I absolutely adore blueberries. When I was young, my Aunt Annie used to take us blueberry picking in the woods. It was such a treat. We'd return to the farm covered in blueberry juice, our mouths and teeth stained with the dark blue liquid. I remember those blueberries as the sweetest I've ever tasted.

Since today is Blueberry Pie Day, I thought I'd post a recipe for Blueberry Chocolate Pie. I've posted other Blueberry Chocolate Pie recipes, but this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens is special because it also features a Cookie Dough Crust. Of course, you can substitute a chocolate cookie crust if you'd like more chocolate. This is a great recipe for Memorial Day and Fourth of July, so be sure to bookmark it!

BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE PIE

Ingredients
1 Recipe Sour Cream Cookie Dough
1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp all-purpose Flour
1 lemon, juiced
6 cups fresh blueberries

Directions 
Preheat oven to 450°F. Prepare Sour Cream Cookie Dough. Roll half of dough to a 12-inch circle on a well-floured surface. Line 9-inch pie plate with dough. Trim and flute edge. Line with double thickness of foil. Bake for 8 minutes; carefully remove foil. Bake 3 to 4 minutes more or until golden. Remove; Sprinkle with chocolate pieces and set aside.

Reduce oven to 375°F. Roll remaining dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into star shapes using assorted-size cutters. In small bowl whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon water. Arrange cutouts 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Brush cutouts with egg mixture. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

For filling, in large saucepan stir together the sugar, flour, and lemon juice. Add 4 cups of the blueberries. Cook and stir over medium heat until just thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining berries. Pour into crust. Bake for 10 minutes just until berries are heated through, covering edge of pie with foil, if necessary to prevent overbrowning. Remove to a wire rack. Top with cookie cut outs. Cool completely.

Sour Cream Cookie Dough: 
In large mixing bowl beat 1/2 cup butter, softened, with mixer on medium to high for 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon baking soda, and a dash of salt; beat until combined. Add 1 egg yolk, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 1 teaspoon vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in 2 cups all-purpose flour. Divide dough in half; wrap and chill, if necessary, until easy to handle.

Since July is Blueberry Month, I thought I'd post another blueberry recipe. So for today's baking, I recommend making these easy Blueberry Chocolate Chip Scones. Scones are great for breakfast and tea!

I love blueberries and as a child I often thought I'd turn blue from eating so many. In the summers we used to pick wild blueberries in the New Jersey Woods or up in Maine. So delicious. I probably ate as many as I picked.

For this Blueberry Chocolate Chip Scone recipe, you can substitute frozen blueberries and and chocolate chunks, but I love fresh blueberries and dark chocolate chips!

Some Blueberry tips:

How to store Fresh Blueberries: Put them in the refrigerator unwashed. Rinse with cold water just before use.

Here's a Patriotic Salad for the Fourth of July. Simple and easy. The Fourth be with You!

Strawberry, Blueberry, and Chocolate Salad

Combine a basket of strawberries with a basket of blueberries.
Chop dark chocolate into chunks.
Combine chocolate and fruit and toss in a raspberry vinaigrette.
One of my favorites is Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette... or make your own. Keep it slightly fruity.

Today is National Blueberry Day and July is National Blueberry Month! Chocolate goes so well with blueberries--wild, cultivated--even frozen! I've posted different blueberry recipes over the years, but thought the easiest to start a series of blueberry recipes would be Chocolate Covered Blueberries. I make them pretty much the same way I make chocolate covered raisins--in clumps, but you can also dip fat blueberries individually into dark chocolate.. sort of like having blueberry candy.

U.S. Department of Agriculture botanist Frederick Coville set the stage for commercial production by solving the mystery of why blueberries could not be cultivated well when he showed, in 1910, that the plants must be grown in moist, very acidic soil. Soon after, he made the first successful crosses designed to improve important traits, such as berry size and flavor. The blueberry was tamed. Coville's records which are at the National Agricultural Library provide a fascinating look at the USDA research effort that took blueberries from a crop picked from the wild and sold for 14 cents a quart in 1912 to a commercially grown crop worth more than $530 million today.

