When my husband was a kid his family had a summer place not
far from a wild blueberry patch. He and his siblings would go with buckets and
picnic lunch and come back with sticky faces and overflowing bounty. They had
so many berries that his mom had to get creative to use them all up, in salads,
pancakes (of course) and this summer favorite.
I’ve never been able to visit that wild blueberry patch but
our farmer’s market gave us the next best thing with 5 and 10 lb. boxes of
Michigan blueberries available the past couple of weeks. Bliss! Eleven months
of the year, blueberries are my least favorite grocery store fruit – small,
sour and priced like gold. Thank you, my
blueberry-loving neighbors who offered to split a box! It felt decadent to have more fresh, ripe berries than we could possibly eat.
Why is this a “buckle?” I think the batter is supposed to buckle
in the middle after rising as it bakes, although this recipe actually kept its
shape pretty well. It’s similar to coffee cake, but we had it as dessert.
This makes a 9x9 cake, or double the recipe for a 9x13 or
10x13 pan. The batter is very thick (kind of like cement – don’t worry, you
didn’t leave out anything). If you have
one, use a stand mixer with flat beater attachment, switching to a wooden spoon
to fold in the berries.
Grannie Annie’s Blueberry Buckle
Cake
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup shortening
1 egg
½ cup milk
2 cups flour
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups blueberries
Mix sugar, shortening and egg. Add milk. Sift dry ingredients and then
mix into wet. Blend in berries. Pour mix into a greased 9x9 square pan.
Sprinkle with streusel topping. Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.
Streusel Topping
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
¼ cup Oleo [J
copied from original recipe – you can use butter or shortening]
1 tsp. cinnamon
Mix all ingredients until crumbly [use a pastry
blender/pastry knife if using cold butter] and sprinkle onto buckle.
