Blueberry Cornmeal Buckle

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.

Blueberry Roulade . . . or make it Raspberry!

This is so good, so easy, and so versatile I've made it three times in the past week now.  And Labor Day will be four.  No, I didn't polish them all off myself, but they were a hit at an intern's farewell party and then a beach picnic.  Nobody believes me that they're a cinch to pull off.  "It's just a sheet cake," I say, "filled with cream and jam and fruit and rolled up."  "Rolled up?" they ask.  "How do you roll up a cake?"

The cake itself is almost fat free -- no butter or oil in the recipe, just eggs.  There's the cream in the filling, but it still comes off feeling light.  And that was really welcome after the ultra-rich Pecan Bars I made last time.  This is just what a summer dessert ought to be, seasonal fruit in a cake that doesn't weigh you down.  And the cake is easy, going something like this: Beat eggs with sugar, then fold in flour with other dry ingredients, scrape into a pan, and bake.

This blueberries and cream variation was really good, but my favorite was the raspberries and cream version.  Dress the cake simply with a dusting of confectioners sugar, or pipe whipped cream on top.  Another possibility?  Come back tomorrow to see how to make this into a Chocolate Raspberry Roulade with whipped chocolate ganache.