I go through seasonal cycles in cooking. Right now, I’m looking for recipes with blueberries. I’ve made this delicious blueberry buckle coffee cake from a 1950 Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book several times but it’s been a while.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare an 8 x 8 baking pan with cooking spray.

Rinse and drain 2 cups of fresh blueberries on a paper towel. Gently pat them dry.

Sift 2 cups of all-purpose flour into a medium mixing bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of salt and stir. Set aside.

In a separate bowl thoroughly blend ¾ cup sugar and ¼ cup butter until all the sugar is incorporated into the butter. Pastry blenders work well for this. (The recipe calls for ¼ cup of shortening—I always substitute butter for the shortening.) Add 1 egg, ½ cup milk, and stir. Set aside.

Hint: Add blueberries to the flour. A gentle toss coats the fruit with flour. Remove the berries from the flour with your clean hands or a slotted spoon and set aside for a moment. This coating will prevent the fruit from all settling at the bottom of the batter during baking.

Stir dry ingredients into the sugar mixture. Once combined, gently fold in the prepared blueberries. Pour the thick batter into the prepared baking pan.

Next, prepare a crumb mixture as a topping. Mix together ½ cup sugar, 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. (The recipe calls for ½ teaspoon cinnamon—I’m always generous with this spice.) Then thoroughly blend in ¼ cup of butter with a pastry blender. Sprinkle this crumb mixture over the batter.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes. Enjoy!

This is a delicious blueberry coffeecake for breakfast or brunch.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, Macmillan and General Mills, Inc, 1950.