Blueberry Cornbread

What do you do when you go through your pantry and find that you have some cornmeal expiring in two weeks? Look up some recipes, of course! Now, the most obvious thing to make would be, of course, regular old cornbread. And seeing as this recipe didn't use up all of the cornmeal, we may have to make some of that as well. But I wanted to see if there was anything fun or different - and lo and behold, a slight variation on a typical cornbread!

 

Seeing as you bake this in a cake pan, is it really still considered a bread? Or should it rather be called corn cake? I guess since it's not too sweet, I wouldn't necessarily call it a cake. To me, this qualifies as more of a breakfast item than a dessert item just based on that factor alone, but you could do it either way. I haven't tried it with the honey butter they recommend in the recipe, so perhaps that would make it more dessert-like if so. 

You also may be wondering if blueberries and cornbread are kind of a weird combo. I'm here to tell you that, no, they aren't. It's got a nice bit of tang and sweetness, and also helps keep the cornbread moist whereas otherwise it can tend to dry out. I used frozen blueberries as that's what I had on hand, but it works with either frozen or fresh, just note the asterisks in the recipe and adjust accordingly.

Blueberry Cornbread
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 8
Prep time: 00:10
Cook time: 00:45
Total time: 01:35

A different take on the classic cornbread with just the right amount of sweetness.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornmeal, plus 1 cup (5 ounces)*
• 1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 10 ounces (2 cups) blueberries**
*I would recommend measuring the cornmeal as different types of cornmeals are more ground than others.
**If you use frozen blueberries, toss with 2 tablespoons flour before mixing in, and increase baking time to 45-50 minutes.

Instructions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease bottom and sides of light-colored 9-inch round cake pan, then dust pan with 1½ tablespoons cornmeal.
2. Whisk flour, ¾ cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and remaining 1 cup cornmeal together in large bowl. Whisk milk, melted butter, and eggs together in second bowl (butter may form clumps; this is OK). Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Stir in blueberries until just incorporated. Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top with rubber spatula. Sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon sugar over top.
3. Bake until golden brown and paring knife inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cornbread cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes. Run paring knife between cornbread and side of pan. Remove cornbread from pan and let cool on rack for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Recipe from Cook's Country

Blueberry Coffee Cake

You know when it's a weeknight, but you want something quick and easy and delicious for dessert? Yeah, that's what box mixes were made for, I'm sure, but this blueberry coffee cake is almost as easy as a box mix. 

Okay, let's be real, nothing is as easy a box mix, which involves dumping a box into a bowl, adding some oil and eggs, and sticking it in the oven. But still, this is easy. And you know what?

It's dang delicious.

Can I be honest? This coffee cake was so much better than I was expecting it to be. You take a bite, and at first you're like okay this is coffee cake, I get it. But then you realize, dang, this is actually really good coffee cake. It's dense but not goopy, with just the right amount of blueberries and crumb topping.

The original recipe called for 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup chopped nuts, but I was like nope, 2 cups blueberries and no nuts, please! I think the nuts would actually make the cake a bit drier than with all of the blueberries, which were frozen. That also adds some more water content, so I can't speak to how it turns out with fresh blueberries...yet. I'm not sure when I'd try with fresh as I tend to have frozen ones on hand a lot more, but if any of you try it, you'll have to let me know!

I bet this would also be nice with blackberries, marionberries, or boysenberries as well. Okay apparently all of those are just a version of the blackberry. Who knew! But yeah I would say raspberries might work, but strawberries probably not, as they are just too watery in comparison. A mix of blueberries, raspberries and some type of blackberry might also be nice. This is actually similar to my Summer Berry Bundt Cake, but easier and perfect for a weeknight.

Pretty sure you won't regret making this one.

Blueberry Coffee Cake
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 9 Pieces
Prep time: 00:15
Cook time: 00:40

Total time: 00:55

A lovely coffee cake appropriate for breakfast or dessert, chock full of blueberries.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
For the Streusel Topping:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set that aside while you beat together the sugar and butter until fluffy.
3. Add in the egg and milk and beat until mixed well. Stir in the dry ingredients. Fold in the blueberries. Spread into a 9 inch square pan (you can spray it if it usually gets sticky for you, but I never do).
4. For the topping, combine the sugar and flour together, then cut in the butter until it's nice and crumbly. Lay that over the top of the mixture.
5. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. Your time will vary based on whether you used fresh or frozen blueberries (the frozen will take a bit longer). Cool on a wire rack.

