Blueberry Treat for Breakfast

Blueberry sauce caught in the waffle squares, tastes better than it looks.

Blueberry sauce caught in the waffle squares, tastes better than it looks.


Machias had its blueberry festival this past weekend, and other towns here and there in Maine have celebrated the fruit in the past couple of weeks. Toby and I celebrated blueberries for breakfast the other morning after spending a couple hours picking at a very prolific field not far from where we live.

Neighbors of ours have restored a very big patch of berries by mowing and managing the plot, and this year were rewarded with an ample crop which they have generously shared with lots of us. What a treat to pick on a summer afternoon when it is not too hot, not too wet, just right.

We froze some. And next morning, Toby made waffles, and concocted wonderful syrup to put on top. Toby’s waffles have no distinct recipe. He starts with granola, which he also makes, and adds about a half cup of flour, buttermilk, an egg, a few chopped walnuts, mixing it all in a two cup measure which produces four waffles in our waffle maker. Once in a while, he mixes in crunchy peanut butter.
This time he sprinkled blueberries on top after putting the batter in the maker. I love Toby’s waffles, and I have completely resigned waffle-making to his good offices.

The topping he made was really rich and flavorful. Butter, maple syrup, and blueberries mixed and heated just until some of the berries were soft enough to mash. Heating the blueberries unlocks their flavor and even though these berries were fairly sweet, the maple syrup was a welcome addition; butter made it rich, and is easier to pour on waffles than butter is to spread on them. .It was so good that I thought it was worth sharing because surely some of you have blueberries to use, and you might even still have summer house guests to make waffles and pancakes for. This sauce will make them seem even better. You can make more of the sauce than you need, and refrigerate it. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove top to serve.

Toby’s Blueberry Sauce
Half a stick of butter
Half a cup of maple syrup
A big handful of blueberries, to taste
Melt the butter, add the maple syrup and heat until it is quite hot, and add the berries. Stir often, and as the berries soften, mash some of them against the side of the pan. Serve hot.
Makes about one cup of sauce.

Sandy Oliver

About Sandy Oliver

Sandy Oliver Sandy is a freelance food writer with the column Taste Buds appearing weekly since 2006 in the Bangor Daily News, and regular columns in Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors magazine and The Working Waterfront. Besides freelance food writing, she is a pioneering food historian beginning her work in 1971 at Mystic Seaport Museum, where she developed a fireplace cooking program in an 1830s house. After moving to Maine in 1988, Sandy wrote, Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Foods at Sea and Ashore in the 19th Century published in 1995. She is the author of The Food of Colonial and Federal America published in fall of 2005, and Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie which she co-authored with Kathleen Curtin. She often speaks to historical organizations and food professional groups around the country, organizes historical dinners, and conducts classes and workshops in food history and in sustainable gardening and cooking. Sandy lives on Islesboro, an island in Penobscot where she gardens, preserves, cooks and teaches sustainable lifeways.