Blueberry Coffee Cake a healthy Easter-morning suggestion

On our spring break trip, which involved multitudinous miles of car travel, I wanted us to have a stupendous breakfast nibble.

The magazine in which I found the recipe for Blueberry Coffee Cake included it in the “lightened-up” category. Fat-free milk and fat-free yogurt, along with a generous addition of healthy blueberries, helped make this a guilt-free baked delight as the miles rolled along.

The blueberries are antioxidant-rich; the recipe is said to contain only 219 calories a slice. I think this would be a great Easter-morning goody as well, as we plan ahead for a holiday breakfast or brunch.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

1 large egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

1/2 cup fat-free milk

1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar (or sugar substitute)

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

2 tablespoons sliced almonds

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl whisk together first 4 ingredients. In another bowl sift together flour and next 3 ingredients. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture just until dry ingredients are moistened. Toss 1 1/4 cups blueberries in 1 tablespoon flour; fold into batter. Pour into a lightly greased 9-inch springform pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining 1/4 cup blueberries. Stir together 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar, sliced almonds, and cinnamon; sprinkle over batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center emerges clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes; remove sides of pan. Makes 10 servings. (Source: Southern Living January 2013)

A hint of spring in those Blueberry Muffins with the lemony topping? If so, we're ready.

They were featured in a magazine article on Christmas-morning breakfast goodies, but when I baked them and dined on them, I was certain a touch of spring breezed through. (Our unusual springlike weather in mid-January may have contributed to that.)

I’m a blueberry muffin adorer and preparer from way back, but I’ve never topped them with with anything like this Lemon-Cream Cheese Glaze. The fluffy lemony topping brings out the flavor of the blueberries amazingly. I used frozen blueberries in my mixture, but fresh blueberries, of course, are ideal if you can encounter some.

Christmas morning (as the Southern Living December 2011 issue suggested), Easter morning, or just plain ole Saturday morning (the time when ours were enjoyed), these gorgeous muffins are winners.

Blueberry Muffins with Lemon-Cream Cheese Glaze

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or salt substitute)

3 large eggs (or 3/4 cup egg substitute)

1 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 cups frozen (or fresh) blueberries

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Stir together first 4 ingredients. Whisk together eggs and next 2 ingredients; add to flour mixture; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon flour; gently fold into batter. Spoon mixture into 1 1/2 lightly greased 12-cup muffin pans. Fill muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 450 degrees for 14 to 15 minutes or until muffins are lightly browned and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Immediately remove from pans to wire racks. Let cool 10 minutes. Makes 1 1/2 dozen muffins.

Lemon-Cream Cheese Glaze

1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened (I used low-fat cream cheese)

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add lemon zest and next 2 ingredients; beat until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Frost muffins.

Mature quickly, little apple tree! Roasted Apples with Berries stirs the imaginations.

A big ole gap like a snaggled-toothed smile existed along the front row of our garden. The lineup went like this: pear tree, peach tree, peach tree, blank spot. Some time ago a peach tree had died there and had not been replaced. Elsewhere in back yard we also have a plum. We’ve never tried apples, but all the other fruit trees now are mature and producing well. What fun to have our own apples! Hubby decided to give it a try, so over the weekend he filled the gap with one. Time will tell.

To stir our imaginations about what delights might await if we could walk to our garden and bring in our own apples like we soon (ideally) will our peaches, I hatched up a batch of Baked Apples with Berries. This capitalized on the bounty of berries that fills the produce aisles of grocery stores right now. Hubby’s strawberry allergy prevents from indulging in that wonderful fruit, but he can indulge with all the rest. (How can a strawberry seed irritate his digestive system but a blackberry seed doesn’t faze him? Go figure, but we just go with the flow.)

This dish combines raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries—everything that’s on his green-light list—and stuffs them down into a hollowed-out cavity in a Granny Smith apple; all that bakes for 45 minutes. After baking the wonderfully soft apple interior combine with the roasted berry mixture for some terrific flavor. Remaining berries are mixed with yogurt, honey, and cinnamon, poured over the top, and served warm, with extra berries sprinkled on top.

