canning shelves 2014_opt_opt
Posts Archives
All posts with blueberries tag.
In , on December 9, 2016 with No Comments

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

Last summer I bought a bunch of fresh blueberries from an outlet in Michigan that were so good that this fall I put in an order for some frozen blueberries to have in the freezer this winter. I like to have them on hand for smoothies and muffins, and if there are any left later this winter when I have the time, I want to make some blueberry jam.




The other night my oldest son asked me to make a cake, so I went through my recipes on Pinterest and came across one on Who Needs a Cape’s blog for a lemon blueberry buttermilk cake. I had all the ingredients on hand, so I thought I’d give it a try.

As soon as the cake was cool enough to cut, the kids (and hubby) were into it. They didn’t even wait for me to make the glaze for the cake because it smelled so delicious. The cake lasted all of 10 minutes before there was nothing but crumbs on the plate! I guess that means it was a hit, but next time I’m making them wait until I get the glaze on the cake. Take a peek on her website—you’ll find lots of yummy recipes there.

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Zest of 1 lemon

1 cup butter, at room temperature

1-3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon good vanilla

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups blueberries (I used frozen)

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon softened butter

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.

Combine 2-1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and the lemon zest. Add the butter, and cream mixture on medium speed for about 3 to 5 minutes until thoroughly combined.

Reduce speed to low, and add in the eggs one at a time, mixing for a minute between adding each egg. Scrape down sides of the bowl, and add the vanilla.

Add in some of the flour followed by some of the buttermilk, and mix until combined. Repeat until all flour and buttermilk have been added.

In a separate bowl, combine the 2 tablespoons of flour and the blueberries. Toss to coat berries. Gently fold the blueberries into the cake batter.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan, and smooth out the top of the batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes (mine took about 65 in my oven), or until it tests done with a toothpick. Cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack, then turn out onto a serving plate. Let cool completely before glazing.

To make the glaze: Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and butter. Glaze should be thick, but you can add more milk 1 teaspoon at a time to make it thinner.

Cake can be stored, covered, at room temperature—if yours lasts that long!

Visit Canning and Cooking Iowa Style’s profile on Pinterest.

Continue Reading
In , , , on November 27, 2016 with No Comments

Paleo Banana Blueberry Muffins

I’m always looking to modify favorite recipes to a more Paleo-friendly or at least gluten-free version. My kids love it when I bake, but I admit I haven’t baked as much since switching to a Paleo-type diet. I will still occasionally bake, as I did for Thanksgiving, but I either can’t partake in what I’ve made, or if I do I pay for it later with horrid GI symptoms.




I’ve save a ton of recipes on my Pinterest site, so if you’re looking for a starting place with gluten-free and/or Paleo recipes, be sure to check out the link at the end of this post. Let’s be honest. I collect recipes, and I’ve done so my entire life. Pinterest is a huge enabler for this hobby, and I love the fact that I can find gluten-free and Paleo recipes for just about anything on Pinterest. There are some talented cooks and bakers out there who have graciously shared their creations with the world, and I for one am extremely grateful for it. I found this delicious and easy recipe on the Bakerita blog, and it has tons of terrific Paleo and gluten-free recipes. Whenever I make a Paleo or gluten-free recipe, I usually don’t tell my sons that I’ve made a modified recipe until after they’ve eaten it, so when they kept going back for more of these muffins, I knew I’d found a keeper 🙂

You could make these into mini muffins, and the recipe says it will make 36, but I made regular-sized muffins and ended up with 15 yummy treats.

 

paleo-banana-blueberry-muffins

paleo-banana-blueberry-muffins-2

Paleo Banana Blueberry Muffins

 

4 ripe bananas, mashed

4 eggs

1/2 cup almond butter

4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups blueberries

 

Line a muffin tin with muffin liners, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl or mixer, combine the mashed banana, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and nut butter until thoroughly combined.

Add the coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, and fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full.

Bake in the preheated oven for 22 to 25 minutes (11 to 13 minutes if making mini muffins), or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, and allow muffins to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Visit Canning and Cooking Iowa Style’s profile on Pinterest.

Continue Reading
In , on August 12, 2014 with 1 Comment

Canning 101: 2 Peach Jams and Blueberry Honey Jam

I bought 2 lugs of Colorado peaches at the grocery store yesterday….boy were they nice! I also picked up 2 pints of nice-looking blueberries and thought as long as I was in the mood to make peach jam, I could easily make a small batch of blueberry jam to go with.

All in all, I canned 17 quarts of peaches, 6 half-pints of peach jam, 5 half-pints of spiced peach jam, and 3 half-pints of blueberry honey jam (one of which never made it to the shelves!)

