Nova Scotia blueberry grunt is a classic East Coast fruit dessert! This is a very simple, traditional recipe which makes the most of seasonal wild blueberries.
Bring the blueberries, water, sugar, and butter to a boil in a medium-large pot that has a tight-fitting lid. Cook the blueberries for 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer the berries until the liquid is syrupy, about 8 to 10 minutes.
While the berries are cooking make the dumpling dough. In a medium-large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt with a fork. Using your hands, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Add the milk, then use a fork to mix everything together to a soft dough. Set aside.
Once the berries are cooked, use a spoon to drop chunks of dumpling dough all over the hot berries. Keep going until all of the dough has been used. Cover the pot with a large square of parchment paper and top it with the pot lid. Continue to simmer the berries for 15 minutes. Do not open the pot lid while the dumplings are steaming.
Remove the lid from the pot, and ***carefully*** lift off the parchment paper (be mindful of the hot steam underneath the paper which can burn your skin!!!). The top of the paper will be quite wet from the condensation of cooking. Do not let it spill into the pot! Serve blueberry grunt warm from the pot topped with ice cream or whipped cream or both.
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Notes
Feel free to use fresh or frozen blueberries.High bush blueberries are also great in this recipe.My favourite way to serve Nova Scotia blueberry grunt is with a generous dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream. You can also try serving it with a drizzle of 35% heavy cream, a spoonful of homemade lemon curd (it takes less than 5 minutes to cook!), or some clotted cream. And of course, in Nova Scotia a hot cup of tea is pretty much mandatory.
Substitutions
You could really use any fruit you like in this recipe, however, fresh wild blueberries make it a traditional Nova Scotia blueberry grunt.Substitute organic cane sugar for white sugar if you prefer.Make this recipe plant-forward by swapping your favourite dairy-free butter for regular butter. Shortening is also a great substitute and yields a light, fluffy dumpling. Just be sure to choose vegetable shorteningSpelt or whole wheat flour make fine substitutes for white flour.Any dairy-free milk can be used in place of dairy milk.