Our blueberry bushes are budding like mad.
The harvest promises to be good. Last year we picked sixteen pounds of berries from these fairly young bushes, which I canned up. However I hadn't really used up any of the canned berries; and if we're going to get a similar harvest this year, I figured I'd better come up with an excuse to use last year's fruit.
So, borrowing a cobbled-together dessert I made years ago, I made blueberry tarts.
I started by taking four quarts of berries, and draining them.
I used puff pastry for the tarts. I stinkin' love puff pastry. It's so versatile for both savory and sweet dishes.
I cut the sheets of puff pastry into 24 squares (12 square per sheet)...
... and rolled each square flat.
I pressed these flattened pieces into muffin tins.
To the drained blueberries, I added some flour and a bit of sugar...
...and spooned the blueberry mixture into the tins.
After this, I made a batch of "crumbs," consisting of 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 6 tablespoons margarine, mixed together.
The crumbs got distributed over the 24 tarts.
I baked the tarts at 350F for 30 minutes.
Voilà. An easy-peasy (and delicious) way to use up last year's blueberries!
Dang that made me hungry!
ReplyDeleteMargarine?? Wut? Are you out of butter?
ReplyDeleteThat looks great. I bet I could use that to make tarts with rhubarb since it is in season again.
ReplyDeletethey look delicious! What did you do with the juice? I'd have used it in my morning oatmeal instead of water
ReplyDeleteBetter keep at it! ! Your bushes will probably outdo last year!
ReplyDeleteI'll bet you could make hand pies using same ingreddients in a different way. Cut circles instead of squares, or even rectangles or triangles. Put a smaller dollop of filling in the middle, fold over then crimp the edges, andbake.I'd probably not use flour in the filling and it might not take as long to bake..
Your dessert looks beautiful and fit for a queen!
The beauty of hand pies is that children can hold them in their hands as they run out to play. As can a husband or anyone else needing a snack with a glass of tea on break from working hard outside. Fewer dishes to muss up! So portable!
I'm down to 5 good blueberry bushes after that freeze two years ago. This past winter I covered them and only lost a few branches, but they're already loaded with berries. Once they're all totally set but before they're ripe they'll get covered again to keep the birds away.
I'm thinking of trying to find a variety that won't die because of a freeze as easily, like the Fort Laramie strawberries.
The lower branches on one side of my pear tree are making, so cold got to it, but not all. This year, for the first time, the baby pears are starting out red. They've always started out green and stayed green, and the pears were hard green things that had to become preserves. I'm hoping the red means maybe some good change is happening.
This feels like a wonderful spring! May we all have a wonderful, productive, year ! God is good!
How well does the netting work for protection?
ReplyDeleteThe netting is to keep the deer out, which it does very well. We don't have much trouble with birds eating the berries.
Delete- Patrice
Do you have collars around the blueberry bushes? Or, are they in pots in the ground?
ReplyDeleteYes, they're collars. I put weed cloth anchored by gravel around the bushes, and the collars keep that groundcover away from the bushes.
Delete- Patrice
Thanks.
Delete