Easy & Delicious Berry Cobbler

Who in their right mind doesn't love a cobbler?? Cobbler is one of the best desserts ever created. And you know what's so great about it? You can make any kind of cobbler you want. You can make peach cobbler, apple cobbler, blueberry cobbler.....okay, I think you get my Bubba Gump reference. Just use the basic batter recipe and throw in whatever fruit you'd like. We decided to go with a fruit medley.  This is the best "go to" dessert ever!


I was hanging at my beach house last weekend......okay fine, we don't really have a beach house, but we know people who do. That's all that matters right? So my girlfriend and I decided we wanted to make a cobbler with some left over fruit she had frozen. I immediately went to the Google machine and found a recipe that we altered and made our own. We are happy to share it with you below. We'll call this, Maureen and Dawn's Best Ever Berry Cobbler! I'll share our secrets with you, but don't tell anyone....

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons butter

3/4 cup All Purpose Flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

2 cups fresh or frozen fruit of your choosing. I used mixed berries with a few peaches thrown in for good measure.

1 Tablespoon sugar

 

I have to apologize in advance, I forgot to take pictures along the way, but I have some lovely shots of the finished product. This recipe is so easy, you won't need step by step photo instructions.

Directions:

First, adjust the oven rack to an  upper middle position. We want to make sure the cobbler gets crispy and delicious. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Place the butter in an 8 inch square or 9 inch round pan, place in oven to melt in the pan. Once butter has melted, remove pan from oven.

Meanwhile, whisk dry ingredients (minus the 1 T sugar) in a bowl. Add milk and stir until batter is smooth. The batter will be pretty thin.  

Pour batter into dish with melted butter. Then scatter fruit on top of batter, pressing fruit down in the batter. Once finished, sprinkle the 1 T of sugar on the top. 

Bake for about 50-60 minutes, or until top is nicely browned and bubbly.

Some people might say it’s best served warm with a scoop of ice cream on top, but I’m a more of “on the side” kind of girl!  Enjoy this delicious cobbler however you’d like! Below is my preferred method. Yummy!

Gingered Fruit Salad

You might be thinking “what do I need a fruit salad recipe for?” Well let me tell you, you need this one. My cousin brought this to our family Christmas celebration a few years ago and it was delicious. I couldn’t figure out what made the fruit taste so delicious, but now I know, it’s the crystallized ginger. It really wakes up the fruit and makes it taste so much brighter and delicious! I know I ask you to do this a lot, but trust me! The fresh lime juice and ginger really make this fruit taste so much better than you ever thought it could. You could really use any type of fruit, but these make a very pretty salad. I forgot about the pomegranate so my picture doesn’t show it, but it really adds a nice touch. Let’s make it:

Combine 1/4 cup sugar, 2 Tablespoons lime juice, 2 Tablespoons ginger ale and 1 tsp. grated lime zest and reserve.

Mix in a pretty glass bowl:

4 cups cubed fresh pineapple, cubed

3 cups strawberries (quartered)

3 kiwis (peeled, halved lengthwise, sliced)

1 cup raspberries

1 cup blueberries

1 cup pomegranate seeds

1 cup blackberries

3 Tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger

Pour lime juice mixture over fruit and toss a bit. Serve cold and enjoy!

This recipe was from my cousin, Karen Jetton, who passed away this year. I've been saving an email from her with this recipe from 2006 so I think she'd probably be happy I finally made it......and that I gave her credit!

Mini Blueberry Turnovers

I feel like I say I love blueberries a lot, but I really do! I think my problem is that I just love food a lot! I haven't really loved blueberries this much all my life though.  I really started loving them when I started cooking with them fairly recently. They really are delicious! And good for me, right? Full of antioxidants so it's practically a healthy mini pie! I think you might lose weight if you make this recipe.

David and I were sitting around watching TV the other night and I started getting a craving for a tasty treat. I hopped around on the internet looking for a mini blueberry pie recipe and couldn't really find what I was looking for. I had crescent rolls in the fridge and blueberries in the freezer and needed to make a recipe work with that. I found enough to piece this together and I was pretty pleased at how these pies turned out. They really were delicious. I'm not kidding. David was quite pleased with his TV snack while we waited for the Amazing Race to come on.

Here's how to make Dawn's Blogalicious Mini Blueberry Turnovers.....

Ingredients

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries. I find the the frozen wild ones work the best because they are small and work better in a mini pie.

1/4 c sugar or Splenda

2 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 can crescent rolls

Directions

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

Prepare the crescent rolls for filling. Unroll two (keep attached) and cut in half so it is a square instead of triangle. Press two pieces together to secure.

Place a spoonful of filling in one side of the roll, fold over and press edges closed. Mine were pretty full and bursting at the seams, but I just worked with it until it was sealed.

Press a fork around edges to crease and seal. Also cut a slit in the top of each so the steam can escape. Some of them were already popping open so I didn't have to cut an additional slit.

Cook according to the crescent roll package, which should be 10 -12 minutes.  I cooked mine the full 12 minutes so that they were nicely browned.

