Friday 23 August 2019

One of our Best Traditional Desserts of Summer - Blue Berry Grunt















If you asked by husband what was one of Nova Scotia's best summer time desserts he would say  Blueberry Grunt. Coming from Blue Berry territory in Cumberland County, I wouldn't expect him to say anything else. Growing up with the blue berry fields in your back yard, blue berries were an easy and delicious choice of berry to use in desserts. Here in Cape Breton, we would go out as children and pick a large dish full of blue berries. One of the kids in the area, always knew where the best blue berry field were. So this gave us something to do and got us out of the house, so our mothers could do their house work. I would say Cape Breton Blue Berries were just as good and those on the mainland of Nova Scotia. But that is just me!

For this dessert you will use the following items.
Filling
1 quart blueberries or 4 cups of berries. (We are lucky in our area, to be able to buy local grown berries from a farm in Grand River.)
1/2 cup sugar ( if you like your dessert a little sweeter, you can add up to a cup of sugar)
1 teaspoon lemon juice. 

1/2 cup water.

 In a pot put berries, sugar, lemon juice and water, cover and boil gently until there is plenty of juice.

 
Dumplings
2 cups of flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar ( you can use up to 2 tablespoons depending on the sweetness you like)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon shortening
Sift dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder, salt and sugar) in a bowl. Cut in the butter and the shortening and add enough milk to make a soft biscuit dough. Drop a spoon full of dough onto the hot blueberries in the pot until you have covered the blueberries. Cover pot tightly and do not check it for 15 minutes. Serve hot in a bowl or on a dessert plate. I like to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Eat and enjoy. You can try mainland berries and Cape Breton berries and see which you like the best. Either one will be delicious.
 

 

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