blueberry buckle (and another blueberry treat)

sugar, butter, and lemon zest await creaming; the forlorn (and slightly soggy) last bit of buckle

The fourth of July was a gloriously pretty day here. I celebrated by walking all the way down Fifth Avenue to the Shake Shack, eating a hamburger with a caramel milkshake (!!!), and stopping at the Greenmarket for some blueberries for the blueberry buckle in this month's Cook's Illustrated. Friday was a surprise day off from work, which I had spent shopping for staples to fill my bare pantry. I drifted through Fairway in a daze, filling my cart with bulgar wheat and baking powder, red wine vinegar and cinnamon sticks, panko and peanut oil. In short: I was finally equipped for baking in my new oven.

Alas, this was not my favorite Cook's Illustrated recipe. To be fair, 1)I'm not crazy about blueberries anyway, and a buckle, as we learn in the magazine, is a very fruit-heavy thing, 2)I had to use an 8 inch cake pan because I didn't have a 9 inch, so I had to guess how much to add to the baking time, and 3)it wasn't half bad--I happen to have inflated expectations for Cook's Illustrated. I still managed to choke down most of the cake myself, much to the shock and displeasure of the one who had supervised the buckle-making [N.B. reader, this person had recently snatched the last homemade gruyere crouton from my plate and popped it into his mouth, claiming he thought it would be "funny"--do we save cake for crouton stealers?--I didn't think so].

In any event, a blueberry recipe I liked much better than this can be found on Epicurious: blueberry muffin tops. I don't have a muffin top pan, so I made these in regular muffin tins, with frozen blueberries, and they were still so good. They are very sweet--more of a dessert than a breakfast muffin--and I recommend them highly, so long as you don't mind a cakey fruit bread.

Comments

[Becca]

If anyone was to steal my last gruyere crouton I would choke down an entire blueberry cake (real blueberries or stains) just to retaliate. (N.B. reader I do NOT like blueberries!)

[Becca]

If anyone was to steal my last gruyere crouton I would choke down an entire blueberry cake (real blueberries or stains) just to retaliate. (N.B. reader I do NOT like blueberries!)

[Robin]

Becca, you should try the muffins!

I made Dutch babies this morning and will show you soon.