If you haven’t noticed, blueberry season is in full swing. If you’re like me, you may have more blueberries than you can possibly consume. No fear, I have an awesome blueberry buckle coffee cake recipe for you!
What is the difference between a buckle and a coffee cake? I asked some of my Twitter friends this very question and two very knowledgeable friends replied with varied responses. Lorna Yee of The Cookbook Chronicles had this to say, “I always think of buckle as a lot more fruit-heavy than any coffee cake would be because it’s in the “grunt/crumble” category”. Kim O’Donnell of True/Slant and former food writer for the WashingtonPost.com replied suggesting “if it had some type of fruit in it I suppose it would be some version of a buckle.” So there you have it, two expert opinions on what makes it a buckle and what makes it a coffee cake. I decided my recipe is a Buckle Coffee Cake. There, I’ve covered my bases.
What I like about this recipe is the brown sugar crumb crust which adds texture, flavor, and sends this coffee cake into a league of its own. Preparing it in a bundt pan also is nice because you can garnish it with powdered sugar and have the crumb crust actually be layered on the bottom. However you decide to bake it, I present to you the recipe. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 cups of AP Flour
2 tsp. of baking powder
1 cup of sugar
1/2 stick of butter, softened
1/2 tsp. of salt
1 egg
2 tsp. of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of buttermilk or milk
1 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries
5 tbs. of cold butter, cubed
3/4 cup of AP flour
1 cup of brown sugar
2 tsp. of cinnamon
1/4 tsp. of salt
1/4 cup of powdered sugar for dusting
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8×8 square pan or bundt pan with non stick spray. In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar for 3-4 minutes until light in color and creamy. Add egg, and vanilla and cream for an additional 2 minutes. Add salt, baking powder, and all purpose flour and mix on med.-low speed adding the buttermilk in a steady stream. Mix batter until everything is fully incorporated, approx. 3-5 minutes. Batter will be nice and thick. Fold in fresh blueberries and pour batter into pan. Set aside.
In a food processor or by hand, mix brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and cold butter until the mixture is crumbly. If mixing by hand, just use your fingertips or the back of a fork. If you are using a food processor just pulsate everything until you get a crumb mixture. Add crumb topping mixture to the cake pan and gently press everything down.
Bake in the oven for 60 minutes or until done. Remove from oven and let it sit for 8 minutes and invert it onto a plate. Garnish with sifted powdered sugar. Enjoy!
*For a more traditional looking coffee cake, see this adapted version using sour cream.
For another great Blueberry Raspberry Buckle recipe by Michael Natkin of Herbivoracious.com, click on the picture below.
Glad you liked it Randi!
I made this last night and it is a really nice cake. This recipe goes into my keeper files. I’m glad that there is not so much butter in it. makes me feel less guilty.
The Blueberry Buckle is a WINNER!! I probably won’t use my precious 1 -1/2 homegrown cup of blueberries any other way again! It’s on my countertop and disappearing every time someone walks by!
Okay ~ worldwideweb embarassment! Upon re-reading the recipe, I now see that this is an action to be taken, not a recipe! Duh! Too much 4th of July pre-celebration . . .
07/03/10 I just discovered your website today when looking for a recipe that used both BLUEBERRIES and BUTTERMILK. This recipe fit the bill, and the PHOTOS are beautiful ~ and I am in the midst of making it right this moment! I am wondering if there is an INGREDIENT MISSING? The instuctions state to add the egg, vanilla and CREAM, but the ingredients don’t list cream . . .I am going forth anyway, without any cream, but if you could ANSWER this question, I’d know better for future reference. THANKS! Julie
Just made this last weekend…DE-LISH! Love the brown sugar and cinnamon combination for the crumble. Will definitely be making this again! Thanks, Alice!
This looks divine. I must try baking it!
I made this along with the Breakfast Casserole. A perfect pairing…something sweet along with something savory. I also made the Guinness Ginger Stout Cake…which my husband equated to Boston Brown Bread – from a can, and wanted to put ham and baked beans on it. I yelled at him and made him go away.
That looks so delicious, the white sprinkles and the crunchy base really make it look better than 5 star quality.
Just bake this cake, is absolutely AMAZING! I used frozen blueberries that I had from a previous recipe and it came out great. Thanks for sharing!
YUMM! Every time I seen aything with blueberries, I so wish we got them here. had fun figuring out crumble vs. crisp with you today! 😀
That cake look so tempting. Gorgeous picture.
HI There
Really stunning food photos. First off apologies for contacting you through the comments instead of by email but I wanted to bring FoodandFizz to your attention as a great place for you to share some of your photos. We would love to feature some of your photos and hopefully send a little traffic back this way to you 🙂 Drop me an email if you have any problems and look forward to seeing your stuff
Regards
Ben
Thanks everyone, I hope you have a chance to make this and let me know what you think.
Alice
I knew you’d give into baking a cake. LOL! This looks super delish too! Now, I want a piece of this cake! A bit too late for me to be baking, but I could probably have this as part of my lunch tomorrow.
Looks beautiful and delicious!
Mmmmm blueberries. Your cake looks great…as always:)
This looks wonderful – I love baking with fresh blueberries.
I LOVE blueberry buckle, it was one of the first summer desserts I learned to bake as a little girl. This bundt pan idea is wonderful, will surely be trying!! 🙂
Alice, I ♥ this Buckle Coffee Cake. Serious YUM stuff. No blueberries in India, =( , but I love the basics you got covered in there! WOW!!
I love the crumb topping. I tried doing that once. But to my mistake I accidentlly left out the flour and so the top burnt like caramel.
Looks very delicious. I need to get me some blueberries.
Yum much?! I want to gobble gobble it up! Fresh blueberries are nature’s candy. I can eat 2 pints in 1 sitting easy.
Laura,
The crumb topping wasn’t soggy, but kind of chewy and crunchy. There is quite a bit of butter so it was cookie crisp but was really nice. Hope that helps!
Looks delish–I love blueberry buckles of any kind, even the coffee cake kind. 😉 Has the crumble topping gotten soggy on the bottom? How long did it take to finish the cake?
that looks delicious! yum!