Showing posts with label blueberry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blueberry. Show all posts
One thing that I will always be sad about is that I never ever got to visit Ireland when I was living in the UK. For the whole 20 years that I was there, it was on my bucket list to go, but alas, it just never happened for one reason or another.
I love the Irish people. They are so kind and friendly. They become your best friend within a few minutes of meeting and there is nothing that they won't do for you. Our landlord was Irish, and one of my best friends, Josephine, is Irish. They are beautiful people.
They are a very humble and simple folk. There is no artiface. What you see is what you get. I love that about them. I, too, am simple folk.
We used to love to go to an Irish Pub in Toronto on Sunday afternoons. It was filled with families enjoying a nice afternoon together and a bevvie or two. There would be fiddlers, and singers, dancers. It was a good time.
Maybe one day I will still get to Ireland. You never know.
One way of visiting a country without actually going there is by learning to cook and love its food. The food of Ireland is very much like its people. Simple and wholesome. There is nothing artificial or complicated about it.
It's just plain good eating. Fresh and natural ingredients, put together simply.
This recipe I am sharing with you today comes from a cookery book entitled "Bread and Butter, cakes and bakes from granny's stove" by Irish author, Ciara McLaughlin. It's a lovely book filled with beautiful bakes, both savory and sweet. Seasonally categorized.
.JPG "Irish Blaeberry Pudding")
In looking at the photo you might be tempted to think this isn't a very special dessert. You would be wrong. It's fabulously tasty, with a sweet fruity base topped with a buttery light cake.
The berries used in this pudding are what the Irish call the Blaeberry, or Bilberry. They are very similar to wild blueberries. They are actually quite interchangeable and are beautiful in simple desserts such as this one.
The original recipe for this delightful pudding made 8 to 10 servings. I cut it down to make only 4, or 5 if you are not big eaters.
.JPG "Irish Blaeberry Pudding")
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE IRISH BLAEBERRY PUDDING
I guarantee you probably have everything you need in your kitchen to make this lovely dessert today. There is nothing out of the ordinary required.
For the fruit:
- 1 cup (225g) bilberries or blueberries, washed, cleaned of stalks and leaves
- 2 heaped TBS of sugar
For the cake:
- 1/4 cup (50g) caster sugar (fine granulated sugar)
- 5 1/2 TBS (75g) butter, softened
- 1 large free-range egg, beaten
- 1 cup less 1 TBS (125g) self-raising flour (see note)
- 2 TBS whole milk
.JPG "Irish Blaeberry Pudding")
Caster sugar is a fine granulated sugar. It is not coarse. I find the granulated sugar here in Canada to be quite comparable. One of the qualities of caster sugar is that it melts quickly into the ingredients of cookies, cakes and bakes.
If you have ever had a cake end up with what looks like brown speckles on top, that is your sugar. It was too coarse and did not completely amalgamate into the batter.
If your granulated sugar is very coarse, give it a few pulses in the food processor to make it finer.
Don't worry if you don't have self-rising flour. I tell you how to very easily make your own in the recipe notes below. It's not hard at all.
.JPG "Irish Blaeberry Pudding")
HOW TO MAKE IRISH BLAEBERRY PUDDING
I can promise you this is a very simple dessert. There is nothing complicated about it. You don't even need any specialized equipment. All you need is a casserole dish, a wooden spoon and a bowl.
.JPG "Irish Blaeberry Pudding")
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Have ready a (7 by 8-inch) deep casserole dish.
Scatter the blueberries in the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the sugar over top.
Using a wooden spoon, beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy and well creamed together. Beat in the egg a bit at a time until well incorporated.
.JPG "Irish Blaeberry Pudding")
Fold in the flour and the milk to combine well. Drop by dollops on top of the berries in the dish and then spread out to cover, using the back of your spoon.
Place onto a small baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until the sponge springs back when lightly touched and the berries are bubbling underneath.
Leave to cool for about 15 minutes, then spoon into bowls and serve warm with your desired accompaniment.
.JPG "Irish Blaeberry Pudding")
This pudding (which is a way of saying dessert over there) is a very simple make with beautiful homey, wholesome flavors. It's very similar to the English Eve's Pudding. You could actually mix a chopped cooking apple in with the berries to give you a slightly different but equally tasty version.
Do taste your berries before you start. If they are very tart, you may want to adjust the amount of sugar used.
This is delicious served warm along with some pouring cream, clotted cream, whipped cream, warm custard, or a scoop of cold ice cream. Today I enjoyed mine with a dab of vanilla ice cream. It went down a real treat!
