SUMMER BERRY MUFFINS

Basic Muffin Recipe


Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk these together in a bowl.

2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl, whisk these together, then add the flour mixture and fold into until the dry ingredients are moist. Do not over mix, batter should be lumpy.

Spray muffin pan or use liners Fill each cup evenly (should make 12) and bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean – 12 to 15 minutes. If you are adding fruit then allow a few extra minutes. Let cool 2 to 3 minutes, serve as soon as possible.


Summer Fruit Variation

1 1/2 cup Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries or mixed.
Zest of 1 Lemon
1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Lemon juice

Mix first four ingredients, and then fold into batter along with the Lemon juice.

FRESH FRUIT COFFECAKE

This recipe is adapted from the first dish I ever made with Blueberries. We were living in Connecticut and bought some local berries and I pulled out my only cookbook at the time and I found this wonderful recipe that I decided to try out and being generous I ended up making half a dozen and sending them to work with my husband.  My grandfather called this a Kuchen (German for cake). Twenty years later along with a few alterations and its still a favorite…

Have all ingredients at room temp. Put rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x2 round pan.

Whisk together thoroughly:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
In large bowl, beat on medium to high speed until light and fluffy (3 to 4 minutes)

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
¾ cup sugar

Beat in 1 at a time until just blended:
2 large eggs

Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. If batter is too thick (should be like brownie batter) then thin with about ¼ cup of milk. Scrape batter into the pan and spread evenly.

Combine:
1 Tablespoon of sugar and ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle over
2 cups fruit (if using Peaches, sprinkle with Fruit Fresh or lemon juice)

Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the cake and bake until top is a golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center (avoiding fruit) comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

DORIE'S BLUEBERRY PIE

Blueberries waiting to be picked.

Herb n Berries U-Pick

148 Keeper Lane Montmorenci, SC

Blueberry Pie, well what Dorie usually asks for – Dorie gets… so when we were out picking Blueberries in the near 100 degree weather this morning and she said she wanted a Blueberry pie I went home and made one (after resting several hours and waiting until the sun went down to turn on the oven).

Althea and her empty bucket...

The girls taking a rest and laughing at us adults!

Never having made this type of pie I was a little afraid it would be runny, but it didn’t do too bad (of course if we adults had allowed it to cool it may have been set up better). I told Dorie not to burn her “goozel” (more on that one day) we tore into it… all except Dorie who took a little bite and then another; and then she shuddered. As we kept on eating, she tried it again, this time with a big shudder like she had a chill and making a sound (not exactly a gag but close).

Seems as if she had never eaten Blueberry pie and really didn’t know if she liked it (she didn’t) but she so wanted someone to make one (which I did).

Needless to say we girls still had a good time, picking blueberries in the hot Carolina sun, sipping water and heading off to eat lunch together afterwards.

Bowl of berries...

Not the best looking pie (we ate half before I thought about a picture) but it sure tasted wonderful!

Dorie’s Blueberry Pie

5 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup of sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon of butter cut into small pieces
2 pie crusts (I cheated and used refrigerated pie crust)
Water
Pie pan
Cookie sheet

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, mix berries, sugar, cornstarch and lemon zest and juice in a bowl allowing it to sit for 20 minutes.

Place 1 pie crust in pie pan and then pour berry mixture into crust, top with butter pieces and then brush top edge of crust with water before placing second crust on top. Pinch to seal crusts together and then pinch or crimp with fork.

Cut several small slits in top of pie crust and place in oven, cook for 30 minutes. Carefully place cookie sheet under pie, reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for 30 more minutes.

Pie will be still be a little runny; allow it to cool before slicing or better yet grab a spoon and go for it!


Dorie's Blueberry Pie