Desserts, puddings and pies

Trader Tom’s organic blueberry swirl ice cream
Ingredients:
2 cups Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
½ cup icing sugar
1 tub 2 litre vanilla ice cream
 
Method:
Place the blueberries and icing sugar in a blender, and blend until smooth and thick. 
Put the vanilla ice cream in a big bowl, soften slightly, then swirl the blueberry puree through the ice cream.  Don’t mix right through.
Place back in the ice cream tub and freeze again for an hour or so.
Enjoy.
 
Trader Tom’s organic blueberry yoghurt dessert
Ingredients:
1 cup Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup yoghurt
½ cup small meringues
½ cup small marshmallows
Mint leaves
 
Method:
Combine blueberries and honey, add the yoghurt, meringues and marshmallows.  Divide among 4 serving glasses and top with a mint leaf.
 


Trader Tom’s small blueberry tarts
Ingredients:
4 sheets sweet short pastry
2 cups Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
Mascarpone cheese
 
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180degC.  Lightly grease or spray 6 x 10cm tart tins.
Line with the pastry, then place baking paper over the pastry and put baking weights on top (or use dried peas or beans).  Bake blind for 15 minutes.  Remove the weights and the baking paper and return the pastry cases to the oven for 5 minutes to gently brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool.
For the filling, put the blueberries into a saucepan with the sugar, and cornflour.  Stir well, and bring to a simmer.  Cook for a few minutes until the juices thicken and the blueberries have softened.  Cool to room temperature then chill completely before filling the tart cases.
Spoon the blueberry filling into the tart shells, and top with a teaspoon of mascarpone cheese just before serving.
 


Trader Tom’s organic blueberry self saucing pudding
Ingredients:
2 cups self raising flour
¼ cup sugar
100g butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
Zest of 1 lemon
1½ cups Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
Sauce:
1 cup blueberry jam
1 cup boiling water
 
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease or spray a large pie dish.
Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl.  Rub in the butter until is looks like coarse crumbs.
In a separate bowl or jug, whisk together the egg and milk, then pour into the dry ingredients.  Mix into the flour mixture.
Sprinkle the blueberries over the bottom of the pie dish.  Put spoonfuls of the pudding mix over the top of the blueberries.
Mix the blueberry jam and the boiling water together and pour this carefully over the top of the pudding mix.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until the pudding is well cooked. 
Serve warm or hot with ice cream or whipped cream.
 
Trader Tom’s organic blueberry and bread pudding
Ingredients:
1 loaf of day old French bread
100g butter
1 ½ cups Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
Grated zest of 1 lemon
5 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
 
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180degC. 
Slice the bread into approx 1cm slices and butter.
Place a layer of bread butter side down in an ovenproof dish.
Scatter the blueberries over the bread, and sprinkle the lemon zest over the blueberries.
Place another layer of buttered bread slices over the blueberries, this time with the buttered side up.
Whisk together the eggs, milk and sugar and pour over the bread.  Push the bread down into the egg mix to soak up the mixture.  Stand for about 20 minutes to absorb more of the egg mix.
Bake for 45-50 minutes until the pudding is set and brown on top.
Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
 
Variation:  Use stale white bread sliced instead.
 
Trader Tom’s organic blueberry, croissant and almond pudding
Ingredients:
3-4 large croissants
2 cups Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
3 eggs
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon sliced almonds
 
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180degC.
Grease or spray 6 individual ramekins, or one larger serving bowl.
Break up the croissants into small pieces and layer into the ramekins with the blueberries.  Repeat the layers until all the croissants and blueberries are used.
Break the eggs into a large bowl or jug, and beat together with the milk and 3 tablespoons of the sugar.
Pour over the croissants and blueberries, pushing down so that they will absorb the egg and milk mixture.  Let stand 30 minutes.
Scatter the 1 remaining tablespoon of sugar over the mixture with the 1 tablespoon of sliced almonds.
Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.  Reduce heat if necessary, to prevent almonds browning too much.
To serve dust with icing sugar and have a bowl of whipped cream nearby.
 
Tip:  It is easier to make and tastes better when the croissants are 1-2 days old.
 
Variation:  Replace the croissants with pain au chocolat from your local French Bakery (or chocolate danish from Bakers Delight). 
         
Trader Tom’s organic blueberry crumble slice
Ingredients:
100g butter
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
125g tub sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 cups Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
Crumble mix:
50g butter
½ cup brown or Demerara sugar
½ cup flour
 
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180degC.  Grease or spray a swiss roll or slice baking tin and line with baking paper.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
Place butter, sugar, sour cream and vanilla essence into a mixer and cream together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time and mix in well.  Add the sifted dry ingredients and lightly stir in.
Spread the base into the prepared tin and sprinkle the blueberries on top, pressing them down into the base. 
Combine the crumble topping by rubbing the butter into the sugar and flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.  Sprinkle over the blueberries.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.  Cool and slice.
 
Variation:  Reduce flour in the topping to ¼ cup and add ¼ cup coconut.

Trader Tom’s organic blueberry crisp
Ingredients:
4 cups Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
½ cup white sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
¾ cup rolled oats
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
60g softened butter
 
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180degC.  Combine the blueberries, sugar, cornflour and lemon juice and mix well.  Place in a lightly greased ovenproof baking dish.
Combine the flour, brown sugar, rolled oats, cinnamon, salt and butter, and mix until crumbly and evenly mixed.  Spread over the blueberry mixture.
Bake for 40 minutes.  Serve warm with yoghurt, whipped cream or ice cream.
  
Trader Tom’s organic blueberry pie
This is a bit fiddly to make, but is great fun, and children love doing the cut-outs for the top of the pie.
Ingredients:
3-4 sheets pre-rolled short crust pastry
4 cups Trader Tom’s organic blueberries
½ cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk
 
Method:
Line a pie dish with the short crust pastry.  Depending on the size of your dish, this might take more than one sheet.  Make sure the pastry comes to the top of the pie dish.
Cut another sheet of pastry into shapes for the pie topping – this could be triangles, stars, crescents, circles, long rectangles for lattices – be creative.
Place pie dish and topping shapes in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
Combine the blueberries, sugar, cornflour, lemon juice and zest together in a large bowl and toss well.  Pour the blueberries into the prepared pie shell.
Mix together the egg yolk and milk until well combined to make a smooth egg wash.  Brush the outside of the pastry in the pie dish with the egg wash.  Start at the outside edge of the pie and brush the bottom edges of the pastry cut-outs as you place them on top of the pie.   Keep working around in circles, overlapping and joining the pieces with egg wash.  When it is completed there should be small gaps between some of the pieces, which will act as steam vents.  Brush the surface of all the cut-outs with the egg wash.  Chill again for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 200°C.  Cook for 35-45 minutes, reducing the oven temperature to 160°C after 20 minutes.
Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.