I’m often surprised by what triggers autobiographical memories that spontaneously link today with yesterday: A wall painted burgundy in Lviv, Ukraine, reminds me of an old-fashioned recital dress my grandmother made for me when I was 11; the gait of a stooped-shouldered, white-haired Chinese woman in Beijing dressed in grey pants and a green sweater reminds me of my Aunt Hanna; a faded two-tone green 1956 Chevy BelAir in Havana, Cuba reminds me of my Uncle Anatole’s first new car in America; the aroma of a mountain of cardamom pods at the Spice Souk in Dubai brings memories of my mother-in-law Solveig Johnson’s Norwegian breads and coffee cakes.
Recently, a bumper crop of Michigan blueberries at the Green Street Market in Chicago’s Lincoln Park reminded me of a book I read a hundred times in First Grade and haven’t thought about since.
Blueberries for Sal, a Caldecott-awarded children’s picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey and modeled after the author’s wife and daughter Sally, was my favorite story for months. The story is set in a small Maine town: Little Sal’s Mother takes her to Blueberry Hill to pick berries. Sal drops three berries in her bucket — “kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk,” then eats them. Little Sal eagerly eats every berry that she picks, while her mother concentrates on picking berries for canning. Gradually they get separated on the hill. Unbeknownst to them a mother bear and her cub also came to Blueberry Hill to eat berries for the winter. While Little Sal’s mother tells her they can’t eat all the berries because they need to save them to can for the winter, the mother bear tells her cub to eat as much as possible to store up fat for winter. Sal prefers the bears’ approach to winter preparation, and wanders off to eat as many berries as possible. Sal and the bear cub, engrossed in eating all the berries they can, become disoriented and follow the wrong mother. It takes the mothers several minutes to realize the wrong child is following them. Eventually, each child is reunited with its own mother and they both leave the hill. Little Sal and her mother return home to can blueberries for winter.
No book captured my First Grade imagination as much as Blueberries for Sal. When Mama and I went to the local branch of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Public Library on Saturday to stock up on reading materials for the week, I insisted that we again borrow this book against Mama’s objections that I should read something new. Mama agreed only if I chose other books as well. I knew the story by heart and found it comforting. It fueled my fantasy. Growing up in a big city where there were no berries to pick, I was intrigued by the loving mother-daughter relationship and their rural berry picking and canning. I had a vivid imagination and pictured myself as a character in the story, and I poured over the unusual two-color illustrations (only in yellow and blueberry blue), carefully studying pictures of blond-haired Little Sal, who looked a bit like me, and her smiling mother. They seemed to be having such fun.
My fondness for blueberries probably stems from this charming story. While Mama’s summer canning was limited to tomatoes, peaches and pickles, Mama’s blueberry varenyky were our family’s summer treat. A Ukrainian varenyk is a thin dough crescent-shaped ravioli which Mama filled with a tablespoon of blueberries and once boiled, served warm with sweetened sour cream. The luscious contrast between the warm blueberries encased in a delicate dough and cold sour cream sprinkled with sugar was always worth the wait.
Over later years, I’ve enjoyed making and indulging in blueberry varenyky, pancakes, shortcakes, muffins, crisps, cobblers, pandowdies, coffee cakes and especially Solveig’s double-crusted blueberry pies with a crunchy large-grain sugar topping. But I used this versatile, slightly sweet berry in various savory dishes as well, such as grilled chicken salad with blueberries, pork tenderloin with a blueberry onion sauce, Rock Cornish hens with sautéed blueberries and blueberry chutney to name a few.
When I started to work in Europe years ago, American high-bush blueberries (primarily Vaccinium corymbosum), were unavailable. Still, a smaller dark blue and quite tart berry of the same genetic family was plentiful. The European blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), also known as bilberry, blaeberry or whortleberry, grows on low bushes, generally growing wild in acidic sandy soils and bog lands of the taiga and sub-arctic regions of Scandinavia. Unlike the American blueberry with a dark blue dusty exterior but a white interior, the European blueberry is dark blue both outside and inside.
I’ve since learned that cultivation of American blueberries was widespread among Native American tribes throughout North America. European colonists learned about blueberries from Native Americans, bringing this unique American species to Europe. Yet commercial cultivation of American blueberries in Europe was introduced only in the 1930s but widespread production developed only recently.
The modern American blueberry, a relative of American laurel, rhododendron, azalea and broom, is a 20th century development. Before the 1930s, the only way to enjoy these North American natives was to find them in the wild. Then, botanists began unlocking the secrets of cultivating and hybridizing blueberries to produce bigger, sweeter, transportable berries.
