So who, or what, the heck is Brown Betty?
Betties are baked, layered puddings that date back to Colonial America, according to "The Food Lover's Companion." The layers came from (often brown) sugar and spiced fruit with buttered bread crumbs baked on top to bubbly perfection.
Traditional Apple Brown Betty conjures images of grandma and crisp fall days, but there's no reason the featured fruit can't reflect the change of seasons. For a tasty spring Betty, we put lemon and blueberries to the test. The result: The Kansas City Star's Lemon Blueberry Brown Betty, a perfect dessert dish.
The lemon flavor comes from fresh-squeezed lemon juice and a touch of low-fat yogurt. Adding cinnamon helps to reduce the amount of sugar required. Upgrading the choice of bread to whole-wheat also bumps up the nutrition.
Cooking tip: If blueberries are especially tart, increase sugar in crumb mixture to 3 tablespoons.
Serving tip: If desired, top each serving with a scoop of frozen, nonfat vanilla yogurt.
