Berry Rhubarb Crisp

Last year we cut and froze a lot of rhubarb.    First time ever!    Just recently, we realized how much we had in the freezer and we decided to start using it up.    We love the traditional strawberry-rhubarb combinations, but since our strawberries have already been used, we decided to try other combinations with rhubarb.

Turns out that Blueberry-Rhubarb and Blackberry-Rhubarb are just as good as [if not better than] the strawberry version.

Lily made a couple of crisps so we could do the tasting.   Delish!

Berry Rhubarb Crisp
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2 cups blueberries or blackberries or strawberries
3 cups rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar  [3/4 cup if you know your fruit is tart.]

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter an 8 x 8 baking dish.  Toss the fruit with the sugar and put in baking dish.  Sprinkle all over with topping.  Bake for 50 minutes or until browned and bubbling.

Crisp Topping
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1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup flour
1/2 sugar
1 cup oats

Cut together well with pastry blender or food processor. 

Notes:  We use this crisp topping on a lot of different things.   You can use white or whole wheat flour.  You can use regular or old fashioned rolled oats.   It's good with white or brown sugar.  

Blueberry Lime Jam

We ran out of this jam.   It's K2's favorite.   She eats it on almost everything.

There was weeping.

There was wailing.

There was general consternation.

So I made more.    It's what moms do.  






Here's my typical recipe for a single batch of jam.    This generally makes about 2.5 pts of jam plus a bit.

Blueberry Lime Jam- small batch

• 4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 cup water
• zest and juice of 1 lime.
• 3 T Ball or Dutch-Jell  low sugar pectin
• 3-4 cups sugar

Combine the fruit, water, lime juice, zest and pectin.  Bring to a hard rolling boil that you can't stir down.   Boil hard for 1 minute.  Add the sugar.  Return to a hard rolling boil.   Boil hard for 1 minute.  Ladle into jars.   Process 10 minutes for canning.  

However.    And it is a big However.

Yesterday I was all out of my Ball and Dutch-Jell low sugar pectins.   I did have a box of Mrs. Wages low sugar pectin that I picked up to try last time I was at Freedom Country Store in Worthington - it's our local Amish store.

One package of that stuff will gel 12 cups of fruit.   I had 15 cups of fruit and wanted only a soft jell, so I did four batches at once with one package of Mrs. Wages.     Worked perfectly.    Here's what I did:

Blueberry Lime Jam - with Mrs. Wages Pectin

• 15 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen [around 2 bags of frozen blueberries]
• 4 cups water
• zest and juice of 4 limes.
• 1 package of Mrs. Wages pectin.
• 12 cups sugar

This batch made 10.5 pints of jam.     I used my regular method of jam making.

1.   Combine the fruit, water, lime juice, zest and pectin.
2.   Bring to a hard rolling boil that you can't stir down.   Boil hard for 1 minute.
3.   Add the sugar.
4.   Return to a hard rolling boil.   Boil hard for 1 minute.
5.   Ladle into jars.   Process 10 minutes for canning.  

I've been thinking a lot about pectins lately.   I'm doing a cost-comparison post and will have that up soon.

Blueberry Lime Jam

Our local blueberry crop failed this year due to a late frost.   Not to worry, I bought my blueberries frozen from Sam's and we're filling up the freezer slowly, a few bags at a time, as long as the season lasts.   I used the frozen berries for this year's batch of Blueberry Lime Jam, which was a huge hit with K2 last year and which is quite fabulous on ice cream, if I do say so myself.



Blueberry Lime Jam

• 5 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 cup water
• zest from 1 lime
• juice from 1 lime
• 3 Tablespoons Dutch All Natural Lite pectin
• 2 cups sugar

Put the berries, water, lime zest, lime juice and pectin in a large pot on.  Heat and stir until it reaches a hard boil.   Boil hard for 1 minute.   Add sugar and return to hard boil.  Stir continuously.   Boil hard for 1 minute.  Ladle into jars.   Process for canning 10 minutes.   Yield 2.5 pints.

Note:   You really do need the lime zest.  I've tried it with and without.  The zest makes a pretty big difference in flavor.  Plus, it's just so pretty.

Blueberry Crisp

Right in the middle of our peach projects [going on about 2 bushels now...] the blueberries got ripe.

I didn't know whether to cheer or cry.    That's a lot of fruit to deal with on top of the peaches.   

I sucked it up and went and picked berries.   They're only ripe once a year!  I believe in making hay while the sun shines.  

We go to Bray's You Pick near Owensburg, Indiana on Hwy 58, between Hwy 45 and Hwy 231.    It's 4 miles west of Hwy 45.  They're usually open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 7 to 7.   Call before you go, because the season and harvest are variable.

It was a glorious, glorious day.   Picking non-thorny berries while listening to the sun rise in Indiana at the end of June is like breathing music.  It's better than chocolate.  Of course, I'm a morning person, so I expect that there are a lot of you who might feel otherwise.    

Anyway.

We got 48 pounds [9 gallons] of blueberries.  Delish!  They're tart this year, so we're adding extra sugar to everything we make with them. 

Like this crisp, which K2 commissioned on the way home from Bray's.  

And which I made as soon as we got home.

Because I'm a good mom.   Sometimes.

K2 wanted it with No Crust.   I don't get that, but I wasn't going to argue.   Good crust is a pain.   It's worth it, but it's a pain.

Here's the recipe for her crustless blueberry crisp:

Blueberry Crisp

6 Cups blueberries
1 Cup flour
2 Cups sugar [Use 1 1/2 Cups or less if you have sweet berries]
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix the dry stuff together and toss well with the berries in a greased deep casserole dish.  Make sure there aren't piles of the dry stuff at the bottom of the dish - they glue themselves to the dish.   If you've got piles that you can't get rid of, then put a tablespoon of water over all and stir it up again.   That should help get the dry stuff stuck to the berries and not the dish.

Topping:
1 Cup flour
1/2 Cup butter
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon [Yes, more cinnamon.   It's necessary.]
1 Cup oats

Use a pastry blender to mix up everything but the oats.   My pastry blender doesn't like oats.   I add them last.   If you don't 'do' the pastry blender thing, then use a food processor and dump it all in.    It'll be faster, but not nearly as fun.

Pour the topping on top of the berries.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.    Serve warm with peach ice cream!