In recent years, food scientists concluded that American and European blueberries have exceptional nutritional properties and are dubbed “superfoods.” Blueberries are a good source of Vitamins B, C, E and K, iron, manganese and numerous antioxidants. Their blue-black pigment results from anthocyanosides, a type of powerful antioxidants responsible for stabilizing collagen structure.
European wild bilberries, an integral part of the Nordic diet, have slightly greater medicinal properties than American blueberries. Research shows the antioxidants of both genus of blueberries have many important effects on the body, including decreasing blood platelet aggregation which can lead to strokes and heart attacks. They also help relieve day and night blindness and retinal degeneration. Bilberry leaf tea is used to help normalize high blood sugar in diabetics. Numerous other health benefits are claimed, but have not been substantiated.
Baking in Europe over the years I successfully substituted bilberries in recipes calling for American blueberries, often adding more sugar to compensate for the tartness of bilberries. Recently I had a chance to do the reverse. Several weeks ago, I found this recipe for Lemon Bilberry Bread in Hele Norge Baker (All of Norway Bakes) by Ida Gran-Jansen, Pascal Dupuy and Øyvind Loftus. Ida Gran-Jansen is a Norwegian baker and host of a popular TV show “Norway Bakes.” I adapted this recipe for American blueberries.
Lemon and blueberries are an irresistible combination and the resulting yeast bread is fragrant, pleasantly sweet and tart, a perfect accompaniment to coffee or tea. I use fresh blueberries, but frozen blueberries work as well. This bread can be dusted with powdered sugar instead of glazing.
Glazed Lemon Blueberry Bread
14 oz. (3 ⅓ cups) or (400 g) all-purpose flour
+ more for dusting
2 ¼ oz. (⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon) or (85 g) sugar
1 ¾ teaspoons dry yeast
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.7 oz. (scant ¼ cup) or (50 g) unsalted butter
+ more for greasing pans
¾ cup milk
½ cup water
2 eggs
Pinch of salt
Blueberry Filling:
1 ½ cup blueberries
1 tablespoon flour
Lemon Filling:
zest of 2 large lemons
¾ cup (5.3oz.) or (150g) sugar
10 tablespoons melted butter
Glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest, packed
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, melted
Add flour, sugar and yeast in a mixer bowl. Whisk to combine.
In a small saucepan combine milk and water and heat to lukewarm, approximately 130° F (55 °C). Add butter and stir until melted. Crack eggs into small bowl and whisk into the milk mixture. Add vanilla and a pinch of salt. Pour milk mixture into the flour mixture and knead for 5 minutes on low speed. Increase speed to medium and knead for 2 minutes. (Or knead by hand for 10 minutes until dough is smooth.) Put the dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise for 1 hour until doubled. While the dough is rising, make the filling.
Grate lemon zest. Mix with sugar and 6 tablespoons of butter and set aside. Keep the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter for later use.
In a small bowl, combine blueberries with flour. Stir berries until coated with flour. Set aside.
Butter two 9“x 5”x 2 ½” (22.8 cm x 12.7 cm x 6.3 cm) loaf pans.
Place the dough on a floured worktop and roll out to a rectangle of 18 “x 14“ (45.7 cm x 35.5 cm). Cut the rectangle in half perpendicularly to the 18” (22.8 cm) edge making two 9” x 14” (22.8 cm x 35.5 cm) pieces. Brush the top surfaces of both pieces of dough with 2 tablespoons of melted butter, saving remainder to later use.
Spread ½ of the lemon filling on each piece of dough, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Spread ½ of the blueberries on each piece of dough, pressing so the blueberries adhere to the dough. Starting at the top, roll the dough into a jelly roll. Pinch both ends and fit into prepared loaf pans, seam side down.
Butter tops of loaves with remaining butter. With a sharp knife or razor blade, score the top of each loaf in ¾” (1.9 cm) slices, making the cuts about ½ “ (1.27 cm) deep. Push some blueberries randomly into the cuts. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 40 minutes to an hour.
Preheat oven to 350°F (180° C).
Bake in 35-40 minutes on the middle oven rack. Check after 15 minutes and cover tops of loaves with foil, if browning too much. Check internal temperature after 35 minutes. Bread is done when the internal temperature reaches 200 °F (93°C). Cool bread for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a cooling rack.
When is bread at room temperature, mix the glaze ingredients. Then drizzle glaze over the surface.
Serves 10 – 12.
