I’ve written before that I have a minor habit of hoarding the frozen wild blueberries we have picked in Ely because we don’t know when the next good year is going to be. And I have good reason for that! The last summer was a tough one. We did find some berries but it wasn’t like some of our great years and we ate them all fresh with none left to restock the freezer. But I do love blueberries and I need to remind myself to use them and not hoard them. I found this blueberry bread on food.com and decided to give it a try.
It’s become a favorite for us, it’s almost like a muffin bread. I added my own twist on it by sprinkling a little turbinado sugar onto the top when it bakes, just like I do muffins and love the little crunch it adds.
For a variation, this recipe also makes a pretty darn good apple bread. We canned some apple pie filling from our apple trees and all we did was drain a little of the liquid and cut the applies up into quarter or half inch pieces and stir them in in place of the blueberries. We’re on the fence on which is our favorite. If you want to try this, you’ll want a pint of apple pie filling.
The other great thing about this bread recipe is that it freezes well. We are a household of two, so we don’t need two loaves of fresh bread. Wrap one in plastic wrap and then foil or freezer paper and pop in the freezer.
Here’s what you need.
This bread starts more like a cake than a quick bread by creaming butter and sugar together in your mixer.
Add sour cream, eggs, and vanilla.
Beat until fully blended together.
In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Add the flour with your mixer on stir, or mix by hand – just until incorporated.
Fold in the blueberries or apples if you wanted to try that variation. I’ve had good success with both fresh or frozen berries in this bread.
Divide the mixture between two greased bread pans and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour until a toothpick comes out clean. If your berries were frozen it may take a little longer to bake.
Cool in the pan.
Slice and enjoy. We like it with some butter or a little homemade blueberry jam.
If you want to freeze one of the loaves it’s best to freeze the same day you bake it so it stays nice and fresh. To freeze bread, I like to wrap in plastic wrap and then again in foil or freezer paper. I usually let the bread defrost in the fridge but then I keep it wrapped and on the counter. According to this article from Epicurious you can also defrost in a 325 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes. I’ll have to try that when I pull the second loaf out.
- ¾ c butter at room temperature
- 1 ¼ c sugar
- 3 eggs
- 8 oz sour cream
- 1 t vanilla
- 3 c flour
- ¾ t baking powder
- ½ t baking soda
- ¾ t salt
- ½ t cinnamon
- 2 c blueberries
- Turbinado sugar
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two bread pans.
- Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs, sour cream and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
- Fold in blueberries.
- Divide mixture between two pans.
- Bake for 1 hour until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool bread in pans.
- Serve with butter or jam.
- VARIATION: 1 pint apple pie filling, with extra syrup drained and apples cut into ¼ to ½ inch pieces.
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