individual blueberry crumbles

Summer is in full swing, which means:

1. Farmers markets.

2.Watermelon.

3. Burned faces. Then tanned faces!

4. Perpetually dirty feet.

5. No makeup.

6. Perpetually sweating. Smelling bad. Losing friends.

7. Fresh Berries.

8. Beach. Little sandy surprises for 3 days thereafter.

9. Barbecues. Hot dogs.

10. Outdoor concerts. 

11. Hooray!

Ah, what's not to love? 

(Possibly me, cause I may or may not be one of those sweaty smelly people. Please hang out with me anyway though, I promise to at least roll around in deodorant.)

Two things from that list came together to create this perfectly lovely summer dessert. I think it's probably self explanatory which two things they were (Hint: it wasn't #4).

These crumbles are amazing. Sweet and a little tart (I did throw in a few raspberries in there cause I had them), with just the perfect amount of crunch. You need to eat them with vanilla ice cream. Need.

 Individual Blueberry Crumbles

2 Servings

Berries

1 cup fresh blueberries (or other berries of your choice)

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 heaping Tablespoon of sugar

1 tsp. cornstarch

2 tsp. water

Topping:

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup quick oats

5 T. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 T. butter, melted

Vanilla ice cream, for serving.

Preheat oven to 350. 

Combine berry mixture ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside. 

Combine all topping ingredients except butter in a separate bowl. Drizzle melted butter over mixture and combine with your hands until all the dry ingredients are moistened and the mixture is crumbly and homogenous.

Divide berries equally into two ramekins. Sprinkle topping equally on both. 

Bake for about 20 minutes or until topping has begun to turn golden brown.

Serve warm with ice cream.

mixed berry baked french toast

Jetlag is good for some things.

It's good for inappropriately long naps at weird times.

It's a good excuse for being useless at work.

It's good for eating 6 meals in a day because your flight started at 11am in Paris and you got fed meals on the flight but then you arrived in Chicago at 1pm and you still had to eat lunch again and dinner too.

It's good for making someone who normally cringes at the thought of any hour before 9am into a perky morning person who gets up and takes long walks and plants flowers and makes beautiful breakfasts...all before 9am.

I don't really ever make breakfast except for on weekends and holidays. I always vow to be cute and wifely and get up early enough to prepare an enticing breakfast for my husband before he goes to work. Then I sleep instead.

But this is the second weekday in a row of inspired early morning breakfast-making. And this particular one turned out decadently delicious.

So in other words, jetlag is good for my husband.

We'll see how long this lasts.

Baked Berry French Toast

Serves 3-4

1/2 loaf of day-old french bread/baguette, sliced into 1-inch slices (I used 8 slices)

Berry mixture

1 cup mixed berries (I used fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries)

zest from one lemon

1/2 T. sugar

1 T. A/P flour

Egg mixture

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

2 T. sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Streusel mixture

4 T. butter

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Toppings

Additional fresh berries

Homemade whipping cream, if desired (I whipped about 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream with about a tablespoon of confectioner's sugar and 1/2 tsp of vanilla. Delish.)

Maple syrup

Butter an 8x8-inch glass pan. Place bread slices in two rows in the pan, slightly overlapping each slice. (This makes the part of the bread that is sticking up get caramel-y and crusty so all your bread isn't soggy.)

Combine the ingredients for the berry mixture in a bowl. Spoon this over the bread in the pan.

Combine the egg mixture ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour this evenly over the bread and berries, covering all the bread as much as possible.

Cover with foil and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour (depending on how much time you have/your hunger level).

Preheat oven to 350. Combine streusel ingredients in a small bowl. Remove the bread from the fridge and spoon the streusel over the bread/berries, making it as evenly distributed as possible. You may try to spread it a bit if you like.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until the mixture on the bottom is good and bubbly. I removed the foil for the last 10-15 minutes of baking to try to get a nice crustiness on top.

Top with desired toppings.

Die and go to heaven.

best blueberry muffins

Ladies and Gents.

I think I've found The One.

 

I do not want to part from this blueberry muffin recipe.

They are so sweet and moist with a fresh zing from the lemon.

I had one for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Ridiculous.

Of course these babies are delicious when they're fresh from the oven, but I did enjoy them more after they had cooled off a bit to room temp. The flavors came together, and all that jazz.

 

Blueberry Muffins

Recipe adapted from here

Makes 12 muffins

  

2 eggs

1/2 C. white sugar

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon zest 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup lemon flavored greek yogurt*

1-1.5 cups blueberries

Raw Turbinado sugar or other coarse sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. 
2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
3. In large bowl beat eggs, gradually add sugar while beating. Continue beating while slowly pouring in applesauce. Stir in vanilla and lemon zest.
4. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream/yogurt. Gently fold in blueberries. Be careful not to overmix. Batter can be slightly lumpy. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. You can fill the cups all the way to the top for a nice bakery size muffin.
5. Sprinkle each muffin with coarse sugar.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

*I decided to use the lemon greek yogurt cause I had it, but you can use all sour cream (1 Cup) instead and I'm sure it will be just delicious.)