New England-Style Blueberry and Apple Pandowdy

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...We are home again, a bit jet-lagged, several pounds heavier and brimming with a trove of memories that rival the weight of Midas' gold. The two munchkins you see above managed to keep us all entertained with their curiosity, good natures, and general love of silliness. You can imagine the giggles that erupted when they learned there was a dessert called a pandowdy. They quickly put the word to their own use and their latest epithet is pandowdy do-do head. I suspect our Pilgrim forefather's are rolling in their graves with each utterance of the new curse.

A pandowdy is a fruit dessert that is sweetened with maple syrup and topped with a layer of pie crust, biscuit dough or a mildly sweet cake-like batter. The crust is obviously where variations come into play. After it is baked, most folks break up the crust and push parts of it into the fruit mixture to give the dessert a messy or dowdy appearance. Pandowdy is an old New England dish that was born of necessity. It uses extremely basic ingredients and the use of syrup harkens back to the days when white sugar was expensive or unavailable. I cheat a bit and use both sugar and syrup in my version of the recipe. Despite that, this is not an overly sweet dessert. I like to serve it warm with a good vanilla ice cream or a dollop of sweetened whipped cream. I hope those of you who have never prepared this simple dessert will give it a try. I know you will enjoy it. Here is how it is made.

Blueberry and Apple Pandowdy...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
5 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter or spray an 8 x 8-inch baking dish.
2) Combine apples, blueberries, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix well. Transfer to prepared baking dish. Cover dish with a sheet of aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
3) Meanwhile, combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Whisk to combine.
4) Combine milk, egg, butter and vanilla in a large measuring cup. Pour into dry mixture and stir to combine.
5) Spoon batter over apples and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

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