Now you could stop here or go one step farther and make this delicious glaze to drizzle on the top. I say kick it up a notch and drizzle!

Glaze
This made a lot of glaze for 8 mini pies so I'll probably cut it in half unless I'm making a double batch.
 

3/4 cup powder sugar

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

 

That’s it! Could that be any easier?? Mix it together well and drizzle on top of the pies.

Now all you have left to do is serve warm and enjoy! These are such delicious little pies. You won't be able to eat just one.....David and I have proven that! I hope you enjoy these as much as we did.

Blueberry Lemon Crumb Bars

I have really starting loving blueberries this year. I guess because I started baking more, but mainly because they are just delicious. You’ll see on this blog that I’ve made an awesome blueberry pound cake, scones, muffins…..I feel like Bubba on Forest Gump naming all the ways you can use blueberries. It's so true though. Who knew you could make so many delicious things with blueberries?? Well, you're lucky you have me to lead you in the right direction....to the land of blueberries!

This could be a delicious breakfast treat or a yummy dessert. I had friends over for dinner and served it as dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Of course, I had my ice cream on the side. I don't like things touching, but that's for another therapy session. Let's get back to the crumb cake.....

Here's what you need to get started:


Ingredients

1 cup white granulated sugar (for a lower fat version, use ½ c splenda and ½ c sugar)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
zest of two lemons
 
Filling

4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar ( I used ½ c Splenda)
3 teaspoons cornstarch


Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray a 9×13 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2.In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, salt, lemon zest and baking powder.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and vanilla together until combined.
4. Use pastry cutter or your food processor to blend the flour mixture with the butter and egg/vanilla mixture. I find the easiest method is to grate very cold butter into the mix.  That way I didn’t have to get the food processor dirty!

After mixing the butter in with the dry ingredients, the dough will be crumbly (really an understatement, it is VERY crumbly). Pat half of dough into the prepared pan. Remaining half will be used as topping.

5. In another bowl, stir together 1/2 sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries and coat with mixture. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust.

Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares. Enjoy!

Freeze your own blueberries

Hi Everyone, Happy Monday! Today is my first day on my new job (yippee!) so I'll give you a simple tip that I thought was really cool. Don't worry, more awesome recipes coming, but I thought you'd like some tips too.

It's so easy to freeze your own blueberries and other fruit so you can stock up when you can get it on sale. Who knew?? I'm sure I can't be the only one out there who never discovered the art of freezing berries so I wanted to share. It's wonderful having fresh blueberries to bake with all year long. I know it seems simple, but I just wanted to post this tip that I found helpful.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper (this makes it easy to pick them up), sprinkle the blueberries on top and place in the freezer for a couple of hours or overnight. Remove the baking sheet and place berries in a freezer bag.  If you used wax paper, you can pull up the paper and just pour them all in a baggie. Placing them on a baking sheet first keeps them from freezing in clumps. This is the perfect freezing method. I've done the same with strawberries .....just clean and cut off stem first.

I do this for all of our fruit for smoothies. So easy and helpful! Happy freezing!

Easy Blueberry Scones

 

Who knew I could make scones??? I’m so excited to find out that I can!! I love to eat them, but always thought they were pretty complicated to make. Nope, don’t believe it. This recipe was pretty easy. I made these this morning and might make another batch this afternoon to try a lower fat version. I’ll let you know how that turns out, but what I can tell you now is that these scones are to die for! My husband and I both ate two scones each. We couldn’t stop ourselves. They were warm out of the oven and just taunting us with their aroma! We tried them with and without the glaze, but the glaze just really pushes them over the edge! It really adds that nice lemony flavor and makes them a touch sweeter. There are only 3 tablespoons of sugar in these so the added sweetness from the glaze is nice. Oh, but I guess the cup of heavy cream might do a little sweetening, huh? Shhhhh.....don’t tell the hubby they have that much cream in them. I had him convinced that they were low fat because of the tiny amount of sugar. He just lost 40 pounds and watches what he eats now. Well, he didn’t ask if there was heavy cream in them so why would I tell him??? They were so good so I’m sure he would say they were worth every calorie!

 

So is your mouth watering yet? Are you dying to know how to make easy scones?? Here you go.....

 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (or I grated mine)
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup heavy cream

Icing

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process with six 1-second pulses. If you don’t have a food processor (like me), then just put it in a large bowl and whisk ingredients together.

Remove cover of food processor and sprinkle the butter evenly over the dry ingredients. Add the grated lemon zest. Cover and process with 12 1-second pulses. Again, no food processor? Do it my way......I grated the cold butter over the dry ingredients and then incorporated it well with a pastry cutter. A whisk would do the same trick.

Transfer dough to a large bowl (unless you are already using one instead of food processor. In that case, you are already there). Mix in blueberries gently, just incorporate. Add heavy cream and mix until dough begins to form.

Gently knead dough by hand until it comes together into a rough ball, about 10 seconds.

To shape the scones, lightly dust an 8-inch cake pan and press dough into the pan, then turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.

