We are lucky enough to live in an area where there are lots of locally grown fruits and vegetables. For the past few years, I’ve scouted out flats of fresh blueberries and frozen them for the winter. Like a little squirrel, I would dutifully prepare the berries, lay them out on a pan and “flash freeze” them, and then store them in freezer bags for months.
This year, however, I was determined to do something different. We weren’t just going to buy the berries – we were going to pick them!
These are the unsure faces of my children as we waited for the bus to take us to the berry patch. Lila was the most nervous about the whole ordeal. She didn’t tell me that directly, but instead chose the more subtle approach of criticizing everything and asking, “WHY do we have to do this again?”
I recognize that tactic. I employed it well as a pre-teen and teenager.
I decided to respond as all calm, collected mothers do. I snapped my head and said, “This is going to be a FUN day with FUN blueberry picking and we are going to have a great time and that is IT!”
Yep. Quickly diffused the situation there. Everyone perked right up and skipped onto the bus.
Le sigh.
But once we got into the field, the girls became dedicated to their tasks. They picked and picked, happily gobbling up the occasional blueberry as they searched for big fat purple orbs on the bushes.
It wasn’t hard to fill our buckets. You can see the branches laden with fruit.
In no time at all, we had baskets that were filled to the brim with berries. My girls were both happily clucking to themselves as we walked back to the bus.
“We should do this again, mom!”
“Yeah, can we come back!?!?”
Success! My Fun Day With Mom plans weren’t a total wash.
And so we topped the day off with some baking.
This recipe was inspired by a girlfriend of mine – rather, her aunt – who makes blueberry banana loaves for the freezers of her family members – as my children could not help but gobble up this treat at playdates.
I grabbed some blueberries, a few sad looking bananas, and got to work.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 4 medium mashed very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Grease two 9" loaf pans
- Blend sugar and butter in mixing bowl until fluffy
- Add egg and mix
- Add banana, milk, and vanilla and mix until smooth
- On low setting (or by hand) add dry ingredients until just moistened
- Fold in blueberries
- Divide mixture evenly over loaf pans
- Bake for about one hour; check with toothpick (or kabob stick, in my case!). If stick comes out clean, it's done.
- Let cool for 15-20 minutes, then remove from loaf pan
- Serve with butter
This recipe is a huge hit with my kidlets and a few straggling neighbour children who wandered into my kitchen.
I get the feeling that our freezer could use a few of these loaves (just in case of an emergency tea date) alongside my hoard bags of blueberries.
What do you use your blueberries for? Any recipes I should check out? We’ve got 40lbs in the freezer right now, and we’re going back!
3 comments
tanya
What fun! I remember going berry picking with my family when I was a child. Great memories. This bread looks so delicious 🙂
Anna
I made this bread yesterday as I had frozen blueberries I wanted to use up and also 3 very ripe bananas. Your recipe calls for 4 bananas, so I made up the difference with a bunch of chopped walnuts. I’ve never had blueberries in my banana bread and was so surprised how great the combination is. Your recipe is great because it makes two loaves with just 1 1/4 cups of sugar and is so moist! We are having a hard time staying away from it–thanks so much for a great recipe!
Tara
I’m sorry it’s taken me a bit to respond, Anna, but I’m SO glad that you liked the recipe! I try to reduce sugar where I can (although some recipes seem to need it more than others). Blueberries are always abundant here in the late summer, so I try to use them whenever I can!