Amaretto Raspberry Granita

I saw a picture in the newspaper yesterday how there's wild blueberries ripe for picking already even though it's still the first half on July! Because of my hectic winter, I still have a bunch of raspberries in my freezer from last summer that I never got around to using, so I thought it was time to use them up.

My friends Casey and Andy came over to play my board game Mooseopoly last night.  I created this board game as an informal education outreach tool for the Yukon Flats region of Alaska to teach the students there about moose ecology.  Basically, it's more like the board game The Game of Life than Monopoly, but the name seemed more fitting.  Casey is a ungulate ecologist focusing her PhD research on moose dynamics in Interior Alaska, so she's been curious to try her hand at Mooseopoly for awhile.

To use up some of my frozen raspberries, I made this Amaretto Raspberry Granita for dessert.  I thought about making a sorbet, but this seemed easier since I don't have an ice cream maker-- the granita is just stuck the freezer for freezing.

Amaretto Raspberry Granita

Ingredients

1 cup water

3/4 c sugar

3 c (frozen) raspberries

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp Amaretto liqueur

Directions

Place the water and sugar in a sauce pan.  Bring to a boil and dissolve all of the sugar.

Pour the lime juice over the berries.

Pour the sugar syrup over the berries.  (If using fresh berries, cool the syrup first before pouring over the berries.

Muddle the berries in the sugar syrup to release the juice from the berries.

Strain the berry sugar mixture into a shallow container.

Stir in the Amaretto liqueur.

Place the container in the freezer.  Stir periodically as it freezes (~6-8 hours).

 

 
  

Lingonberry-raspberry streusel bars

During this past berry season, I had a lot going on, so I didn't get out nearly as much as I usually do to go harvest wild berries.  I'm bummed not to have loads of wild blueberries and lingonberries in my freezer, but I did manage to go pick some raspberries at the farm with my friend Linda, and we got a bunch!  We were originally only going to stay for an hour, but it was such a gorgeous Friday evening and the air had a crispness to it foreshadowing cooler weather to follow, so we blew off our other plans for the evening and continued to pick and pick and pick.

So this winter, I'll be using these cultivated raspberries to supplement my recipes that call for wild berries.

These streusel bars are quite versatile.  The original recipe calls for lingonberry jam and lingonberries, but I usually mix and match a bit-- using different types of jams (or multi-berry jam) and different types of berries, such as lingonberries, raspberries, or wild bluberries.


Ingredients

crust
2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix
1/2 tsp xantham gum (if the gluten-free flour mix doesn't already have some in it)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter

filling
3/4 cup lingonberry or raspberry jam
3/4 cup lingonberries or raspberries
1 tbsp lemon juice

streusel
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup  rolled oats
1/2 cup pecans (or walnuts)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Start by cutting the two sticks of butter up into little pieces.

Combine the flour, (xantham gum, if needed), sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.

Add the butter one chunk at a time while mixing at a low speed.

Mix until the butter is thoroughly blended in; it will have a crumbly texture.

Set aside 1 1/4 cups of the flour mixture to use in the streusel topping.

Butter a 9x13 pan (realistically, you can skip this step since the crust has plenty of butter in it and I've never had a problem with it sticking to a glass dish).

Press the remaining flour mixture in the bottom of the pan, creating a small edge around the perimeter.

Bake 14 to 18 minutes-- until the edges begin to brown.

In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the filling-- the jam, the berries, and the lemon juice.  Mash up the berries a little bit with a fork.

To the 1 1/4 cups of flour mixture that you set aside, add in the brown sugar, oats, and nut.

 Mix in the last 2 tbsp of butter into the streusel topping.

After pulling out the crust,

spread the jam filling evenly over the crust.

I didn't think in had enough berries in it, so I sprinkled another handful of raspberries over the top.

Gently sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the jam filling. Return the pan to oven and bake 22 to 25 minutes-- until topping is deep golden brown and filling is bubbling.


Let the bars cool before cutting (but I have found that you can get away with not waiting too long!) Cut into squares to serve.

I made these when I had friends coming over for a bbq, and the streusel bars were a big hit!

Oh no, Martin goes in for the last one!  I guess there won't be any leftovers...

Wild blueberry pie with an oatmeal-pecan crust

I was just down at Glacier Bay National Park visiting my friend Nina.  There were these ginormous wild blueberries EVERYWHERE.  As an avid berry picker, I could not resist.

 

I never make pies out of the wild blueberries I pick in Fairbanks.  Our blueberries, Vaccinium uliginosum, are small berries that grow on low shrubs, and they have a really concentrated tangy flavor.  I use them much more sparingly... mostly on my oatmeal, in pancakes, or for smoothies.

The blueberries around Glacier Bay, Vaccinium alaskaense, are much bigger and grow on taller bushes.  I was amazed at how quickly my bowl filled up!

I was planning on picking berries on this hill, but these guys beat me to it.  They are the locals, so obviously the get first dibs on berry patches... 

Glacier Bay is right next to Gustavus.  Gustavus is a small town of only ~ 430 people accessible only by boat or plane, but it's surprisingly friendly to those on a gluten-free diet.  The coffee shop serves gluten-free (and dairy-free) baked goods, and there's also the Sunnyside Market which sells all sorts of good things including the brown rice flour that I needed for my pie crust.

Ingredients:

Crust:
3/4 c brown rice flour
3/4 c oats
3/4 c brown sugar; packed
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 c butter
1/2 c pecans, chopped
~ 2 tbsp cold water

 

Filling:
2 cups wild blueberries
1/3 c white sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

 

Before the butter softens, chop it into little pieces.

Mix together the brown rice flour, oats, brown sugar, and baking powder.

Once the butter is a bit soft, add it to the mixture and use your hands to incorporate it in so that there are no chunks of butter remaining.

Add the chopped pecans.

Add ~ 2 tbsp of cold water (by drizzling it in and mixing well) so that the mixture holds together when pinched.

Press into a greased pie pan and bake at 350° F for 10 minutes.

In a bowl, mix together the wild blueberries, sugar, and cinnamon so that the sugar and cinnamon coat the berries.

Pour into the crust and bake at 350° F for 20 more minutes.  

 

The pie goes especially well with a bit of vanilla ice cream!