But, like I said, I will eat them as a spread! Especially if they're mixed together in a blend like the "Summer Fruit" or Superfruit. When I was going through my review copy of The Old Farmer's Almanac Garden-Fresh Cookbook last week, I saw this "Blueberry Butter" recipe and thought I'd give it a whirl. Firstly, I liked the fact that it would help me use up the wild blueberries in our freezer before they got burned. The light spicing and apple components won me over completely. I scaled down the batch so that I wouldn't have to go to the store, and set to work. 
Partway along the cooking process, I came around to stir it and smelled a heady dose of vanilla. I wasn't sure why my house smelled like an orchid processing plant until I looked at the bag of sugar I used and found out I had used exclusively vanilla infused sugar instead of the standard granulated I thought I grabbed from the pantry! At the end of the cooking, though, the smell dissipated enough that it left a noticeable, but not smack-you-stupid element that I think really made the jam for me. A quick schmear of it on a crust of bread and I knew I had some good stuff going. If anything, I would have bumped up the nutmeg a touch, but I'm a spice addict at the best of times!Makes about 1 1/2 cups, 12 (2-tbsp) servings
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (unthawed) wild blueberries
2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 cup vanilla sugar (or regular sugar + 1 vanilla bean)
pinch salt
1/4 tsp allspice
pinch nutmeg
1/4 cup water
- Combine all the ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepot.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring frequently to prevent sticking and mashing the fruit against the sides of the pot to smooth it out.
- The butter is done when it is thick and spreadable.
- Can in a water bath or spoon into clean jars and keep in the fridge up to 6 weeks.
Calories: 88.0
Total Fat: 0.2 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 1.1 mg
Total Carbs: 22.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.2 g
Protein: 0.1 g
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