Blueberry Buckle

Once again I made an Alton Brown recipe because Chris requested it. This time Chris watched the episode on blueberries and he was particularly interested in the buckle that Alton made. I liked the idea because in the show Alton used frozen berries, which are just cheaper to buy and much easier to deal with since you don't have to worry about using them before they go bad.

Naturally when I found the recipe on food network, it didn't give any options for using frozen berries, it just said fresh. oh well -- frozen berries were what I had, so frozen berries were what I used. Actually, the only real difference frozen berries made was to add about 8 minutes to the baking time. The water as they thawed a bit also turned the cake batter purple, but it was white again by the time it was done baking (which was too bad because I was kind of amused by the idea of a purple cake.) The cake batter was a bit hard to spread in the pan because the cold berries brought the temperature down, but it wasn't that big of a deal.

The cake is soft and moist with a nice ginger flavor to compliment the flavor of the berries. The top is crackly and crisp and sweet and give just a little bit of contrasting texture. It's a good recipe and well worth making. I measured all my ingredients since I still don't have a scale, but as far as I can tell, measuring worked just fine.

For the cake:
Nonstick cooking spray
9 ounces cake flour, approximately 2 cups
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
5 1/4 ounces sugar, approximately 3/4 cup
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
15 ounces fresh whole blueberries, approximately 3 cups

For the topping:
3 1/2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/2 cup
1 1/2 ounces cake flour, approximately 1/3 cup
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 ounces unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and ground ginger. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Add the egg and beat until well incorporated, approximately 30 seconds. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated and then add 1/3 of the milk and beat until incorporated. Repeat, alternating flour and milk until everything has combined. Gently stir in the blueberries and pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

For the topping:
In a small bowl combine the sugar, flour and nutmeg. Add the butter and work into the dry ingredients using a fork to combine. Continue until the mixture has a crumb-like texture. Sprinkle the mixture on top of the cake. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35 minutes or until golden in color. Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.