

[Please note: I've edited this post several times, attempting to adjust the point size of the Arial font. I can only post to discusscooking.com in MS Internet Explorer; all my other online work is done using Firefox. Strangely, the appearance of my posts in this forum is quite different from how they appear in Firefox (Which is to say, Ff gives the superior rendition.) So, it may take several more adjustments to reach the ideal method for providing optimal readability. -- Lawrence)







 
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What a truly awesome, informative and helpful (not to mention mouth watering) post Konditor, thank-you soooo much!!!

You went to a lot of work putting together that post and I really appreciate it :) Of the two styles, I think that I would be hard pressed to pick,they both look like they are well worth trying.
 
Thank You AllenMI

I just wanted to say thank you for the recipe, it came out great. My grandma loves it. Thanks again.
 
Thanks! I may be making another batch here soon, and will probably add just a touch of cinnamon to it. I'm curious as what the resulting flavor will be.
 
I'm suddenly craving a blueberry-cinnamon-peach-vanilla dessert....!
Excellent thread, Allen, and wonderful additions, Konditor!

Allen, you've not had blueberries till you've had them with cinnamon!
There's a wonderful breakfast place I love that serves their whole blueberry sauce with cinnamon and cointreau blended in. (This is perfect over blintzes!)
 

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