Blueberry and almond baked yogurt tart

Baked blueberry yogurt tart. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

When the summertime blueberries are plump and sweet, I try to save a pint from grabby little hands and make this lovely fruit, almond and yogurt tart. It has a standard flaky pie crust, and the yogurt gives it dense, cheesecake-y feel to it. The blueberries and almond are, as the French say, classique.

I first made this tart nearly 20 years ago, after seeing Julia Child and guest chef Leslie Mackie make it on PBS' "Baking with Julia." Back in those pre-Google days, I needed the cookbook in order to get the recipe. The book was well worth the investment and the wait for delivery ~ written with Dorie Greenspan, it's lively, accessible and great fun to cook out of. And this yogurt tart is a perennial favorite.

Baked blueberry yogurt tart. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Unlike many recipes that I get from cookbooks, I haven't tinkered with this one much over the years. I tend to sub out the flaky pie crust for another method that has produced more reliable results, but this tart has proven to be reliably delicious every time. Coincidentally, it is the July selection for the Tuesdays with Dorie blogalong, and the blog posts that I read pretty much agree. 

Because the recipe is unchanged, I'm providing the official link to the recipe. It's a keeper, be sure to bookmark it. And if you want a keeper of a baking book, "Baking with Julia" is a good one. Here's the link to the recipe:

http://www.alacartetv.com/baking/recipes/baked_yogurt_tart.htm

Baked blueberry yogurt tart. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Bon Appetit!

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

It's so easy to use up summertime blueberries ~ eaten out of hand, or in granola parfaits or salads, any time they can be enjoyed for their own tart and sweet selves. But save a few of the tart and sweet treats for this blueberry coffee cake.

This buttermilk coffee cake is delicious on its own, and downright delightful with the addition of blueberries. It's really just a loose scone dough, spread into a square pan and baked. The recipe is adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, "Treasured Recipes of the Charleston Cake Lady" by Teresa Pregnall (Hearst Books, 1996). Mrs. Pregnall was a retired secretary in Charleston when she decided to turn her hobby of baking cakes into a business. Through the Charleston Cake Lady business, she shipped more than 20,000 cakes all over the country. Her cookbook is a winner, too, with recipes just right for home bakers.


Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried

1. Heat oven to 375. Grease an 8-inch square pan.

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon, and the salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1/2 cup of the crumb mixture. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to remaining crumb mixture. Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk and add to the crumb mixture, stirring until the dry ingredients are well moistened. Add the vanilla extract.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. scatter blueberries across the batter and press in. Sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned on top.

4. Cool the cake in the pan. Cut it into squares when the cake is completely cool.

Adapted from Treasured Recipes from the Charleston Cake Lady by Teresa Pregnall 

(Hearst Books, 1996)

Blueberries: Get 'em while you can

I love fresh Georgia blueberries. Tart and sweet, they're a perfect topping for a granola parfait or for eating out of hand or, for the ambitious, a blueberry pie. Here's a recipe from Chef Ricardo Ullio of Atlanta favorite Sotto Sotto, that teams fresh Georgia blueberries with arugula and almonds. A winning combination, especially for my friends with arugula in their CSA boxes.

 Rucola and Mirtilli Salad, from Sotto Sotto

Serves one

1 cup small-leaf arugula

1/4 cup ripe blueberries

1 tablespoon julienned almonds, toasted

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Shaved Parmigiano Reggiano

In a small bowl, toss together the arugula, blueberries, almonds, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Combine gently. Serve on a small plate and blanket the salad with the shaved Parmigiano Reggiano.

Blueberry Muffins

The blueberry season is so brief, I have to take advantage of each berry that comes my way. The super-sweet local berries are gone now; even the birds are looking for something else to eat. Supermarket berries are usually flatter in flavor and not nearly as sweet, but they do cook well, and when they're cheap, I bake a lot of blueberry things. This week, I made blueberry muffins adapted from a recipe in "The Family Baker." Give them a try.

Blueberry Muffins

2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, picked over and rinsed

demerara or granulated sugar for topping

1. Preheat oven to 400 and position a rack in center of oven. Coat muffin cups with baking spray.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and melted butter. Place a sifter over the bowl and measure into it the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Sift the dry ingredients onto the wet and stir just to blend. Gently fold in the berries.

3. Divide the batter among the muffin cups, filling nearly full. Generously sprinkle sugar on top. Bake 20 to 22 minutes, until the muffins rise and are golden on top. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm.

These keep for a few days, well-wrapped at room temperature. Just zap them for 15 seconds for a breakfast treat. You'll be the queen of the cafeteria if you toss a wrapped muffin in your child's lunch box.

It's New and It's Blue

The last of the fresh and sweet local blueberries deserved special treatment. This yummy, kid-friendly dessert was easy to assemble and didn't heat up the kitchen, like the usual blueberry go-to's, cobblers, crisps and pies. The individual parts can be assembled up to a day ahead and the parfaits layered and served lickety-split. Any bits leftover can be stirred together and eaten as a late-night snack or "special treat" breakfast.

Blueberry & Lime Parfaits

4 cups fresh blueberries, divided

1/3 cup Sprite or water

1/3 cup maple syrup (don't use pancake syrup, get the real stuff. You could also substitute honey)

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (remove zest before squeezing; you'll need it)

4 oz. cream cheese (I use Neufchatel)

1/3 cup confectioner's sugar

½ tsp. vanilla

1 cup low fat sour cream

1. Place 2 cups blueberries in a saucepan, crush two or three times with a spoon against the side of the pan. Add Sprite or water, syrup (or honey) and lime juice and bring to a boil. Boil, stirring often, for about 10 minutes. Cool and add remaining 2 cups blueberries, holding back a few for garnish.

2. In a mixer, beat cream cheese with sugar, zest and vanilla until well combined. Add sour cream and mix at low speed until combined. Of course, you are very organized and have made this early in the day, so grab your trusty plastic containers and store these two mixtures separately until you are ready to assemble the parfaits.

3. To assemble the parfaits: Find suitable serveware. (Parfait glasses serve a generous portion for adults. I used the short tumblers pictured for the kids' servings. Be sure to use glass that will allow you to see the swirly indigo layers.) Place about 2 tablespoons of the blueberry mixture in the bottom of six parfait glasses. Add a large dollop of cream mixture. Divide remaining blueberry mixture among glasses, then top with a small dollop of cream mixture. Top with reserved blueberries.

Why I Can't Wait for Summer

Memorial Day is really the first day of summer. And I want to spend this sunscreen-soaked summer with my girls, beginning with the beach, followed quickly by Vacation Bible School, the Fourth of July, my older daughter's birthday and lots of fun up until school starts back August 6th (!).

And in just one month, near the end of June, the local blueberries will appear in the farmer's market and the CSA bags. I lived for blueberries last summer. We ate bags and boxes of them, maybe freezing a pint or two, which didn't last through October. We were like giddy subprime mortgage lenders, wallowing in the bounty, ignoring the future, the still small voice whispering the blueberries won't go on forever. Heedless of the maxim all good things must come to an end.

But now it's May and soon it will be June. Emily Dickinson wrote that hope is the thing with feathers. Naaah. The Belle of Amherst had it all wrong. Hope is a blueberry. And when I have fresh blueberries at hand, I plan to make blueberry scones and blueberry almond yogurt cake and maybe a blueberry pie and my favorite, blueberry granola parfaits.