This brown butter blueberry buckle is a seriously tasty cake! It makes the perfect breakfast or snack cake, and you can’t beat it as a blueberry coffee cake.
I mean, only if you’re a fan of coffee cakes topped with crunchy streusel and filled with juicy fruit will you want to make this guy, which is loosely based on Alton Brown’s blueberry buckle recipe.
Want more of my summer dessert week recipes? How does whipping cream pound cake and butterscotch ice cream sound? Spoiler: Super Delicious!
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What Is Blueberry Buckle?
Blueberry buckle is a blueberry-filled coffee cake with a fairly thick streusel topping. When it bakes up, the streusel sort of slumps in and some of the fruit bubbles up and the top generally has a buckled appearance.
Like other old fashioned fruit desserts named for the sound they make while cooking (mixed cherry berry grunt, for example) or for how they look when they come out of the oven (cherry blueberry slump, plum cobbler), a buckle is a descriptive name.
To that basic definition, I’ll add that a buckle is generally made with a thick batter–almost a dough–and it bakes up nice and moist and wonderful.
Think of it sort of like a biscuit-type cobbler, except instead of putting the dough on top of the fruit, the fruit is mixed into the dough, topped with streusel, and then baked.h
How to Make Brown Butter
First, I will say that you don’t have to use brown butter in this cake. You can just use regular old melted butter, and your cake with be very tasty.
But taking the extra few minutes to make brown butter and let it cool down a bit brings a lovely mellow nuttiness and a bit more complexity to the batter that I think is worth the extra effort.
Here’s how to make it–and it’s not hard. Honest!
The video on this post also shows how to brown butter in case you’d rather watch video than try to follow still photographs.
- Weigh out the butter and cut it into pieces for even melting.
- Cook over medium to medium-high heat, watching it carefully. No need to stir, but you can swirl the pan.
- First, the butter will sputter as the water cooks out, (middle left image).
- After the milk solids fall to the bottom of your pan, it will get very foamy. Swirl the pan so you can see the color of the browned bits on the bottom.
- Stop when the milk solids are a deep brown but not burnt and immediately pour into a heat-safe container to cool down a bit.
You can strain out the little browned bits if you want, but I like to leave them in to add to the nuttiness.
Now that you have your browned butter, you can proceed with the recipe. Or you might decide to make browned butter toffee chocolate chip cookies. I’m not judging.
How to Make the Blueberry Buckle Batter
I admit I didn’t need to use all those words in a row, but I do love me some alliteration!
Anyway, the batter is easy to make using The Muffin Method.
In a nutshell, here’s how it goes:
- Whisk together all dry ingredients.
- Whisk together all wet ingredients.
- Pour wet into dry and mix until barely combined.
This is the same method used to make Ritz Carlton Blueberry Muffins and Pancakes for One among many other muffin and quick bread possibilities.
- Scale out your wet ingredients: yogurt, buttermilk, lemon extract, and egg.
- Whisk them together until well combined and smooth.
- Whisk in the cooled-down-but-still-warm browned butter (you can leave the bits in or strain them out)
- Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda, cinnamon, and salt
- Pour the wet into the dry.
- Add the fresh or still-frozen blueberries.
- Fold together just until there is no loose flour in the bottom of the bowl.
- Put the thick batter/sticky dough into your springform pan. Prepare the pan by spraying it with pan spray and putting a round of parchment in the bottom.
- With a spatula, press the dough evenly into the pan.
If you have made a sandy streusel with some chunks of butter remaining, scatter it all over the top of the batter, pressing down lightly.
If you have made a dough-like streusel by working the butter in completely like I did, break off small pieces and scatter them all over the buckle batter.
What’s the Difference Between Those Two Kinds of Streusel?
A sandy streusel will bake up with looser, smaller crisp bits while a dough-like streusel will be more crunchy.
There is no wrong way to do it–it just depends on what texture you want your crumb topping to be.
Bake that guy off until he’s deep golden brown and the internal temperature is about 200F. I use an instant read thermometer for this, and I recommend you get one too because it’s the least stressful way I know to tell if anything and everything from cakes to steaks are done.
