The weather here yesterday went from sunny, to cloudy, to rainy, and back to sunny again. It was as if Mother Nature could not make up her mind as to what she wanted to do (so nice to have a kindred spirit as this is how I felt yesterday as well). But once the sun came out, I thought about heading to the beach. but then thought about picking some blueberries at the blueberry farm down the road from where I live. In the end I decided to do both (no surprise there). First the blueberry picking, then the beach. I would use the time at the beach to read and think about what I wanted to do with the blueberries.
If you have not picked blueberries before or felt connected to an inner Laura Ingalls Wilder (hint: Little House on the Prairie), you are missing out on this fun little experience. Picking blueberries could not be easier. All you do is put a little bucket around your waist, walk through the aisles of blueberry bushes and pick the ripest, most beautiful blueberries you can find. And oh yes, you get to test a few as you pick them (a little nourishment for the work you are doing, the incentive to keep going). In less than an hour I was able to pick two pounds of blueberries. That was the easy part. What I would do with these blueberries that I had handpicked was a tad more difficult as there were so many choices.
I had seen a recipe for Blueberry Muffin Cake in the August/September issue of Fine Cooking and thought maybe this is what I would do with some of the blueberries. But I thought the recipe was missing something. That something would be a streusel topping. I mean really, a blueberry muffin without a streusel topping? Is that not like toast with butter, bagels without cream cheese, or oatmeal without a little brown sugar? Yes, yes and yes. I remembered that Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito had a great recipe for a streusel topping that they made to go along with one of their coffee cake recipes in their Baked cookbook. So the decision was made. At least two cups of the handpicked blueberries would go into a Blueberry Muffin Cake with Streusel Crumb Top. I could hardly for the morning so I could bake and fill the house the the aroma of baked goodness.
While this is a recipe using butter, sugar, eggs, and nuts (always the making of something divinely delicious), the most important ingredient is the blueberries. Ripe, beautiful blueberries. Particularly ones harvested in the summer.
The recipe for the streusel topping was enough for one 9x13 cake or two 9 inch cakes. Rather than cutting the recipe in half I decided that I would use half for this recipe and half for another. Maybe I would even make two Blueberry Muffin Cakes with Streusel Crumb Top. Toasted pecans, flour, butter, dark brown sugar and a little salt are the only ingredients in the streusel.
The flour, dark brown sugar and salt are added to a food processor and mixed until just combined. Next the toasted pecans are added and processed until they are ground into the mixture. Lastly. the cold unsalted butter is added and pulsed until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Transferred to a bowl, covered and placed in the refrigerator the mixture will remain chilled while you assemble the cake.
I absolutely love recipes that don't require the use of a mixer, especially if I am baking in the early morning hours. This is one of those recipes mixed by hand in a bowl. The dry ingredients are sifted into a large bowl and set aside. The wet ingredients are whisked together and added to the dry ingredients until just incorporated. It is important to not over mix this batter.
Once the batter comes together the two cups of blueberries are added and folded in with a spatula. The mixture is then scraped into a 9" springform pan that has been lined with parchment paper.
The batter is topped with half of the streusel mixture and placed into a 350 degree preheated oven. The recipe called for a baking time of 45 to 55 minutes, however, I found that it needed the 55 minutes (although I checked it for doneness at 45 minutes). During the last ten minutes of baking I placed a sheet of aluminum foil over the top so the streusel topping did not go beyond the color of brown I wanted it to have. The cake is done when a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. For years I did not use a cake tester and instead used a toothpick. While a toothpick can work, I now prefer the use of a cake tester as it is more accurate and does not leave 'large' holes in the top of a cake.
When finished baking, the Blueberry Muffin Cake with Streusel Crumb Top should be left to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before you unmold and serve it. The hardest part of this recipe is waiting as the aroma of the brown sugar and blueberries is intoxicating. On a large round platter or a cake stand, this cake is beautiful to look at. It is not just its' external beauty that makes this cake special, it is its' inner beauty. One taste of this Blueberry Muffin Cake with Streusel Crumb Top and, well let's just say it has an addictive quality to it. And that's not just because it was made with handpicked blueberries!
BlueberryMuffin Cake with Streusel Crumb Top (adapted recipes from Fine Cooking (August/September 2013) and Baked: New Frontiers in Baking)
Ingredients
Streusel (makes enough for two Blueberry Muffin Cakes)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup pecans, toasted
6 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1" cubes
Batter
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh blueberries
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9" springform pan with parchment paper.
2. For streusel topping:
a. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulsed until mixed.
b. Add pecans and pulse until pecans are finely chopped.
c. Add butter and process until combined. Mixture will look like coarse sand.
d. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator.
3. For batter
a. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt nto large bowl.
b. In smaller bowl whisk the eggs, milk, butter and vanilla.
c. Stir in the wet ingredients to the flour mixture until just incorporated.
d. Fold in berries.
e. Scrape batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly.
f. Top with half of the streusel mixture. Keep the other half of the streusel recipe chilled in the refrigerator and reserve for another use.
g. Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes (I baked mine for 55 minutes) or until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Note: During the last 10 minutes of baking cover loosely with aluminum foil if top appears if it is getting too brown.
h. Cool on rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer cake to a serving platter. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
When you walk the aisles of a blueberry farm you find bushes with berries in all stages of ripeness. It is a bush that holds back on its' bounty, releasing its' fruit a little a time. While blueberry picking would go much faster if the berries on the tree were ripe all at the same time, it feels more satisfying to find the ripest berries on the bushes a few at a time. Sort of like the same way it feels to slowly discover the plot of a story or the gifts of a friend. The excitement of the anticipation combined with the energy in the discovery are things than can make your heart race with joy. And without the investment of time, you might miss out on something or someone important.
And just as the ripeness of the berries change on a blueberry bush, so do we (change that is). Judging something or someone on a first experience or past experience can mean that we don't believe things or people can change. Sometimes that belief can lead us to missing out to an experience or perhaps even a life changing moment. I am one who believes we all grow and evolve. Sometimes we get stuck along the way, but eventually life changes us or we change ourselves. There are parts of me that are the same as when I was 16 years old, but there are other parts of me that are so different from the teenager I once was or even the adult I was several years ago. Quite possibly like a blueberry bush we too release our gifts slowly over time. And those that stay in our lives are the ones to see and experience these changes and quite possibly are rewarded with joy and energy for their investment of time in us. And what about those who see as only as we once were or don't remain in our lives? Well, maybe they either got stuck along the way or maybe they were not destined to be part of our journey.
