Bountiful Blueberries

From The Northwoods Kitchen Vol.1 No. 7- A bountiful wild blueberry season and a crumble bar recipe to go along with it

From the Northwoods

Living in northern Minnesota means the joys of being able to grow your own food is sometimes hard to come by. Have you ever had tomatoes finally start to ripen in September only for an early frost to come and steal that joy? Sometimes I wonder why we grow anything other than potatoes and garlic here. There is one thing this corner of the world does well though and that’s berries.

Right now, backyards, ditches and forest floors are an embarrassment of riches when it comes to these delightfully tart little jewels and I have spent the better part of the last few weeks taking advantage of my personal favorite being in season- blueberries! Battling ticks and deer flies with a can of bear spray at my side and a green Menards bucket in my hand, I have been walking hunched over through the woods, gathering blueberries like a feral little forest gnome. It’s well worth the back problems and bug bites though as wild blueberries are far superior to anything you will find at a farm or in a grocery store. Although often smaller in size, their flavor is unmatched thanks to the natural habitat they’ve found here in the northwoods.

The rockier and more acidic the better when it comes to blueberries soil preferences and if you’ve ever been to Palisade Head on the northshore of Lake Superior, you know first hand what I mean. Wild blueberry patches can be found all throughout northern Minnesota and to hunt for your own, start by looking for pine forests and rocky or sandy soil. There is nothing wild blueberries love more than a bed of fallen pine needles as their acidity helps the plant absorb necessary nutrients and fend of diseases. This year appeared to be a particularly good year for them as the plants were incredibly healthy and the berries unending.

Where I live we have a variety of wild blueberries as well as some similar plants such as bilberries and huckleberries. The need for distinction between them is merely a matter of curiosity as the flavors and uses for them are more or less the same but I still get excited every time I’m able to successfully identify a new to me plant variety. Be it huckleberry, bilberry or black highbush blueberry, my favorite berries are the ones that are so dark they are almost black. The fruit is softer but the flavor is exactly how you dream a blueberry tastes, like it’s been plucked straight from a blueberry pie.

While blueberries were the main focus this month, I also found raspberries, pin cherries and serviceberries that were in season as well as chokecherries, tea berries and juniper berries that will soon be ready to gather. With so much abundance from floor to canopy, it’s easy to see why this is my favorite time of year in the woods!

From the Kitchen

While it may be my favorite time of year in the woods, it’s my least favorite in the kitchen. It’s always fun to use the food you forage immediately but I am also a big proponent of not making your life miserable in order to do so. Living in an older rental house with no central A/C and full sun exposure during the hottest part of the day, means that much of what I am gathering right now is washed and frozen to be processed when cooler days arrive. It’s better to do that than waste food just because you feel like you shouldn’t freeze something fresh and wild.

I did take advantage of my fresh raspberries and serviceberries though by making a batch of my mixed berry crumble bars, as I didn’t gather enough to justify freezing them. Many crumble bars use the same mixture for the crust and the topping but I prefer bars with a shortbread base and an oat crumble on top. The work load isn’t much more to get the benefits of having a buttery shortbread and a hearty topping as both are made in the food processor. These bars come together easily and are a perfect way to use up a glut of random berries which is why I’m sharing the recipe for them this week.

I also made a blueberry tiramisu and while I loved the textures, I want to rework it to make the blueberry flavor the star it should be. If I can get it to where I want it to be, I’ll be sharing that recipe next. For now though, take advantage of berry season by making my mixed berry crumble bars. They’re perfect with coffee for breakfast or served with a scoop of ice cream after dinner.

Happy baking from the land of 10,000 bakes,

Nicole

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Mixed Berry Crumble Bars

Everyone needs a basic berry crumble bar recipe to take advantage of what’s in season and this is mine. These bars start out with an impossibly short and buttery shortbread crust that is topped with plenty of fresh berries to make sure “berry” is the standout word in this recipe. The oat crumble topping is an obvious must to any crumble bar and these are piled high enough that nobody will notice if you sneak a few large buttery chunks straight out of the oven.

Ingredients

For the shortbread crust

• 260 grams all purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 100 grams granulated sugar

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 226 grams unsalted butter, straight from the fridge and cut into 1/2” cubes

• 2 egg yolks, straight from the fridge

For the filling

• 1000 grams mixed berries (I used blueberries, raspberries and serviceberries that

  I foraged. If you choose to use strawberries, be sure to thoroughly pat them dry.)

• 150 grams granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (can use extract instead)

• 40 grams cornstarch

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the oat crumble topping

• 195 grams all purpose flour

• 50 grams granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 100 grams old fashioned oats

• 170 grams unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper.

2. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, salt, sugar and cornstarch 3 or 4 times for the shortbread crust. Add the cubed butter and pulse together until mixture looks like wet crumbs. Then add the egg yolks and run on low speed until mixture starts to form clumps.

3. Evenly press the shortbread dough into the bottom of the 9x13 pan, dock all over with a fork and bake for 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, stir together all of the mixed berry filling ingredients until everything is well combined and no pockets of dry cornstarch remain. Set aside

5. In the food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and oats 3 or 4 times until combined. Pour in the melted butter and pulse until mixture just starts to form clumps.

6. Unless you are far quicker than I am in the kitchen, the crust should be out of the oven by now and been sitting for a few minutes. You don’t want to add the berries and crumble to your shortbread immediately out of the oven as the top is too fragile at this point. Once it’s had at least five minutes out of the oven, move onto step 7.

7. Pour the berry mixture onto the shortbread and spread it evenly across. Then add the crumble topping. You can leave it large chunks or break it apart for a more even coverage. I personally love making sure I have enough large chunks so people won’t notice when I sneak a few off the top immediately after it’s done baking.

8. Bake your bars at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes until golden on top and the berry filling is bubbling. You can also take the temperature of the blueberry layer, which should be between 200-210 degrees, to make sure it’s to the point needed for them to be fully set when cooled.

9. Allow bars to fully cool before removing from the pan and cutting and serving. Although, I won’t tell anyone if you cut into them early because let’s face it, a warm crumble bar and vanilla ice cream truly are the perfect pairing!

10. Your mixed berry crumble bars can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days in the fridge for up to 7 days.