Pie Time: Give Thanks to Berries This Week

Mince meat, apple, derby – they’ll all have their day. This holiday is made for berries – they emphasize the bounty of the fall harvest, provide a burst of color, and are perfect as part of a holiday that revolves around cuisine.

Of course, some Thanksgivings can resemble a game of pie poker with so many varieties anted up on the table. So why go all in with a berry pie? Plenty of reasons.

  • Taste. Tart, sweet, and savory pleases the palate after a meal. Warm from the oven, a berry pie provides a final flourish of intense flavor, and it’s less likely to weigh you down. Superb when solo, berry combinations are a pleasure as well – mixing tart with sweet by using cranberries with wild blueberries, for example, creates a unique taste sensation and grabs rave reviews at the table.
  • Health advantages. While healthy eating may not be at the forefront on Thanksgiving, berries, especially wild blueberries, are still antioxidant powerhouses. Just because it’s pie, doesn’t mean you aren’t getting the benefit of healthy, whole food in every forkful. And, calorically, most berry pies are on the light side. One slice of wild blueberry pie is approximately 360 calories. Pumpkin weighs in at about the same, while pecan pie is comes in at 503, says Slim Calm Sexy Diet author Keri Glassman.
  • Visual impact. Nothing pleases the eye like a dessert piled high with berries. A berry pie bubbling when it emerges from the oven, oozing its dark blue and red juices onto its golden crust, can make mouths water. You can achieve the perfect texture says Serious Eats by adjusting the cornstarch: less will yield a runny pie while more will provide a jammy texture.
  • Because it’s seasonally on target. It used to be some pie lovers stopped baking berry pies after the fresh season. Times sure have changed. Bakers know better today – waiting around for fresh is a thing of the past, and berry pies are served up in the best kitchens long after summer. Fresh frozen technology makes berries like wild blueberries superb for baking. Top chefs, bakers, and cooks routinely choose frozen for its convenience and baking ease as well as its frozen-at-peak taste and nutrition.

So start rolling your dough, and pour copious amounts of glorious berries into that crust. A search for the best berry pie is always fruitful. Here’s a taste to get you on your berry way.

Cloudy with a Chance of Berries

Amanda and Merrill over at Food52.com help you bake with confidence whether you are making a pie, a tart or clafoutis. Roll a pastry, hack a tart pan, and make it vegan if you choose. Then, try your hand at making this Lemon Cloud Winter Berry Tart – its blueberries float on a cloud. If you’re the unconventional type, this Very Odd But Delicious Pie is for you. It’s a blend of berries, including wild blueberries, pear, and apple, mingled with a shot of whiskey. Peculiar just might be the new delicious.

Berry Serious

We commend Serious Eats for touting frozen berries! They’re a winter blessing in this Mixed Berry Pie, and in this Classic Blueberry Pie, in which lemon zest works to bring out the tangy brightness of the blueberries – wonderful. Remember to go “wild” with your blues for optimum taste, nutrition and more berries per bite.

You can also head over to atendercrumb.com to delight in the wonders of dessert. This Double Crusted Blueberry Pie provides culinary rescue to pie monotony, paired here with vanilla bean ice cream.

Traditional, Not Conventional

Call it cranberry-blueberry or blueberry-cranberry – these two berries are perfect harmony inside a crust. This Cranberry and Wild Blueberry Pie is a paradigm of palatability. Must have pumpkin pie? Understood. We think this Pumpkin Blueberry Pie has great flavor potential.

Crust Conversion

Mix it up in the crust department this year. Start with Martha’s pie crust 101. Then, put your mad skills to work with in Deep Dish Mixed Berry Pie or go rectilinear with Blueberry Slab Pie to win high appraisals for unique geometry.

Or, forget the share tactics and choose individual pies to make every guest feel special. Remember frozen always substitutes for fresh – no compromising on flavor or nutrition necessary.

Oh, Yeah – The Ultimate Berry Pie 

Six colorful cups of wild blueberries make this Wild Blueberry Pie the ultimate in flavor, health, and visual impact. Bake, slice and serve, and bask in the sweetness of blue – the perfect ending to the perfect culinary day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Wild Blueberries Complete a Colorful Table

5 Super Sides for the Fall Season 

Wild blueberries have surged in popularity in dishes, sauces, and sides and as substitutes for traditional ingredients in classic recipes. Intense nutrition? Sure – but they also have an exceptional taste that pairs with proteins and shines in sweets.

When plating that’s pleasing to the eye is a central concern, wild blues provide a pop of color. Of course, wild blueberries are a seasonless go-to ingredient in pies, but fall gatherings are a perfect time to think outside the crust. If your goal is nutrition, flavor, and appearance in equal measure, side dishes that feature wild blueberries can turn a hum-drum nosh into a spectacular repast.

