Blueberry Crisp

My mission: To cook 5 recipes each month.

This is recipe 4 of 5 for the month of July

Blueberry Crisp

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pound fresh or frozen blueberries
• half a cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

• 1. Preheat oven to 375°.
• 2. Coat an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish with cooking spray. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons cornstarch evenly in dish.
• 3. Combine remaining 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, vanilla, and blueberries in a large bowl; toss. Place in prepared baking dish.
• 4. Spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (through cinnamon) in the bowl of a food processor; pulse twice to combine. Add butter; pulse 5 times or until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Spoon topping evenly over blueberries, packing down lightly. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden.

This is a hell of a recipe. Lots of moving parts. Baking is involved. Very much outside of my wheelhouse. Actually, come to think of it that's really the only tough thing about this recipe. I paid close attention to the directions from Cooking Light Magazine on this one (listed above). I used frozen blueberries here and I was happy I did when I was stirring in the flour as I just imagine blueberries would just split open and get messy. 

My only problem with a recipe like this one is that I had to go out and buy some corn meal. Corn meal is great and all but all I needed was 2 tablespoons of it and now I am stuck with a 3 lb bag (minus two tablespoons worth)! What am I supposed to do with all this corn meal exactly? This seems to be a theme with me: I do not like buying things. It's true. I'm cheap, frugal, stingy, whatever you want to call it that is me. I don't like spending money on something I'm going to use and neither should you!

I left this in the oven an extra 20 minutes (because I used frozen berries) and the crust was just then getting crunchy and thick. 

Finished Product:

The crisp was good, but a tad too salty. The only time the dish really worked is when I took half a spoon of Pistachio Ice Cream and half a spoon of crisp and shoveled it into my mouth. Otherwise the flavors were just a bit off. Not bad for me doing some baking though. 

2 out of 5 stars

Leftovers: The crisp warms up in the microwave in under a minute and is pretty good if not more enjoyable the next day.