Blueberry Coffee Cake

Blueberry Coffee Cake.

Hold the coffee. Please pass the herbal tea.

Add a streusel topping for some sweet crunch and maybe a few extra blueberries on the side for me.

Cut a slice for yourself and eat it while it’s still warm.

Even if you’re not a big-time baker, you can make this coffee cake. It’s quick and easy. You don’t need a mixer or a bunch of fancy stuff.

Here’s what you need:

Blueberries, Lemon, Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Butter, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt, Cinnamon, Sour Cream, and Eggs.

Click here for a Blueberry Coffee Cake Shopping List.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Since the butter needs to melt and then cool a bit (so we don’t scramble the eggs by adding hot butter to the batter), melt the butter first before starting the rest of the batter.

You’ll need 7 Tablespoons of unsalted butter. That’s one tablespoon shy of using the whole stick.

Set the melted butter aside to cool. Use the remaining Tablespoon of butter to grease the bottom and sides of 2 9-inch cake pans.

Important Note:  this recipe makes two, round 9 inch coffee cakes. Each cake serves about 8 people. You can easily freeze the second coffee cake for another day. It is important that you do not use a larger pan than a 9 inch cake pan. If you dump all of the batter into one large pan, the coffee cake will not cook evenly and will definitely not cook in the center. I think you could use any shape pans or even pie pans, but be sure to divide the batter into 2 batches.

For the streusel topping, put 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 1/3 cup white granulated sugar (regular old sugar), and 1/3 cup flour in a medium bowl.

Add 1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) of softened butter and 1 teaspoon cinnamon to the bowl.

The butter needs to be softened so that you can mix it into the flour and sugars with your fingers. Get right in there and work the flour into small pieces so that all of the ingredients have thoroughly combined.

After a few minutes of mixing by hand, the topping should look and feel like wet sand. Set this aside while you make the batter for the coffee cake.

In a large bowl, combine 3 cups of flour with 1 Tablespoon baking powder…

1 teaspoon baking soda…

1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Use a whisk to combine all of the dry ingredients.

Using a microplane or grater with very small holes, remove the zest from a lemon. You’ll need at least 1 teaspoon of zest (use more if you want a noticeable lemon flavor) which is about 1/2 a lemon.

Remember to remove only the very outer yellow parts of the lemon rind and not the white part underneath which can taste quite bitter.

In a separate small bowl, combine 1 3/4 cups sour cream with 3 eggs.

Add the lemon zest, 1 cup of light brown sugar, and 1 cup of white granulated sugar.

Whisk these ingredients together and then pour in the melted butter. Whisk the butter in to thoroughly combine all of the wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir only to combine about halfway. Do not over stir.

Toss 1 pint (about 2 cups) of fresh blueberries with 1 Tablespoon of flour. The flour helps keep the berries from all dropping to the bottom of the batter. It also helps keep your batter from turning blue.

If you don’t have fresh blueberries, you can use frozen but DO NOT THAW them before you add them to the batter. Just put them in frozen or they will be a mushy mess.

Add the berries and stir just until the batter is combined.

Scrape down any flour from the sides but do not over stir or you will have tough cake.

Divide the batter between the two buttered cake pans. Use a spatula to smooth out the top.

Sprinkle the streusel topping over the batter dividing evenly between the two pans.

Ready for the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 40 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few crumbs.

I had to cook mine for about 45 minutes because there was still a very jiggly spot in the center. However, if you cook them until the toothpick comes out completely clean (like you do for some breads and cakes), the coffee cakes will get too done and be too dry.

What kind of food blogger doesn’t have a photo of the finished product?

The kind that wants to get right to eating a nice, warm piece of blueberry coffee cake.

Let the cakes cool slightly in the pan, then run a spatula or knife around the edge and carefully invert the pans to remove the coffee cake.

Let the cakes cool for about 10-15 minutes so that they don’t fall apart when you cut them.

Here’s the recipe: Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

Blueberry Coffee Cake