As a kid growing up in Michigan my friends and I would pick blueberries in the summer to try and earn some cash.

I say try because we were not really good at making any money.  Somehow the berries would end up making it into our mouths more than the bucket. It was a social gathering with all of our friends  lined up along a row of blueberry bushes talking, plucking, eating and dropping a few berries into a bucket.  After our one bucket was collected, which seemed to take an eternity; we would collect our meager cash and head home on our bikes with our bellies full of blueberries.

I still think that Michigan has the best blueberries ever.  I admit, I may be a little biased in that thinking.  Living in California now I am fortunate to have a wide range of wonderful ripe fruit but there is something about a Michigan blueberry or any blueberry  that brings up fond memories of my summers growing up in Michigan.  When the season of blueberries was coming to a close, my Mother would always buy the last bit of wonderful berries she could find (in large quantities I might add) and squirrel them away in the freezer so we had berries during the winter.  There are about a million recipes  for blueberry buckle or coffee cake and this is just my version I’ve come up with.  I hope you enjoy it.

Blueberry Buckle (Blueberry Coffee Cake)

3/4 C sugar

6 Tablespoons butter, softened

1 egg

1/4 C milk*

1/4 C sour cream (*if you don’t have sour cream, you can use all milk and bump up the amount to total 1/2 cup)

1 tsp. vanilla

1   1/2 C all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Cups fresh blueberries; washed and drained

Crumble:

1/4 C sugar

1/4 C light brown sugar

1/3 C all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 C butter, softened

1/3 C chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375º F.

2. Prepare an 8 inch square pan with a parchment sling and lightly spray with baking spray, or grease the pan. You know about my obsession with parchment slings, right?

3. In a medium large bowl, cream the sugar and butter until combined.  Add the egg and mix until combined.

4. In a small bowl combine  the dry ingredients:  1  1/2 cups  flour, baking powder, and salt.

5. In a one cup measuring cup whisk the sour cream, milk and vanilla together; set aside.

6. To the creamed mixture from step one, add in 1/2 half of the dry ingredient mixture from step 4, alternating with the milk mixture, ending with the last of the  flour mixture.

7.  Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.

8. Spread the batter [it will be quite thick] into the prepared pan.

9. Prepare the crumble: combine the sugars, flour, cinnamon, butter with a pastry blender, then mix in the nuts. Sprinkle over the batter.

10. Bake at 375º F  for about 50 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Note: you can double this recipe and use a 9 x 13 inch pan if you have a large posse to feed.

Happy Baking

Suzie

Printable Recipe:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14KO7wVV0QoMWM224JnfyK-McIT9tV1EvPBZsTJkK77k/edit?hl=en_US