How Sweet It Is

Just Desserts

Some of these have been passed down to me from my family and some are just fun, easy ways to have some treats. If you don’t have a sweet tooth for chocolate or cakes, keep in mind a lot of my desserts feature nice, fresh seasonal fruit that would be a great ending to a tasty meal.

MUFFINS:

Blueberry OMG Muffins:

This is a recipe that I found online, but jazzed up because I really love big, fluffy, blueberry muffins. These are easy to make, and a definite crowd favorite.

You will need:

1.5 cups of all-purpose flour, sifted.

3/4 cup of white sugar

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 cup of melted butter

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

1/3 milk (opt for skim for a lower fat recipe, but to indulge, try buttermilk!)

1.5 cups of FRESH blueberries, washed

pinch of nutmeg

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, egg, oil, milk, and butter in a large bowl. Fold in fresh blueberries carefully. Pour batter into greased muffin pan (I don’t like using cups, personally).

Now for the fun part:

Brown Sugar Crumble:

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 flour

4 or 5 pads of butter

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix by hand in a small bowl until the crumbles start to form. Resist licking your fingers! Then sprinkle generously over cups of muffins. The more crumble, the better.

Bake these muffins at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until done. Do the toothpick test.

Summer Berry Pie

Growing up, my mom would throw together some seasonal berries in a pie crust shell, coat with brown sugar, flour and some lemon juice, and bake it up for a delicious summer dessert. I’ve taken almost the exact same method and made it into a recipe:

You will need:

One pie crust shell, either frozen, or graham cracker

1-2 cups of seasonal berries, fresh, washed (raspberries, blackberries and/or strawberries work best. You can use canned)

A couple of handfuls of flour

A couple of handfuls of brown sugar to coat all the berries

1/2 lemon, juiced

5-6 pads of butter

Follow directions on the shell if you need to blind-bake. If not, toss the berries, flour, and brown sugar in a bowl until coated. Pour lemon juice over the berries and mix in. Pour berry mixture into pie crust and stuff several pads of butter into the berries, leaving a couple of pieces of butter on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min or until bubbling and golden.

Keep in mind, if you don’t blind bake, you’ll have to crank the heat, cover the pie with aluminum foil, and wait patiently.

Add a crumble over the top of the berries if you are not putting a pre-baked pie shell atop the pie:

You will need:

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 flour

4 or 5 pads of butter

1 teaspoon of cinnamon