Blueberry Bonanza

To expand our children's palates, we've adopted a "blue" challenge that has required eating blueberries in various forms. The final two dishes were blueberry pie and our own invention--blueberry shortbread.

Since we weren't sure how well the pie would go over, we did not make a regular size pie. Instead, we bought some pre-made pie shells that were individual size. They were Keebler Graham Cracker pie crusts and made for a yummy base. For the pie filling, we worked from scratch following this recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 scant tablespoon cornstarch
• pinch salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 4 mini graham cracker pie crusts

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon, and sprinkle over blueberries.
Dish into pie crusts, dot with butter.  Fillings will be slightly heaping.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Filling the pie shells

Uncooked pie

The results were nicely scrumptious. My daughter enjoyed it so much she ate her whole pie!

A hesitant customer bcomes...

...a happy customer!

The blueberry shortbread recipe started with our standard Easy-Bake Oven recipe for regular shortbread , which we quadrupled.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 6 tsp sugar
• 10 tablespoons flour

We added 1/8 cup of chopped dried blueberries. The dough turned a gratifying shade of purple. After baking for 20-30 minutes, my daughter cut heart shapes out of the still warm shortbread.  She was influenced by just having watched Cupcake Wars Kids Edition online, where presentation is key.

Cutting out fun shapes

Not wearing her heart on her sleeve

Post-baking cookies

After baking, the cookies were more of a tan color than the previous glorious purple, so we made a quick confectioners sugar, lemon juice and purple sanding sugar glaze to bring the purple back.

Adding some glaze

Glazelicious

Still not satisfied that her presentation was up to the Cupcake Wars Kids Edition level, my daughter decided to make a fancy display for her confections.

Making a grassy field without grass

The final display

The most important part was trying out the taste. My son didn't think it had much blueberry flavor but my daughter loved them.

Enjoying the fruits of her labors!