The modern cultivated Jersey blueberry turns 100 this summer. Developed by Elizabeth White and Frederick Coville on White’s farm in southeastern New Jersey, native bushes were cloned from cuttings and were cross-pollinated to develop the large sweet berries we find in our markets today.
We probably don’t think of blueberries as being a “Jewish “ food like lox and bagels, apple strudel, or noodle kugel. But if you dig a little, you’ll find many delectable Jewish inspired dishes like blueberry blintzes, blueberry cheesecake, blueberry noodle kugel and even blueberry bagels.
Indeed, Toronto has its own special blueberry pastry called Blueberry Buns or shritzlach. Probably inspired by a recipe from Poland, it’s basically a hallah like dough baked around a blueberry filling. It is definitely not a donut.
Blueberries, despite their small size, pack a lot of nutrition into each little fruit- antioxidants, vitamin C, fiber and potassium. And they are low in calories.
Picking blueberries is also a great summer family activity. There is nothing better than fresh-really fresh-picked fruit. One of my favorite childhood memories is picking wild blueberries that grew on the shore of the lake where my family spent the summer when I was a child. We vied to see who could pick the most. Since we picked the berries while we were in a row boat, it’s a wonder that neither my brothers nor I ever fell into the little lake. Our reward was blueberry pancakes for breakfast.
There are approximately 3 cups of berries in a pound. Frozen blueberries can often be substituted for fresh. One cup of frozen blueberries equals about 2/3 cup thawed.
Enjoy this taste of New Jersey blues.
Jewish Blueberry Sour Cream Bundt Cake
The first recipe is a take on sour cream coffee cake. What Jewish cook doesn’t have that moist cake in his or her culinary repertoire? My version comes from my grandmother, but I think she’d approve of this cake, too.
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened (or shortening)
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1-1/2 pints fresh blueberries
1/2 cup Confectionery sugar
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Place dry blueberries in paper lunch bag. Add two tablespoons flour and shake gently so that blueberries are coated.(This ensures the blueberries do not all sink to bottom of cake.)
- Cream sugar with butter.
- Add eggs and beat well.
- Add sour cream and vanilla; beat well.
- Sift flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add to creamed mixture; beat two minutes.
- Add floured blueberries to mixture by gently folding into batter.
- Spoon into greased and floured Bundt or tube pan. You can use baking spray.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top.
- Let sit for 15 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool.
- Once cool, dust with confectionary sugar and serve with ice cream.
NOTE: Before baking sprinkle a bit of cinnamon and sugar on top and perhaps some chopped nuts for a crunchy sweet topping or make a traditional crumb topping. Toppings work best if a tube pan is used.
A tube pan with removable sides is ideal.
Blueberry Cake
This blueberry cake is pareve, using oil in place of butter. It’s similar in texture to the classic Polish apple cake which appears in almost every Jewish cookbook.
Ingredients:
Batter:
3 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 tsps. baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup mild tasting oil such as canola, soy or vegetable
1-1/2 tsps. vanilla
1/2 cup orange juice
Fruit:
1-1/2 pints blueberries, rinsed
1 tsps. cinnamon
5 Tbsps. sugar
Directions:
- Grease a 10-inch bundt or tube pan and heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add wet ingredients to the bowl and mix well until batter is smooth.
- Prepare fruit in a separate bowl, tossing to coat berries with sugar and cinnamon.
- Pour a third of the batter into the pan and cover with a layer of the berry mixture. Repeat this process twice more, layering fruit with batter until pan is filled.
- Bake for one hour until the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool, remove from pan and serve plain or topped with sorbet, whipped cream or ice cream.
Blueberry Noodle Kugel
What’s more “Jewish” than a noodle kugel? This recipe, featuring blueberries, is a combination of two recipes, resulting in a blueberry rich dish.
Ingredients
12 oz. broad noodles, cooked and drained
4 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
12 oz. sour cream
12 oz. small curd cottage cheese
1-1/4 cup milk
3 Tablespoons melted margarine
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
grated peel of 1 lemon
3/4 c fresh or frozen dry pack blueberries
1 large can blueberry pie filling
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Grease a 9 x13 pan.
- Beat eggs and sugar.
- Blend in sour cream, cottage cheese, milk, melted margarine, vanilla and lemon peel.
- Add drained noodles and mix thoroughly.
- Add blueberries and stir again gently to mix but do not smash berries.
- Turn into greased pan.
- Bake for about 45 minutes.
- Top with pie filling and bake an additional 15 minutes or until done.
- Cool for 10 minutes. It will be too hot to serve immediately.
NOTE: Top each serving of kugel with a dollop of sour cream. Instead of pie filling, the kugel can be topped with cinnamon and crushed cornflakes and baked for 1 hour until golden. It can be frozen, defrosted and reheated at 350 for about 1 hour or until warmed through.
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Aileen,
One of my favorite summertime activities at the very small bungalow colony we attended year-after-year was “kluyben yagdas” which is probably a very poor transliteration of the Yiddish words for picking blueberries. My father of Blessed Memory and I would tie a thin rope to the handles of gallon pots and wrap the ropes around our necks so that we could pick with two hands. These blueberries were “high bush” and considerably smaller than the ones grown in New Jersey. We always returned with full pots and our family and all of our cousins and their cousins, would feast on them in all the different ways you suggest. To this day, the thought of eating frozen blueberries lacks any appeal to me.
Thanks for the fond memories.
Martin