What to do with tons of lingonberries

(I’m really pissed because I wrote this entry yesterday but somehow only clicked on “save” and not “publish”, so now I technically haven’t posted every day this month. Oh well. But I’m going to continue with NaBloPoMo anyway, just to see if I can make it to the end of the month).

When J and I went to Finland in September to visit his parents, we returned to Estonia with several large containers of lingonberries (pohlad or puolukat) we had picked ourselves. Most of them went in the freezer, so they’ll last a while, but I immediately began to think about what to do with them. Here’s some things I’ve already utilized them for.

I’d been wanting to try Smitten Kitchen’s Big Crumb Coffee Cake for a while. I definitely agree with the sentiment that the crunchy crumbly topping is the best part of a crumb cake, and this recipe guarantees that the topping-to-cake ratio is high. She originally used rhubarb but says that any tangy fruit will do. Lingonberries are tangy! The picture above shows them sprinkled over the batter, and the one below shows the crumbly baked top with some berries peeking out. It was great. It came out slightly underbaked in the center (I guess I didn’t leave it in long enough), but it tasted outstanding. J was also a big fan. I’m inspired to make it again using some almond extract in the batter and almond slivers in the topping.

I also crushed some lingonberries with sugar to make a sort of raw “cranberry sauce” to go with the Jallu meatballs I made. I also did this on some mornings before topping the berries with fruit-flavored yogurt and a little crunchy cereal for breakfast.

I was excited to find this recipe for a lingonberry drink that can be made with alcohol or without. The recipe recommends that rum be used, but we used vodka because we had it around. Also, we bought black currant juice concentrate in a little box rather than actual black currant syrup because we’re cheap. The cocktail was still tasty though! My pictures of it aren’t every good though, so just look at the picture in the link, since it’s lovely.

About these ads