Berry-licious: Celebrate Blueberries in July
Head to your favorite North East, MD farmer’s market or grocery store this month and get some blueberries to celebrate National Blueberry Month — then head back to your Charlestown Crossing apartment to whip up a recipe featuring blueberries. Today, we have tips for cooking with blueberries including a few delightful recipes.
Tips for Using Canned Blueberries
Using fresh or frozen blueberries for cooking is quite a common practice, but using canned blueberries can be an option too. Canned blueberries are wonderful for creating a blueberry sauce. Boil down a whole can of berries, adding savory spices and garlic to create a sweet, caramelized sauce to drizzle over chicken, chops, or even salmon. Alternately, use vanilla, cinnamon, or even lemon to make a sweet, tangy accompanying sauce. Canned berries can also be drained (save the juice and use it later as a sweetener, syrup, in a smoothie, etc) and used like fresh berries.
Using Frozen Blueberries
Frozen blueberries are versatile. Add a handful to oatmeal, yogurt, smoothies, or shakes, no special process required. However, when it comes to baking or cooking there are a few things you need to know: Blueberries tend to sink in thin batters or if there is too much air in the batter. The remedy for this issue it to not over-blend. Another trick is to toss the blueberries in cornstarch or flour, which will help them stay suspended. Another way to evenly distribute them is to alternate a layer of batter, a layer of berry, batter, berry, etc. Frozen berries are less likely to sink or explode during baking.
Blueberry Studded Recipes
Discover how winter fresh blueberries make it easy to incorporate fresh, nutritious flavor into your menus all year round.
Nothing says spring better than fresh berries! Try this sweet recipe from Parents Magazine sometime this month. Ingredients include unsalted butter, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, salt, unflavored gelatin, water, cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla extract, strawberry jelly, raspberries, blueberries, fresh strawberries, white chocolate, and vegetable oil.
We’re sure that you’ll love these blueberry crumble bars. The blueberry layer can be made with fresh blueberries, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, and granulated sugar. Head to your local farmer’s market for a fresh pint of blueberries this month.
We hope you enjoy trying out one of these recipes this month — or another blueberry favorite! Please feel free to share your recipes in the comments so members of our apartment community can give them a try. Thanks for reading today’s post.