Blueberry Season!

Blueberries are finally here from Florida! There is nothing like the sweet, fresh flavor of freshly picked blueberries. The blueberry is the true sign of summer.

I have challenged myself this season to come up with some new ways of using blueberries besides the usual sweet renditions. I came up with a blueberry balsamic vinaigrette and threw in some of the blueberries in a green spring salad with watercress, radishes, walnuts, feta cheese, and grilled mushrooms. It turned out great the blueberries added a sweet kick to the salad.

I'd love to hear some other suggestions for how to use blueberries in non-traditional ways.

I have added a blueberry muffin recipe here. You can never go wrong with blueberry muffins on a Sunday morning. Hope you enjoy the blueberries this week!

This recipe is taken from the Smitten Kitchen.

PERFECT BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Makes 9 to 10 standard muffins

5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces or 71 grams) unsalted butter , softened

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) sugar

1 large egg

3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces or 191 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon (7 grams or 1/4 ounce) baking powder

1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) baking soda

1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces or 105 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t bother defrosting)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well, then yogurt and zest. Put flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter and sift half of dry ingredients over batter. Mix until combined. Sift remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears. Gently fold in your blueberries. The dough will be quite thick (and even thicker, if you used a full-fat Greek-style yogurt), closer to a cookie dough, which is why an ice cream scoop is a great tool to fill your muffin cups. You’re looking for them to be about 3/4 full, nothing more, so you might only need 9 instead of 10 cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean (you know, except for blueberry goo). Let cool on rack, or you know, serve with a generous pat of butter.


Pictures and Recipe from The Smitten Kitchen