What is that I spot in the yard? Blueberries? I was so excited to see them, we had no idea what bush this was on the side of the house when we moved in. They’re not quite ready for picking but they certainly made me crave a blueberry dish. And when I came across a recipe from Donna Hay I knew I had to make this. Toasted coconut crumble? Yes! The original recipe included apples which you can add if you like, but I skipped that and used my basic crumble recipe (which just means 3 cups of berries and a bit of sugar) and her crumble topping recipe. The other crumbles I’ve made generally use cold butter, here she uses melted butter, I don’t see much difference in the final dish, but it’s definitely easier to combine with the dry ingredients.

One thing you can say about Portland is that there is no shortage of berries, we really lucked out with the house and now have 3 kinds of berries growing in the yard! The strawberries started to thin out recently, but now I’m seeing new flower blossoms and expect a new batch of berries in a few weeks. I can barely keep up with what’s growing around here, this is a whole new world for me and I’m loving it!

Health benefits of blueberries can be found here

Blueberry Coconut Crumble

(adapted from Donna Hay)

Berries

3 cups blueberries
1/4 cup sugar

Crumble

1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup coconut (shredded or flaked)
1 stick of butter (8 ounces) melted
1 cup of flour

Preheat oven to 350°. In a bowl toss the berries with the 1/4 cup of sugar and set aside for about 20 minutes. In another bowl combine the sugar, coconut, butter and flour, then mix with finger tips until it crumbles. In a 6”x10” baking dish add the blueberries and top with the crumble mixture. Bake for 30-35 minutes until brown.