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Showing posts with label blueberries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blueberries. Show all posts

7/5/13

Heavenly Blueberry Pie with crumb topping ~ Easy as PIE!

Blueberry Pie.  



I never knew the beauty of blueberry pie until a few years ago.

You see we live in blueberry country.  

There's a place called Gingerich Farms right down the road from us and they have a Blueberry Blowout Event each year (July 19th & 20th this year) where they sell their delicious, locally grown, freshly picked blueberries to the public at wholesale prices.  Ever since the first year we discovered them we've been going back and buying flat after flat of fresh blueberries for freezing.  That way we can use them throughout the year without paying those crazy supermarket prices for fresh or frozen berries.  These frozen blueberries go great in cereal, yogurt, fruit smoothies, and of course PIES.  

Now I've never been a big pie eater (except at Thanksgiving) but the first year we went to the blueberry festival we also purchased a pie made by Gingerich Farms employees and, boy, let me tell you IT WAS FLIPPING GOOD!

It was July and we'd been eating those fresh blueberries by the handfuls for days on end (they are so good!) so I wasn't expecting anything phenomenal from that pie.  We'd almost blueberrie'd ourselves out at that point.

I made homemade ice cream that day and we cooked the pie and served it up nice and warm after a BBQ, with a scoop of that creamy homemade vanilla ice cream on top....and I swear to you it got completely quiet as everyone experienced that first moment of warm, blueberry pie bliss.  

Talk about heaven!  


I vowed that day that I would learn how to make a crumb-topped blueberry pie that would make a small crowd go silent with it's irresistible gooey blueberry goodness!

Now I have to admit that I've learned many things since that first pie making experience.  Like how easy it can be to make your own pie crust.  My friend Julie (the Redhead) has a wonderful pie crust recipe that would work great with this pie: 


She said she would be happy to have us steal her EASY pie crust recipe.  You may want to nab the rest of her apple pie recipe at Redhead Can Decorate while you're there.  Man does it look good!

But if things are really just too crazy...you've got a house full of out-of-town guests and a BBQ to light up and homemade ice cream to churn and parades to attend...then you could even get away with using frozen pie crusts and just add the homemade blueberry filling and crumb topping.  It will still be unbelievably delicious (and I won't tell anybody you cheated.  That's one of my favorite cheats when I'm low on prep time too).  :)



Have a heavenly summer my friends!

Heavenly Blueberry Pie with Crumb Topping

Ingredients:
1 pie shell (homemade or store bought)
3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
pinch of salt (1/18 teaspoon)

Crumb Topping:
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 stick chilled butter cut into pieces

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine blueberries, sugar, flour, lemon juice, and salt in a bowl and pour into pie shell.

In another bowl combine crumb topping ingredients:  flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and cinnamon.  Cut chilled butter into small pieces and mix into other ingredients with your hands ~ working the butter into clumps.  Pour over pie shell with fruit filling.

Place pie on foil lined baking sheet and put in lower portion of oven.  Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 1 1/2 hours.  You may need to cover with a foil tent if topping is browning too quickly.  When fruit bubbles and crust is brown your pie is done.  Enjoy!





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4/8/13

Lemon Crepes filled with honey-lemon Greek Yogurt


Crepes just sound so French and Sophisticated, don't they?  
I like feeling French and Sophisticated from time to time.  :)

This weekend I decided to try my hand at making crepes for the very first time.  

I found the best crepe making advice from a wonderful post by Yummy Mummy Kitchen.
You really should go see Marina's Crepes and exquisite photos!  Since she seems to know much more about making crepes than I, I would suggest following her step-by-step directions.  You can view her post HERE.

No special equipment was used to make these crepes....just a large, good quality non-stick skillet.  

I modified Yummy Mummy Kitchen's recipe as follows (since I didn't have all of the ingredients that her recipe required on hand and I didn't want to run to the Grocers').  They turned out delicious and I was thrilled at how simple they were to make.  

Ingredients

Blueberry Sauce:
3 cups frozen blueberrries
juice of 1 orange

Crepes:
1 cup skim milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest 

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons melted butter 
1 cup flour, I used all-purpose flour

Filling: 
2 cups Greek yogurt, I used Zoi Traditional Greek in Honey flavor
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tablespoon of honey

1/4 cup fresh raspberries for garnish (optional)

I simmered and reduced my blueberries and orange juice just as Marina's recipe indicated I should.

I whipped up the crepe ingredients as Marina described and poured the batter by 1/3 cupfuls into my non-stick skillet...swirling the pan around immediately to make sure they are nice and thin and round.


I mixed my Greek Yogurt with the lemon juice and  honey...then added a couple dollops on each crepe and rolled them up.  


Sprinkle some powdered sugar, add a spoonful of blueberry sauce and these crepes are finished off perfectly!  

Just a touch of subtle lemon in these light crepes makes them dreamy good.  

Thank you so much, Marina, for sharing your crepe making expertise with us so that we may enjoy feeling French and Sophisticated from time to time.  


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