Viral Dark Chocolate Blueberry BItes

 

The best no-bake dessert you’ll make all year! These blueberry chocolate bites are rich, chewy, chocolatey and addictive. They taste like luxury chocolate truffles from a gourmet chocolate shop with a soft blueberry center, rich dark chocolate shell; it’s the perfect sweet and salty bite. It involves no baking and simple ingredients - a perfect mid-summer treat! Go find this on Tiktok and Youtube - you will not be disappointed!

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried blueberries

• 1 cup almond flour

• 2 tbsp maple syrup

• ¾ cup dark chocolate

• 1 tbsp coconut oil

• fleur de sel

• dried blueberries

Process

1. In a food processor, blend, until thick and moldable, the blueberries,  flour, and maple syrup. 

2. Handroll into 2-bite sized balls

3. Freeze 10–15 minutes

4. Make the chocolate shell by melting chocolate and coconut oil

5. Dunk frozen balls in melted chocolate to cover. 

6. Dry dunked balls on a parchment paper lined sheet

7. To finish, top with fleur de sel and a single dried blueberry. 

Blueberry Ginger Shrub

As part of the March Food in Jars Challenge, I made another shrub inspired by my desire to kick my immune system back into high gear. I thought the medicinal ginger and the antioxidant blueberries were quite the touch. I used Marisa's Blueberry Ginger Shrub recipe from Food in Jars and doubled it. If you do attempt this and double it, don't muddle in the quart jars as there just isn't enough room to move around, so use a 4 cup measuring cup before pouring it into the mason jar.

Ingredients (for a single recipe)
One heaping cup of blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
One cup unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar (I use Bragg's)
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled

Process
1. Put blueberries in a mason jar and cover with the sugar.
2. Using a muddler or a pestle, mash the blueberries and sugar together and smash into a sweet pukpy mess. The more mess the merrier.
3. Add the vinegar to the jar and stir it all together, vigorously.
4. Grate the ginger over the mess in the jar.
5. Put a lid over the jar and give it a good shake. Dance around the kitchen with it for little while if it makes you smile. The shrub will love the entertainment.

6. Put your shrub in the fridge and let it hang out with it's friends for a few days. Here's mine with the Blood Orange Shrub and neighbors Salt Preserved Lemons. (darn A-1 trying to get its moment in the spotlight).

7. Day two or three, strain the Shrub.

8. Return to a covered mason jar and place in fridge. Use as a mixer in drink of your choice. Here's one recipe I found: http://www.saveur.com/carolina-blueberry-shrub-cocktail-recipe

A Real Simple Blueberry Jam

I made these three jars of simple jam from two pints of local high bush blueberries. Yum. Three cans begin my canning season and I take that as a very good sign.
I found the recipe in Real Simple's July 2011 edition. You can find the recipe here. It truly is really simple.

SORBET!!!

We are churning out multiple batches of Sorbet this weekend.

Strawberry. Locally grown at Gillespie Farms.
Blueberry. Frozen last fall from MOFGA and the Common Ground Country Fair.
Blackberry. Raspberry. Grown outside right in front of my house.
Any combination of the above flavors.
Here is a blueberry sorbet, individually portion, and deeply frozen in our upright freezer.















I do so love our ice cream maker. It is so handy.

Here it is wearing its fruit fly repellent hat.



























Today's flavor: Cherry Peach. YUM!





















We are using a modified version of the Strawberry Sorbet Recipe from the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Book.
The recipe makes about a dozen 3 ounce cups, even if one is just a partial for the cook (bottom center).












Ingredients
1/2 pound frozen fruit, or fresh berries refrigerated, hulled/sliced/mashed (we throw it in the food processor)
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of a lemon
1/4 honey (or corn syrup)
2 cups cold water

Directions
1. Combine fruit, sugar, honey and lemon juice in food processor and blend.
2. Pour contents into the frozen drum of your ice cream maker and follow the makers instructions.
3. When finished, pour into 3 ounce cups, and deep freeze in a freezer.

Yield = about 1 dozen 3 ounce servings.

Blueberry Gingerbread

This recipe originates in Machias, Maine. It is absolutely yummy!

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1 cup sour milk (which means you add one teaspoon lemon juice)
3 Tablespoons molasses
1 cup Maine blueberries (I prefer low bush blueberries and you can get Wyman's in most supermarket freezer sections)
2 Tablespoons sugar





Process

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan.
   
