Blueberries and a Buckle

 Blueberry season arrived and off we were to fill our buckets earlier this week. 

 We're fortunate to live close to a couple pick-your-own blueberry farms... this was our first time visiting this farm and it was overflowing with rows of beautiful bushes.  We planted some blueberry bushes in our own backyard last year... they are producing berries but still very small... this farm had me dreaming of " maybe one day". 

 Since we were there at the beginning of the season, we had to pick for the ripe berries.  Next time we go I have a feeling we could simply stick our buckets underneath the clusters and let the berries drop.

 Of course I came home and the blueberries were just begging to be baked into something sweet.  I made this buckle (or coffee cake) one afternoon, which was a delicious treat, and may have been eaten for breakfast once... okay, twice... this week (smile).  This buckle isn't very sweet as I was trying to limit the sugar, so feel free to add more if you desire. 

 Blueberry Buckle Recipe

Batter

1/4 cup sugar (I use organic cane)

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

 1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour (I use unbleached)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together the sugar, melted butter, egg, milk and vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Stir in the dry ingredients until combined.  Fold in the blueberries.  Spread the batter into a baking dish (I used an oval 1 1/2 qt casserole dish).

Topping

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt

 1 tsp lemon juice

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and lemon juice.  Cut the butter into tiny pieces and add to the rest of the ingredients, using either a pastry cutter or your hands to create a crumb mixture. Sprinkle the topping over the batter.

Bake the buckle for approximately 50 minutes.

One last thing... if you happen to have any leftover blueberries!  The last couple years I have frozen blueberries... they are one of the simplest fruits to freeze and are perfect in the winter to add in muffins, pancakes, and baked goods.  I wrote a post on how to freeze blueberries last year, but basically all you do is spread them in a single layer on a pan, put them in the freezer for a few hours (or longer), remove the pan and place the frozen berries into freezable containers or bags. 

Happy Blueberry Season!

P.S. I also wanted to say thank you to Jennifer from Celebrating Everyday Life for featuring my blog today.  She is lovely and so talented... most recently she was featured in Southern Living Magazine and even publishes a beautiful magazine of her own.  Her blog is a real treat!