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home

Blueberry & Cream Cookies

I've made a few recipes from the Milk Bar cookbook in the past (Crack Pie, Corn Cookies, Cornflake Marshmallow Chocolate Chip Cookies), and decided it was time to bust it out once again to make some more! One of my friends had mentioned that she really liked the blueberry cookies, and being that they are fairly simple when it comes to a Christina Tosi recipe, I thought sure, this one we can give a go. Still, you do have to make one thing ahead of time before getting started on the cookies in earnest, so just keep that in mind if you want to make these.

Like all of the Milk Bar cookies, these are LARGE. Like almost the size of my hand large. I admit, I do not have huge hands, but still. They aren't your typical little cookie you usually make at home. I haven't tried making her cookies smaller, but as I've said before, it seems like they might not be as good because the whole point of them being so large is to get the edges slightly brown while keeping the middle nice and soft.

Anyway, what about these cookies? The milk crumb definitely gives them an interesting flavor. I bet the quality of your white chocolate can make a big difference here, and mine sure wasn't the highest quality, so they did have a little bit of that white chocolate-ness once baked, but only just. If you like blueberries, they are also a nice switch up from a typical cookie that normally has some chocolate or butterscotch instead.

Definitely yummy, though my boyfriend thought they were a little too sweet. I'm not sure it really needs that extra glucose in there, or perhaps just the granulated sugar itself could be brought down a little bit so they're not quite as sweet. In general, the recipes in this cookbook are quite sweet, so just keep that in mind if you're ever going to make them!

Blueberry & Cream Cookies
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 12 Cookies

Prep time: 01:30

Cook time:00:17

Total time: 02:00

Christina Tosi’s Blueberry & Cream Cookies from the Milk Bar Cookbook.


Ingredients:

• 225 g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 50 g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 150 g (2/3 cup packed) light brown sugar
• 100 g (1/4 cup) glucose
• 2 large eggs
• 320 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
• 2 g (1/2 teaspoon) baking powder
• 1.5 g (1/4 teaspoon) baking soda
• 6 g (1 ½ teaspoons) kosher salt
• 1/2 recipe Milk Crumb (see below)
• 130 g (3/4 cup) dried blueberries

Instructions:

1. Combine the butter, sugars, and glucose in a stand mixer and cream on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add in the eggs, and beat for another 7-8 minutes.
2. Reduce to low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until it just comes together. No longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Still on low, add in the milk crumbs and mix until incorporated, no more than 30 seconds. Next add in the blueberries and mix them for another 30 seconds.
4. Using a 2 3/4 ounce scoop (or 1/3 cup measure), portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of them down flat. Wrap with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to a week).
5. Heat the oven to 350°F.
6. Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on a parchment or silpat-lined sheet pan. Bake for 18 minutes. They should be faintly brown on the edges while still yellow in the center. Mine worked better at 17 minutes than 18, which got them a little too brown.
7. Cool completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or airtight container to store. They will stay fresh for 5 days at room temperature or you can put them in the freezer for a month.

Milk Crumb

Ingredients

• 40 g (1/2 cup) milk powder
• 40 g (1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
• 12 g (2 Tbsp) cornstarch
• 25 g (2 Tbsp) granulated sugar
• 2 g (1/2 tsp) kosher salt
• 55 g (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• 20 g (1/4 cup) milk powder
• 90 g (3 ounces) white chocolate, melted

Cooking Directions

1. Heat oven to 250F.
2. Combine the 40g milk powder, the flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Toss to mix. Add in the melted butter and toss, using a spatula, until it starts to come together and form small clusters.
3. Spread those clusters onto a parchment or silpat-linted sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes. They should look sandy when finished. Cool completely.
4. Crumble any clusters that are larger than 1/2 inch in diameter and put all of the crumbs into a medium bowl. Add in the 20g milk powder and toss together until evenly distributed.
5. Pour in the white chocolate and toss until the clusters are all covered. Toss every 5 minutes following until the chocolate has hardened and the clusters are no longer sticky. They will keep in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer for a month.

Recipe from Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook

Jumbo Blueberry Streusel Muffins

 

Berry season is upon us, friends. Ripe and plump and lovely berries are popping up in groceries, and I had to pick up some blueberries this weekend. I've made some blueberry baked goods in the past with the Summer Berry Bundt Cake, the Blueberry Crumb Bars, and the Raspberry-Blueberry Muffins, to name a few. This time I went for something more traditional with a straight up bakery-style jumbo blueberry muffin. I included some streusel topping here too, as I think everyone loves a streusel topping, but you can of course make these without. I did one without the topping so you can see what that looks like too.

The nice thing about baking with blueberries is that you can always take some that are not quite ripe yet, not really great for eating straight from container to mouth, bake them up, and voila! They are transformed in the baked good into sweet and tart deliciousness. I went for the jumbo variety here, because I have a nicer jumbo muffin pan than a regular-sized one, and because, duh, you get to feel like you went to a fancy bakery and got yourself a nice big muffin. Only you can make this super easily at home. You probably have all of the ingredients already waiting to be used in your kitchen.