Dark chocolate and blueberries are great anti-oxidants, and coconut oil is great to fight inflammation, so think of this recipe as very healthy! I do. :-)

CHOCOLATE COVERED BLUEBERRIES

Ingredients
Pint of fresh Blueberries
2 cups dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp coconut oil

Directions
Wash blueberries and dry well (at least an hour before you dip them in chocolate or the chocolate will seize). Pat them dry.
Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
Combine Chocolate and Coconut Oil in the top of a double boiler -- or a saucepan or stainless steel bowl over another saucepan of simmering water. Stir until just smooth. Remove from heat.
Dip berries (about 3-6 at a time-to make clumps) into chocolate to coat  (you can also use a special tool for dipping.. or two forks or two slotted spoons). Take berries out of chocolate with a spoon and put on baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the blueberries. You can always add a bit more coconut oil to the chocolate if it starts to thicken up.
Put baking sheet in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes to set.
Eat!

I absolutely adore blueberries. When I was young, my Aunt Annie used to take us blueberry picking in the woods. It was such a treat. We'd return to the farm covered in blueberry juice, our mouths and teeth stained with the dark blue liquid. I remember those blueberries as the sweetest I've ever tasted.

Since today is Blueberry Pie Day, I thought I'd post a recipe for Chocolate Blueberry Pie, because this is a Chocolate Blog, after all. I've posted other Blueberry Chocolate Pie recipes, but this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens is special because it also features a Cookie Dough Crust. Of course, you can substitute a chocolate cookie crust if you'd like more chocolate. This is a great recipe for Memorial Day and Fourth of July, so be sure and save or bookmark it!

CHOCOLATE BLUEBERRY PIE

Ingredients
1 Recipe Sour Cream Cookie Dough
1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp all-purpose Flour
1 lemon, juiced
6 cups fresh blueberries

Directions 
Preheat oven to 450°F. 

Prepare Sour Cream Cookie Dough. Roll half of dough to a 12-inch circle on a well-floured surface. Line 9-inch pie plate with dough. Trim and flute edge. Line with double thickness of foil. Bake for 8 minutes; carefully remove foil. Bake 3 to 4 minutes more or until golden. Remove; Sprinkle with chocolate pieces and set aside.

Reduce oven to 375°F. 

Roll remaining dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into star shapes using assorted-size cutters. In small bowl whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon water. Arrange cutouts 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Brush cutouts with egg mixture. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

For Filling: In large saucepan stir together the sugar, flour, and lemon juice. Add 4 cups of the blueberries. Cook and stir over medium heat until just thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining berries. Pour into crust. Bake for 10 minutes just until berries are heated through, covering edge of pie with foil, if necessary to prevent overbrowning. Remove to a wire rack. Top with cookie cut outs. Cool completely.

Sour Cream Cookie Dough: 
In large mixing bowl beat 1/2 cup butter, softened, with mixer on medium to high for 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon baking soda, and a dash of salt; beat until combined. Add 1 egg yolk, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 1 teaspoon vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in 2 cups all-purpose flour. Divide dough in half; wrap and chill, if necessary, until easy to handle.

Today is Blueberry Muffin Day, and this month is Blueberry Month, so celebrate! I'm a major blueberry person from way back, even before I knew they were healthy with antioxidants and flavonoids and vitamins. I grew up back East, and when we went to the 'country,' my Aunt Annie used to take all the children blueberry gathering in the woods. It was great fun. We'd all come back with blue-stained hands and mouths. Those blueberries were small and juicy and sweet as wild blueberries should be. I still crave blueberries. Local blueberries are at the farmers' market right now, and for frozen blueberries (I usually freeze my own) the wild blueberries from Maine at Trader Joe's are very tasty.

For National Blueberry Muffin Day, use fresh blueberries in these muffin recipes. I am partial to plain muffins with blueberries and chocolate chips, so the first recipe is the one I use. But since this is a chocolate blog, I have a recipe for chocolate blueberry muffins, too.

Here's my recipe for Blueberry Chocolate Chip Muffins. I like my muffins firm with a crusty top and soft inside -- and not too sweet. I think you'll like these. I use a 1/2 cup of sugar, but if you want them a little sweeter use 3/4 cup. Don't want your blueberries to sink to the bottom? Dust them with flour before putting them in the batter.

Blueberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1/3 cup whole milk
fresh blueberries (maybe a cup?)
chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 400. Grease your muffin tin or use liners.
Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Make a well in the center.
Put oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg (already whipped), and enough milk to fill cup to brim. Pour into the well and mix with flour mixture. Do not overmix.
Stir in blueberries and as many of the chocolate chips as you'd like. I like a lot, but you want to also be able to taste the blueberries--and the muffin, itself.
Fill muffin cups right to top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes in preheated oven-- or until done.

So that's my favorite, but for those who want a chocolate muffin with blueberries, here's a recipe from Yankee Magazine.

Chocolate Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 ounces unsweetened or very dark chocolate
1 cup sugar (I'd probably use less)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In medium saucepan, melt butter and unsweetened chocolate over medium heat until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Stir in sugar, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. In small bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Gently combine with liquid ingredients. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into well-greased muffin cups, filling to top. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer muffins to wire rack to cool. Drizzle cooled muffins with semisweet chocolate.

Have a great Blueberry Muffin Day--make it Chocolate!

I don't know about you, but after two months of Shelter-in-Place, I'm getting tired of Banana Bread, even with Chocolate Chips. So for today's baking, I recommend making these easy Blueberry Chocolate Chip Scones. Scones are great for breakfast and tea!

I love blueberries and as a child I often thought I'd turn blue from eating so many. In the summers we used to pick wild blueberries in the New Jersey Woods or up in Maine. So delicious. I probably ate as many as I picked.

For this Blueberry Chocolate Chip Scone recipe, you can substitute frozen blueberries and and chocolate chunks, but I love fresh blueberries and dark chocolate chips!

Some Blueberry tips:

How to store Fresh Blueberries: Put them in the refrigerator unwashed. Rinse with cold water just before use.
Baking with Fresh Blueberries (or other berries): Toss them in flour before adding to batter. This prevents them from sinking to the bottom during baking!

Baking with frozen Blueberries: Keep them frozen when adding to batter so color won't bleed (or won't bleed too much).

BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE CHUNK SCONES

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar, divided
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp milk, divided
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
1 cup blueberries
7 ounces chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Mix flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.
Cut in butter using pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add 3/4 cup milk, egg, and lemon peel; stir just until mixture forms dough. Don't overwork.
Fold in floured fresh blueberries and chocolate chips (or chunks).
Divide dough in half. On lightly floured surface, pat each half into a round, 9 inches in diameter & 1 inch thick.
Cut each round into 8 wedges.
Place wedges on ungreased baking sheet.
Brush tops with remaining 2 Tbsp milk; sprinkle with remaining 2 Tbsp sugar.
Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Today is National Blueberry Pancake Day, and it's not too late to celebrate. I'm all for Breakfast for Dinner! There are actually two or three pancake days on the calendar! So for today's holiday, here are are two recipes: Chocolate Chip Blueberry Pancakes.

This first recipe is from Cooking Light for Perfect Buttermilk pancakes. I've added blueberries and chocolate chips to tweak the recipe! I usually have fresh blueberries around, but if you don't, you can use frozen blueberries. Trader Joe's has wild blueberries that are great in this recipe. Don't thaw before adding the frozen blueberries. The second recipe is for Blueberry Chocolate Chip Pancakes in a Jar.

1. BUTTERMILK BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
1 cup Blueberries (less if frozen.. I like the frozen Wild Blueberries from Trader Joe's. Don't thaw, if frozen)
1/2 cup Dark Chocolate chips

Directions
Spoon flour into dry measuring cup; level with knife.
Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (flour through salt) in large bowl, and make well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, oil, and egg; add to flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Fold in Blueberries and Chocolate Chips.
Spoon about 1/4 cup batter onto hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray.
Turn pancakes when tops are covered with bubbles and edges seem cooked.
***

So that's what you'll make fresh today! I'm also fond of Mixes in a Jar. Here's a quick and delicious recipe for Chocolate Blueberry Pancakes in a Jar. You can have this on hand or to give as a gift. One helpful hint, when making mixes in a jar, really pack the ingredients in. Use a tamper, if you have one...except for the dried blueberries and chocolate chips that you'll put on top.

2. BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES IN A JAR

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dried Blueberries
2/3 cup mini dark chocolate chips

Layer flour, then sugar, then baking powder mixed with baking soda and salt in 1-quart wide-mouth jar.
Add blueberries, then chocolate chips.
Seal Jar.
Cover jar with burlap or other fabric and tie with raffia or a bow.

Attach gift tag with the following instructions:

Chocolate Blueberry Pancakes 
Makes 25 pancakes
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1-1/2 to 2 cups whole milk (or buttermilk)

Mix eggs and melted butter in large bowl. Add contents of jar. Stir until well blended.
Add 1-1/2 cups milk. Stir until dry ingredients are moistened.
Heat griddle or skillet.
Pour batter onto hot griddle 1/4 cup at a time.
Cook pancakes until golden on both sides.

Since July is National Blueberry Month, I thought I'd post another Chocolate Blueberry recipe, this time for Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Scones. Scones are great for breakfast and tea!

I love blueberries and as a child I often thought I'd turn blue from eating so many. In the summers we used to pick wild blueberries in the New Jersey Woods or up in Maine. So delicious. I probably ate as many as I picked.

For this Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Scone recipe, you can substitute frozen blueberries and chocolate chips, but I love fresh blueberries and dark chocolate chunks!

Some Blueberry tips:
How to store Fresh Blueberries: Put them in the refrigerator unwashed. Rinse with cold water just before use.
Baking with Fresh Blueberries (or other berries): Toss them in flour before adding to batter. This prevents them from sinking to the bottom during baking!
Baking with frozen Blueberries: Keep them frozen when adding to batter so color won't bleed (or won't bleed too much).

BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE CHUNK SCONES

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar, divided
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cold sweet butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp milk, divided
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
1 cup blueberries
7 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Mix flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.
Cut in butter using pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add 3/4 cup milk, egg and lemon peel; stir just until mixture forms dough.
Fold in floured fresh blueberries and chocolate chunks.
Divide dough in half. On lightly floured surface, pat each half into a round, 9 inches in diameter & 1 inch thick.
Cut each round into 8 wedges.
Place wedges on ungreased baking sheet.
Brush tops with remaining 2 Tbsp. milk; sprinkle with remaining 2 Tbsp sugar.
Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown.

July is Blueberry Month! Chocolate goes so well with blueberries--wild, cultivated--even frozen! I've posted different blueberry recipes, but thought the easiest to start a series of blueberry recipes would be Chocolate Covered Blueberries. I make them pretty much the same way I make chocolate covered raisins--in clumps, but you can also dip fat blueberries individually into dark chocolate.. sort of like having blueberry candy.

U.S. Department of Agriculture botanist Frederick Coville set the stage for commercial production by solving the mystery of why blueberries could not be cultivated well when he showed, in 1910, that the plants must be grown in moist, very acidic soil. Soon after, he made the first successful crosses designed to improve important traits, such as berry size and flavor. The blueberry was tamed. Coville's records which are at the National Agricultural Library provide a fascinating look at the USDA research effort that took blueberries from a crop picked from the wild and sold for 14 cents a quart in 1912 to a commercially grown crop worth more than $530 million today.

Dark chocolate and blueberries are great anti-oxidants,  and coconut oil is great to fight inflammation, so think of this recipe as very healthy! I do. :-)

CHOCOLATE COVERED BLUEBERRIES

Ingredients
Pint of fresh Blueberries
2 cups dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp coconut oil

Directions
Wash blueberries and dry well (at least an hour before you dip them in chocolate or the chocolate will seize). Pat them dry.
Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
Combine Chocolate and Coconut Oil in the top of a double boiler -- or a saucepan or stainless steel bowl over another saucepan of simmering water. Stir until just smooth. Remove from heat.
Dip berries (about 3-6 at a time-to make clumps) into chocolate to coat  (you can also use a special tool for dipping.. or two forks or two slotted spoons). Take berries out of chocolate with a spoon and put on baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the blueberries. You can always add a bit more coconut oil to the chocolate if it starts to thicken up.
Put baking sheet in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes to set.
Eat!