Celebrate the 4th with this great pie!

This pie is really impressive and a great dessert for the 4th of July with it's red, white, and blue colors! We won 2nd place in a pie contest with this recipe. Tastes as good as it looks!

Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Pie

1 pie crust recipe-single crust
**Prepare pie crust. Roll out and line a 9-inch pie pan. With extra crust cut out stars with 2-3 inch star cookie cutter. Bake crust in a 450 degree oven until lightly browned.
Stars: 2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel.
Brush over stars. Bake at 450 for 6-8 minutes.
Allow crust and stars to cool.

Filling
8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped
In small bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and lemon peel until light and fluffy. Fold in whipped cream. Spoon into cooled pie crust, spread evenly. Spoon cooled blueberry filling over lemon filling.

Topping
You can use a 21 oz can of blueberry pie filling but if you have your own blueberries here's how to make fruit filling for the top. (**Note added later: This will make more topping than you need for one pie, about 6 cups. Cut it in half or make 2 pies. Sorry for any confusion.)

6 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (thaw frozen berries completely and reserve juices)

3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Combine the above dry ingredients in a saucepan.
Add:
1/2 cup water/ blueberry juice
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Whisk into dry ingredients until smooth. Cook over medium heat until bubbly.
Decrease heat and cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Add fruit and stir until evenly coated. Remove from heat. Allow to cool before topping cheesecake.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Garnish with star cut-out strawberry fans and whipped cream.

Strawberry fans: use firm berries with stems. Starting at tip, cut into thin slices almost to stem. Spread slices to form open fans.

Blueberry Cobbler

This is really good with homemade ice-cream or fresh cream!


6 cups frozen blueberries
1/3 cup plus 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks cold butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract




Preheat the oven to 375°. Butter an 8-by-8-by-2-inch baking dish.
Mix the blueberries with 1/3 cup of the sugar and 2 tablespoons of the flour. Spoon into the baking dish.
In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour and 3 tablespoons of sugar with the baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender.
Add the milk and vanilla and stir with a fork to form a wet, sticky dough. Drop rounded teaspoons of the dough over the top of the blueberries to cover them.
Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar on top of the cobbler.


Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden-brown and bubbling.
Let the cobbler cool for at least 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Chocolate Covered Blueberries

This recipe is a snap to make yet it has a bit of gourmet flair. Serve them for a party or a quick dessert. They store well in the refrigerator for a few days. We passed these out at the farm last Saturday and they were a big hit. Even the kids can help make these!

Chocolate Covered Blueberries
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

2 cups fresh blueberries, washed and thoroughly dried. (Dry is very important or the chocolate won't stick)

In a double boiler or medium bowl over simmering water, melt chocolate chips. Stir in shortening. Add blueberries and gently stir until well coated.
Drop by teaspoonfuls to form small clusters onto a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Chill until firm. Once the clusters are firm transfer to a container. Serve on a plate or in paper candy cups. Keeps for 2 to 3 days in covered container in the refrigerator.

Here's a thought....If you use dark chocolate you get a treat loaded with health benefits and very little guilt. It's a well known fact that blueberries are loaded with good things like antioxidants and vitamins so a dessert with blueberries just has to be good for you. If you use dark chocolate then you get even more health benefits. Dark chocolate may lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and contains antioxidants. Seems like a win, win dessert to me. I'm all for healthy but yummy!

Enjoy!

Blueberry Bread Recipes

Here's a couple of delicious ways to use up some of those delightful blueberries! We thought both of these recipes were very good and we wanted to share them with you.

Blueberry Sunshine Loaf

1-1/4 cup oil

5 eggs

2 Cups sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 cups flour, divided

2 pkgs. instant lemon pudding mix

2 Cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

In small bowl, toss blueberries with 2 Tbsp flour to coat. In large bowl, beat eggs with oil, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda. Stir in remaining flour and dry pudding mixes until well-blended (batter is very thick). Stir in flour-coated blueberries. Bake at 350 deg. in greased pans.

Three 8"x4" loaf pans: 50-60 min. Two 9"x5" loaf pans: 60-75 min. Seven 5"x3" mini-loaves: 35-45 min.

Turn out of pans, cool on wire racks

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Blueberry Bread

3 Cups flour

3 eggs

1-1/2 Cups milk

1- 1/2 Cups oil

1 -1/2 tsp vanilla

1-1/2 tsp almond flavoring

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2-1/4 Cup sugar

1-1/2 tsp butter flavoring

2-1/2 Cups blueberries

Frosting:

1/8 Cup orange juice

1/3 Cup sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp butter flavoring

3/4 tsp almond flavoring

In a small bowl toss blueberries with a little flour to coat. Mix all wet (bread) ingredients and beat. Mix all dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mix very well, and fold in blueberries. Put into 2 well-greased bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 75-85 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan, the remove from pan.

Heat frosting ingredients. When bread is completely cool, drizzle frosting on.