Picked 10 pounds of fresh blueberries... need your favorite recipes!

[Kay in Cal]

We have 10 pounds of beautiful blueberries... now what? Last year we got 6 pounds or so, and my family ate them all raw before I even got to make anything, so I upped the ante. It was such a gorgeous day for picking, too... clear, blue skies, and only 70 degrees!!!

Sorry about that... wrong board. We were... um... studying... agriculture. And social implications of child labor. We did do some Latin while we picked!

[Cathy in IL]

I think they would all be eaten fresh here! How fun for you. I hope to find a place around here to pick blueberries. Our bushes are still babies and won't bear anything this year.

[StephanieZ]

rinse, dry for a few minutes on clean kitchen towel, throw in freezer bag, use all summer and winter. Use in any recipe that calls for fresh or frozen (just not salads/raw). They'll be perfect for months. Can't have too many IMHO. Yumm. I'm jealous.

[Kay in Cal]

Ok... I've got about 1/4 of them in the freezer, made some blueberry corn bread (just mixed them into the recipe). When that comes out of the oven I have some biscuit-type shortcake to go in for blueberry shortcake w/ whipped cream. I found a recipe for lemon-blue berry pancakes online...

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

1 egg
1 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon baking powder
[1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup fresh blueberries, or use frozen thawed blueberriesPREPARATION:
Beat egg until frothy; beat in remaining ingredients except blueberries, beating just until smooth. Gently stir in blueberries. Grease a heated griddle. For each pancake, pour about 3 tablespoons of batter from a large spoon or from pitcher onto the hot griddle. Cook pancakes until puffed and dry around edges. Turn and cook other side until golden brown.

Please keep those ideas coming! I still have a HUGE bowl of blueberries here!

Duh, wrong board!!!

[tnmomofboys]

This is my all time to die for favorite cobbler. One year I picked 15 lbs of blueberries. This year I decided to starting planting my own bushes. I just planted 2 bushes and am thinking about planting 3-4 more. I freeze the blueberries and stir them frozen into vanilla yogurt, yum.

Here is my favorite blueberry cobbler recipe:
2 cup blueberries
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 C sugar
3 T butter, softened
1/2 C milk
1 C all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 to 1 C sugar, according to your preference
dash of salt
1 T cornstarch
3/4 boiling water
Line well greased 8x8x2 pan w/blueberries and sprinkle lemon juice over them. Cream 3/4 C sugar with butter and add milk. Add to this mixture the flour sifted together with the baking powder and salt. Spread this batter over the blueberries. Mix together the 1/2 to 1 C sugar with cornstarch and salt. Sprinkle this over the batter and pour the boiling water on top, but do not stir. Bake at 375 for 1 hr.
This recipe came from a blueberry farm in SC.

[Amie]

~1 pint blueberries
~1/4 cup orange juice
~1 Tbs. maple syrup

Combine ingredients in small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until blueberries pop and sauce thickens into a syrup consistency, about 10 minutes. You can strain it afterwards if you like.

As you can see this is sort of a "healthy" syrup recipe--no sugar--so you may want to add a bit more maple syrup depending on your taste and the sweetness of your blueberries. :001_smile:

[mcconnellboys]

Wow! All I can say is wow - and I'd eat them before I could get them home, then be sorry later, LOL.... A bathtub full of blueberries! Can't wait till the ones in Michigan are ripe so I can have some, too!

[Amie]

My FAVORITE muffin recipe (and believe me, I've made A LOT of really bad recipes in the past):

~3 cups flour
~1 Tbs. baking powder
~1/2 tsp. baking soda
~1/2 tsp. salt
~10 Tbs. (1 1/4 sticks) butter, softened
~1 cup sugar
~2 large eggs
~1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
~1 tsp. lemon zest
~1 1/2 cups blueberries

-Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.

-In large bowl, cream butter and sugar, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in lemon zest.

-Mix in dry ingredients alternately with yogurt--ending with yogurt. Blend just until incorporated.

-Fold in blueberries. If using frozen blueberries--defrost, drain excess liquid and coat in a light dusting of flour (about a Tbs.).

-Pour into greased 12-tin muffin pan. Bake about 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees. Set pan on wire rack to cool 5 min. before removing muffins from pan.

-Optional--you can top the muffins with granola, or streusel, or cinnamon & sugar before baking.

I first made these without the lemon zest (didn't have any and was never much of "zest person"), but I soon discovered that the lemon zest is a must! The muffins don't taste like lemon, but the zest is the secret ingredient that rounds out the flavor.
This muffin recipe is also great substituting the blueberries with chocolate chips or other berries/fruit.

[Sahamamama]

... just jealousy and covetousness and a rumbly stomach here...

Really, I do enjoy fresh blueberries, and if So Cal were not so far away, I would stop by and help you figure out what to do with all those great berries. Enjoy!

It's late here on the East Coast, and the family is all asleep, but in the morning I will try to remember to look through my recipes. I know I have a GREAT one for blueberry-crumb coffee cake, and another for muffins. You know, if you make the muffins, you can freeze them in Ziploc bags. Enjoy.

[Parrothead]

Jam. I love blueberry jam. I use the recipe in the box of SureJel. Actually I think I use the raspberry recipe and substitute the berries.

This reminds me that I need to dig some out of the cabinet.

[kellycbr]

Last year I picked 50 lbs in two days at the base of Mt. Hood, OR. It was amazing, they just fell into the bucket. Needless to say, I still had to go out and buy 10 more lbs to get us thru May. We just put them straight into the freezer, and rinse before we drop them into the blender to make smoothies. Yes, they all went into breakfast smoothies, not a single muffin or cobbler.

Blueberry Smoothie

Blueberries
1 Banana
Orange Juice
Vanilla Yogurt
Flax Seed Oil
Honey
Vanilla
Vanilla Soy Protein Powder

Blend. Anything leftover goes into the popcycle mold. The kids love them for dessert!

[Sarita]

I worked at a blueberry farm in high school and early college years, so I've sampled lots of blueberry recipes. This is my favorite blueberry pie...

Fresh Blueberry Pie
Bake a pie shell

Combine in sauce pan: 3/4 c. sugar, 2 1/2 Tbsp. corn starch, 1/4 tsp. salt. Blend in 2/3 c. water and 1 c. fresh blueberries. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick. Stir in 2 Tbsp. butter and 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice. Let cool. When cool, fold in 2 c. fresh blueberries. Chill one hour.

Whip 1 c. heavy cream. Layer half of it in pie shell. Cover with berry mixture. Top with remaining whipped cream.

Enjoy!
Sarita

[Jennefer@SSA]

It's the only way I can get the boys to eat blueberries. I just buy in bulk when they go on sale and freeze them. I just throw them in the blender with orange juice and that's it!!! We don't do dairy but if you're family does you can add yogurt or anything else you want. They're our favorites.

BTW, I buy spinach in bulk, steam, puree, pour into ice cube trays and then dump in gallon baggies to store in freezer. I put a few of these into the blueberry smoothies and my family is none the wiser. ;) It only works with blueberries b/c of the dark color and strong taste. It completely covers the spinach!