2. In a large bowl combine first 6 ingredients.
   
3. While stirring, one by one add the next four.
   
4. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until combines, and then on high for two minutes.
   
5. Fold in 1 cup Maine wild blueberries.
   
6. Pour into greased and floured baking pan.
   
7. Pop in oven and bake for about 35 minutes.
   
8. Sprinkle the top with sugar.
   

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Blueberry Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Batter
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil ( I substitute 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce to cut calories and fat)
1/4 cup milk (skim)
1 Tsp vanilla
2 cups blueberries (raspberries work well too, sometimes I do a mixture of both)

Topping
1/4 cup of softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
   
3. Add eggs, oil, milk and vanilla.
4. Beat until smooth
5. Fold in berries
6. Pour into bottom of a greased bundt pan or 9 inch round pan.
7. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over batter.
8. Bake for 50 minutes.

Our favorite pancakes - Cook's Illustrated

The other day Mushy was asking me if I had Mom's pancake recipe. I said yes, it's in my head, just like so many other great recipes she gave me. She and I recalled the thin cakes the batter made, the same thinness that my husband compares to crepes. This crepe like consistency is why we don't make them regularly for the family. We have chosen instead a recipe from a free issue of Cook's Illustrated (if you don't know this magazine and like to cook, I highly recommend a subscription). So without a single alteration, here is Cook's Illustrated's Blueberry Pancake recipe. Living in Maine, we have quarts of blueberries put up in the freezer. If you are not so lucky, I highly recommend buying Wyman's canned or frozen blueberries if you can fine them. Oh and yes, this is what we made for breakfast for our family and our good friend visiting with their 3 kids! Yummy!

Blueberry Pancakes
makes about sixteen 4-inch pancakes, serving 4 to 6

When fresh blueberries are not in season, frozen blueberries are a good alternative. To make sure that frozen berries do not bleed, rinse them under cool water in a mesh strainer until the water runs clear, then spread them on a paper towel-lined plate to dry. If you have buttermilk on hand, use 2 cups instead of the milk and lemon juice. (*we like using buttermilk better*)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon juice from one lemon
2 cups milk
2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 - 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, preferably wild, rinsed and dried

Process

1. Whisk the lemon juice and milk in a medium bowl or large measuring cup; set aside to thicken while preparing other ingredients. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to combine.
2. Whisk egg and melted butter into milk until combined. Make well in center of fry ingredients in bowl; pour in milk mixture and whisk very gently until just combined (a few lumps should remain). Do not over mix.
   
3. Heat 12-inch skillet over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes; add 1 teaspoon oil and brush to coat skillet bottom evenly. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto 3 spots on skillet; sprinkle one tablespoon blueberries over each pancake. Cook pancakes until large bubbles begin to appear, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Using thin wide spatula, flip pancakes and cook until golden brown on each side, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes longer. Serve immediately, and repeat with remaining batter, using remaining oil only if necessary (* step 3 is identical to how Mom taught me to make pancakes except we used butter in place of oil*)

Serve with real maple syrup and enjoy! Have a great morning!

Blueberry Loaf (cold) (no bake)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 quarts fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cold water
2 teaspoons gelatin soaked in 1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
14 1/2 slices bread
melted butter
glass or tin loaf pan or mold
Rum (and I chuckle because again the Rum is written in in Mom's handwriting but not put into the process notes. So chefs, you are allowed to put it in where you see fit!)

Process:

• Place berries, sugar, and water in saucepan.
  
• Cover and cook until berries start to soften and there is plenty of juice (about 15 minutes)
• Add enough hot juice in gelatin to fill cup and stir until it is dissolved.
  
• Add lemon juice and mix with berries.
  
• Trim off crusts of bread and brush both sides generously with melted butter.
  
• Line bottom and sides of dish with slices.
  
• Trim off any ends and use to fill chinks. (what a funny term for a cook to use)
• Turn a third of berry mixture over bread and this lay more bread.
  
• Repeat until you have 3 layers of berries and bread, ending with bread.
  
• Place in the icebox for 5 to 6 hours. (yes she wrote ice box because that is what they had)
• Serve with slightly beaten cream, sweet and flavored.