By By Lisa Tindell
I hope that you have had a chance to try a few of the recipes that I shared with you last week.
Blueberries are wonderful this time of year and are ready for the picking. These blue beauties are best when they are fresh. They are still really good even after being frozen - like peas and corn - but of course they are much better fresh.
I love to make blueberry pancakes for my son, mainly because he likes them so much. I remember taking him to a restaurant that served blueberry syrup along with the pancakes he ordered.
As I began collecting blueberry recipes for this column, I began the search for blueberry syrup. The search was &#8220fruitful” and the following is the recipe that I found.
Blueberry Pancake Syrup
1-pound (roughly 1 qt.) fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup water (or just enough to cover berries)
2 tbsp. sugar
One-fourth tsp. salt
2 tbsp. water
4 tsp. cornstarch
Mix first four ingredients together in a 2 qt. saucepan. Bring to a rapid boil. Stir and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes or until juice is dark blue.
Strain berries and juice mashing berries until no juice remains. Discard pulp and return juice to pan. Mix 2 tbsp. water and cornstarch well. Slowly stir into boiling juice. Cook, stirring constantly, for one minute. Remove from heat. Serve warm or cold. Pour syrup into jar or other sealable container. This syrup keeps well for up to three weeks in the refrigerator. Stir or shake well before serving.
There is a discussion on just what recipe is considered a blueberry crunch.
Some of the folks I spoke with told me it is a recipe made with a yellow cake mix and other mentioned some type of pecan/flour crust.
I'm not sure which recipe is actually the &#8220crunch,” but I've included both recipes for you to try.
You decide which one you want to call your Blueberry Crunch.
Blueberry Crunch 1
Large can crush pineapple, undrained
3 cups blueberries
Three-fourths cup sugar, sprinkled over blueberries
1 pkg. yellow cake mix, poured over above ingredients
1 stick margarine, melted and poured over cake mix
One-fourth cup sugar sprinkled over cake mix
1 cup pecans, chopped and sprinkled on top
Use fresh blueberries, canned berries or thawed frozen berries. Do not stir. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Blueberry Crunch 2
1 cup melted butter
1 cup finely chopped pecans
2 cups flour
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz. pkg. whipped topping
1 box confectioners sugar
1 can blueberry pie filling
For crust: mix melted butter, chopped pecans and flour well and press into the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool completely.
For filling: Mix cream cheese and confectioners sugar well. Fold in whipped topping and spread on cooled piecrust.
Topping: Spoon entire can of blueberry pie filling (or homemade sauce) and spread over top of filling. Chill well before serving.
If you have fresh blueberries and want to make the above recipe, you can refer back to last week's column and get the recipe to make your own can of blueberry pie filling.
Just an afterthought, this recipe is good using other flavors of pie filling as well.
I've made it using cherry and strawberry and they turned out mighty tasty.
I hope that you get a chance to head out to the Blueberry Festival this weekend.
It's a wonderful time to visit with folks you may not have seen since last year's event.
At any rate, there will be wonderful items to purchase and plenty of blueberries!
Until next week, Happy Cooking!