Blueberries, Rich in Antioxidants and Vitamins

     

For Cate at Sweetnick's ARF--Antioxidant Rich Foods weekly food event, I'm working with blueberries which are number one antioxidant rich food.

Let me tell you a little story.  I got an email several weeks ago from a gentleman who had read my blog and asked if I would be interested in reviewing a product he sells.  Let's call this man Dan, because that happnes to be his name.  I told him I'd be happy to as long as he realized that, of course, I'd be honest about my impressions.  He said he wasn't worried.  That intrigued me. 

Let me say up front that Dan was generous with his product but I'm not being paid to play around with the juice or review it, it's not readily available in my area, and I'd never heard of it before so my impressions are completely off the cuff.

Blueberries are well known to be on the top of the good-for-you foods list and the juice Dan sent me was mixed with pomegranate which is supposed to be as beneficial to heart disease as grape juice, or even more so.  My husband has heart disease and he's really tired of me pushing grape juice  on him, so if I could find something new...you see my thinking here.  If I could find a way to incorporate the juice in with some recipes Gene already likes, on top of having him drink it, this could be a score in my house. 

So I played around.  I created the blueberry/lime squares you see above, although with the amount of butter in them they're much more delicious than they are heart friendly. But hey, sometimes in life you have to eat a little butter. Just be prepared to share the bars with friends so you won't be tempted to eat the whole pan yourself.  The recipe is loosely based on Cook's Illustrated Lemon Bars recipe. I also made sauce for cheesecake, syrup for Gene's waffles, and blueberry lollipops by simply cooking the juice down to thicken it.  All with excellent flavor, I must say.  Gene (me too!) was very impressed.

Click below for additional pics, impressions, and recipes.

 

When Fed Ex dropped off the box from TrueBlue we immediately chilled a bottle and tried it by glass, toasting it like a happy hour mocktail.  The first thing we both noticed was that it wasn't as sweet as most juice. That is a very good thing. One of our pet peeves is sickeningly sweet juices. That's why I rarely drink them unless they're cut by a little of "The Captain" and have an umbrella in them.  At least in that arena, it's supposed to be sickeningly sweet.  The sweetener, rather than being provided by HFC (high fructose corn syrup) is regular old lovely cane sugar.  To those of us who search high and low for the Kosher CocaCola to get our cane sugar Coke fix (pun intended), this juice is tongue pleasingly welcome.

Who would have ever though we'd get this excited to see a sugar-sweetened beverage, you know? Crazy world we live in, but then so is the whole concept of high fructose corn syrup being shoveled into everything we eat. 

My understanding is there is also a lite version sweetened with cane sugar and Splenda.

My first recipe romp was through bar cookies. Every time I drank of glass of juice I kept dreaming of lemon bars. Go figure.  But it started my brain thinking....blueberry mixed with lemon...no...lime. The thought of the flavors and colors pleased me.  So I whipped out my Cook's Illustrated Baking Illustrated Cookbook and looked at the cookie bars. One of the things that caught my eye was that for their lemon bars they prepare the cookie filling completely unlike any other lemon bar recipe I've ever seen.  They cook the filling prior to pouring it over the baked cookie base and rebake it for several more minutes.  It works beautifully! My tastetesters:  my husband, friend James, and Mike the Schwan's Guy (also a friend) commented that the cookie base was incredibly good because it didn't get soggy.  The bars are almost addictifve with the crisp shortbread base and the creamy fresh blueberry topping. The one thing I would recommend with these, unlike lemon bars, is to keep them in the fridge. To me the blueberry taste stays..fresher...for want of a better word. Other than the cooked filling, everything else in the recipe has been changed so don't try to substitute blueberry juice for lemon juice in a lemon bar recipe thinking it will come out the same, just FYI.

True Blue Blueberry Bars  (inspired by Baking Illustrated's Lemon Bars)

by Glenna Anderson Muse

Crust:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 stick real butter (not margarine)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients together and then cut in butter as with shortbread until dough resembles coarse cornmeal in texture.  Pat dough evenly into the bottom of a cooking sprayed 8"x8" square baking pan.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Filling:

3 eggs plus 2 egg yolks

Pinch of salt

2/3 cup True Blue Blueberry or Blueberry Pomegranate Juice

Juice of one lime (zest and save for garnish)

1/3 cup sugar

4 oz fresh blueberries,  saving back a few berries for garnish

1/2 stick butter, cut into thin slices

1/8 cup heavy cream

Optional garnish: whipped cream

Directions:

Lightly beat eggs, yolks, and salt together.  Add Juices and sugar and whisk until blended.  Place in medium sauce pan and bring to a bubble, stirring constantly with rubber spatula or wooden spoon, unti. sauce is thickened slightly and coats spoon or spatula, approximately 170 degrees.

