The Case of the Missing Eggs

blueberries

(LEFT) BLUEBERRY PECAN BREAD, (RIGHT) SOUR CREAM BLUEBERRY BUNDT CAKE. EXCERPTED FROM BLUEBERRY LOVE (C) BY CYNTHIA GRAUBART, PHOTOGRAPHY (C) BY KELLER + KELLER PHOTOGRAPHY, USED WITH PERMISSION FROM STOREY PUBLISHING.

Delicious and nutritious recipes are always part of the Healthy Aging® content you will find on the website and in the Healthy Aging® Magazine.

Recently, a dear reader alerted us to a missing ingredient in one of the recipes. Now, we could say we will “blame it on the Bossanova,” but we clearly goofed! We forgot the eggs in the Blueberry-Pecan Bread in a recent article.

To note: My very first job out of college was with Silvia Schur’s Creative Food Service. Silvia Schur was a food columnist, cookbook author, and innovator, credited with creating Cran-Apple Juice and Clamato. I told her I wanted to write about food, and write I did, thanks to her, churning out articles and recipes, styling food photos and more.

Back in the day, before computers and the internet (!), the recipes we created were for food editors nationwide. Before a recipe would leave our doors, two people had to read out loud, line by line, the list of ingredients in the recipe. The recipes were then printed and mailed out or “messengered” to a food editor’s Manhattan office. (Messengered was by a person on a bicycle, by the way … not instant Messenger!)

Today, with our fast-moving world and code used in website recipes, we no longer read recipes to one another line by line. Today, we carefully proof on our computers and publish the recipes with codes to indent or set up a line.

Well, in spite of our careful proofing, did make a mistake! We forgot the eggs!

Silvia would have been quite unhappy!

So, to make amends, we are reprinting the recipe. Try it – it is really fabulous!! (With two eggs!)

Mystery solved!

The recipe comes from a new cookbook that celebrates the blueberry. Author Cynthia Graubart, a James Beard Award winner, has studied the blueberry with the results in her new cookbook, Blueberry Love.

“These little jewels are prized for their sweet and tangy taste and nutrition,” Graubart said.

“Blueberries contain antioxidants (such as anthocyanin, which gives the berries their beautiful hue) and phytonutrients, which have powerful health benefits. These include the ability to reduce signs of aging, help control blood pressure and diabetes, and possibly improve heart health and lower the risk of cancer,” Graubart said.

Graubart offers many tips and 46 sweet and savory recipes in her book. She tells you what to look for when choosing blueberries, how to store (unwashed!), and how to freeze and dry. She dispels the myth of tossing blueberries in flour so they don’t sink in the batter. “Toss if that’s the way you were raised, but don’t feel guilty if you don’t.”

We love Graubart’s Blueberry Pecan Bread, “marvelous sliced, toasted, and slathered with butter.” Double the recipe to keep one and give one! Sautéed Pork Tenderloin is quick, easy, and has a delicious tangy flavor with its blueberry balsamic mustard glaze. Try her Sour Cream Blueberry Bundt Cake, from the book and which appears in Healthy Aging Magazine, for a grand finale, a buttery, dense crown jewel with a confectioners’ sugar glaze. Perfect and impressive for a crowd.

                                                                   Blueberry-Pecan Bread

Makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup chopped pecans
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray or grease and flour a 9-by 5-inch loaf pan.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl until thoroughly combined, at least 30 seconds.

Scatter the butter cubes over the flour mixture and the rub butter into the flour using your fingers, or cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender, two knives, or two forks, until the mixture becomes fine crumbs. Toss 1/2 cup of the nuts into the flour mixture. Make a well in the center of the flour.

Whisk the eggs lightly in a medium bowl and whisk in the milk and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture into the well in the flour mixture and stir gently but thoroughly, scraping the bottom of the bowl, until the mixture is just combined.

Avoid overmixing. Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.

Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and top with the remaining 1/4 cup nuts. Bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (avoiding a blueberry).
Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Excerpted from Blueberry Love (c) by Cynthia Graubart, photography (c) by Keller + Keller Photography, used with permission from Storey Publishing.
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