As part of your quest for wildly delicious sides, remember that frozen suits almost every recipe just as well as fresh – the substitution is one to one. Keep frozen wild blueberries frozen for cooking – no need to thaw – and make sure your blues are wild for maximum flavor, nutrition, and fruit-to-bite ratio (thanks to their smaller size). You can also substitute wild blueberries for cranberries in many holiday recipes, or swap half the cranberries for wild blueberries for a sweet and tart combination.

Ready for a fabulous feast? Here are five wild blueberry sides that will put your table on trend.  (Careful, they might steal the show.)

1. Blueberry-Cranberry Sauce: A Neo-Classic 

While wild blueberries outperform them when it comes to measuring both antioxidant capacity and cellular antioxidant activity, cranberries pack their own health punch. Together, these two vibrant berries score big in taste and nutrition. The zing of cranberry complemented by the unique sweet-savory flavor of wild blues is the perfect twist on an essential holiday side dish.

This Cranberry Sauce recipe readily suggests blueberry and pecan additions to the classic compote. The Examiner has a cran-blueberry take on this beloved side, and Allrecipes.com offers up a ramekin-ready take on Blue Cranberry Sauce.

2. Stuffing with Wild Blueberries: Sweet Surprise

Stuffing that includes wild blues? You bet. A touch-of-tart filling for a succulent bird provides a pop of color and the element of surprise. It’s on every foodie’s fall table this season. Consider what berries and currants do for a savory stuffing, and you’ll know why wild blueberries will work wonders in your own classic recipe – use 1 cup to 1 pound as a fruit-to-bread guideline.

If cornbread stuffing is a favorite, this Blueberry Cornbread Stuffing, originally from our own WildBlueberries.com, is a festive twist on the traditional. Cookingnook.com recommends fruit (wild blues, for example) to take this Best Turkey Stuffing to the next level, and Martha Stewart’s stuffing recipes, like Cornbread & Pumpkin Challah Stuffing and Bread Stuffing with Sage, encourage embellishments such as dried blueberries.

3.  Wild Blueberry Stuffed Squash: A Visual Feast

This new table tradition is trending. Why? Because squash and sweet blues make a superb pair, and a halved acorn or butternut filled to the brim with berries is stunning to serve to guests. Acorn Squash Stuffed with Blueberries from Epicurious.com is right on the nose – you’ll find many recipes that riff off of this foundation. Others use rice or quinoa to stuff, and encourage berry additions.

4. Wild Blueberry (Turkey) Sauce: The Perfect Profile

It’s as if wild blueberries were made to pair with turkey. Entrees like turkey, chicken, duck and lamb achieve a sweet flavor balance with wild blues. Unlike the stand-alone sauce above, these sauces are meant for pouring, drizzling, and highlighting the main attraction, and their variations harmonize exquisitely.

Lay claim to this Wild Blueberry Grape Sauce, for instance, if you are looking for a colorful drizzle to liven up your platter. EatingWell.com uses thyme to complete the flavor profile on this Turkey with Blueberry Pan Sauce, and Wild Blueberry Chutney does similar work as a festive topping, be it breast, leg, or wing (or turkey sandwiches).

5. Wild Blueberry Bread: Beat the Beige 

Bread completes any homemade meal, and with a scattering of sweet blue berries, it can do double duty by beating a holiday meal’s beige blues. With so many options, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity for some wild baking this season.

Raise the roof with this Quinoa Blueberry, Cheddar, & Caraway Rye Cornbread from Yummly, try Paula Deen’s Sweet Blueberry Cornbread, or this Blueberry Zucchini Bread, either for meals or morning afters. Taste of Home keeps the flavor refreshing with Blueberry Orange Bread, or take a left turn and go for Blueberry Bread Pudding from Food & Wine. Enjoy!

Want More Blue? Learn Why Wild Blueberries Should be Part of Your Thanksgiving, and get your 10 Most Popular Questions About Cooking with Frozen Wild Blueberries answered at FAQ Blue. 

Turkey Still Frozen?

Quick, Last Minute Solutions for a Healthy, Pain-Free Thanksgiving
  

We know Allison Fishman is a proponent of wild blueberries, learning to cook, and having plenty to chew on your plate. We love all three, so who better to weigh in on a healthful, always delicious Thanksgiving? Try a taste! She offers up Ciabatta Stuffing with Chestnuts & Raisins on this segment of Access Hollywood. It’s healthier, tastier, and totally calorie-busting.

In her capacity as Skinny Cook extraordinaire, Fishman is a Contributing Editor at Cooking Light, and they have some meal-saving last-minute cooking ideas for the holiday to help keep you sane in the kitchen. It includes a list of best holiday recipes, sensational sides, and turkey ideas if you are still considering what tasty twist to put on your bird. (Consider Maple-Cider Brined Turkey with Bourbon-Cider Gravy. So gobble worthy!)