.JPG "Irish Blaeberry Pudding")
If you are a huge fan of blueberry type desserts, then you might also enjoy the following:
LEMON BLUEBERRY TURNOVERS - Delicious. You only need a few ingredients. Puff pastry. Lemon Curd. Blueberries. Blueberry jam. Fabulously simple and so impressive.
LEMON SANDWICHES WITH BLUEBERRIES & CREAM - Slabs of a lovely, moist and delicious lemon cake layered together in layers with a sweet blueberry sauce and a rich yogurt cream.
Yield: 4
Blaeberry Pudding (small batch)
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 40 MinInactive time: 15 MinTotal time: 1 H & 5 M
The original recipe for this served 8 - 10 people. I small batched it. Its an Irish bilberry/blueberry pudding with a sweet fruity bottom and a buttery cake topping. Serve warm with cream or ice cream for a real treat!
Ingredients
For the fruit:
- 1 cup (225g) bilberries or blueberries, washed, cleaned of stalks and leaves
- 2 heaped TBS of sugar
For the cake:
- 1/4 cup (50g) caster sugar (fine granulated sugar)
- 5 1/2 TBS (75g) butter, softened
- 1 large free-range egg, beaten
- 1 cup less 1 TBS (125g) self-raising flour (see note)
- 2 TBS whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Have ready a (7 by 8-inch) deep casserole dish.
- Scatter the blueberries in the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the sugar over top.
- Using a wooden spoon, beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy and well creamed together. Beat in the egg a bit at a time until well incorporated.
- Fold in the flour and the milk to combine well. Drop by dollops on top of the berries in the dish and then spread out to cover, using the back of your spoon.
- Place onto a small baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until the sponge springs back when lightly touched and the berries are bubbling underneath.
- Leave to cool for about 15 minutes, then spoon into bowls and serve warm with your desired accompaniment.
Notes
You can easily make your own self-raising flour. Measure your flour into a container. For each cup of flour whisk in 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt. Store in an airtight container for up to three months. (I never make more than 2-3 cups at a time.)
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
Blueberry Lemon Puffs. Two airy, buttery, bites of heavenly blueberry and lemon bliss! Its blueberry season here in Canada and I am making the most of it!
This is a recipe I adapted from one I found in the book entitled Scrumptious by Christy Denney! Its a lovely book, filled with lots of tasty looking recipes.
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
Don't you just love those painted flowers? My friend Monique painted them, and they went perfect with this. She is such a talented artist! Thank you Monique!
Christy's recipe in the book was made with raspberries, but then she talked about strawberries in the recipe intro. I wasn't sure what she meant. The photo showed raspberries.
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
I didn't have any raspberries and I didn't have any strawberries for that matter, but I did have a nice big punnet of blueberries!! I rattled around in my brain for a bit and came up with these.
Little puff pastry bites of heaven with a sweet, creamy, lemony cream cheese filling, a swirl of blueberry jam and a fresh blueberry popped on top prior to baking! Once baked they are glazed with a sweet lemon glaze. What's not to love!
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
If I had really had my thinking cap on I would have swirled the cream with some lemon curd, but alas I went with the blueberry jam, which tasted fabulous, but did make the cream a bit more on the purple side.
But you don't care. I know you love me anyways, and I know you will believe me when I tell you these are gorgeous!
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE BLUEBERRY LEMON PUFFS
Very simple store-cupboard and refrigerated ingredients. Generally speaking I usually have all of these things on hand.
- 1 sheet of all butter frozen puff pastry, thawed
- 4 ounces (115g) cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup (50g) sugar
- 1 TBS milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
- about 2 TBS wild blueberry jam
- 16 whole blueberries
- 1 small free range egg, beaten
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
To finish:
- 1/2 cup (65g) icing sugar
- 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
- icing sugar to dust
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
I always have a few packages of all butter puff pastry in my freezer. It comes in packages which contain two sheets of puff pastry, and it is made with nothing but butter as the fat.
I am not fond of non-butter puff pastry, but if you can't get the all butter one, I guess it will do. To me it has a funny artificial after-taste. If you can get the all butter one, do get it. There is a difference.
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
I also usually have a block of cream cheese in the refrigerator. I love it on bagels, and in sandwiches. It also comes in handy for things like this!
You won't need to use the whole package, or you can just buy a smaller package.
I also always have large free range eggs, and lemons. They are such a must have ingredient in my kitchen. In the UK I always kept a bowl of lemons on the counter. With it just being me now, I only keep one or two around, and I keep them in the fridge.
I also almost always have blueberries. They are so good for you! They are what's known as a super food and are filled with lovely anti-oxidents!