Oh also - I didn't do it this time around, but a fun thing to do with streusel is to fill up your muffin tin halfway, stick some streusel in there, then fill up the rest, then stick some streusel on top for a double dose of streusel goodness in your muffins. Totally up to you! This recipe is pretty dang versatile. You can substitute other berries and get great results too. And, yes, if you want to make regular-sized muffins, that works too. You just have to adjust your baking times to be a bit less and take out that initial five minutes at a higher temperature.

So what are you waiting for? If you're a fan of blueberry muffins, you should definitely give these a try at home rather than buying one of those jiffy box mixes. You can use frozen blueberries here, too, so it's easy to do any time of the year!

Jumbo Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Ingredients

• FOR THE STREUSEL
• 3 Tablespoons butter, semi-melted
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• FOR THE MUFFINS:
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk (can substitute regular milk if needed)
• 1/2 cup oil (canola, vegetable, or melted coconut)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Spray your muffin tin with non-stick spray.
2. In a small bowl, combine your streusel ingredients with a fork until coarse and almost sandy. Set aside for now.
3. In a large bowl, toss together your flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon for about 20 seconds.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar until combined well. Whisk in the oil, milk and vanilla. Slowly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix carefully by hand, making sure not to overmix. Just make sure you don't have any big bits of flour. It'll be nice and thick and slightly lumpy. Then, fold in your blueberries.
5. Pour your batter into your prepared muffin tin, filling all the way to the top. Then, sprinkle the streusel generously on top. Bake at 425F for five minutes. Turn the oven down to 375F and bake for another 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden and the centers are set. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before enjoying!

Recipe slightly adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Summer Berry Bundt Cake

Do you know what is great about summer? I'm not going to say the sun, because 1) I live in Los Angeles, it's always sunny, and 2) I'm not a sun person. So why do I live in Los Angeles?! I wonder that sometimes too!

No, what I love is cheap berries. Berries, berries everywhere! On sale! All the time!

I can buy so many that I don't feel guilty for not just eating them straight up. Because I do, strangely, have this weird guilt about that when they are so good by themselves. But if you find yourself with an excess of berries that will soon go bad before you can eat them all, please PLEASE make this cake!

It is seriously yum. Double yum, even.

I mean, come on. Look at it!

Summer Berry Bundt Cake
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 1 bundt cake
Prep time: 00:15

Cook time: 00:55

Total time: 01:10

Printable Recipe

A deliciously moist cake that uses a combination of fresh berries and a glazed topping to make your dreams come true.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
• zest of 1 lemon (optional)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 cups mixed berries
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, very soft
• Juice from 1 lemon (or 2 Tablespoons milk)

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a Bundt pan, either with butter or nonstick spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside for now.
3. In your mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest (if you're using it, I didn't) until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. On low speed, add each egg one at a time, scraping down the sides of your bowl in between each one. Briefly beat in the vanilla.
4. Add 1/3 flour mixture to the batter, beating until just combined, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, another 1/3 of flour, the rest of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour. Scrape down the sides whenever necessary, and don't over-mix.
5. In your medium flour mixture bowl, toss the berries with your 2 Tbsp remaining flour, and gently fold them into the batter by hand (with a spatula, duh). It'll be thick, and that's good.
6. Spread the batter, or plop it, in your prepared bundt pan, and smooth out the top. Bake for 55-60 minutes, rotating the cake 180 degrees after 30 so it brown evenly. Your cake will be done when a tester comes out clean.
7. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, then invert onto a serving platter to finish cooling. Cool completely! I know you don't want to, but you must.
8. Once cool, whisk together the powdered sugar, butter and lemon juice (or milk!) until smooth and thick. Drizzle over the top of the cake, letting it trickle down the sides. Serve immediately or keep covered for 3-4 days.

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

In photos:

Flour mixture. Hint: if you use dried buttermilk instead of regular buttermilk, add in 3 Tbsp to your flour mixture at this stage.

Butter and sugar get mixed until fluffy.

After the eggs and vanilla are added in. Sorry for the bad light.

Buttermilk and flour have been added now. Hint: if you use dried buttermilk, you will alternate between your flour mixture and plain old water to get to this stage.

Toss your berries in 2 Tbsp flour. This is so they don't all sink to the bottom of the cake when baking. Hint: You can use any berries you like. I used raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. But you could substitute blackberries or marionberries too!

Fold them into the batter. It's okay if they break up a bit. It's not a beauty contest, right?

