Blueberry Buckle

Last Edit December 22, 1999

Let me put this another way - how to get your man to buckle at the knees.
This is a coffee-cake bread (not as sweet as a cake - great for Sunday Brunch).

Washing Blueberries

Buy a basket - about 2 cups worth and put them in a large bowl Fill the bowl with cold water. Stir with your hand. Remove bad berries. Green ones. Ones with any white fuzz. Stems. Leaves. Dirt. What have you.

Place berries a handful at a time into a strainer. DO NOT POUR THEM IN. The dirt and debris will be left in the water. Discard the water. Measure the berries - you need 2 Cups. Big, fat berries are best. Make sure they are drained.

Sifting Flour

Sift by putting in a fine strainer and shaking back and forth. Triple-sifters are hard on older hands. You have to squeeze the handle. There are sifters that require you to hold them in one hand and turn a crank with the other. Also not nice for older hands. I like the shake it version better.
In the summer when bugs are about, sifting keeps strange creatures from getting in your baking. Should you spot any (creatures) you know it's time for a bug bomb! Oatmeal and wheat flour are susceptible to bug invasion. So is sugar. So is Crisco (grease ants). That's why old recipes required sifting. Of course, they had to put up with weevils and even worse critters. In the olden days, flour bins were built into the kitchen - held about a 50 pound sack. Same for sugar (slightly smaller if I remember correctly). Between them you might have one for manually-ground coffee. Open Bay Leaves and Garlic will discourage most bugs.

Buckle Batter

2 Cups sifted flour
3/4 Cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup shortening (Crisco)
3/4 Cup skim milk
1 egg or egg substitute

Mix together with a hand mixer about 1 minute. Scrape the bowl down half way through to be sure it is all mixed. Pour in the blueberries and gently fold the batter over them a few times. If you are mashing the berries you are doing it too hard! No purple dough! Just do it a few times until the berries are distributed.

Place in an 8" square pan - smooth and level the batter - gently. Unless you used pasteurized eggs, do not lick the bowl or the beaters.

Crumb Topping

Mix
1/4 Cup butter or margarine - soft
1/2 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Dribble lightly all over the top of the dough. You should be able to roughly smooth this with a table knife.

Bake at 375 degrees about 45-50 minutes - top will be hard to test so use a wooden toothpick to check if done. (Note - NOT a plastic one!) It should be browned lightly all over.

Cool. Turn out and serve. It needs to be cool because hot blueberries can cause a bad burn!

Softened Butter or Margarine

Softened means room temperature and capable of being easily creamed into the sugar. Melting the margarine or butter in the microwave to speed this up will lead to non-crumbly topping. (Gee! How'd I know that?)

This is a Betty Crocker 1950s cookbook. - Favorite Coffee Cake variation.