With a sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 wedges.

Place wedges on an ungreased baking sheet (or lined with parchment paper) and bake in preheated oven 14 to 17 minutes or until tops of scones are a light brown.


Some of the blueberries might burst during the mixing and shaping process, that's okay. You can see some of my expolded a little.

Transfer to a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

While the scones are cooling, make lemon glaze. Combine lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar until you achieve a thick, opaque icing. If the glaze is too thick, add a little milk or a splash of the heavy cream. Drizzle over scones.

Enjoy one while they are still warm. Delicious!

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

I’m addicted to blueberries, I’ll admit it! After making the best pound cake EVER (see Blueberry Lemon Pound cake recipe) I had to find something else to make with blueberries, and a little hint of lemon didn’t hurt either! So of course, I went to Pinterest! Seriously, get on there and check out the recipes. I have found some great dishes that I’ve found pinning. Some how, some way I came across the recipe below which is actually from a magazine. What recipes are original anyway, right?  Also since my husband and I have been trying to eat a little healthier (don’t judge me by my truffles and pound cake) I decided to adjust this one a little bit and try to make it a little healthier, but still delicious. These muffins were so stinking delicious! I’m not even kidding! So full of blueberries and flavor. My changes didn’t take a bit of flavor out so why waste the calories? So yummy, make them! 


Here’s the recipe with my adjustments are noted. I didn’t make the glaze (extra calories), but I’ve included the recipe with that in case you want the extra calories. 


Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Source: Simple and Delicious Magazine via Pinterest

1/2 cup butter, softened (I used light butter)
1 cup sugar (I changed to 1/2 c splenda, 1/2 c sugar)
2 eggs
1/2 cup 2% milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1/4 c wheat and 1 3/4 all purpose)
2 teaspoons baking powder
Dash salt
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen)


GLAZE: (Optional)
1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions:


In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, lemon juice and peel. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in blueberries. How delicious does this batter look?

By the way, the batter was delicious, I practically licked the bowl! Okay, fine, I actually DID lick the bowl.


Fill paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full or just grease your muffin tins with cooking spray. I was out of muffin cups so I just sprayed them well and they came out fine. 

Bake at 400° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean. I cooked mine for about 22 minutes so start checking after 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. The directions asked me to wait 5 minutes and cool on a rack, but I popped that muffin in my mouth after about two minutes and it was soooooooo delicious!

Look at the inside of that muffin, how could I wait?? The amount of blueberries is ridiculous! So yummy. I'm going to go eat one now.


For glaze: In a small bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, butter and vanilla; drizzle over warm muffins.


Give this recipe a try, you won’t regret it!

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake = Heaven!

Holy Smokes, this is a delicious cake!!! I’m not even kidding. It is so dang good! I won’t say that it will make you want to slap someone, but you know I’m thinking it. I’m from Georgia and love anything Georgia. (I left my heart in Dixie) I found this recipe in a “Welcome to GA” magazine at a rest stop on one of our trips back and forth from VA to GA. It’s from Georgia’s number one tea room (so they said, but I've never been there so how great can it be??), The Potted Geranium in Greensboro, GA. I’ve had the magazine a while and decided to thumb threw it the other day and came across this recipe. Boy am I glad I did. I’m having girlfriends over tomorrow night and they’ll all get to sample this new goldmine I found. Of course, my husband and I had to go ahead and sample it. I wouldn’t want to serve bad food to my friends. I’m a giver like that. This was so delicious right out of the oven. I didn’t even wait to dust it with powdered sugar, it didn’t need it. If you are looking for a new cake recipe, THIS IS IT!!

Here you go, let's get started on the details.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 cup butter

3 Tablespoons lemon zest

2 cups sugar, divided

6 large eggs, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces sour cream

1 pound frozen blueberries, tossed with 1 T flour

powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a large Bundt pan and set aside.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Cream together butter, lemon zest and 1 3/4 cup of sugar (reserving 1/4 c) at medium-high speed  until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 2 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add vanilla, and beat to incorporate.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with the sour cream, beating at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture. My friend, Paula Deen, says if you start and finish with your dry ingredients that you’ll have a fluffy batter and I always do what Paula says. I mean, if someone can do THAT much with butter and bacon, she must be pretty smart. Set this mixture aside.

In second mixing bowl, beat egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy.

 

Gradually add remaining 1/4 c sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. I finally added pictures so you could see the stiff peaks and how these steps should look.

 

 

 Fold a third of the egg white mixture into cake batter. Fold in remaining egg whites until almost incorporated; carefully fold in blueberries. Doesn't that batter look delicious?? BTW, it tastes delicious too!

 

 

 

Pour into Bundt pan.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. I only baked 1 hour so check after an hour.

Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn cake out on wire rack over sheet pan. Allow to cool completely.  Serve with dusting of powdered sugar.

Like I said, I didn’t wait on dusting with powdered sugar. This cake is so pretty after it’s sliced, if you are having guests over, slice it first. It makes a much better presentation that way.  Enjoy!!