Blueberry Crumb Cake

Last weekend as I baked this blueberry crumb cake I told Lewis to call a friend to see if they wanted to have a 2 family pot luck that night, because we would have cake.  Somehow I did not feel badly about basically inviting ourselves over for dinner, when one of our dinner contributions was a freshly baked cake, warm from the oven, which smelled softly of cinnamon, lemon and blueberries.  Somehow I wasn't phased by the fact this was the first time I had made this cake because sadly I make a practice of serving new dishes to friends.

Happily my faith in this recipe was well placed and everyone who tried it insisting on a second piece.  The genius part of the recipe was the use of bread crumbs to dust the butter on the sides of the pan so the cake would not stick.  I always find the usual flour dusting the pan makes for a white smear on the outside and sometimes the faintest taste of raw flour.  The bread crumbs disappeared visually and the only taste was the cake and maybe a hint of more butter.

Maida's Blueberry Crumb Cake
adapted from The Essential New York Times Cookbook

2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs (I used mostly corn bread, with about 2 Tbsp random bread crumbs squirreled away in my freezer)
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
8 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, divided use
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup whole milk
finely grated zest of one lemon
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (Optional, I did not use the nuts because my children do not like nuts in their baked goods)

Wash the berries and drain well in a sieve before drying with a paper towel.  Set aside to dry completely while you make the batter.

Preheat the oven to 375°  Butter a 9 inch square cake pan (I used a pyrex baking pan) and dust with the bread crumbs.

Combine the 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour, cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar before cutting in 4 Tbsp of the cold butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until it is cut into uniform sized coarse crumbs.  Set aside.

Beat the other 4 Tbsp cold butter with the 3/4 cup sugar in a stand mixer with the flat beater blade or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, unless you are using a self scraping beater blade, Beat in the vanilla and egg followed by the baking powder and salt.  Beat until it everything is completely incorporated.

Sprinkle 2 Tbsp of the flour over the blueberries and toss gently to coat the blueberries in flour.

Stir 1/3 of the flours into the wet ingredients, followed by half the milk, then the next 1/3 of the flours, then the rest of the milk and lastly the remaining flour.  Stir in the lemon zest before spooning the batter over the berries and folding gently with a silicone spatula until just combined.

Scrape into the prepared pan, sprinkle with the nuts if using and then the cinnamon sugar topping.

Bake for 50 minutes until a knife or cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake.  Cool the cake in the pan on a rack (or in the back of a car on the way to dinner).

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

I found this muffin recipe on my friend Ann's blog Thibeault's Table.  The idea and description were so appealing I set out to try them right away.  Conveniently forgetting my sinuses were blocked plaguing  me with an inability to taste my food.  Besides from the obvious frustration caused by not tasting my food for over a week, I was also unhappy to discover I still eat more than I should when food has only texture, sweet and salt.  So as the rest of my family exclaimed over their goodness I was able to detect the correct level of sweetness, enough salt and a perfect texture.  The scent of blueberries, the flavor from the 3 types of flours and the browned butter were all lost on me.  However I still knew I had finally found my blueberry muffin recipe and I would share it here later (once I had tasted them).  The rest of my family could taste them and both boys happily ate them for breakfast 3 mornings in a row, something that never happens.

By the end of last weekend I could smell and taste again and so on Mother's Day I made a batch of these muffins.  Lewis was going out of town, yes on Mother's Day, and I wanted an easy no argue breakfast the next day.  I reduced the sugar because I knew we would prefer it and to test if I could make them for the preschool.  Federal reimbursement guidelines require that in baked goods, sugar be no more than half the volume of flour.  (Although you can serve all the trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, fried food and flavored milk you want!)

When I browned the butter and poured it into the batter the aroma of caramel drifted up.  The finished muffins do not taste of caramel, instead the browned butter adds intensity and a nuttiness that tempers the sweetness.  The 3 flours add their own flavor plus keep you from being hungry 20 minutes later.  The more I play with whole grains in my baking, the more I love the dimension they add.  Not the heavy wheat flavor we all remember but rather an actual flavor where white flour is just blank.  Of course this assumes you are using flour that has not gone rancid.

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Thibeault's Table

I have made these with both frozen local blueberries and frozen wild ones.  Both worked wonderfully, just taking longer to bake.  I am also going to make them with raspberries, frozen for now and fresh in a few months.

