Single Serving Blueberry or Apple Pie

When you have cravings for pie but don't want to go into the effort of making an entire pie...this was a perfect treat!

Blueberry Filling
2-1/4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup fresh blueberries

Apple Filling

1 apple, peeled, cored, diced small
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Crust
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoon butter, chilled - plus 1 additional tablespoon butter, chopped to dot on top of filling
2 teaspoon ice water

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine filling ingredients for either apple or blueberry. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt.

Using a fork, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles wet sand. Add the water and stir to form dough.
Split into 2 sections, one slightly smaller then the other. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a circle for both.
Fit the crust into the pan (I used a 2 cup glass pyrex).
Pour in filling and dot with butter. Cover with remaing dough.
Bake for 20-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown

Fluffy Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

There is so much to celebrate right now. It is finally spring (although it hasn't stopped raining and was 45F yesterday), so much fresh fruit and veggies at the grocery store, AND my beautiful kitchen remodel has finished!! We now have gorgeous counter tops and large to the ceiling cabinets! We even added recessed lighting instead of one florescent light in the middle of the kitchen!! Let us all just agree that it is a glorious day. I am so giddy to start cooking again in this lovely lovely space!

I have a few recipes that I haven't had time to post so lets start with these fluffy Blueberry Muffins! I've been craving blueberries so I decided to make some muffins this morning! Of course I didn't have all the correct ingredients so I've adapted it from the original recipe provided by King Arthur Flour. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!

I used silicon baking cups instead of paper or greasing the muffin tins. The muffins popped out of the silicon cups easily.
I used frozen blueberries.
I used Almond Milk with a squeeze of Lemon Juice.
I omitted the sugar topping.

And before you poo-poo these healthy (ish) muffins...they were so light and perfect for breakfast! 

Blueberry Muffins

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Yield: 18 muffins

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup oats (or sub with additional flour)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (or a little more if you want them sweeter)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (heaping) blueberries, fresh or frozen (or other berries/diced apples)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil (or olive oil)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or plain (not Greek) yogurt; or 1 ½ Almond Milk + 1 tbsp (ish) of lemon juice
cinnamon-sugar or coarse white sparkling sugar for topping, optional

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the cups of a standard muffin pan; or line with paper baking cups, and grease the paper cups.
Whisk together all of the dry ingredients, including the blueberries.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, lemon juice, and milk/yogurt, and oil.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring just to combine.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them 3/4 full.
Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with coarse sparkling sugar or cinnamon sugar, if desired.
Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes (or when they're cool enough to handle) transfer them to a rack to cool. Serve warm, or at room temperature. Store leftovers loosely wrapped at room temperature.

Blueberry Pancakes

Looking for an easy, light, and fluffy pancake recipe that has standard ingredients? Look no further!I adapted it from Allrecipes.

The recipe made 4 1/2 pancakes, I suppose I make them bigger than "serving size"! The recipe says that it makes 8 servings.

Remember, when mixing the batter, there should be lumps. If you don't have lumps you have over mixed the batter which can cause it to be tough or chewy.

I substituted brown sugar for the white (just because). I used about 1 1/2 tbsp of melted butter instead of 3. I added in vanilla extract. I used bacon grease to oil the pan instead of butter or regular oil. I added blueberries once the pancake batter was poured on the skillet.

Click here for the apple cinnamon pancakes from this fall.

Small lumps!

Just made some bacon in the pan too

Bubbles just before flipping, note the edges
rounding out too

Splat!

Pancake Recipe
Makes approx 4 - 8 pancakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar (or brown)
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
 
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg, vanilla, and melted butter; mix until slightly lumpy.

Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. This is the time to add any berries.

Once there are larger bubbles appearing (approx 2-4 minutes), flip the pancake and cook for another two minutes or until turning golden brown.

Serve hot!

Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler

Birthday dessert!! I was looking for another gluten free dessert recipe. I made a gluten free blueberry cobbler from here! I made these in individual 6 oz bowls. The blueberry part tasted like blueberry pie, but the almond part on top... was good but didn't make me feel very cobbler-ish. I was just expecting it to be more like a pastry, the almond topping is very thick and doesn't spread very easily but you can just dollop it around.

