2 Gals Cooking Light Giveaway and Gingered Blueberry Shortcake

Today is our final day of 2 Gals Cooking Light week. This has been very fun to do with Val of More than Burnt Toast and we are looking forward to another event with a few of our friends in the future months. What made this event even more special was Aaron of Magsdirect.com just happened to contact me prior to our Cooking Light week and asked if I would be interested in giving away a Cooking Light subscription. He generously offered to give away 3 - so 3 lucky winners will be chosen between Val's comments and my on starting from Sunday June 7, 2009 posts and ending tonight (June 13, 2009). To make sure we can contact you if you are one of the winners, please leave a way for us to do so. If we can't contact you we will have to draw another name.

My last choice from the May 2009 issue to post with Val this week was the Gingered Blueberry Shortcake. The photo looked so appealing in the magazine that I decided I would make it and never paid attention to the ingredients until I started to mix it together. This is when I realized it was very low in sugar.

You use 4 cups of blueberries (that really is a LOT of berries!) and only 3 tablespoons of sugar in the berries. Then, when I got to the shortcake, that is when I realized - no sugar in the shortcake?! I must be on sugar overload lately because to me that just seemed like it was not going to be sweet enough. I was very wrong! This was one of the best desserts I have had in a long, long time!

Here is a round up of the recipes that Val and I did throughout the week:
Sunday: Grilled Tomato and Brie Sandwiches. View Val's version here and HoneyB's version here.
Monday: Val made Heirloom Tomato and Herb Pappardelle.
Tuesday: HoneyB made Strawberry-Basil Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Wednesday: Val made Oatmeal Cookie Peach Cobbler
Thursday: HoneyB made Apricot-Glazed Grilled Chicken
Friday: Val made Fire-Seared Antipasto Platter
Saturday: HoneyB made Gingered Blueberry Shortcake (see recipe below)


Gingered Blueberry Shortcake
Cooking Light, June 2009

Ingredients:
4 cups blueberries
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
3/4 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar or granulated sugar
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar (I did not go with heavy cream and sugar- I used pressurized light cream from a can instead)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine first 3 ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat; cook 3 minutes or until berries begin to pop, stirring frequently. Set aside.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor; pulse 3 times to combine. Add butter and ginger to processor; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Place mixture in a large bowl; add milk, stirring just until moist. Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured surface. Press mixture into a 7-inch circle; cut into 8 wedges. Place wedges 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Combine egg white and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl. Lightly brush tops of wedges with egg white mixture; sprinkle evenly with turbinado sugar. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Place cream in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Split shortcakes in half horizontally; spoon 1/3 cup berry mixture over each bottom half. Top each with 1 1/2 tablespoons whipped cream; cover with shortcake tops.

Serving size: 1/3 cup blueberries and 1 shortcake

Calories: 319, Fat: 12.8g (sat 8g,mono 3.4g,poly 0.6g), Protein: 5.4g, Carbohydrate: 47g,

Fiber: 2.6g, Cholesterol: 38mg, Iron: 2.2mg, Sodium: 415mg, Calcium: 149mg

WW POINTS: 7