Plop and smooth your batter into your bundt pan. Stick it in the oven for 55-60 minutes, making sure to rotate after 30.

It should look about like this when it comes out. Let it cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Plop it out onto your serving plate. Ooh, pretty berry colors!

After it's cooled all the way, whisk up your glaze. Yours should be thicker; I used a bit too much milk in mine, I suspect.

After you've glazed and oohed and aahed, it's time to cut that baby and go to town!

Enjoy!

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Did you know, I used to be kind of disdainful of blueberries? I thought they were strange and dubbed them "gross." This is before ever actually trying them, I am loathe to admit. Because sweeping judgments when you are a young person are just a common thing, right?

Of course, later in life, I tried them out and discovered I had been missing out. Blueberries are yummy, duh. If they are ripe, anyway. If not, they can be kinda sour. But do you know what you can do with kinda sour blueberries? Toss them in some sugar and bake them up! Problem. Solved.

I had such a batch of not-so-great blueberries on hand recently, and after trying a handful of them by themselves and promptly making a sour face, I decided they must be baked!

After much searching for a recipe that sounded good, I came across this one for crumb bars. And boy am I glad I did, because oh man, it was gooooood. The blueberries were no longer sour, and the crumbly dough on the top and bottom was the perfect complement. Compliment? Oh, grammar, sometimes you elude me.

In all seriousness, if you like blueberries and crumbly breakfast/desserty stuff, make these! You will not be disappointed.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Please note, I halved the below recipe because I am but one wee person. This recipe will make enough for a 9x13 pan.

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 teaspoons white vinegar (or juice of 1 lemon)
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 9x13 pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, the flour, baking powder and salt. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of the dough into the prepared pan.
3. In another bowl, stir together 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch and vinegar. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Recipe via Smitten Kitchen

In photos:

Please note, I "forgot" to take photos of the earlier steps. Whoops!

Blueberry mixture on top of half the crumb mixture.

Rest of the crumb mixture goes on top of those blueberries.

Out of the oven, it's got a golden glow!

The blueberries kind of melt together to create a solid middle layer of bluey-purple goodness.

Raspberry-Blueberry Muffins w/ Streusel Topping

This post is coming a few weeks after the fact for these muffins, but that does not diminish their loveliness in mine own eyes.

Because these muffins? They're kind of great.

You wouldn't necessarily think to combine raspberries and blueberries together in a muffin, since you nearly almost always see just blueberries, but let me tell you something - why not? Why is this not a more common thing? Is it because of growing seasons or something? I really know nothing about growing seasons, so this could be true. Or it could be people just make blueberry all the time because they are boring old fuddy duddies.

But me? I push the envelope! Not really, I just happened to have a lot of both on hand and wanted to do something fun with them together. And then I still had two little plastic boxes of the raspberries go bad on me. Dang it!

But before that, there were muffins...

Raspberry-Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping

Ingredients

• FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING:
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 Tablespoons old-fashioned oats
• FOR THE MUFFINS:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 Tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
• 3/4 cup fresh raspberries
• 3/4 cup fresh blueberries

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners OR spray with non-stick spray and go liner-free.
2. To make the topping, in a medium bowl, mix together the topping ingredients until crumbly. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, whisk togteher the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the melted butter. Add the buttermilk and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just to combine. Batter will be somewhat lumpy, make sure to not overmix. Gently fold in the blueberries and raspberries so they do not break open, and pour into the prepared muffin tin. Crumble the streusel topping over the muffins and bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
5. Let cool in the tins for about 10 minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks.

Adapted from a recipe by Emeril on foodnetwork.com

In photos:

Crumbly topping! Tip: if you like nuts, you can use chopped walnuts or pecans instead of oatmeal.

The butter and eggs and "buttermilk" all mixed together. Why is the buttermilk in quotes? Because I used powdered, so this is actually butter, eggs and water.

And all of the dry ingredients, which includes the buttermilk powder. You see, you add the powder to the dry ingredients, and use water instead in the wet. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. (As another aside, the original recipe calls for a bunch of lemon zest... I am not a lemon fan, so that was nixed!)

Wet and dry all mixed together. Slightly lumpy, and that's okay.

A berry good time! Oh man, sorry. Bad pun.

I just sprayed my tin with non-stick spray, as I did not have any liners. They plopped out fine, but did make for harder traveling. Also, I put these in the oven for a full minute before I remembered to add the streusel topping! Quell horror!

Oh wow, these bake up quite nicely, don't they?

Can I tell you something? These muffins tasted like I had bought them at a bakery. They were really that good. I was kind of amazed at how professional they looked and tasted. Or wait, no! No, I was not amazed! I was like - oh yes! Duh! I am amazing, and it is to be expected! Ha, sure.