Jackson Jambalaya

Ireland is the home of green landscapes, farm fields enclosed by stone walls, and Leprechauns decked out in little Irish suits, with shillelaghs, pots of gold, and silly green hats. It is a wonderful place I am certain many here would be happy to visit. However, if you can't, here is a nice recipe for a wonderful treat I like to call Irish Blueberry Crumb Cake. Guaranteed to carry your thoughts straight to Ireland.

Maybe you grow them in your yard or maybe you go to a blueberry farm and pick a couple of gallons someone else grew. Maybe you just buy then on those little green plastic boxes at the Piggly Wiggly or farmer’s market. However you might get them, blueberries are a nice treat. They taste good and are good for you. In think I read somewhere, the darker the berry, the better it is for you. That might be wrong, but it sounds reasonable to me.

Here is more blueberry propaganda:

I think with springtime blooms, followed by blue berries that Mockingbirds love-love-love, then colorful leaves in the fall, they also make a perfect addition to any southern landscape. Be sure to plant more than one variety when you make your blueberry bush bed in the yard. Different varieties produce berries at different times across the spring and they help pollinate each other. The nice thing is you pick a place for them, plant five or six bushes, mulch them in, and then pretty much leave them alone. I have a friend who has older bushes that are about ten feet tall. He picks the lower berries and the birds take care of the ones that are higher up. I tell him he should just top them in the fall and most likely they will still make all the berries he can handle with all of them closer to the ground.

These were our bushes when we lived in Meridian.

Another important fact - blueberries work great in this week's recipe.

We portion out our crop each year and store them (unwashed) in ziplock bags in the freezer. Just pick them and drop them into the bag, then into the freezer. It's always nice to be able to pull some out when the weather is chilly cold and damp and use them to make a nice Irish Blueberry Crumb Cake for desert or with your coffee. It has nothing to do with this recipe, but they are also pretty good on a bowl of shredded wheat cereal for breakfast. My Dad loved them that way.

Irish Blueberry Lamon Crumbcake

Ingredients:

Blueberry Lemon Crumbcake

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon) of Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups blueberries – frozen blueberries work fine
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees for a shiny pan, or 325 if using a dark pan.

Butter the pan and dust with sugar – using sugar instead of flour gives a sweet crunchy crust to the finished cake.

Mix the AP flour, baking powder baking soda and salt. Coat the berries with sugar then add the lemon zest and gently mix. Be careful to not damage the berries as this will turn your cake purple.

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time and beating well before adding the second egg. Add the yogurt and mix

Add the dry ingredients using a spatula to gently mix. I do not fully mix the batter because I like the way the cake crumb comes out if the batter is about 90% incorporated. Regardless, be very careful to avoid crushing the blueberries. As you can see, this batter is very thick.

Transfer the batter into the loaf pan, spread it out a little, and bake for 70 minutes. Check at 50-60 minutes in case your oven is hotter at 350 degrees than mine is. The cake should be nicely browned and “thump hollow” when done. f you like, you could brush some melted butter over the top. I hardly ever do that, but who doesn't like a little butter on their coffeecake?

Cool the cake on a rack for 10-15 minutes slide a knife around the pan to loosen the cake before turning it out onto a plate.

Finished! Hopefully you have made a pot of coffee to go with that first slice of cake.

While your blueberry crumb is cooling a little, get out some butter and whipped cream. I like to add a little melted butter and eat mine while my slice is still hot, like you see here. The wife added some whipped cream to her slice.

 I recommend you make a cup of coffee and add Bailey's Irish Cream to it, which makes this an official Irish Recipe.

Mmmmmmm.

Thanks for looking at my post.

God Bless You