Recipe for an Easy Blueberry Dessert

Blueberry coffeecake with a sweet crumb topping

If you’ve got extra blueberries on hand, and looking for a fun and somewhat healthy sweet, here’s one to try: “Huckle Buckle”!

It’s called “Huckle” because the recipe was originally created for wild huckleberries, and “Buckle” is sort of like a coffeecake. After we planted 3 huckleberry shrubs at our place, I would bake this every summer.

Years ago, when the shrubs started bearing, I would spend at least a couple of hours picking 2 cups of berries for this recipe. 

Now the bushes are huge, with tons of berries! But since August is a crazy busy month of harvesting and putting up, I stopped picking the huckleberries altogether, and John and I are happy to leave them for the birds.

Blueberries are a tasty and super-healthy alternative to huckleberries, and I modified the recipe to account for the sweeter blueberries. Here’s the original recipe, which I found years ago in the newspaper (from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook). The texture is similar to shortcake, and please note: the divided ingredients are for the crumb topping.

¾ cup butter (divided)

1 ¼ cup sugar (divided)

1 large egg

2 ½ cups flour (divided)

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

2 cups wild huckleberries

½ teaspoon cinnamon

But since I like a richer, moister texture, I changed a few things, including adding an extra egg. I’ll often add a bit of plain yogurt to add moisture, and substitute a little baking soda for some of the baking powder. For my take, I’ve separated out the crumb topping ingredients:

For the cake:

1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)

¼ cup oil (I use extra virgin olive oil since that’s all we generally have around. Some folks feel olive oil has too strong a flavor for baked goods, but we like it.)

½ cup + 1 or 2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour (I use 1 cup organic white, and 1 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour)

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

¼ heaping teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon vanilla (I think every cake needs vanilla!)

½ cup milk ; alternatively, use a only 1 egg and add more milk and a dollop of plain yogurt

2 cups blueberries (let them dry after rinsing, or else the cake will turn out pretty soggy)

 

Cream the butter, oil and sugar, then add the eggs and beat until fluffy. Mix in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, baking powder and soda, and the salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternatively with the milk and yogurt. Spread in a greased baking pan (The original recipe calls for an 11 x 7 pan; I use a round 10-inch glass pie pan). Top with the blueberries.

For the crumb topping:

½ cup sugar

½ cup flour

½ - 1 teaspoon cinnamon (we like cinnamon a lot)

¼ cup butter

Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in ¼ cup butter and combine until crumbly. Sprinkle over the berries.

Bake at 350 degrees for around 50 minutes. I generally use more berries than the recipe calls for, so my buckle takes a longer baking time—maybe closer to 1 hour. I just watch it carefully for the last 15 minutes or so!

Let it cool for about a ½ hour, if you can stand the wait… This recipe also freezes well—once you let the buckle thaw, you can warm it up in the microwave. It’s a fun taste of summertime after blueberry season is over...

My other standby and super-delicious blueberry dessert is Blueberry Torte--you can find the recipe at my Susan Colleen Browne website!

Note: Huckleberries are a local delicacy in the Pacific Northwest; shrubs have generally been abundant in the high country of the west side of the Cascade Mountains. You might find huckleberries at a farmer’s market, but if you’re not a hiker they can be hard to come by. 

Still, if you like having a bird-friendly garden and have some extra room, you might consider planting a shrub! They are drought-tolerant and do well in partial shade. For lots of tips for growing all kinds of berries, you can take a look at my free gardening ebook, Little Farm in the Garden... 

If you prefer a PDF you can read on your computer, Little Farm in the Garden is also available at my website, www.susancolleenbrowne.com !