Stir in butter pieces, blue berries, and heavy cream. 

Pour on top of cookie crust and put back into the oven at same temperature for approximately 20-25 minutes or until filling is set in the middle.

Garnish with whipped cream, fresh berries, and lime zest.

For Syrups and sauce, simply mix equal amounts of juice with sugar and heat to 200-220 degrees.  You could cook down the juice only but the whole idea is to lower the sugar to water content so I opted to up the sugar to start with to make the cooking time shorter.  For example,

Blueberry Syrup or Sauce

1 cup True Blue Blueberry or Blueberry Pomegranate juice

1 cup (granluated) sugar

Bring to boil on over medium high heat and cook, stirring until liquid measures 200 degrees on thermometer.  Cool for Sauce.  Continue cooking to 220 degrees for pancake/waffle syrup. Cool slightly to serve.   Continue cooking to 230-240 degrees for ice cream syrup (the thickness of caramel).

Sauce and syrup will thicken with cooling.

To cool quickly, I poured syrup into a glass pyrex (heat resistant) measuring cup set down inside another bowl with cool but not iced water.  As the mixture cooled, I replaced the warming water with ice water.  Works within a few minutes.

Cooks down to about 3/4 cup.

I'm not saying it's good or anything but Gene had the waffle devoured before I could even get the sauce spooned over the cheese cake and garnish it.  I barely got photos taken before he had a fork in his hand and was saying "Can I have it yet?" about the cheesecake.

If you want to be really ambitious and not waste any of the syrup, put what the kids don't use on their waffles back into the pan and reheat it, this time cooking up to 300 degrees, or hard crack stage.  This will give you blueberry crack blueberry lollipops.

Here's what a blueberry lollipop looks like if you make it in a shot glass. If the wax paper sticks, just run a little hot water over it to lossen:

For more information about True Blue products and to locate a seller near you, go to www.trueblueberry.com.  In the Springfield, MO area, according to the web site, Dillon's grocery carries True Blue although I have not checked this out for myself yet (no Dillon's near me) so no promises but high hopes.  In the St. Louis and Kansas City areas, True Blue is carried by Kroger, Dillon, Shop & Save, and Dierbergs.  Click HERE to be connected directly to the retailer outlets page.

Comments

[Cynthia]

Very interesting. Will keep an eye out for it if it is ever exported to these parts. Love all your creations.

[patti]

one of my alltime fav things to make is a blueberry shake. one cup of low fat milk blended with enogh frozen blueberries to make it thick. great after a run!

[sher]

Wow! You really tested that product. I love all the ways you found to use it--especially the lollipops! :):) The blueberry bars look fabulous! I'd love one right now.

[Julie]

I just saw this product at a Topps Supermarket here in NY.
I'll have to give it a try, I already love eating blueberries so I'm sure I won't mind drinking them.

[fidget]

Wow! Some great utilization of blueberry juice! I may have to de-gluten-a-fy some of these to give them a whirl

[Glenna]

Cynthia--thank you!

Patti--yum! That sounds delicious and good for you.

Sher--Thanks! I had a good time running it through its paces.

Julie--Let me know what you think.

Fidget--Go for it! Let me know what you come up with.

[Sara]

Great recipes!

[Tanna]

Haven't seen this but will sure be looking for it now.
Your syrup over the cheese cake ... oh my I'd just be so delighted to bring a hot pot of earl grey!

[Glenna]

Sara--thank you!~

Tanna-- bring it on! The syrup in the tea would be good, actually....

[foodierachel]

Yes! I read an article once about how blueberries are one of the best foods you could possibly eat. Actually the author suggested eating mass quantities everyday, which is a little overkill.....but it is still a very healthy food and rich in antioxidants!

[Glenna]

That is a little overkill but I think it's good for us to keep in mind that all berries, especially blueberries, are great for us. I remember reading one time that when we indulge in desserts, a berry dessert should always been one of our first choices to get more of them in. Great suggestion, I thought.