blueberry

Pie for Pi Day: Blueberry Cream Cheese Streusel Mini Pies

I’m jumping on the Pi day bandwagon!  And why not?  Any excuse to make pie.  And I also happen to love dates that have some numerical-mathematical significance.  3-14-15 and 3.1415!  It’s amazing!  And tasty.

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And oh my goodness.  These sweet little pies are magical.  The best way I can describe them is to compare them to those Duncan Hines boxed mix blueberry muffins with the can of blueberries and the streusel topping.  Making those is one of earliest memories I have of baking something on my own.  If you haven’t ever had them before you are missing something special.

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These came into being so perfectly.  I had a frozen pie crust (this recipe from Smitten Kitchen), a can of blueberry pie filling (don’t judge), a half package of cream cheese and some leftover frozen streusel from kolaches (this recipe).  All of that came together to make something so incredible that I will be making these again without changing a thing.

Aside from making the pie crust there isn’t much work to do.

Prepare the crusts.

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Spread with cream cheese.

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Fill.

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Top.

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Bake.

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You could make this in a regular pie plate, but these mini pie pans are a generous individual size and I really liked the way the pies baked in them.  After the pies cooled they were very easily removed from the pans.  They seem pricey, but are worth it.  They’d be great for pot pies, too.

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Go enjoy Pi day and have a great weekend!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Streusel Mini Pies

Ingredients

  • 1 unbaked pie crust for a 9-inch pie
  • 5 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 can blueberry pie filling

For Streusel

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 tablespoons butter, chilled

Directions

  1. Make streusel: Use a pastry blender to combine sugar, flour and butter.  Chill.
  2. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  3. Divide the pie crust into 4 pieces, roll each piece out into a circle that fits into the pan.  Trim the edges.  Freeze for 20 minutes.
  4. Beat cream cheese and 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar together until well combined.  Spread cream cheese mixture into the bottom of each pie.
  5. Top with blueberry filling.
  6. Top with streusel.
  7. Place pies on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350F and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the crusts and tops are golden brown.  If they brown too quickly top with a sheet of foil.
  8. Let cool and then serve warm or room temp with vanilla ice cream.

 

 

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

When berries of any kind are in abundance and being sold for cheap I grab them up.  Last week I bought 2 pounds of blueberries for something like $2.  I’ll eat them by the handful, put them in my yogurt, and in salads.  Betsy likes them, too.  When half the container was gone I decided to do something a little more exciting with them and made this cake that I’d had bookmarked in my Fine Cooking magazine for the past 2 weeks.  Thanks to Sarah who helped me get it done after overestimating my ability to tackle 5 things at once.

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This was super simple and beautiful.  You could easily serve this at a brunch for guests as a lovely alternative to blueberry muffins.  It’s delicious for breakfast, but also a nice evening dessert served with a little ice cream or sweetened whipped cream.  To keep the berries from sinking to the bottom, toss them in a little flour after rinsing and patting them dry.  Enjoy!

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Blueberry Breakfast Cake

From Fine Cooking, Issue 124

Ingredients

  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and patted dry
  • powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Grease a 9 inch springform pan with shortening or butter.
  3. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  In a small bowl whisk cooled butter, milk, eggs and vanilla.
  4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined, do not overmix.
  5. In a small bowl, toss the blueberries with a spoonful of flour, then fold the blueberries gently into the batter.
  6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
  7. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top is browned and a toothpick insterted into the center comes out clean.
  8. Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool on the rack.  Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

Daring Bakers: Jalapeño, Bacon and Cheese Beer Bread & Blueberry Almond Streusel Bread

Oh, how I love quick breads.  They are delicious, easy and, most importantly, quick.  This month’s challenge was quite versatile and so fun.  I was able to make one loaf of savory bread to serve with dinner and then a sweet loaf a couple days later for breakfast.  Getting started on this challenge more than a day before the posting date was immensely helpful and I hope I can do the same thing next month.  But we shall see…I have a history of acknowledging how great it was to work on something and get it done early and yet still managing to go back to my old ways of procrastination.

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

This jalapeño bread was a big hit.  I made a meal of barbecued chicken, creamed corn and cole slaw (all recipes I’d never used before and all of which were flops) and then this bread.  My husband told me the bread was the best part of the meal, and he was right.  I used a sharp cheddar cheese, pickled jalapeños, crumbled bacon and a bottle of Shiner.  We ate it with dinner warm from the oven and the next couple of mornings toasted with butter. I’m bummed it’s all gone, so I’ll probably have to make another loaf.

Jalapeño, Bacon and Cheese Beer Bread

Ingredients

  • 3 cups flour
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped pickled jalapeños
  • 1/2 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • 1 cup grated cheese
  • 12 ounces beer
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease a 9×5 loaf pan.
  2. Measure and then sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl.
  3. Mix in the the chopped jalapeños, cheese and bacon.
  4. Pour one can of beer into the mixing bowl and mix until blended.
  5. Pour mixture into the loaf pan, then pour half of the melted butter over the top.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes, then pour remaining butter on top of the loaf.  Bake for another 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.
  7. Cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool an additional 10 minutes.

The blueberry almond bread recipe came from Joy the Baker.  She used raspberries in her bread, and I might try that next time, or maybe a mix of berries.  I used frozen blueberries that I’d thawed out and drained, and dried as much as I could on paper towels.  I added a buttery almond streusel to the top of this bread that was so delicious, sweet and crunchy.  It might have been my favorite part of the loaf.

