Blueberry Grunt Is the Ultimate Summer Dessert (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 Hand Pies
• Blueberry Crumb Bars

Prepare to make the biscuit topping:

Melt the butter in either a small saucepan or the microwave and remove from the heat. Place the buttermilk into the freezer and set a timer for 15 minutes. 

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.

Make the biscuit dough:

After 15 minutes, pour the cooled butter into the cold buttermilk and stir with a fork. The butter will clump up into small solid pieces.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the cold buttermilk and butter mixture. Use a sturdy wooden spoon to bring the wet and dry together just until you have a fairly uniform dough with no obvious pockets of dry flour. Set the biscuit dough in the refrigerator until ready to top the filling.

Make the filling:

In a large Dutch oven or a deep braiser at least 12 inches in diameter, add the blueberries, water, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt. Mix to combine, then place the pot over medium heat, stirring frequently. 

Once it starts to bubble, turn the temperature down to medium-low and cook the mixture for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the bubbles start to become uniform in size, slow to pop, and are clear and shiny. If it is thickening too much and begins to look less like a syrup and more like a gel, add water a tablespoon at a time, up to 1/4 cup.

Add the topping:

To prevent condensation from dripping down and making your biscuit topping soggy, wrap the lid to the pot in a clean dish towel and tie or rubber band the ends on the top so that they don’t drape down into your heat source. This will capture any moisture and keep your biscuit topping fluffy. 

Use a 2-ounce ice cream or cookie scoop or a couple of large spoons to portion the biscuit dough onto the top of your blueberry filling in a single layer. Leave about 1/2 inch between the biscuit mounds; they will spread out as they steam.

Cover with the wrapped lid and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until your biscuits have almost doubled in size and a skewer inserted into the center one of them comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Brown the top (optional):

If you want a bit of browning on your biscuit topping, remove from the heat, brush your biscuits with a bit of extra buttermilk or heavy cream, and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Broil at least 6 inches from the heating element until golden brown, about 2 minutes, watching carefully.

Let cool for about 15 minutes and then spoon out individual portions. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Love the recipe? Leave us stars and a comment below!