Crunchy Blueberry and Apple Crisp

I have three treasured blueberry bushes in my backyard. The oldest ls loaded full of blueberries this year and the fruit ripens in May. I’ve watched the blueberries all spring, hoping I could pick them before the birds found and ate them. I’ve been thinking of recipes to make and decided on this easy dessert, “Blueberry and Apple Crisp.” 

The dessert is very easy to make — I wanted to find a recipe which used ingredients that I already had in my kitchen cupboard. I find that the flavor of blueberries intensifies during baking or cooking. In this crisp recipe, the blueberries and apples compliment the flavor of the crunchy topping.

The recipe uses much less sugar than most crisps–I like the natural flavor of the fruit, oatmeal and spelt flour to predominate. When served hot and bubbly along with a scoop of ice cream, this makes for a superb dessert. And it is quite nutritious, too, with both spelt flour and oatmeal in the topping. Blueberries are full of antioxidants.

Here are some of the blueberries from my backyard. Blueberries is one fruit that thrives in Louisiana. And I’m sort of a lazy gardener. I don’t really fertilize the bushes often. The bushes can become eight feet tall; they like to grown in a sunny and well drained spot (keep away from a garden which needs lots of water). The biggest enemy is a weed eater which damages the bush stalks and kills the bushes.Ingredients

Here are the ingredients for my recipe. The crunchy topping consists of oatmeal, spelt flour and pecans blended with some sugar, butter, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Why spelt flour? Because it works will in the crisp topping and is quite nutritious. The nutty flavor of the flour just adds to the over-all dessert. If you don’t have this ingredient substitute enriched flour; up to 1/2 may be whole wheat flour. (I store these specialty flours in a refrigerator, they last a long time.)

Spelt flour is an ancient grain, first cultivated in the Middle East about 8,000 years ago. It is a whole-grain, a member of the wheat family, and is naturally high in fiber, iron and protein.

For the crunch topping, the butter is cut into the dry ingredients until the size of small peas. You might have to use your fingers to get the butter blended in. Mix in the  chopped pecan pieces.

For the filling, I mixed ripe blueberries, an apple, lemon juice along with sugar and cornstarch.  Lemon juice intensifies the blueberry flavor and apples–well I just like them mixed with blueberries.

Pour the mixed filling ingredients into a buttered or oiled casserole dish. Sprinkle on the topping. Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes or until bubbly. Tent loosely with aluminum foil after about 20 minutes if the topping starts too brown — otherwise the topping will burn before the fruit cooks to bubbling.

Yum!

Thankful that my blueberries flourished this year.