Thanksgiving novice? Don’t worry. Cooking Light also has help for your first wing ding, including turkey tips and general culinary guidance. They also provide some of the Most Common Cooking Mistakes that amateurs and chefs alike can learn from. Our favorites include learning the art of low fat cooking, and the common misstep of zapping butter in the microwave to soften it – to the dismay of your cookies and cakes.

Pie emergency? Real Simple lends a hand with Thanksgiving 911. These tips help you out with holiday bugaboos like not knowing the first thing about carving a turkey to avoiding the ripped pie crust nightmare.

Having a feast with no beast? No problem. We’ve got you covered with Cooking Light’s perfect Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu. With Mushroom and Caramelized-Shallot Strudel as the main course no one will even miss the bird.

Avoid the nibble trap! Cooking Light also does the math when it comes to how many calories you consume just by tasting. The truth hurts. From the 75 calories gained from licking a bowl at 10 AM to the noontime mindless pecan crunching (49!) your diet is toast. Read the facts and weep. Then, resolve to keep the sampling to an absolute minimum. Thanks, we think.

Maine-based blog Plating Up goes all out with their Citrus-Scented Roast Turkey recipe that heralds from Isle Au Haut, and then they turn around and outdo themselves with their Roast Turkey with Black-Truffle Butter and White-Wine Gravy recipe.

Let fruit & veggies shine! Fruits & Veggies More Matters has a quick and easy health reinforcer in 5 Ways to Take Fat & Calories Out of Your Holiday Menu that make health efforts quick and easy. They also give up their 5 Ways to Add Fruits & Veggies to Your Holiday Menu to augment your golds and blues – yes, it does have to do with Green Bean Casserole!  The holidays wouldn’t be the same without it.

The final flourish: Let Martha help you with your finishing touch with these table settings. Out of these 54 easy-to-achieve ideas ranging from a pine cone turkey placeholder to a cornhusk votive, you’re bound to find something that fits your fête.

Hey, what about that frozen turkey? First step, don’t panic. Read this from Real Simple, and cross check USA Today. Then, cancel those back-up reservations.

Have a Not So Traditional (Healthy) Holiday

Joanna Dogloff of the Huffington Post says that the typical Thanksgiving dinner has a whopping 2,796 calories. That might even sound a bit conservative, if Thanksgiving happens to be your favorite holiday. Fit Sugar alleges that the typical Thanksgiving meal actually comes in at 4,500, a number that truly puts the “gob” in gobble.

We know we have a tendency to overdo on Thanksgiving, but our typical holiday staples are actually quite healthy. Turkey meat is a low fat, high protein food, and favorite sides like sweet potatoes, pumpkin and carrots are fat-free, cholesterol-free, and high in vitamins and fiber. Thanksgiving is not inherently fattening and nutritionally void – it’s the appetizers, gravy, caloric drinks and choices like forgoing the greens for some extra potatoes that kill our calorie count. So how easy is it to get out of the Thanksgiving fat trap? Actually, pretty easy.

And now is the time to do it. It’s the year to fashion a not-so-traditional holiday meal – one that takes your principles of healthful eating that are in play the rest of the year into account. True healthy eaters think health 24/7. It’s part of their life. Higher fruit and veggie content, and lower fats and sugars become a way of eating, not a diet or a struggle. Just because it’s November 24, that shouldn’t obliterate your healthy habits. This year, it just stands to reason that the traditional holiday meal has evolved from artery-clogging carb fest to a bounty of fruits, veggies, healthy proteins, and portions that are in perspective.

Make Health Your Tradition

  • Fruit & Veggies More Matters has done some of the hard work of re-aligning your Norman Rockwell portrait and airbrushing in a more contemporary version of head of household – a healthy, vibrant you. They suggest 5 Ways to Take Fat & Calories Out of Your Holiday Menu. Can’t wait for those Garlic Mashed Potatoes? Go for it, they say! Use low-fat or non-fat milk instead of heavy cream and trade butter for low-fat sour cream.
  • New York Times blogger Tara Parker-Pope weighs in with Holiday Main Courses for Vegans – it begins with Curried Lentil, Squash and Apple Stew and ends with Pumpkin Tiramisù. Top that.
  • Finally, if you’re seeking a way to fill up on fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, taste, and one of the most powerful nutrition-per-calorie foods, misson accomplished: add wild blueberries to your holiday spread – they’ve got the color, taste, and tradition that is worthy of your best holiday table. Enjoy!

Got a favorite tip for a healthy Thanksgiving? Tell us!