 

I found a nice recipe for Blueberry Honey Jam on http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2014/06/26/blueberry-jam-honey-sweetened/. I like this recipe because it’s a small-batch recipe, and I didn’t have to spend a lot of time working on it. The recipe also works for most berries and fruit, with the exception of apples, and I also followed this recipe for one of the peach jams I made today. They both turned out delicious!

Blueberry Honey Jam

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 quart blueberries (approximately 1½ pounds)
  • ⅔ cup honey (8 ounces)
  • ½ lemon, juiced
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Pour the berries into a low, wide, non-reactive pan and mash.
  2. Add the honey and lemon juice and stir to combine. Let the mixture sit until the honey begins to dissolve.
  3. Place the pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring regularly, for 10 to 12 minutes, until the jam thickens.
  4. To make the jam shelf stable, pour it into clean, hot jars. Apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath canner for ten minutes.
  5. When time is up, remove jars from the canner and place them on a folded kitchen towel and let them cool.
  6. When the jars are room temperature, check the seals. If the lids have gone concave and don’t wiggle at all, they are sealed.
  7. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used within a few weeks.
  8. If you don’t want to process the jam, just pour it into a jar, let it cool, and put it in the refrigerator.

For my peach jam recipe, I basically used the Blueberry Honey Jam recipe, although I did use sugar instead of honey.

For the spiced peach jam, I had a few peaches leftover from the first box, so I added a few spices that I normally add to a peach pie. I think it turned out delicious!

Spiced Peach Jam

Approximately 2 quarts diced peaches
1-1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon good vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Place diced peaches in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and mash with a potato masher. Add remaining ingredients. Heat to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook at a rolling boil for approximately 10 minutes, or until the jam thickens.

Ladle into hot half-pint jars. Seal. Process in a boiling-water canner for 15 minutes.

Yield:  5 half-pints

 

Continue Reading
In on May 14, 2014 with No Comments

Blueberries on a Winter’s Day

This weekend I’m faced with a project I’d been looking forward to, and also dreading, for 20 years….my oldest son is bringing his girlfriend home to “meet the family.” My oldest is a level-headed kind of man….he was old and wise beyond his years when he was 4, and I’m so proud of him now. If he’s found someone he wants us to meet, she must be very special.

I knew something was up a couple weekends ago when he said he wouldn’t be home that weekend because he was going with his girlfriend to meet her parents….suddenly I’m frozen in time wondering where my “little 9 lb. 4 oz.” baby went. I’m sure you mothers out there can relate to this feeling. You’re so proud of the son you raised, but you’re not quite ready for the next phase in his adulthood….him starting his own family. You want to hang on to that little man just a little bit longer, but you know you can’t. You move from his mother, who was the source of comfort and information in the beginning, to the person who must stand by on the sidelines and watch as your child begins that walk of life that you’ve prepared him for. I’m actually looking forward to meeting her. Anyone who has captivated my son’s attention like this must be someone special, so I’m looking forward to accepting her into our family.

So….for this momentous occasion, I’m planning to (hopefully!) knock it out of the park with my supper and Sunday brunch menus, because if she’s going to hang with my son, she better know how to keep his stomach happy!! (And I will supply her the recipes to do just that  lol)  For supper, I’m planning a traditional lasagna only made with turkey burger (as requested) and lots of spinach. That’s how I got my boys to eat some veggies when they were little….just stuff those veggies into every dish you make, and most of the time they won’t even know the veggies are there! For breakfast/brunch on Sunday morning, I’m going to use a recipe that I got from my oldest stepdaughter. We had visited her and her family one weekend, and she made this most amazing breakfast French toast. My boys refused to leave until I had the recipe so that I could make it for them at home!! I’ve seen various similar recipes for this out on the web, and I have no idea where she got this particular recipe. All I know is that it is a homerun for a breakfast casserole…..and I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

 


INGREDIENTS:
12 slices day-old bread, cut into 1-inch
cubes
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, cut
into 1 inch cubes
1 cup fresh blueberries
12 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon butter
DIRECTIONS:
1. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish. Arrange half the bread cubes in the dish and top with cream cheese cubes. Sprinkle 1 cup blueberries over the cream cheese and top with remaining bread cubes.
2. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and syrup. Pour over the bread cubes. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. Remove the bread cube mixture from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking 25 to 30 minutes until center is firm and surface is lightly browned.
5. In a medium saucepan, mix the sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in the remaining 1 cup blueberries. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, until the blueberries burst. Stir in the butter, and pour over the baked French toast
Continue Reading