Homemade Blueberry Jam

I’ve been on a blueberry kick the past few weeks. Blame it on the farmer’s markets, but I suddenly want to take advantage of the fact that everywhere you turn there are fresh, sweet, blueberries waiting to be baked/cooked/jammed. Last Sunday, I made the blueberry pie that beats all other blueberry pies, and then, inspired by my friend Sarah’s most recent post, tried my hand at making jam. It was really, really easy, yielded a TON of jam (see: for the rest of ever), and is delicious! Brian helped himself to five (yes, five) slices of toast this morning topped with the jam and Earth Balance.

Before settling on one recipe, I Googled around and found that most recipes are all fairly similar: crushed fruits + lemon juice + some quantity of sugar + pectin. The sugar content of most of them was high (2 cups!), so I cut it down by half as the blueberries I had on hand were already pretty sweet. Here’s what I did.

What You Need:

4 cups, rinsed blueberries

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons pectin

2 teaspoons calcium water (this comes in the box with the pectin, along with instructions on how to make the calcium water.)

What You Do:

Add the blueberries to a large pot. Crush them with a fork, or, if you want to be fancy, use a drinking class to crush everything up (which is what I did).  Add the lemon juice, calcium water, stir, and bring to a boil.

In a small separate bowl, add the sugar and pectin. Mix well.

Once the berry mixture is boiling, add in the sugar/pectin mix, and mix well for 1-2 minutes making sure all the pectin gets dissolved. Let stand for another minute, then remove from heat. Pour into clean jars, leave a little room at the top, and then seal tightly. Let sit on the counter for 12 hours (don’t open it!) then refrigerate. Sit back, relax, and revel in the fact that you are now a jam maker, you.

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Last Saturday I woke up with a very clear mission in my mind: BLUEBERRIES. I wanted to buy tons and tons of fresh blueberries and go crazy in the kitchen with them. And this is exactly what I did.

I marched to the Farmer’s Market at the ungodly early hour of 10 AM (it was a Saturday, people!) and already the market was packed — not to mention STEAMY. I picked up three pints of blueberries and marched right back home. Actually, that’s a lie. I also picked up a new addition to the herb family I’ve got going on in my kitchen: CILANTRO. How some people don’t have the taste for this stuff is beyond me. I just LOVE it!

I came home and set out on first blueberry adventure of  of the day*:  blueberry oat muffins. I’m of the belief that if you’re going to have a mufin for breakfast, shouldn’t it at least be a HEALTHY muffin? This one does the trick. Whole wheat flour, no oil (!), brown sugar, oats, blueberries….these are actually GOOD for you. Plus, they are incredibly easy to make, take about 15 minutes to bake, and are a crowd pleaser for sure. These went fast at the office!

What You Need: (adapted from Happy Herbivore)

1½ cups whole wheat  flour

½ cup rolled oats

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

¼ cup pure maple syrup

1 cup fresh wild blueberries

What You Do:

Preheat oven 350 F. In a bowl, mix together the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add applesauce, sugar, maple syrup, and mix, combining well.  Add in the blueberries and carefully mix. Spoon into lightly greased muffin tins and fill 3/4 of the way (you should be able to fill 12 muffin tins.) Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean!

Enjoy!

* There were more! Will post later.

Healthy Banana Blueberry Breakfast Loaf

It’s Monday morning, I just rolled out of bed, and I have 30 minutes to be dressed and out the door. Going to happen? Meh, we’ll see. First things first, I need to make up for my blogging negligence from this weekend and give you guys a good one…so here it is: a healthy banana bread.

In the past, my banana breads have been known for being incredibly sweet, oily, and filled with chocolate. Not exactly suitable for breakfast (unless you’re 8 years old), they are usually enjoyed as dessert with a scoop of soy vanilla ice cream piled on top. I came across what looked like a healthy alternative: banana/blueberry bread with no oil, made entirely out of whole wheat flour and sweetened with nothing more than agave syrup. At first I was majorly hesitant to try making this stuff. What about the cup of oil? 2 cups of sugar? bag of chocolate chips?! How would this EVER compare?!

This recipe was ridiculously easy. It took me about 10 minutes to mix together in a bowl and then another hour or so to bake. The results were delicious! This is definitely what I would call a “breakfast” banana bread. Sweetened naturally by the bananas and blueberries, you won’t feel like you’re eating a slice of sugar for breakfast (ew!). I recommend eating it slightly warmed up in the microwave. So good!

What You Need (Recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen):

3 large over-ripe bananas
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup vanilla soymilk
1/2 cup  agave nectar
2 cups white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat flour)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (240 ml) blueberries

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with oil.

Mix the soymilk with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and let stand until it curdles.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas well, removing any big lumps. Add the remaining lemon juice, soy milk and agave. In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and mix well. Add the dry mixture to the banana mixture and mix very well. Fold in the blueberries. Pour the batter into the loaf pan, place in the oven for 55 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out dry), and the end!

You can either let cool completely before slicing, or, if you’re inpatient like me, slice off one of the ends and have a taste.

Enjoy!