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
HOW TO MAKE BLUEBERRY LEMON PUFFS
These only look complicated. I can promise you that they are not! Here is a photo of them ready to go into the oven.
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
Its not the best photograph. I don't have a window in my kitchen and need to make do with artificial light, but I thought you would at least be able to get some idea of what they look like before they go into the oven. I hope it helps!
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C/ gas mark 6. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Set aside.
Beat the cream cheese, vanilla, milk, sugar and lemon zest together in a bowl until well blended.
Unroll your pastry and cut it into 16 squares, placing them on the baking sheet and leaving plenty of space between each.
Place 1 tsp of the cheese filling in the center of each. Top the cheese with 1/4 tsp of blueberry jam and swirl it through with a toothpick. Top each with one blueberry.
Fold the corners of the squares up, pressing them lightly into the cheese. (They won't really stay up, but they stay up long enough to keep the filling from spread out over the baking sheet.)
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
Brush the pastry with the beaten egg.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.
Whisk together all of the ingredients for the glaze until smooth. Drizzle over the warm puffs. Dust with icing sugar and serve. These are best served warm.
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
I have never frozen them, but it has been my experience that anything with a cream cheese filling doesn't freeze very well. Plus the blueberries will really go to mush.
These would make a great addition to a Sunday morning brunch with the family. I guarantee there would be none left! I inhaled two of them before I could even get my camera out!
That pastry is so flakey and the lemon cheese filling is rich. The blueberry jam gives just the right touch and that blueberry on top provides a bit of tartness to cut back on the sweetness of the jam.
That lemon glaze is just the perfect finishing touch!
.JPG "Blueberry Lemon Puffs")
If you enjoy blueberries as much as I do, you may be interested in the following recipes. Each one is delicious in their own right.
LEMON BLUEBERRY TURNOVERS - Is there any more delicious flavour combination on the earth than the combination of lemon and blueberry?? I think not! Combine that with flaky buttery puff pastry and you have a marriage made in heaven! This is the perfect time of year to be enjoying blueberry treats! What is a turnover but a little pie, and these ones are so easy to make!
LITTLE BLUEBERRY PUDDINGS - These are very simple to make, using simple ingredients that you probably already have in your home, with perhaps the exception of some Wild Blueberry Conserve. But take heart, if you don't have any of that, you can also use lemon curd, or even orange marmalade! Beautiful served warm with pouring cream.
BLUEBERRY MUFFIN CAKE - This small batch recipe is built for the smaller family and bakes in a 9 by 4 inch loaf tin. With its streusel topping and sweet glaze, it always goes down a real treat!
Blueberry Lemon Puffs
Yield: 16 puffs
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 25 Min
Flaky, buttery, sweet little puffs of blueberry and creamy lemon deliciousness. Very easy to make.
Ingredients
- 1 sheet of all butter frozen puff pastry, thawed
- 4 ounces (115g) cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup (50g) sugar
- 1 TBS milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
- about 2 TBS wild blueberry jam
- 16 whole blueberries
- 1 small free range egg, beaten
To finish:
- 1/2 cup (65g) icing sugar
- 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
- icing sugar to dust
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C/ gas mark 6. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Set aside.
- Beat the cream cheese, vanilla, milk, sugar and lemon zest together in a bowl until well blended.
- Unroll your pastry and cut it into 16 squares, placing them on the baking sheet and leaving plenty of space between each.
- Place 1 tsp of the cheese filling in the center of each. Top the cheese with 1/4 tsp of blueberry jam and swirl it through with a toothpick. Top each with one blueberry.
- Fold the corners of the squares up, pressing them lightly into the cheese. (They won't really stay up, but they stay up long enough to keep the filling from spread out over the baking sheet.)
- Brush the pastry with the beaten egg.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.
- Whisk together all of the ingredients for the glaze until smooth. Drizzle over the warm puffs. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
I am excited to share a fabulously tasty recipe for a good old fashioned blueberry custard pie with you today. This is the kind of pie that women have been baking in their kitchens for many, many years now. I first shared this recipe with you back in the summer of 2011.
Some things are just so delicious, they bear repeating and reminding of. Especially when you are talking about a fabulously tasty twist on the good old classic blueberry pie.
Classic blueberry pie has long been a favorite of mine, especially when made with fresh summer berries. This delicious twist is like that old favorite amped up, with a lush and creamy custard filling, topped with a wonderfully moreish sweet, crisp and buttery streusel topping.
It just does not get much better than this! Incredibly easy to put together, this deliciously different blueberry pie makes a fabulous dessert for any occasion!
Once upon a time this would have been a pie you could only make during the summer months when fresh berries were widely available and abundant. Thankfully these days fresh blueberries are available all year round. Lucky us!
