I know it is officially summertime when I come home with pounds and pounds of blueberries that I woke up at some crazy hour to go pick from the local farm. I remember going blueberry picking with my grandmother and sister once and I was done with it after about 10 minutes (the hot, humid southern summer was certainly the final straw). My grandmother was determined to pick pounds of them whether we liked it or not. Now I can see why and I do not blame her one bit – blueberries are often referred to as nature’s candy and with good reason.

I got home from picking and went immediately to freezing the surplus and thinking of how to incorporate them into something wonderful, but not necessarily sweet. In my reminiscing I was reminded of the time I made biscuits with Grams. She did not make biscuits often but decided it was time to show me how. Of course, I have no idea what ingredients we used because I was more concerned with playing in the mess they made, so I turned to this recipe I have used for a few years, and adapted it to make these blueberry buttermilk biscuits.

If you have never made biscuits from scratch you are in for a real treat. They require just a few ingredients and no special tools are required. I used the food processor in this recipe because it makes them come together even faster. If you do not have a food processor then you can use a pastry cutter, fork or your hands. Just make sure to sift all the dry ingredients together before adding the butter.

Cube the butter and keep it in the fridge so it stays nice and cold (I like to do it the night before so I do not have to mess with it in the morning). Measure the dry ingredients into your bowl and pulse a couple times to mix. Add cold, cubed butter. Pulse food processor until the mixture resembles corn meal, like the picture below.

While pulsing, slowly add in the buttermilk just until the dough comes together and then turn it onto a floured surface. At this stage it will look like a somewhat crumbly mess that is not really a ball of dough. This is when you add frozen blueberries. I like them frozen first so they do not get too smashed up while you are rolling the dough.

Gently work the frozen blueberries into the dough softly kneading it until it holds a shape. Yes, it is messy. Embrace the mess. These are definitely not from a can!

Like I said, fancy tools are not required so if you do not have round biscuit cutters just use a bowl. Lightly press the bowl into the dough to make a dry run for the biscuits. The key is to only do this twice. Biscuits from the second pass will not be as good as the first because they will become tough. The bowl shown above was way too big for a normal sized biscuit. This of course was not realized until they came towering out of the oven. Try to use something 2-3 inches round.

What do you do with these once they are done? As pictured above, put some whole grain mustard on them with county ham for a delicious lunch. If you think this is crazy talk then please consult my husband who told me I was out of my mind. Then he had it for lunch and changed his tune!

If that is a little too adventurous then scoop some vanilla ice cream on a warm biscuit for shortcake-like biscuit delightfulness. Or just spread some butter onto them and have with your eggs for breakfast.

Sidenote: When you go blueberry picking (because you are not going to use frozen blueberries in the middle of summer, right?) tell the staff if it is your first time and they will tell you what to look for. Also, there is a chance you will be surrounded by blueberry picking pros so strike up a conversation and have fun enjoying the fruits of summer!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups cake flour*
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12 Tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 ¼ cup buttermilk
1 ½ cups frozen blueberries

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Line sheet pan with parchment paper and lightly spray with non-stick spray
3. Combine dry ingredients
4. Cut in butter until mixture resembles cornmeal
5. Slowly add buttermilk
6. Turn out onto floured surface
7. Add frozen blueberries
8. Gently knead blueberries in until just combined
9. Roll to approximately 3/4 inch thickness and cut
10. Repeat once more
11. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown
12. Serve immediately

*If you do not have cake flour you may use regular flour. The cake flour will give you a more tender biscuit.

Store leftover biscuits in an airtight container in the refrigerator.