Spiced Blueberry Grunt

Somehow I'm not thrilled with out of season fruits and berries. Most have no flavor, especially strawberries. However, these blueberries were a real deal at the grocery store just recently and they looked fresh and ripe. I did a post on blueberry muffins last summer with some really great blueberries from a local fruit and berry farm, so I needed a different recipe for these winter blueberries. I found just what I wanted to make from Epicurious.com. Blueberry Grunt is a cobbler of sorts, but is cooked entirely on top of the stove, not baked. The "grunt" noise comes from the sounds the mixture makes as it is cooking in the pan. Mine didn't grunt, or if it did, I didn't hear it. The grunt is probably the sounds of delight when one is eating this luscious blueberry dessert. The dumpling topping doesn't get brown with stove-top cooking so I would sprinkle a little cinnamon sugar and run it under the broiler for a few minutes for a more pleasing color. Of course, when you scoop it out and top it with vanilla ice cream, you won't really notice.


Spiced Blueberry Grunt

Filling
4 cups fresh blueberries, washed and drained
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses, I used honey
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Dumplings
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
3/4 cup whole milk

For filling, mix all ingredients in a 12-inch diameter skillet. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat to medium-low and cook until blueberries soften and thicken slightly, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare dumplings. Mix dry ingredients together, cut in butter with fingertips or pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add milk a little at a time until blended and a sticky dough is formed.

Drop dough by tablespoons onto simmering blueberries, placing dumplings close together. Cover skillet, cook on medium-low heat until dumplings are firm and a tester inserted into the dumplings comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.