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Nova Scotia Blueberry Grunt in a small blue casserole dish

Best Nova Scotia Blueberry Grunt Recipe

This Nova Scotia Blueberry Grunt recipe is the best blueberry dessert ever! It’s like a blueberry cobbler but with light lemon sour cream dumplings steamed in a spiced blueberry sauce! 

Course Breakfast, brunch, Dessert
Cuisine Canadian
Keyword blueberry cobbler recipe, blueberry grunt recipe, Canadian blueberry dessert
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings 4 people
Calories 340 kcal
Author Kiki Johnson

Ingredients

  • 1 lemon juice and zest
  • 6 cups blueberries 600 g, frozen or fresh
  • 3/4 cups sugar 165 g
  • 1/3 cups water 80 ml
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1/3 cups milk 100 g
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 tbsp vanilla essence
  • 2 cups flour + 1 tbsp , 260 g
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/8 cups butter 30 g

Instructions

  1. Grate lemon zest directly onto the 1 cup total of sugar we need for the recipe and rub in with your fingertips to flavor the sugar with the lemon essential oils.

  2. Add blueberries, lemon sugar and water to a medium sized pot and bring all to a simmer on medium heat. Reduce heat and let simmer for 30 - 45 minutes until you have an almost jam-like consistency.

  3. Add spices and lemon juice and take pot off the heat. 

  4. Combine milk, sour cream and vanilla and stir. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and 1/4 cup of lemon sugar. Grate cold butter on top of dry mix and combine. Alternatively, you can quickly pulse the dry mix and butter in the food processor. Add liquids and quickly combine to a shaggy batter. Don't stir too much or your drop biscuits will be tough.

  5. Taking 1 tbsp of batter at a time, shape the batter to dumplings between 2 tbsp and place them on the blueberry jam in the pot. Place pot on medium heat and put a tight-fitting lid on.  Simmer for 14 minutes and do not lift the lid during that time.

  6. Serve with vanilla ice cream or sour cream. 

Recipe Notes

  • Wild blueberries are the key to a delicious grunt!  If you can find fresh, awesome - but frozen wild blueberries will work just as well. If using fresh berries add just a splash of water to the pan to prevent the sugar from burning.
  • When mixing the batter for the sour cream dumplings, only stir until a batter starts to form. Streaks of flour are no problem.
  • DO NOT remove the lid while cooking otherwise the dumplings won’t rise and you’ll be stuck with a gloopy mess. The dumplings should be puffed and well cooked through.