I got a giant bag of frozen wild blueberries and just had to try making a cobbler with it. Holy yum! I was out of my tapioca flour so I “cobbled” together the dough from the flours I had. This one is very forgiving. It originally called for wheat flour but works well with all manner of alternative flours. I decided to put the lemon zest right in the dough and it was lovely. I’ll definitely be making this again. It was so good, I forgot to get a picture of the finished product before we ate it. Guess you’ll just have to try it to see.
Ingredients
Dough
¼ cup each coconut, almond, and oat flour
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 hardboiled egg yolk
1/16 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
Zest of one lemon
Filling
1 ½ pounds wild blueberries, fresh or thoroughly defrosted
6 tablespoons maple syrup
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
Directions
In the base of a food processor or in a mixing bowl, combine the flours, cornstarch, sugar, and baking powder. Pulse to combine.
Add the egg yolk and salt. Pulse a few times to distribute.
Add the lemon zest. (If you haven’t got one, a microplane grater for zesting is a fantastic tool to add to your kitchen. It makes it so fine that it blends in perfectly. Otherwise, you’ll want to chop it up fine before adding.)
Chop the unsalted butter up into ½ inch cubes and drop in then pulse until well combined.
Pour the cream in. (Here’s where the magic happens.) Now run the food processor until it turns into a ball of dough. It doesn’t take too long.
Use a cookie scoop or spoon to place balls of dough on a paper lined half cookie sheet. Flatten a bit and chill for at least half an hour.
Start preheating the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the room temp blueberries with the maple syrup, vanilla, and cornstarch.
Grease, butter, or cooking spray a 9 by 9 baking dish with high sides and pour the blueberry filling into it.
After the dough is chilled, place on the filling.
If you’d like, brush the biscuit tops with a little more cream and sprinkle with sugar.
delicious eggnog cocktail on round wooden boards near spruce branches and cinnamon sticks on blue textured background
Homemade Eggnog
My mom always made the best eggnog at Christmas – thick, creamy, and rich. To me, it was similar to melted vanilla ice cream. It’s kind of amazing no one ever seemed to get sick from salmonella even though we were using raw eggs. However, after a bout of salmonella this summer when I made an ice cream recipe that called for raw eggs, I started thinking about how one could pasteurize a homemade eggnog recipe. I realized that the recipes for eggnog and vanilla ice cream were very similar so why not heat it the same way to kill the bacteria? Hence this recipe.
Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy or “whipping” cream
1/3 cup maple syrup (or 6 tablespoons light brown sugar)
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
Optional: rum flavoring or nutmeg
Directions
In a saucepot over medium heat, bring milk to a simmer (steaming and little bubbles around the edge) then remove from heat.
Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks and maple syrup or brown sugar.
Whisk a quarter cup of the hot mixture into the egg yolk mixture, pouring it in slowly as you whisk continuously.
Do that 2 more times, to temper the egg yolks.
Now stir the egg yolk mixture into the saucepot.
Heat over medium heat until the custard mixture steams again, stirring constantly. Do not boil.
Remove from heat and chill thoroughly.
When ready to serve, blend in the cream, salt, and vanilla. Using a blender is a great way to give it an extra froth. You can also whip the cream before stirring in the chilled custard.
I decided I wanted to make pumpkin macarons one day and the best recipe I found recommended making pumpkin butter to go inside them. Since we have several pie pumpkins, this seemed like a perfect use of some. I wanted a slow cooker recipe. This recipe was adapted from a recipe on Allrecipes by Allyk. I used maple syrup, added cider, and changed up the spices. The original is at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/215317/slow-cooker-pumpkin-butter/
Pumpkin Butter
Ingredients
2 – 2 pound pie pumpkins, peeled, seeded, and diced. (Or similar, this is what we had.)
¾ cup maple syrup
¼ cup apple cider
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions
Place the pumpkin in the crockpot with the cider.
Pour maple syrup over pumpkin.
Combine spices and sprinkle over pumpkin.
Put lid on and set slow cooker for low.
Allow to cook for 9 hours, overnight is a good time.
Stir, and prop the lid open.
Allow to cook until excess moisture is removed, about 3 hours.
These are an old favorite snack. I usually use garden zucchini these days and put the leftover back in the fridge. When I made them years ago I just used a small-ish zucchini, egg beaters, and Italian bread crumbs. These days they make some really great gluten free bread crumbs.
Oven Fried Zucchini
Ingredients
1 small to medium sized zucchini
1 egg, whisked
1/4 to 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
Olive oil cooking spray
1/4 cup grated parmesan (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425.
Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Beat an egg in a bowl.
Pour approximately a half cup of Italian bread crumbs into a second bowl.
Sliced the zucchini into 1/4 inch to 1/3 inch rounds.
Dip the zucchini slices into the egg with one hand, then shake off the excess.
Drop the dipped slice into the bread crumbs and shake bowl to coat.
Use the tines of a fork to carefully prick the slice, lift it, and shake off the excess crumbs. (I tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to facilitate this.)
Place on the prepared baking pan.
When you’ve breaded all the slices, spritz the top of the slices with cooking spray.
Melora Johnson's Muse 