14 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat

1 cup spelt flour

4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (if using frozen berries leave them frozen)

Put the oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 375°.  Line muffin tins with 24 liners and set aside.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat (it is really best to use a light colored saucepan so you can judge the color of the butter, I used a dark blue one because it was the perfect size and regretted my choice).  Watch the butter closely once it is melted.  Continue to cook until the crackling subsides and little brown solids form in the pan.  It should smell nutty when done.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

Whisk together milk, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla until combined.  Add Browned butter and whisk until fully incorporated.  Add sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk in well.  Add flours all at once and stir gently, stirring to the bottom of the bowl under the batter to incorporate all the flour.  Gently fold in the blueberries until they are evenly distributed.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and bake until a wooden pick or knife inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown.  They should take about 18 to 20 minutes when made with fresh blueberries and 32 to 35 minutes when you use frozen  (I used convection  for the last 5 minutes to brown the tops and because I was getting bored with checking on them).

Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then remove from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Blueberry Raspberry Kirsch Pound Cake

What a week, a broken fridge, an ancient car in need of repairs to pass inspection, fraudulent charges on our credit card and at the end a wonderful new cake. Maybe the week wasn't so bad after all. Well, you can be the judge.

At this point I could relate details of my week, the path I had to clear through my house for the fridge to be delivered. The four and a half hours I spent waiting for the fridge to be delivered willing the path to stay clear rather then returning to its natural state of clutter. I could also rant about the fraudulent charges, from my husband's card to an online dating service, in New Zealand. Aside from being puzzled at using a stolen card number for such a traceable thing there was the response when I called Yahoo Personals, the umbrella company for the New Zealand dating service, who wanted to know my yahoo ID number, the name of my favorite uncle, where I spent my summers as a child, address, alternate e-mail address.... Hello! The charges are fraudulent, therefore I don't have an account with you nor do I know any of the security info for this account.

But this cake is much more interesting then all of that. I have been dreaming of making this cake since I first read the recipe in April. It is from Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table, that I received for my birthday. Once I read the recipe all I had to do was wait until blueberries and raspberries were both in season. I had a hard time finding the kirsch called for in the recipe, but based on David Lebovitz's recent blog post on it I realized it was not an ingredient I should leave out. It really is integral to the cakes depth of flavor, what makes it more then just a pound cake.

As I have previously mentioned I sometimes make cakes to bring in to work and from the start I planned to make this cake for work, when both berries were in season. A normal person would have bought the fruit from the store and baked the cake during the day. However I have been told that normal is not the first word that pops into peoples heads when asked to describe me. So my boys and I went berry picking with friends and I baked this cake when they went to bed.

We delivered the cake to work, took a slice each, accepted compliments on the cake and then left. The one slice I had was not enough and that afternoon I baked the cake again for us. Molly states on her blog that this cake freezes well, so I made it in two loaf pans. We ate one, faster then I would like, and the second one I froze for the winter.

The version for work I made with all purpose flour, the one for us I used half all purpose flour and half white whole wheat flour. (my favorite whole wheat pastry flour is sold out until the farmer harvests more in October, the downside to buying local). With all that whole wheat goodness, the berries and the eggs we decided this makes a fine breakfast.

I mixed mine up in the stand mixer instead of the food processor that Molly uses. I have a food processor but it has a crack in the bowl, it still works fine for pesto and grating cheese, batters are out though. Other then that and the use of half all purpose flour and half white whole wheat flour for the cake flour, my only change was in technique. I add the baking powder and salt before adding the flour. I almost always mix cakes and muffins this way, you can make sure any dry ingredients other then flour are well incorporated without worrying about over mixing the flour and forming gluten. This means for other recipes I just ignore the step that calls for combining the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding. I add everything but the flour, mix well and then add the flour.

Pound Cake with Blueberries Raspberries and Kirsch

adapted from Orangette

5 large eggs at room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to warm up)

1 2/3 cups sugar

2 Tbsp kirsch

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter at room warm room temperature, plus more for the pan

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plus 3 Tbsp white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup plus 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 Tbsp all purpose flour (for mixing with the berries)

1 cup raspberries

1 cup blueberries

Generously butter a 9 cup Bundt pan or two 4.5 cup/1.5 Qt loaf pans and then dust it with all purpose flour, shaking out the extra.

Beat the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the flat beater attachment until thick and smooth, about 1 minute. Add the kirsch and the butter in 1 Tbsp sized pieces and beat until it is thick and fluffy. This should take a couple minutes, stop once to scrape down the sides. Add the baking powder and salt and mix to combine well. Add both flours and turn the machine on and off on low in short pulses until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.

Toss the raspberries and blueberries in a large bowl with 2 Tbsp all purpose flour before using a spatula to fold them into the batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan or pans and smooth the top. Place in the center of a cold oven and turn the oven temperature to 300°. Bake until a knife or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. For both pans for me this took 1 hour and 25 minutes. Cool in the pan or pans for 5 minutes before inverting on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

If you wish to freeze the cake wait until it is cooled completely and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then place the wrapped cake in a freezer bag.