Alpine Dishes: Blueberry Bread

Early-summer office in Winterthur. Our friends open their doors and let us share in the abundance of “gebana” products. A shipment of organic blueberries has just arrived.

Worldwide direct from the farm – “gebana” thinks and acts beyond “organic” and “fair” and changes the rules of trade.
www.gebana.com

I remember the collection “Alpine Recipes” that was gifted to us by a resident of the Werdenberg nursing home. It includes blueberry bread. Time to try it out.

Blueberry Bread

Ingredients:
300 g flour, 1 level tsp baking powder, 1 level tsp baking soda, 1 pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg, 60 g rolled oats, 90 g softened butter, 125 g brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1/4 l buttermilk, 125 g walnuts (chopped), 200–300 g blueberries, 75 g applesauce or candied peel, finely chopped.

Most important kitchen tool: 1 loaf tin

Prep time: 25 minutes

Baking time: 1 hour

Oven temperature: 170–190° (middle rack)

Method:

  1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg into a bowl.
  2. Add the rolled oats.
  3. In a second bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy.
  4. Add the eggs and buttermilk and whisk well.
  5. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the egg mixture.
  6. Mix everything into a thick batter.
  7. Fold in the nuts, applesauce or candied peel, and the raw or thawed blueberries.
  8. Pour the batter into a greased loaf tin and smooth the top.
  9. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour, until golden brown and firm. Let cool.
  10. Serve cold with butter.

For variation, use other berries instead of blueberries.
Best eaten as fresh as possible.

Everything must be done with love and reverence for the plant. Speak to the plant without hesitation.

From the introduction “Notes for Plant Gatherers”
Alpine Dishes, Augustin Condrau, March 2000

During our isolation stay at the Werdenberg nursing home, we were given the booklets “Alpine Dishes” and “Medicinal Herbs, Roots and Wild Fruits of the Alps”—both by Augustin Condrau. A lovingly compiled recipe collection with roots in the mountain homeland of the canton of Graubünden.