BC Blueberry Council Blogger Recipe Contest

When the BC Blueberry Council contacted me about their Blogger Recipe Contest, I had no intention of entering. Blueberries meant dessert, and since I had already done a blueberry crisp, and recently a pavlova, I wasn’t sure I could do anything else with blueberries but bake something.

That in itself doesn’t sound like a big deal. The problem was that in order to contribute, I had to come up with an original recipe. If you’ve been reading this blog for a time, you might have realized that baking is not my forte. Sometimes I succeed, other times I don’t. For me, baking is risky business.

Yet I wanted to do this challenge. The only way you conquer your fears is by stepping into them. And after a year and a half of blogging and studying cookbooks, I’ve become fairly adept at deconstructing a recipe and understanding ratios–the latter owing much thanks to Michael Ruhlman’s book Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. With a little logic and some experimentation, I came up with this Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake.

No one was more surprised than I that this turned out to be a good cake. It has the slightly coarse crumb of your typical coffee cake, but is moist and a bit buttery–a perfect foil for the layer of tartly sweet blueberries.

Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

2 tablespoons water

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup cold butter, divided

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup plain whole yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup almonds

sliced almonds for garnish

icing sugar for garnish

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9-inch springform cake pan.

2) In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, bring blueberries and wine to a simmer. Blend the cornstarch into the 2 tablespoons water and pour on the blueberries. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and mix well. Stir until mixture is thick. Allow to cool.

3) In a food processor, mix the flour and sugar together. Cut 1/4 cup of butter into chunks and add to the flour. Pulse until the butter is in small bits. Measure out 1/4 cup of the flour mixture and set aside. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the remaining flour mixture and stir to combine.

4) In a medium size mixing bowl, beat the two eggs. Add the yogurt and vanilla and stir until well combined and creamy. Incorporate into the flour mixture. Do not over beat. Pour batter into greased cake pan.

5) Grind the 1/2 cup of almonds in a coffee grinder until they resemble bread crumbs. Mash into the remaining 1/4 cup of butter to make the topping. Spoon the blueberries evenly over the cake batter and sprinkle with the streusel topping.

6) Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan. Once cool, run a knife along the edges of the pan and remove the rim. Garnish cake with sliced almonds and a heavy dusting of icing sugar.