Making use of fresh blueberries in pie recipes

At the Cape Girardeau Senior Center, where I am employed, we are blessed to have the most wonderful group of volunteers in the city. All the loyal and dedicated volunteers give selflessly of their time and energy, and many give of their personal resources. Each one is a valuable part of the day-to-day operation of the center and is greatly appreciated.

One such volunteer is Tara Sanders. Tara is a young woman from the dietetics department of Southeast Missouri State University. She has been with us each Monday, Wednesday and Friday for about a year now, working her way through the entire kitchen to learn every aspect as fast as she could. As part of one of her college courses, she had to be the manager for a complete meal to be planned, prepared, served and cleaned up. Several from the senior center were able to attend the dinner, and it was a lovely evening for all of us.

The dinner menu she planned included tomato, basil and cheese pinwheels, herbed pork loin, seasoned fresh asparagus, roasted red-skinned potatoes, marinated garden salad, cloverleaf rolls and yellow cake with chocolate butter-cream icing. All items were well prepared and delicious. We gave her a glowing review on her evaluation sheets.

Tara will be leaving us in a couple of weeks, and we will miss her. As she continues her education in Nashville, Tenn., we know our lives have been richly blessed by her presence, and Nashville is lucky to be getting her.

Over the weekend, Joan Haring and I were visiting about the oldie-but-goodie recipe for four-layer dessert. I have made this dessert using some pretty imaginative fillings. One she wanted me to share with her was blueberry. So, for you, Joan:

Blueberry Four-Layer Dessert

Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 stick margarine, melted

1 cup sugar

1 cup finely chopped pecans

Mix these ingredients together and stir to combine. Pat into the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees until this crust is lightly browned. Remove from oven to cool completely.

Filling:

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

2 large containers Cool Whip

Blend these ingredients together and spread over the cooled crust layer.

Blueberry filling layer:

6 cups blueberries

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup sugar, or to taste

Scant 1/2 cup cornstarch

Cook these ingredients together until thickened. Cool and spread over the cream cheese layer. Cover and place in refrigerator and cool several hours. When ready to serve, top with the layer of Cool Whip to cover the blueberries.

I have done this with strawberries using some mashed berries and some whole and thickening as above. Both are delicious and a nice change to a pudding layer.

While we are on the subject of blueberries, a reader sent me this recipe which has a pat-in-the-pan pie crust. I tried this one time and I did not care for it as much as my rolled crust, but in a hurry or for a beginner, this would be a great crust to use. The blueberry filling sounds delicious also.

Perfect Blueberry Pie

Crust:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 2/3 cup salad oil

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

Pie filling:

1 quart fresh blueberries, washed

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 cup sugar

Dash ground cinnamon

Dash freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon lemon juice

4 teaspoons butter

Crust:

Into a 9-inch pie plate, sift together the flour, sugar and salt. In a glass measuring cup, whisk together 1/2 cup salad oil and 3 tablespoons milk with a fork. Pour that over the flour mixture in pie plate and mix with a fork until all flour is evenly dampened. If it is still too dry to work with your hands, mix a little more oil with a little milk and add to flour mixture. With your hands, press the dough evenly against the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan, allowing the excess to fall on the counter. (This will be the top crumble crust and is about 1/3 of the total crust mixture.) Sweep it into your hand and reserve in a small bowl. Crimp the edges of the bottom crust or use a fork dipped in milk to flatten the crust along the rim.

Berry pie filling:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To the washed berries add cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg. Stir gently. Place the berry mixture in the bottom crust and sprinkle lemon juice over it. Then with an ordinary teaspoon, place little 1/2 teaspoons soft butter evenly over the top of the berry filling. Crumble the reserved crust on top of the pie. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Check it after 30 minutes. If crust is getting golden but pie filling is not quite congealed, tent the pie with aluminum foil to keep crust from getting too brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Be sure to send in your favorite recipe so other recipe collectors and cooks may enjoy them as well. At the Senior Center we are compiling a cookbook as a fund-raiser. If you would like to submit recipes for inclusion in our book, send those to me. The more recipes, and a good variety, will make for a great book. So, until next time, have a great week, and happy cooking.

Susan McClanahan is administrator at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center. Send recipes to her at smcclanahan@semissourian.com or by mail at P.O. Box 699; Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701. Recipes published have not been kitchen-tested by the Southeast Missourian staff.