Blueberries are my favorite morning berry. They don’t need to be peeled, capped or cored, so gobbling up a handful or adding them to a recipe is quick and easy, even before coffee. Beyond the sweetness, color and nutrition of the blueberries, the secret to this porridge is whole-grain oats with plenty of texture, such as Irish or pin oats, which stay chewy and never turn gummy. A big scoop of nutty granola adds a welcomed crunch. The decadent warm maple cream is the perfect topper. Some of us can’t get enough of the cream and really pour it on. If that sounds like you, it’s easy to double that part.
See more: Farm Facts: Blueberries
Preserving the Harvest
Blueberries freeze beautifully with no need to even rinse them first. That cloudy, waxy looking coating is called bloom, which protects the berries. Make sure they’re dry and spread in a single layer when they go into the freezer. Once frozen firm, transfer into airtight bags or containers.
Granola Porridge with Fresh Blueberries and Warm Maple Cream
Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Porridge:
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup water
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup steel-cut oats (also known as Irish oats or pinhead oats)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup chunky granola with nuts
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- Coarse salt, for sprinkling
Warm Maple Cream (easily doubled, for generous pours):
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Zest of 1 small orange cut into wide strips
- ½ cup maple syrup
Instructions
- For the porridge, bring the milk, water and salt to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Stir in the oats, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook until thick and creamy, 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, prepare the Maple Cream by bringing the cream, vanilla bean, cinnamon stick and wide strips of orange zest to a gentle simmer in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
- Simmer for 10 minutes to infuse the flavors; do not let the cream boil. Remove the solids. Stir in the maple syrup.
- Simmer until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 20 minutes. Keep warm over very low heat.
- Remove the porridge from the heat and let stand for 2 minutes. Stir in the butter, then the granola, then blueberries.
- Serve warm with a generous drizzle of Warm Maple Cream and a sprinkling of coarse salt.
Sheri Castle is the host of The Key Ingredient, a cooking show from PBS North Carolina. She is also an award-winning professional food writer, recipe developer and cooking teacher. The Southern Foodways Alliance named her one of 20 Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her The Storyteller. She grew up in Watauga County and now lives in Chatham County.
Keep tabs on her at shericastle.com.