We made Pamela's Gluten Free Pancakes and the pancakes were great! Since the batter can also be used as a baking mix I would try making a topping with that instead next time.

However it was very easy to make, great for a quick snack, and I would give it another shot!

Birthday Menu: Beef Tenderloin, Swedish baked potatoes, roasted onions and mushrooms, and a Gluten Freeblueberry cobbler!

Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler

Ingredients

• 16 oz frozen blueberries (I used frozen but I can imagine the fresh would be great too)
• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup slivered blanched almonds ground in a food processor
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 whole egg
• pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large bowl gently toss together the blueberries, 1/4 cup of sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice.  Pour into a buttered 2-quart baking dish.  In another bowl mix together the ground almonds/almond meal, butter, the other 1/4 cup of sugar, egg and salt until well combined.  Spread topping over the blueberries.  Bake for 25-35 minutes until the fruit is bubbly and the top is golden brown.  Let cool at least 10 minutes before eating.  Serve hot or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream!

Blueberry Muffins

I love blueberries. I remember making "jam" when I was camping with my family, my cousins and I would spend several hours picking berries from the nearby bushes and then mashing them up with a rock. We added sugar packet upon sugar packet in the violet staining, muddled, clumpy mess. Then it would be spooned into a jar and given to our grandmother... who knows if she actually ate it. Honestly, I hope she didn't, I can't remember if we washed the rocks or rinsed them off in the lake before pulverizing the lovely ripe berries.

My grandmother also made the best blueberry pie for my birthday too... So, blueberries have a special place in my heart. I've been looking at different recipes, always searching for that perfectly textured muffin. This is a combination of 2 different recipes.  One is based of Cooks Illustrated (found here) and the other is from The Cookie Scoop blog (found here). 

I really loved the idea of a blueberry compote, (practically blueberry pie filling!), mixed into the muffins, so I wanted to incorporate that step. The recipe called for 1 cup of blueberries with 1 tsp of sugar, heat over medium heat and then mash down as they heat up, let it cook until its reduced by about a 1/4 cup. I just dumped a bunch of berries into the pot, I figured I could use the compote on toast or an English muffin if I had that much left over. I also had a few raspberries that I threw in mix. :) Love berries. I let it cook down until it smelled so yummy and was thick and jam-y. While the berry mixture was cooling I started on my muffin batter. 

I mixed the dry ingredients together and then mixed the wet ingredients in another bowl. Now, muffin batter is very delicate, do not over mix. Mix until JUST combined and not a moment longer. Combine the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, and add the berries in. 

Spoon the mixture into prepared muffin tins, fill about half way. Then add a spoonful of the compote into the middle, and cover with more muffin batter (until 2/3 filled). These muffins don't rise too much. Bake about 15 minutes or until the tester toothpick comes out clean.  

These are denser muffins, almost a biscuit type texture. Imagine the muffin heated in a pan with some butter?? Yum! And the compote was essentially blueberry pie filling - I would (and maybe did) eat this with a spoon!

Both recipes had glaze or sugar crunch toppings which I didn't do because I lacked the ingredients. 

These muffins freeze well too.

Blueberry Muffins
Makes 9-12 

Ingredients:

Spoon batter & compote into prepared tins

1 1/2 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg slightly beaten
1/3 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup milk (I used light cream because that was in the fridge)
A few tbs of Lemon juice 

Compote:

Heat 1 cup of berries with 1 tsp sugar on the stove. Mash the berries as they heat up until they are broken down and the mixture is thick and gooey and reduced down to about 1/4 cup. Transfer into a bowl and allow it to cool. (My berries were frozen so it took about 10-15 minutes for this step)

Batter:

Mix sugar, flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl
Combine egg, apple sauce, milk, and lemon juice
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients
Stir in the rest of the berries

Spoon batter into the prepared muffin tins about 1/3 filled, put in a healthy spoonful of the compote, and top with some more batter.

Pop into the 400 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Let cool on a rack!

Enjoy!!