The recipe called for four servings; we had so much of the yogurt-berry topping left over after the apples were downed that Hubby enjoyed it for a great low-cal dessert last night (or, next time we could have baked six apples instead of four and used the entire topping amount in six).

Now that the snaggled-toothed gap in the garden has been filled, bring on the apples!

Baked Apples with Berries

1 cup fresh blackberries

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 cup fresh blueberries

4 large Granny Smith apples, washed

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup fat-free, vanilla-flavored yogurt

2 teaspoons honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Starting at the stem, core apples about three-quarters of the way through the apple. Make the hole more than 1-inch wide. Spray baking dish with cooking spray; place hollowed-out apples in the dish. Combine berries; pack berries very firmly into the opening in each apple. Set extra berries aside. Bake apples until soft, about 45 minutes. Divide remaining berries in half. Crush half the berries; then mix them with yogurt, cinnamon, and honey. Serve apples warm with yogurt topping and extra berries sprinkled on top. Makes 4 servings.

See what you get when you merge standby pie recipe with healthy fruit already on hand?

I really had to see it to believe it. The Dallas Morning News recipe section featured an “add-a-fruit” idea to make old standby favorite recipes more healthy. To one of my favorite pies in all the world—chess pie–the newspaper column suggested adding one of my favorite fruit in all the world—blueberries. Much as I loved the flavors of each, I couldn’t imagine blending them.

Furthermore the blending process seemed odd. The recipe said to puree 10 ounces of frozen (you could use whole, fresh blueberries as well) blueberries and spread this layer on the bottom of a prepared pie crust. (I always have frozen ones on hand because we use them on our breakfast cereal.) Then stir up the traditional chess pie mixture (which features cornmeal and vinegar) and pour it over the blueberries. How would this work? The blueberry puree wasn’t heavy enough to stay on bottom to make a separate, distinct layer. When I poured the liquid chess-pie mixture over the blueberries, the bottom layer rose to the top. Originally I envisioned cutting into the pie that contained the blueberries as a surprise layer on the bottom. Now, from the looks of things, the blueberries would cook up indistinguishable from the chess. I prepared for a bummer and was ready to send the Dallas Morning News an email of complaint.

Was I in for a surprise? Layers did occur in the baking; however, they reversed themselves. What I retrieved from the oven after baking finished was a pie that was solid purple on top but, on carving into it, had the nice golden chess layer on the bottom. What a hoot! Both layers solidified just fine. And the flavor of the fruit on top of the chess was indescribable. The addition of a tiny sliver of sugar-free ice cream or cool whip (the merest teaspoon is all that’s needed; don’t go overboard, as I cautioned Hubby) is a crowning touch.

The email of complaint drafted in my head turned into the draft of an email of congratulations. I was so thankful for the “add-a-fruit” to old favorites for the recipe column. For the blueberry vines Hubby planted in our weekend of gardening I had high hopes. Once they spring forth with succulent berries, I have my first recipe ready for them.

Blueberry Chess Pie

1 prepared pie crust

1 (10-ounce) package frozen blueberries, thawed

1/4 cup sugar (or sugar substitute such as Splenda)

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (I used fat-free)

2 eggs, lightly beaten (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon cornmeal

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

blueberries and mint leaves (optional garnish)

sugar-free ice cream or whipped topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place blueberries in blender container and puree. Stir in sugar substitute. Set aside. Place blueberries in blender container and puree. Pour blueberry puree into prepared pie crust. Combine sweetened condensed milk, eggs, butter, vinegar, cornmeal, and salt. Pour over blueberry puree. Bake for 50 minutes or until knife inserted in the center emerges clean (I actually had to bake mine for 1 hour until it was fully set.) Cool completely. Garnish with berries and mint leaves if you desire. Serve with sugar-free ice cream or whipped topping if you desire. Serves 8.