If you do need to use frozen berries, don't thaw them out first. Just use them frozen from the package. Thawing them out first will give you a soggy result. For the best result however, I always use fresh berries if I can.
This pie could not be any easier to make. Berries are first layered onto the bottom of an unbaked 9-inch pie crust. I highly recommend my butter/lard pastry. It is phenomenal.
You can find that recipe here on my Apple Dumpling recipe. (Another phenomenal recipe by the way.) It does make 2 9-inch crusts, but don't worry about the extra one. You can simply shape it into a disc, wrap tightly and freeze it for another time. Simple
It makes for one of the flakiest most delicious crusts. It is tender and flaky and melts in the mouth. I cannot recommend it any more highly! It is my crust of choice, always.
You begin by layering berries in the bottom of the crust. You can use other berries if you wish such as raspberries, blackberries, black currants, etc. or even a berry mix. We love it best with blueberries however.
Once you have the berries in the crust a simple flour and sugar mixture is sprinkled over top. You can mix it through a bit. I use granulated sugar here in North America, but if you are in the UK, I recommend caster sugar as it is much finer and will melt easier in the cooking process.
A milky custard mixture will be poured over top of the berry/sugar/flour mixture. This is created by beating together eggs, vanilla and evaporated milk.
Evaporated milk is a shelf-stable type of cow's milk sold in cans. It has had 60% of its water content removed and is interchangeable with cream in most baked goods. Do NOT confuse it with sweetened condensed milk.
Sweetened condensed milk is a completely different thing and has had a lot of sugar added to it, which makes it thick and syrupy. Evaporated milk has had no sugar added to it. It is simply milk which has been condensed down.
It is dense, creamy and concentrated but not sweet. You can also whip it if you chill it until it is really cold and contains ice crystals. I always keep several cans of it in my larder. It comes in handy for all sorts.
This quick and easy custard is poured over the base of berries and then a simple sugar streusel is sprinkled over top. I always make sure my streusel topping is made before I begin making the pie. That way I can sprinkle it over top as soon as I pour on the custard and then bang my pie into the oven lickety split!
Sugar, butter and vanilla with a bit of flour are rubbed together to make coarse crumbs. This bakes on top and gives a lovely crunchy topping that goes incredibly well with that creamy custard base.
I have seen other recipes similar to this where the flour mixture is beaten into the milk and eggs. I have also seen it made using sour cream. I have never done or used either of those methods or ingredients, preferring instead to use this simple old fashioned recipe.
This blueberry custard pie recipe has been pleasing my family for many, many years now. Simply put it is my favorite of all the blueberry pies that I make.
It will need to bake for about an hour for everything to set up. If you think the crust edges are browning too quickly, you can cover them with a bit of aluminum foil. This works very well for that purpose.
The hardest part of this easy pie is waiting until it is cold enough to cut and to eat. I leave it on a wire rack to cool to room temperature and then you can either cut it then, or you can refrigerate it overnight. It will cut like a dream then.
In any case you will need to leave it sit for about 2 hours before cutting and serving. I usually make this the day before I want to serve it.
You can of course serve this delicious pie with scoops of vanilla ice cream of dollops of softly whipped cream spooned over top. We like it just as it is without any adornment.
It is lush, delicious, incredibly moreish and destined to become a favorite in your home too I dare say. If you bake only one pie this weekend, let it be this one. You can thank me afterwards.
Yield: Makes one 9-inch pie
Blueberry Custard Pie
A delicious berry pie layered with blueberries, custard and a vanilla streusel on top!
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 1 Hourinactive time: 2 Hourtotal time: 3 H & 10 M
Ingredients
You will need:
- one 9-inch unbaked pie crust
For the filling:
- 1/4 cup (35g) plain flour
- 1 1/2 (295g) cups sugar
- 3 cups (450g) of blueberries
- 2 large free range eggs, beaten lightly
- 3/4 cup (180ml) evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
For the streusel topping:
- 1/3 cup (47g) of plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (97g) sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) cold butter, cut into bits
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line a 9 inch glass pie dish with your pastry, trimming and crimping the edges to please.
- Put the berries into the crust.
- Whisk together the flour and sugar for the filling to mix. Sprinkle this evenly over the berries, stirring them up a bit to mix.
- Beat together the eggs, evaporated milk and vanilla. Pour this evenly over top of the berries and flour mixture.
- Rub the streusel ingredients together until they resemble coarse crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over the berry filling.
- Bake for about 1 hour in the heated oven until the pie is golden brown and set and the crust is nicely crisped.
- Allow to cool at least two hours before serving. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
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