Blueberry Buckle
Blueberry Buckle is a recipe from Alton Brown. Alton is a modern day culinary chemist-engineer known for his quirky television show Good Eats and as host of Iron Chef America. As someone who appreciates the science of cooking, that makes him a favorite of mine. I thought it fitting that I add something from him to my repertoire. Which brings me to why I chose his blueberry buckle.
Blueberries are in season and they are my favorite berry. As someone with collegiate affiliations of the red persuasion one might think I would favor raspberries or strawberries but no, I consider blueberries the Kings of the berry kingdom. They are the star of this cake, which is wonderful as a snack or with a good cup of coffee at breakfast.
If you were serving Blueberry Buckle for dessert I would recommend adding some creme anglais or a drizzle of vanilla icing, but it’s hard to beat when still warm from the oven.
Alton measures by weight instead of volume as do most commercial bakers because it is more accurate. Most home cooks are comfortable with the standard cups and spoons measures. I used weight for my test batch and it turned out perfect the very first time. How about that.
- Yield: 6-9 1x
Ingredients
Topping
- 3–1/2 oz sugar or 1/2 cup
- 1–1/2 oz cake flour or 1/3 cup
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 4 TBL unsalted butter – cubed and chilled
Cake
- 9 oz cake flour or 2 cups
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 4 TBL unsalted butter – left at room temp for 30 minutes or until reaches 60 degrees on an instant read thermometer
- 5–1/4 oz sugar or 3/4 cup
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 15 oz fresh blueberries
Instructions
Topping
- Combine the sugar, flour and nutmeg in a bowl
- Mix in the 60 degree butter using a fork or a pastry blender until it reaches a crumb-like texture
Cake
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
- Spray 8 or 9″ glass baking dish with pam and set aside
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and ginger together and set aside
- In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until it is light and fluffy , about a minute
- Reduce speed to low and add 1/3 the flour mixture
- Once incorporated, add 1/3 of the milk then repeat alternating until all the ingredients are combined
- Gently fold in the blueberries then pour the mixture into the baking dish and level it out
- Bake on the middle oven rack for 45 minutes, or until golden
- Cool on a rack for 30 minutes before serving
And just one more thing…
When MC squared meets Pi, that’s where your sweet tooth is located.