Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Every Saturday morning (and by morning, I mean about 10 am), I'm in the mood to make something scrumptious. I had some buttermilk that was about to expire and also some blueberries that were getting close to past prime, so I decided to whip up a Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake.

The problem that I routinely run into when I want to bake is baking TOO much! As much as I love baked buttery sweets, I hate to make too much, because I know I won't eat it all. I could, but I don't. This recipe is baked in an 8x8 dish, so the hubby and I were able to have it for breakfast Saturday and Sunday morning, and had only a little left. A lot less waste.
Here's what you need (minus those bad bananas.... those are for tomorrow.)



Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake
Adapted from justapinch.com

Cake:

1 1/4 c. flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. granulated sugar
5 tbsp. unsalted butter softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp. buttermilk
1/2 pt. of blueberries (about 1 1/4 c.)

Streusel topping:
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. flour
2 tbsp. cold butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8"x8" glass baking dish; dust with flour.

Prepare Streusel Topping -
In medium bowl combine brown sugar, flour and butter. With fingers, work in the butter until mixture is crumbly. Refrigerate streusel while preparing cake.
I threw in a little cinnamon, too. I just don't think streusel is complete without a little cinnamon.

Prepare coffee cake - In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat sugar with butter until blended. Increase speed to medium-high; beat until creamy about 2 minutes, frequently scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to low; add egg, beating well and beat in vanilla.

At low speed, beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until batter is smooth occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. With spatula, fold in all but 1/4 c. blueberries.

...And, I learned a trick!!! Always sprinkle flour on your blueberries before adding, so they won't sink to the bottom of the cake! Excellent!

Spoon batter into prepared dish; spread evenly.




Sprinkle batter with 1/4 c. reserved blueberries. With fingers press streusel into clumps; sprinkle evenly over batter. I ran a knife through the stresel to spread it throughout the cake. I like streusel in every little bite!




Bake coffee cake 35 - 40 (or longer depending on your oven) minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 1 hour to serve warm, or cool completely to serve later.

Look at this beauty!



Note: Jon and I were pretty darn hungry when this was done baking, so we hardly waited to dig in. The blueberries were hot and bursting and nearly burnt our tongues, but this was delicious. Even Jon who is not a big "sweets for breakfast" fan like me had two pieces.

Jumpin' on the blog bandwagon!

So, here's the thing. Before anyone goes and gets all bent out of shape because of the title or description of my blog, I want to clear a couple things up:
I do not hate the South. In fact, I LOVE the South. The SouthWEST, that is. ;) I am currently living in a little college town called Athens in the fine state of Georgia. My husband and I moved here when he was accepted into UGA's School of Management PhD program. So far, our life here has been ok, but I am constantly missing "home" in New Mexico. When we first found out we were moving to Georgia, I was really excited. I was done with New Mexico and I honestly thought I would never miss it. I was SO wrong. I miss everything about it. The cool night air, the warm dry sunshine in the summer time, the winter snow, the beautiful Sandia mountains at sunset, the people, the culture and especially the FOOD! I guess it's just natural to miss the place where you grew up. All my family and friends are there and most people I know who have moved away always move back eventually. They don't call it the "Land of Enchantment" for nothing! It's GREAT!
Athens, GA is sort of an anomaly as far as most towns in this part of the country. It is not so "typically Southern". There are a lot of eclectic bars, coffee shops, good venues for live music and even some food that is pretty tasty. No green chile for miles and miles, but some good stuff nonetheless. When school is in session, this town is bustling with young people from all over the place. Football season is generally a nightmare, but other than that, it's an exciting place with a lot of interesting people. When school is not in session, it's really quiet. I love Summer here for this reason alone. All else about a Southern Summer is miserable. Trust me. If you ever make a visit to the South, avoid June - August if you can. Unless you enjoy hanging out in sweat-soaked clothes all day long...
So, mainly this blog will feature my cooking and baking adventures, daily life happenings, etc. I have one important life event coming up which I hope to showcase on this blog as well. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. I am getting some pretty major knee surgery in the beginning of March this year and I am already nervous about it. I plan to post some before and after pics and it is not going to be pretty. I think this blog will help me document my before and after and my progress to recovery and getting back to doing simple things that I haven't done in years i.e. running (I'm pretty sure I have forgotten how to run... If I had to run to save my life today, I would just die. I would lay down and die.) Plus-- I am going to be quite bored recovering from surgery, so blogging will give me something to do.
So, that's it for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and stay tuned for the ever exciting happenings in my life. And by "exciting", I mean rather mundane.

Xoxo,
Barb