Blueberry Almond Streusel Bread

Streusel

Ingredients
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1/4 cups sliced almonds, toasted
  • 1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small chunks
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
Directions
  1. Mix together all ingredients except for almonds and butter.
  2. Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives until the butter pieces are mostly the size of small pebbles with some larger pieces, then mix in the almonds.  Refrigerate until ready to use.
Bread

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons sour cream
  • 1 cup blueberries, fresh or thawed and drained if frozen
  • 1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.  Grease and sugar a 9×5 loaf pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and almond extract until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the flour and sour cream. Fold in the crushed fruit and almond slivers.
  4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, then top with streusel.  Bake in the center of the oven for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
  5. Cool the bread in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack, turn right side up and cool completely.

Blueberry Muffins

When I first started to get a little crazy about baking in college I asked for this Martha Stewart Baking Handbook cookbook for Christmas.  I used it quite a bit at the beginning as evidenced by the flour crusted on the front cover and bits of food scattered on some of the pages.  Sadly, I haven’t used it as much recently.

This is a beautiful book with lovely photos of every single recipe.  After making these muffins I have a newly rekindled love for this book and for Martha.  I need to take a break from online recipes and get back to my huge collection of cookbooks.  Why have them if I’m not going to use them?  You might know what I’m talking about if you have at least 30 cookbooks, many of which are just sittin’ pretty on a bookshelf, and yet you find yourself searching on the internet when you want to make something.  What a shame!  Let’s get back to loving our cookbooks.

Every recipe in this cookbook is great.  The cinnamon raisin bread is especially delicious and I’ve made it more than just a few times.  It was the first yeast bread I tried that worked!  It has a great cinnamon swirl and lots of juicy raisins.  I am making myself crave it right now, so I might have to go make a loaf or two…

The blueberry muffins were easy to prepare and made my house smell delicious while they baked.  The generous amount of blueberries guarantees at least a few juicy berries in every bite.  I ate these at room temperature and also halved and toasted with a nice spread of butter.  Either way they are wonderful.  Watch the muffins after about 20 minutes, because mine were done after 25.  I did not sprinkle the sugar/nutmeg mixture on the muffins, but think they would be extra yummy with the nice crunch.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups fresh blueberries
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Generously grease and flour a standard 12-cup muffin pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Working over the bowl, toss blueberries in a fine sieve with about 1 1/2 teaspoons flour mixture to lightly coat; set aside the flour mixture and the blueberries.
  3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a handheld mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined. Mix in vanilla.
  5. With the mixer on low speed, add reserved flour mixture, beating until just combined.
  6. Add milk, beating until just combined. Do not overmix.
  7. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the blueberries.
  8. Divide batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups.
  9. If desired, in a small bowl, mix together remaining 1/4 cup sugar and nutmeg. Sprinkle sugar mixture on top of muffin batter.
  10. Bake, rotating pan halfway though, until muffins are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool 10 minutes.
  11. Remove from pan and let cool.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Creamy Blueberry Crumble Pie

Blueberries were on sale at my grocery store for $0.99 a pint!  I bought 4 pints.  While I am more than happy to eat them plain as a snack or as a garnish for my yogurt, I wanted to do something a little more exciting with these sweet little berries.  I chose this luscious blueberry pie.  I think it’s a perfect summer dessert.

This is not, however, just blueberry pie.  The filling is made of sour cream, eggs, sugar, flour and blueberries.  And the fun doesn’t end there.  On top of this pie is a streusel type topping made of butter, sugar and flour.  This pie has no other option than to be delicious.

On allrecipes.com, this pie is called Creamy Blueberry Pie.  Here is the link.  It calls for a 9 inch deep dish pie crust, but I decided to make my own crust.  This is not something I do very often.  I like the convenience of a store bought crust, and they usually taste great.  The Pillsbury kind that you roll out on your own are the best.  I’ve found that the frozen kind already in the pan have a tendency to crack, and the edge of the crust looks like it came out of a machine…because it did.  So, if you do use a store crust, go with the one that at least looks like it’s homemade!

Most pie crust recipes are quite similar.  All use flour, sugar, salt, some kind of fat, and some kind of liquid.  Having your ingredients chilled is considered to be a must in pie crust making.  It is also important not to overwork the dough.  You can mix the dough by hand, or in a food processor.  When you mix the dough, make sure that you can still see bits of the fat in the finished product.  This ensures a tender, flaky crust.

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Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Summer is coming, and summer calls for light, refreshing summer-y desserts.  These lemon blueberry cheesecake bars blend the perfect amount of sweetness, tartness, richness, creaminess and crunchiness. 

You could probably use any berry with good results.  I love the combination of lemon and blueberry, so these are my kind of dessert bar.  They are very sturdy, so they would travel well.  Bring them on your next picnic!  Enjoy.

Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Blueberry Filling:

  • 1 cup blueberries, chopped
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch

 Crumb Mixture:

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
  • 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup butter

 Cream Cheese Filling:

  • 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

 Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly grease the bottom of a 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Set aside.
  2. In a small saucepan combine blueberry filling ingredients; stir until corn starch is dissolved. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
  3. In a large bowl, combine all crumb mixture ingredients except butter; mix well. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture firmly in bottom of prepared baking pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
  4. In a medium bowl mix together the cream cheese filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended; pour into baked crust.
  5. Spoon blueberry filling over cream cheese filling, lightly swirl with knife.
  6. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over filling.
  7. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely, then chill. Cut into bars.