It’s blueberry season in our area. Call me an old fashioned girl, but there is something special when my daughter and I head out to our local farm, buckets in hand, ready to pick. Yes, you can buy them in the grocery store or your local farm stand, but there is nothing like being a part of the process. If you are lucky, the season extends for several weeks.
Often, you hear the people talking in the next row, or young families taking their children on an adventure for the first time. That’s when I look at my now willowy fourteen year old and think, “didn’t we do this with the baby carrier yesterday?” Sigh.
There is a sense of community and accomplishment to berry picking that is really unique. For every person I share this with who thinks, “OH COOL!” there is another person who gives the blank glazed over stare. As in, “That sounds painful.” I get it, to each her own. For some reason, I think the berries I pick myself…always taste sweeter. I’m sticking to it.
Blueberry picking is something we have done for years. I am a huge fan of supporting local businesses, and especially the farms in our area. By doing this, hopefully one day (WAY) down the road I can bring my grandchildren for the same experience.
A Blueberry Buckle is essentially a really great blueberry coffee cake. So for my base I used a recipe a friend of mine makes and brings to school if we are lucky. Thanks Lisa for sharing Betty’s goodness. Of course, leave it to me to mess with a good thing…
The original recipe can be found here and it is amazing.
https://www.bettycrocker.com Blueberry Best Coffee Cake
So here is where I went off trail…
- I switched out half of the flour with Cake Flour. Cake flour is silky and light, and I found it made the cake batter less dense.
- I also make extra crumble topping because, well, crumble topping is a good thing. You really can’t have too much crumble topping.
- The blueberries are almost doubled because I like a little cake with my blueberries. There is nothing like cutting a slice and seeing the abundant bright violet blue of steamy blueberries (I’m sorry, did you think I waited to slice this up?).
- I also switched out the extract to have either Almond or Vanilla because in our house…Almond Extract has a special place. Something about the smell, it’s a certain magic. (Yes, I swoon over extract). You can adjust the hot water to make the drizzle either thicker or looser depending on your taste.
This Blueberry Buckle is basically made in three bowls. The topping bowl, the cake batter bowl, and the drizzle bowl. It is made very quickly and is not stressful, I promise.
I used a smaller baking pan to make the serving size taller, and with the addition of the cake flour the overall result looked like one of those muffins you get at the good coffee shops…just bigger.
I tend to share everything I bake, so this got divided up and given away…which was a good thing, because it was really really good. It is quintessentially the perfect sidekick to my kick-off-the-day-large-cup of coffee.
Thank you for coming to the table!
Chrissy
PrintI Messed With Betty’s Buckle
This is based on Betty Crocker’s Original Blueberry Buckle recipe. SO good, with some changes in the flour, berries, and spices.
Ingredients
Crumble Topping 1⁄2 C Sugar
2/3 C Flour
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1⁄4 C Softened butter
Cake:
1 C All-Purpose Flour
1 C Cake Flour
1⁄4 C Oil
3⁄4 C Milk
1 Egg
Warm Vanilla Drizzle
1⁄2 C Powder Sugar
1⁄2 Tsp Vanilla or Almond Extract 1 Tsp Hot Water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375. Prepare an 9 x 9 inch pan with cooking spray.
- Prepare Crumble Topping. Mix dry ingredients and cut in butter until consistency is crumbly.
- Mix Cake ingredients until combined well and stir in blueberries. I typically like my blueberries with a side of cake- so you can tailor the quantity to your liking. 3 cups will be ample, 4 cups will be just shy of overboard…but that’s how I like it.
- Spread batter into pan,
- Top with Crumble Topping
- Bake for 40 -50 minutes.
- Prepare Warm Vanilla Drizzle
- When cake is slightly cooled – time to slowly drizzle the drizzle!