Best Blueberry Coffeecake Recipe

Sometimes you just gotta have coffeecake. And coffee. If you've been searching for the perfect recipe, look no further. You've found it! This coffeecake is light and spongy, not at all dry or coarse as some tend to be. And the crumb topping? Just makes it even perfect-er.  ;)

The original recipe comes from my beloved King Arthur Cookbook, which was a special wedding gift by a dear friend. Apparently I have been making this gem since 1999! (Do you "date and rate" your recipes? I always do, more for sentimentality than for actual informative reasons. I love looking through my books and seeing when I first made things that we love to eat, especially if I've cooked with one of the kids and they date and rate it. Makes it so special and meaningful when it's in their own handwriting. And I love the idea of them browsing through my books after I've left earth for heaven and seeing comments in my handwriting, much like I adore hand-written recipes from my own mother. Maybe nobody else thinks this way, but I do.)

Anyhoo. Onto that fab recipe...

The recipe is divided into two parts: the cake batter and the crumb topping. 

Coffeecake Batter

2 cups unbleached flour

2 tsp baking powder

dash salt

scant 3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla (less if using "real")

1/2 cup whole or 2% milk

2- 2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 375F degrees.

In a medium to large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla (not the milk yet!); in a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Next, add the flour mixture and 1/2 cup milk alternately to the creamed mixture, ending with flour. You just want them blended so it doesn't take very long. Gently fold in the blueberries. **If using frozen, drain and dry them ahead of time unless you want purple-looking cake batter; mine is generally purple.  =)

Coat a 9-inch pie plate or baking dish with cooking spray or butter; pour cake batter into dish and prepare crumb topping.

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, softened

Using the same small bowl as before, blend together the flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a fork or knife until mixture is crumbly. Gently cover the batter with the topping. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until edges are browned and cake tester comes out clean. Let cool before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

PLEASE NOTE: you can easily double this recipe and fill two separate baking dishes or one 13x9 dish. Cooking times may vary slightly so keep a close eye, as it may need slightly longer or slightly less time to finish baking. This is a terrific crowd-pleaser for brunch. This coffeecake also freezes well.

The original recipe calls this a blueberry buckle; I have adapted it slightly, and also refer to it as a coffeecake.

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Crumb Coffee Cake Recipe

Happy Monday! We had a nice weekend as a family...a little swimming, backyard S'mores making, an afternoon at one of our favorite lakes, church in the morning and then again at night for a special service, some movie time...just a nice weekend! There was one moment of sheer slight panic late Saturday night when my dear husband asked me if I remembered that I'd volunteered to bring in food for our Fellowship Class at church. Well, no, as a matter of fact, I had not remembered. Until then. 11:30 pm.
Bake?
Or go to sleep?
Lucky for me, I remembered a quick and easy recipe I could easily pull off in the AM, so beauty sleep it was!

My mother-in-law gave me this recipe shortly after Bill and I got married. It's been around a while...  :)
And it is SO YUMMY! I love this recipe because it's easy, quick, and doesn't use a million dishes!
I'd tell you it's healthy, but... well, at least there's cinnamon, ha!

for the coffee cake layer:

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

7/8 cup milk 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together shortening, sugar, egg & vanilla in large mixing bowl. Next, combine dry ingredients in bowl and add alternately with milk to shortening mixture.

{this looks a bit lackluster here...it was a little dark at 6 AM, ha!}

Grease a 13x9 baking pan or dish and spread mixture in bottom of pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges begin to turn golden brown. 

Make Crumb Topping while cake is baking.

for the crumb topping:

2 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 cup sugar 

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more...I always add a little more)

1 1/2 stick butter or margarine, softened

To save on washing dishes, I use the same bowl for the topping as for the flour mixture above. Simply combine dry ingredients and then cut in softened butter until it's crumbly. I usually mash it all up with a fork.

Sorry, no photos of this step! There may have been a clothing emergency...

Remove coffee cake from oven when ready and carefully spread crumb topping mixture over top- the top is spongy and will not be fully baked, but that's the way it's supposed to be. Again I use a fork to gently push the topping over the entire cake. Return cake to oven to bake for another 20-25 minutes. The edges should be golden brown, and it will smell absolutely divine by this point. Use a cake tester to check if in doubt.

Cool. Slice. Devour.  ;o)

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