Blueberry Grunt Is a Retro Delight (No Oven Required)

My husband and I were only six months into our marriage and had just moved into a rental in New Jersey. We had fresh blueberries from a farm, and I set out to make a cobbler as an inaugural dessert in our new home. 

I turned on my oven and started adding all the usual cobbler suspects to my baking pan: blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, and a touch of cinnamon. I set it to the side and got to work on the biscuit topping, mixing and scooping dollops onto the top of my blueberry filling. I bent down to place my future cobbler into the oven and I stopped cold. Actually, it was the oven that was cold. Our rental house had a bum oven.

It was 1995 and Google wasn’t available, so I pulled an old Betty Crocker cookbook off the shelf. I flipped through pages with quirky desserts like apple pandowdy, huckleberry fool, and peach brown betty. There it was, the solution to my problem: blueberry grunt.

What Is a Grunt?

What someone in Massachusetts calls a grunt, someone from Vermont would call a slump. The dessert has roots in the steamed puddings of England. A fruit filling is simmered on the stove, then a biscuit or dumpling dough is dropped on top. The pot is covered and the whole thing is steamed until the biscuits are fluffy and the fruit is jammy. Perfect if your oven is out of order.

Anatomy of a Blueberry Grunt

You can use whatever blueberries you happen to have. My u-pick-em’s were amazing, wild blueberries are a treat, but store-bought or even frozen blueberries would do the trick. Heck, you can pretty much grunt-ify any berry that tickles your fancy.

For me, the non-negotiable is the buttermilk drop biscuit topping. My first grunt had a Bisquick top, but I like to think I’ve evolved since then. Buttermilk biscuits are lighter and fluffier, which is a big plus when they are steamed. There’s also a subtle tang that plays fantastically with the sweet, jammy fruit filling. 

When they are done on the stovetop, I like to brush the biscuits with a little more buttermilk and give them a sprinkle of sugar. Then I place the whole pot under the broiler for a few minutes, giving them a golden brown crisp that is positively joyful! Not required, but highly recommended.

Quick Tips

• If you don’t have or can’t find buttermilk, you can substitute with plain yogurt, kefir, or Greek yogurt thinned with a bit of milk to a thick liquid consistency. I don’t like the lemon juice/vinegar in milk buttermilk substitute as it doesn’t give you the same consistency or flavor. If you want to use plain milk, start with 3/4 cup and add more as needed to get a wet, sticky dough.
• Before adding sugar to the filling, taste your berries. If they are quite tart, add the full 1/2 cup of sugar. If you taste a bit of sweetness in your fresh blueberries, that sweetness will intensify as you cook them, so you might want to decrease your sugar to as little as 1/4 cup.
• You can make a grunt entirely in the oven. To do so, preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the blueberry filling in the oven and bake uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes until bubbly. Carefully remove from oven, and using an ice cream scoop or two spoons, drop biscuit dough on top of hot blueberries. Cover the pan with the lid or tightly wrap the top with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the top and bake another 10 to 15 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown.

Blueberry Treats

• Blueberry Cheesecake
• Blueberry Muffin Tops
• Blueberry Crumb Bars