Blueberry heaven
Last weekend, I discovered why berries are so expensive at the grocery store. That's right, I went blueberry picking!
This is not the first time I've done this - it was a routine late-summer activity when I lived in Alaska. Those, however, were low-bush blueberries that were usually reached by a hike of some distance. This time around, I and a group of friends (KW, LA and JV) headed to Hard Labor Creek Blueberry Farm, roughly an hour east of Atlanta, to see what kind of damage we could do.
The farm had an impressive set-up. Basically, you parked, walked to the main picking area (about 10 very long rows of highly developed blueberry bushes), picked up a bucket with a plastic liner (otherwise known as your take-home bag) in it, and went to town. Once done, you took the bucket to the garage, where the bucket was ditched, your bag of blueberries was weighed, and cash exchanged. We spend about 2.5 hours picking, and each came away with between 6-7 lbs of blueberries each. EACH.
Naturally, I went a little crazy with the blueberries last week. In addition to the 6 pints I put in the freezer, I made 2 batches of muffins, a kale/blueberry superfoods salad, and a coffee cake that was truly outstanding, judging by the way my coworkers devoured it last week. It's a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, the recent volume released by Deb Perelman, who writes the blog with the same name. It technically came from the dessert section of the cookbook, but I think it's easily appropriate as coffee cake. Here's the recipe - Blueberry Cornmeal Butter Cake :-)
Blueberry Cornmeal Butter Cake
From The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
By food blogger Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/
Ingredients:
8 TBSP unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for the pan
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
½ cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp table salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
¼ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1/3 cup sour cream
2 cups blueberries, rinsed and patted dry
Streusel topping:
½ cup sugar
6 TBSP all-purpose flour
2 TBSP cornmeal
¼ tsp cinnamon
Pinch of table salt
2 TBSP unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of an 8-inch square pan with parchment, then either butter and flour the bottom and sides, or coat with nonstick spray. (I used a round cake pan, no parchment paper, and spray - turned out fine.)
2. Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in medium bowl, and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter with sugar in large bowl until pale and fluffy, for at least 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions, then add the vanilla and zest. Add a third of the flour mixture, all of the sour cream, and another third of the flour, beating until just blended after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl. Mix the remaining third of the flour mixture with the blueberries. Fold the blueberry-flour mixture gently into the cake batter.
3. Spread the cake batter in the prepared cake pan. Use your original dry-ingredients bowl to combine the dry topping ingredients with a fork. Mash in the butter with your fork, fingertips, or a pastry blender. Scatter the topping over the batter.
4. Bake the cake until the top is golden brown and the tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes (longer if berries are frozen). Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes. Run the spatula around the edges of the cake to loosen, then flip out onto a cooling rack. (Or just leave it in the pan - mine turned out fine.)
This is not the first time I've done this - it was a routine late-summer activity when I lived in Alaska. Those, however, were low-bush blueberries that were usually reached by a hike of some distance. This time around, I and a group of friends (KW, LA and JV) headed to Hard Labor Creek Blueberry Farm, roughly an hour east of Atlanta, to see what kind of damage we could do.
The farm had an impressive set-up. Basically, you parked, walked to the main picking area (about 10 very long rows of highly developed blueberry bushes), picked up a bucket with a plastic liner (otherwise known as your take-home bag) in it, and went to town. Once done, you took the bucket to the garage, where the bucket was ditched, your bag of blueberries was weighed, and cash exchanged. We spend about 2.5 hours picking, and each came away with between 6-7 lbs of blueberries each. EACH.
Naturally, I went a little crazy with the blueberries last week. In addition to the 6 pints I put in the freezer, I made 2 batches of muffins, a kale/blueberry superfoods salad, and a coffee cake that was truly outstanding, judging by the way my coworkers devoured it last week. It's a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, the recent volume released by Deb Perelman, who writes the blog with the same name. It technically came from the dessert section of the cookbook, but I think it's easily appropriate as coffee cake. Here's the recipe - Blueberry Cornmeal Butter Cake :-)
Blueberry Cornmeal Butter Cake
From The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
By food blogger Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/
Ingredients:
8 TBSP unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for the pan
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
½ cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp table salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
¼ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1/3 cup sour cream
2 cups blueberries, rinsed and patted dry
Streusel topping:
½ cup sugar
6 TBSP all-purpose flour
2 TBSP cornmeal
¼ tsp cinnamon
Pinch of table salt
2 TBSP unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of an 8-inch square pan with parchment, then either butter and flour the bottom and sides, or coat with nonstick spray. (I used a round cake pan, no parchment paper, and spray - turned out fine.)
2. Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in medium bowl, and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter with sugar in large bowl until pale and fluffy, for at least 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions, then add the vanilla and zest. Add a third of the flour mixture, all of the sour cream, and another third of the flour, beating until just blended after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl. Mix the remaining third of the flour mixture with the blueberries. Fold the blueberry-flour mixture gently into the cake batter.
3. Spread the cake batter in the prepared cake pan. Use your original dry-ingredients bowl to combine the dry topping ingredients with a fork. Mash in the butter with your fork, fingertips, or a pastry blender. Scatter the topping over the batter.
4. Bake the cake until the top is golden brown and the tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes (longer if berries are frozen). Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes. Run the spatula around the edges of the cake to loosen, then flip out onto a cooling rack. (Or just leave it in the pan - mine turned out fine.)