Sorry for the delay in posting but this has been a very busy time in my life! As you likely know, the bakery that I co-own with my wife Jill recently underwent a major expansion and we have been working like mad to get everything up to speed. I barely had time to eat, let alone cook, so I’m glad that we’re up and running and I’m able to fall back into some sort of routine.
During the time that we were closed, strawberry season came and went and so we were forced to cancel our annual strawberry festival. The bakery did reopen for blueberry season though, and I’m been consuming my fair share of the delicious little fruits that New Jersey is so proud of growing.
This past Friday evening, The Sweet Life Bakery attended the Hammonton farmers market. Since there was a blueberry theme that evening at the inaugural market, we planned an all-blueberry menu. Earlier in the week, we got our first delivery of fresh Jersey blueberries and Brittany went to work preparing them into many different blueberry desserts.
On the day of the market, the blueberry pies went into the oven, where they bubbled through the lattice-topped crust and filled the bakery with the unmistakable smell of summer. Blueberry corn muffins puffed and browned in another oven, while on a different rack, the shortbread shell of blueberry hamantashen formed a caramelized crust around the blueberry filling. Fresh blueberries simmered with lemon juice and zest in a pot on the stove, soon to become tart blueberry lemonade. While those goodies baked and cooked, Brittany stirred a floury cobbler dough in a stainless steel bowl until it came together in a sticky mass. She then scooped the topping over a blueberry cobbler filing in little metal cups, our first of the year. (Jill and I couldn’t help ourselves and put one cobbler aside for a late evening treat for the two of us.) Two tarts were to be going to the market as well, little blueberry crumb tarts and blueberry almond tarts, both cooling silently on a rack near the oven, waiting to be boxed up and shipped out. The kitchen was a veritable blueberry factory.
Within a few hours of the blueberry madness, everything was gone, off to Hammonton to be bought and consumed, taken home to various dinner and breakfast tables around south Jersey and enjoyed by many. Such a cool thought, the knowledge that the food and drink that was created by our team goes out into the world to bring a smile to the faces of those who eat them.
For dinner that night, I still had blueberries on the brain. We were still at the bakery, a late night ahead of us, and five cooks (including myself) to feed. What I hadn’t had in a long time was good old-fashioned blueberry pancakes, so the urge to have a breakfast dinner came on strong. I went online and found a simple enough recipe, and so I got to work making dinner. I added a touch of lemon zest to the recipe, and scaled out the remaining ingredients. The eggs separated with ease, and I whipped the whites into a stiff, frothy mix. The wet ingredients went into the dry, and then the whites were folded in to give the batter a light fluffy consistency. Lastly, fresh picked blueberries were folded in.
One of the new pieces of equipment we got was a nice flattop griddle, and I had already heated it up and loaded the surface with diced potatoes, breakfast sausage from Serra Sausage, and strips of bacon. After the meats came off the heat, the pancakes went on. Silver dollar sized pools of batter quickly browned and bubbled and I flipped them over to cook on the other side. I quickly cooked some eggs to finish the meal, and toasted some bread. Maple syrup and butter for the pancakes, katsup for the potatoes. The pancakes were so good, and the warm blueberries literally bursted when they went into my mouth. Blueberries really do make pancakes amazing, and I’m going to have to cook them again sometime soon. And if you haven’t cooked blueberry pancakes, or anything with fresh Jersey blueberries, I suggest you do so soon. With blueberries, the possibilities, much like the deliciousness, is endless!
