Blueberry Buckle

Buckle?  Crisp?  Betty?  Coffee Cake? It's delicious!

Okay, I decided I wasn't done with blueberries by FAR yet - they are amazingly tasty, great for you, and in fantastic supply these days as they are in season.  There is a local blueberry lot nearby that is convenient for summer picking... provided you bring closed toe shoes to avoid the poison ivy lurking.  I picked up about 3 pounds of blueberries over the weekend and was requested to repeat this dish that I've made several times now.

I do love Alton Brown, and his Good Eats show is hilarious.  Even though I don't trust his banana pudding (he makes it like a Northerner), and I failed miserable at reproducing his Pad Thai, every now and then he makes something fantastic that is worth repeating over and over again.  This is my favorite AB recipe!  I do tend to stray from what his recipe calls for, and I certainly don't use the weighted measurement system he does... but it ends up delicious each time!  

I went to the website and took some notes on the recipe he calls for.  It's important when you're baking to at least know what proportions of things recipes actually call for before you start tinkering with them!   

I like having a brief recipe

These are all the notes I needed in order to create this awesome dish.  I will elaborate a bit more in the actual recipe section at the bottom.  As far as what exactly you call this dish, it appears that there are an awful lot of words for desserts that are pretty similar - cobbler, buckle, betty, sonker, crisp, etc.  In fact, there are several articles I found that discuss the intricate differences among the specific words.  Sonkers are apparently unique to my home - Surry County, North Carolina, and now I am wishing I'd paid more attention to the "Sonker Festival" that happened each year.  Even when reading several articles, there seems to still be some debate as to what makes a Buckle unique.  Some people seem to think it's the streusel-like topping that buckles when it cooks, some people think it's the fact that because you use baking powder and fruit, the fruit is too heavy to rise, causing uneven rising which causes it to buckle in appearance.  It seems unanimous that the Buckle Dessert is almost exclusively a blueberry dish, so for all intents and purposes, I will continue to call this a Blueberry Buckle.  

375?!  Inconceivable!

Yep, it calls for 375 on the oven.  Better go along with it, since it's baking stuff... if you cook it lower, it'll just take longer, and this recipe is known to sometimes take a little extra time than the 35 minutes it claims. 

Mmmmm delicious... Sour Cream container full of blueberries!

Fluffy?  Not exactly... use an electric mixer for sure!

Similar to many recipes, this one calls for wet ingredients to be creamed together before the dry ingredients are added slowly.  2 oz of butter is equal to half a stick (4T) but I had 6T leftover from another recipe, so I decided to try and cut the entire butter requirement down to 6T (from 8T) for the Buckle and topping.  It meant that this first step didn't cream up quite as nicely, but it smoothed out once the egg went in!

Butter, sugar, and egg combined

This is what the "wet ingredients" bowl looked like after adding the one egg.  This is MUCH more normal looking for the "cream together" stage.  

Super necessary

The only spice that Alton mentions is Nutmeg, but I really enjoy using a fair amount of Cinnamon in this recipe, and a small shake of Cloves.  Again, watch out for overdoing.  I find Nutmeg goes best in apple desserts, but check for your own preference!  The spices should be in the dry ingredients!  

Massive amount of blueberries

At this point, I quit taking as many pictures because I was cooking this dish at 11 pm on a Sunday night.  The directions call to start adding 1/3 of the mixture of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, spices, salt) and 1/3 the milk (only 1/2 cup) in rotations to avoid clumping the batter.  Once it is all mixed together, it is extremely sticky.  That's when the blueberries get added.  They should be "folded" in which is where you take a spatula or spoon and lay blueberries on the batter, then scoop it up from the bottom and literally fold it over the blueberries.  It is a gentle way to mix the fruit in without completely breaking the skins into bits and pieces.  

Blueberries folded!

I couldn't locate my 9x9 baking dish, so I improvised with a round corning ware dish.  It worked just fine, but meant that the Buckle was a little thicker than usual, which required additional baking time.  

Spray this thing down!

The topping is a mixture of some flour, sugar, and more butter.  It should be mixed together, using a fork, until it's all "crumb-like."  If you're having trouble getting it to stick together, you can use some more butter, but keep in mind the butter is just going to melt when you put it all in the oven.  It doesn't have to be saturated with butter.  

Buckle + Topping = ready to go!

I cooked this Buckle for 35 minutes.  I stuck a knife in the middle of it and came out with pudding, so I put it back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.  I then divided it up among several small containers for taking to work for breakfasts!  While not ridiculously calorie-wise healthy, it's a great way to utilize fresh and local produce of the season!

THE RECIPE: 

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 shake cloves

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3 cups blueberries

For the topping:

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

some nutmeg

1) Preheat the oven to 375 and grease a 9x9 pan.

2) In one bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices together.

3) In another bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.  

4) Add the egg and beat together.

5) Alternate adding the dry mixture and the milk to the wet bowl until it's all together

6) Fold in the blueberries carefully

7) Get the entire mixture into the pan

8) Mix together the butter, flour, sugar, and nutmeg using a fork to break up the butter.

9) Sprinkle the topping evenly across the top of the pan

10) Bake for 35+ minutes.  It is done when a knife/toothpick comes out of the middle clean of batter.  

*Let this cool for at least 10 minutes before serving - fresh from the oven blueberries can be heat bombs!