8 blueberry recipes bursting with true blue sweetness

1/8

Wild blueberry buckle, before baking (Patrick Downs / Los Angeles Times)

2/8

A berry nice mix.
Recipe: Berries jubilee with peach sorbet and salted candied almonds
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

3/8

You won’t believe how easy these are to make. Use any berry preserve you like. We like blueberry.
Recipe: Berry bars
(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

4/8

Sure to impress your guests.
Recipe: Berry Pavlova with vanilla whipped cream and pistachios
(Eric Boyd / Los Angeles Times)

5/8

Lemon blueberry buckle (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

6/8

This can be made up to three days in advance, nice for when you’re having a dinner party.
Recipe: Rosé jelly with nectarines and blueberries
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

7/8

This is the making of wild blueberry buckle, so named because your friends and family will go wild for it.
Recipe: Blueberry fool on a berry fruit salad buckle
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

8/8

These pops use real blueberries, and preserves.
Recipe: Blueberry and lavender pops
(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

By Rene Lynch

July 28, 2013 7:41 AM PT

Blueberries abound. They’re spilling over at every market, inviting you to just grab them by the handful and pop them into your mouth.

Maybe that’s not surprising. July is National Blueberry Month, don’t you know.

So what to make with all those berries when you get them home? Times Food Editor Russ Parsons suggests keeping things simple when it comes to fresh berries: just a touch of sugar and some sweetened whipped cream.

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But that’s not all you can do.

We pored through the L.A. Times Test Kitchen’s archives for some of our favorite blueberry recipes. The true blue, if you will.

These are some of our favorite ways to enjoy fresh blueberries, from a blueberry buckle, to a blueberry bar to a blueberry fool. (No, that’s not a typo. A fool is a fruit dessert served with whipped cream.)

When choosing berries, you want to look for fruit that is vibrantly colored, taut and shiny. Dull or wrinkled skin can be a sign that berries are over the hill, Parsons advises. And take a peek at the bottom of the basket -- that’s where damaged berries may be lurking.

Keep berries sealed and refrigerated until you’re ready to use them. Give them a rinse under cold water and you’re ready to go.

How are you putting berries to good use this summer?

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