Blueberry Pie Cake

This dessert was inspired by a recipe in BBC Good Food magazine for a Raspberry Bakewell Slice. I made their recipe and loved it, but I love to fiddle with recipes, plus I wanted to be able to share it with folks like me who like to bake using cups instead of grams. Oh, and I adore blueberries. Seriously adore them. So I spent a few hours playing in the kitchen, and here are the delicious results. My son Christened it Blueberry Pie Cake because it is part pie, part cake. 

This recipe uses ready-made pastry, which can be rolled to fit the pan, but do feel free to make your own pastry from scratch if you feel you want to.

I use a quiche pan for this - about 7 to 8 inches wide by 11 inches long. Here it is lined with the pastry.

To make one pan of squares you will need:-

1 package of sweet pastry

¼ cup blueberry jam

½ cup frozen blueberries, just thawed (or use fresh if they are available)

¼ cup flaked almonds

¼ cup apricot jam

1 teaspoon water

For the cake:-

1 cup butter, softened (plus some to grease the pan)

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1¼ cups ground almonds (almond flour)

¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 375℉ (about 160 to 170℃ for fan oven).

Lightly grease the pan. Roll the pastry out to fit and put it in the pan. Be sure to push it into the corners well. Prick it with a fork, and pop it in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes until it’s cooked, but not coloured. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a bit.

To make the cake mixture, cream the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt and beat together.

To assemble, spread the blueberry jam over the pastry, using a pastry brush. Scatter the blueberries over top.

Gently spread the cake mixture over the blueberries and scatter with the flaked almonds. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes until golden, watching carefully after 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool a little on a wire rack.

Heat the apricot jam with the 1 teaspoon of water and spread it over carefully top of the squares with a clean pastry brush to give a nice shiny finish. Cut into squares to serve. May be served warm or at room temperature, and is lovely with good vanilla ice cream. 

The 21st Century Housewife's Blueberry Pancakes

Perfect for Sunday brunch, these pancakes don’t take a minute to throw together. The sour cream gives them a wonderful flavour and texture and they really are the fluffiest pancakes I have ever eaten. Don't worry if you haven't got any blueberries, they taste great plain too!

This recipe makes about ten medium size pancakes.

1½ cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

generous pinch of salt

½ cup sour cream or crème fraîche, preferably a low or fat-free version

1 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

¼ cup melted butter, cooled a bit

about 1 cup blueberries, washed and drained

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the sour cream or crème fraîche, milk, beaten eggs and melted butter.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones all at once, stirring just until combined. If you add the blueberries at this point you will end up with a blue streaked batter, so I prefer to add them to each pancake individually after I have put it in the pan.

Place dollops of batter (a scant quarter cup of batter makes a good size pancake) on a hot, lightly greased griddle or frying pan. Add a few blueberries to each pancake as you put it on the pan.

Cook on one side until bubbles form and break on the surface, and then turn over to cook the other side. Keep cooked pancakes warm in a low oven so you can serve them all at once.

The 21st Century Housewife's Blueberry Sauce

I developed this recipe a couple of Sundays ago, when I discovered that I had covered all the bases for Sunday lunch except dessert. Faced with serving a frozen store bought Blueberry and White Chocolate cheesecake that was hiding at the back of the freezer, I wondered how I could bring it up a level and make it a bit more special. A rather large package of frozen blueberries provided me with the inspiration I needed.

The best thing about this sauce is that as it uses frozen berries, cooked from frozen, so not only can you make it all year round but it is also great when you need something special at the last minute. It’s nice to know you have a recipe up your sleeve that you can keep all the ingredients on hand for. Of course, you can definitely make this from fresh blueberries, although I only needed a teaspoon or so of cornstarch when I tested making the sauce that way. (It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it!) The frozen berries give off more water so they need a bit more help to thicken, especially if you include the tiny alcoholic kick I like to add.

I used Ocean Spray’s newest juice, their Light Blueberry juice, the first time I made this but orange juice works just as well. The Cointreau or Grand Mariner could just as easily be brandy or Amaretto if you preferred, and of course the alcohol is purely optional and can be left out entirely.

I served this at room temperature with the cheesecake on the Sunday and it was scrumptious, and then I kept the remainder refrigerated. Monday night I warmed it gently for a few minutes and we had it over vanilla ice cream as pictured above. It took hardly any effort to put together but it looked and tasted pretty impressive - exactly the kind of dessert I like!

4 cups frozen blueberries

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons orange or blueberry juice

2 tablespoons Cointreau or Grand Mariner (optional)

1 tablespoon corn starch mixed with a little water

Bring blueberries, sugar and juice gently to a boil.  Turn back the heat a bit and cook for several minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the Cointreau, if using, and cook a little more. Add the cornstarch and water mixture, stirring through thoroughly.  Cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens, stirring constantly. Turn the heat to low and continue to stir and cook for a few minutes to cook away any taste of the starch. Pour into a heat proof container and allow to cool a bit.

Can be cooled and stored in the fridge for a day or so.

The 21st Century Housewife's Blueberry and Macadamia Nut Muffins

The whole wheat flour, super fruit blueberries and macadamia nuts (which contain protein, potassium and calcium) in these muffins definitely make them good for you - the only hard part is eating them in moderation!

½ cup butter, softened

¾ cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla 

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup fresh blueberries, washed and well drained

1 cup buttermilk 

1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. 

Measure the flours and baking powder into another large bowl and mix together.  Stir in the nuts and the blueberries.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once and stir gently just until mixed.  Divide between 15 to 17 large muffin cups. 

Bake at 375℉ (or about 160 to 170℃) for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack, and once cool, store in a sealed container.