Lemon Blueberry Buckle - Holy Moly!!

What is a buckle? and why do they call it that? It's like a coffee cake, with the streusel and all! Only it has blueberries and this one has fresh lemons!! YUM!!

Last week the L.A. Times Food Section was dedicated to blueberries and it just so happened that my local market had blueberries on sale!! I couldn't resist trying this incredible recipe that was listed in the Food Section for Lemon Blueberry Buckle. I read the ingredients and thats all that was needed!

First the Crumb Topping:

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

Zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup butter, cubed, at room temperature

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest. Add the butter, using a fork or your fingers (I used my pastry cutter at first then finished with my fingers) to cut in the butter until its about the size of peas. 

Cover the bowl loosely and place it in the freezer until ready to use. 

Now for the cake part......

1 1/2 cups flour plus 2 tablespoons

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

zest of 1 lemon

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cups blueberries (preferably fresh)

Preheat your oven to 350'. Lightly grease a 9" square pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg:

Can you smell that nutmeg? Oh man.....nothing like the scent of fresh ground nutmeg!

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy:

Not ready yet:

Almost but not quite:

(3 - 5 minutes later) Aaaaah...now you got it:

Add the eggs one at a time:

Make sure you scrape down the sides so that the eggs get fully incorporated with all of the mixture.

Now (put away the beaters and get out your spoon)...you're going to alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk into the egg mixture bowl starting with 1/3 of the flour:

Keep mixing, it will smooth out.

Then add 1/3 of the buttermilk:

Mix until fully incorporated before adding more flour. 

Once all the flour and buttermilk have been added, gently fold in 1 cup of blueberries:

 

Spread the batter into your 9" greased pan. Distribute the remaining blueberries over the batter:

Then...sprinkle the crumb topping over the berries:

Bake in the oven until lightly golden and firm on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 50 minutes. (if needed, rotate pan halfway through for even baking).

Meanwhile........Lets make a lemon syrup!!! Oh yeah!

1/3 cup sugar

6 tablespoons lemon juice (about 2 lemons...use the ones you zested from)

In a small saucepan combine the sugar and lemon juice, whisking together until blended:

Heat the pan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally until thickened to a syrupy consistency (about 6 - 8 minutes). The glaze will get bubbly and may need to be removed from the heat so you can properly check the consistency. I had a bit of an issue with this process. While hot, it never got as thick as...say....maple syrup and I think I came close to scorching the syrup:

I tasted it and it was fine. So I removed it from the heat and set it aside in a warm place until the cake was done. It did thicken as it cooled.

Ok, now for the grand finale!!! Remove the cake from the oven (don't forget to do the toothpick test...it may need to cook a bit longer). Drizzle the warm glaze over the top of your cake:

Oh man! But wait. Not yet. Let it cool to room temperature. This way that glaze and the streusel get all crunchy-oozed together. Now THATS what I'm talking about!

You can keep the cake at room temperature for 2 - 3 days, covered with plastic. Ya right! As if it's going to last that long. I don't think mine survived 24 hrs.