On a recent visit to the farmers market I got beautiful blueberries, and was wondering what to do with them (besides popping them in my mouth) when I remembered I wanted to try making this buckle. Upon tasting it, my baker friend at work called this "the best blueberry buckle I've ever had."
The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook calls it a blueberry cornmeal butter cake, and describes it as the place where a blueberry buckle meets Southern cornbread. If you don't like cornbread, don't be put off. I'm not a fan of the squidgy, gritty squares that come on the side of plates in restaurants either, but this is different. The texture is more of a background note, and lends itself well to wonderfully crisp edges. The buckle is moist and lightly sweet, and the blueberries picked the morning of the market gave it a wonderful, summery flavor. Make it soon while blueberries are in season, and before summer slips away.
I did have one issue with the recipe, and that was the weight measurements. Given the choice between volume and weights, I always pick the latter. Using a scale is more precise, I never lose count of cups or tablespoons, and I don't have to break out said cups. But the buckle was still very liquid in the middle after 35 minutes. A few minutes more didn't help, and it was still not fully set after sitting in the oven with the heat turned off. On my second try I used only volume measurements, but also weighed them as I went, out of curiosity -- some of the grams were way off from what the recipe stated. So, lesson learned: use only volume measurements for this recipe, and I've given only those below.
On a minor note, the streusel topping came out dry and sandy. I wanted nice, big, buttery pebbles that have more crunch and stay on the top like this crumble, so I increased the butter and tweaked the method.
Looking for additional blueberry goodness? Check out my Blueberry Roulade.
