Every day I seem to be scrambling to eat fruit before it goes to the great compost bin in the sky (okay, Cedar Grove Composting). But I can only eat so much fruit by myself and it seems my family has quit eating fruit this summer.
My youngest daughter usually loves eating blueberries just by themselves, but there they sat in the fridge; untouched. I also spied a five-pound tub of sour cream burrowed deep in the fridge.
You’d be surprised by the things my husband likes to haul home from his club’s car show. When the dinner is over and everything hasn’t been consumed, they start offering up food before they throw it away.
My husband asks if I’d like this or that. Normally, I say no, because who needs five pounds of sour cream or the 2-pound box of butter pats? He brought them home anyway and stuck in the fridge (butter in the freezer). We used the sour cream a couple times on the baked potatoes we also brought home. Then I forgot all about it.
I even bought a couple containers of sour cream last week. So when I spied the blueberries in the fridge, there behind them sat the five pounds of sour cream. There are some things I don’t know why I know, but I thought to myself, “Blueberries and sour cream seem like a common combination. I wonder if there is a recipe for a blueberry sour cream cake?”
I Googled it and there were actually many recipes for blueberries and sour cream: pie, cake, tarts, coffee cake. They all sounded yummy, so I chose the one that used the most blueberries and sour cream. I had to make a dent in my ingredients whose condition was fading as the seconds wore on.
It was very simple to make as long as you have a spring form pan, which I do. Although I haven’t used it in so long, I wasn’t sure if I had one. But there it was, stored where I see it every day with my colander set nestled inside it. It’s amazing what we look at frequently but don’t register.
So here is my recipe for saving blueberries and using up sour cream. I got it from a website called Cookie Madness (cookiemadness.net). Maybe next time I’ll tell you what I do with bananas.
Blueberry Sour Cream Tart
Crust:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (6 ¾ oz)
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon of salt
4 ounces butter, unsalted (cold)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping:
4 cups fresh blueberries or thawed and drained frozen blueberries
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 cups sour cream
½ cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sweetened whipped cream for topping
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9 inch round springform pan with cooking spray. It’s best to use light colored (silver) rather than black.
In a bowl or food processor, combine flour, ½ cup granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut or process in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir or process in the egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pat lightly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
Sprinkle cornstarch over the blueberries and gently stir to coat cornstarch with blueberries (it will disappear as you stir). Spread the blueberries over the crust.
Stir sour cream, ½ cup of sugar, egg yolks and 1 teaspoon vanilla together in a mixing bowl. Pour this mixture over the blueberries and carefully spread it across the top.
Set the springform pan on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 60 to 70 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is lightly browned around edges – it should still look a little loose in the center and will set as it cools and chills. Loosen hot cake from pan with a knife, but do not remove sides quite yet. Cool completely and chill for a few hours. Remove sides of springform pan. Serve each slice with whipped cream or spread whipped cream over entire cake before slicing.
Makes 8 servings.
Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. She is continues to rescue fruit gone bad. You can also read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com or on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh.” Her column is available every week at maplevalleyreporter.com under the Lifestyles section.