What If I Don’t Have Blueberries?
No problem. You can make a buckle with almost any kind of juicy summer fruit. I think a cherry buckle would be splendid! I would probably substitute some nutmeg or mace for the cinnamon, but it’d still be great if you use cinnamon.
Other buckle-worthy fruits:
- Strawberries (I’d quarter them)
- Raspberries–as is
- Blackberries–as is, unless you have some huge ones. Cut those in half.
- Mango–diced
- Peaches–diced
- Plums–diced
You may also want to try my peach breakfast cake. Based loosely on this recipe, it is packed with peaches in a lemon, vanilla, and almond-scented part-cornmeal batter. So good!
Questions
For convenience, consistency, and accuracy, almost all my recipes are written by weight, either in ounces and/or grams, even the liquids.
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This is the one I used for years. I love it and highly recommend it:
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
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Brown Butter Blueberry Buckle
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Streusel
- 2 oz unsalted butter 1/2 stick cut into small cubes
- heavy pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 oz brown sugar about 1/2 cup, packed
- 1 oz cake flour about 1/4 cup
- .5 oz rolled oats about 1/4 cup
For the Blueberry Buckle
- 3 oz butter
- 5.5 oz plain yogurt about 3/4 cup)
- 4 oz buttermilk 1/2 cup. I use whole milk buttermilk
- ¼ teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 large egg
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar packed
- 9 oz all purpose flour about 2 cups
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 pint fresh or frozen blueberries do not thaw first if using frozen
Instructions
For the Streusel
- Whisk together all the ingredients but the butter.
- With the tips of your fingers, work the butter into the flour/sugar mixture until there is not too much loose, sandy stuff in the bottom of your bowl.
- You can leave it somewhat sandy, or you can mix it until it looks like cookie dough and then scatter small pieces over your batter. Either way is just fine.
- Set aside.
For the Buckle
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Prepare your pan 9" springform or 9" x 2" cake pan. I sprayed mine with pan spray, fitted a circle of parchment in the bottom, and sprayed again. Set aside.
- Brown the butter in a small saucepan. Once the milk solids have fallen and are a deep medium-brown color, strain the butter through a fine mesh strainer and set aside to cool a bit.
- Whisk the warm butter, yogurt, buttermilk, lemon extract, and egg together. Set aside.
- Whisk together the brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. and cinnamon together.
- Pour the yogurt mixture over the dry ingredients.
- Add the berries now.
- Fold everything together as well as you can. This makes a fairly stiff dough–like very gooey cookie batter–so do the best you can with about 15-20 "folds." Try to make sure that the berries are as evenly distributed as possible, but don’t make yourself crazy.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan/tins.
- Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the batter. There’s a lot, but use it all.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes.
- Rotate the pan and turn the oven down to 350F. Continue baking until the streusel is a deep golden-brown, the berries are bubbling, and a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 20-30 minutes more. If you have an instant read thermometer, you’re looking for about 200F.
- Let cool in the pan for about twenty minutes. Run a narrow spatula around the inside of your pan. Unlock the spring mechanism and remove the sides of your springform pan. If using a one-piece cake pan, turn out onto a plate and then re-invert onto a cooling rack to cool right side up.
- Let cool and glaze as desired or serve with some ice cream or whipped cream.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Commence to Sighing Happily.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Video
Notes
To Brown Butter
- Weigh out the butter and cut it into pieces for even melting.
- Cook over medium to medium-high heat, watching it carefully. No need to stir, but you can swirl the pan.
- First, the butter will sputter as the water cooks out, (middle left image).
- After the milk solids fall to the bottom of your pan, it will get very foamy. Swirl the pan so you can see the color of the browned bits on the bottom.
- Stop when the milk solids are a deep brown but not burnt and immediately pour into a heat-safe container to cool down a bit.
Substitutions
- If you don't have yogurt, you can use all buttermilk for a total of 1 1/4 cups.
- You don't have to brown the butter. You can just melt it and go from there.
- Feel free to leave out the extract or use the zest of a lemon instead.
- If you don't like–or don't have–oatmeal, just add an equal amount of additional flour and leave the oatmeal out altogether.
- You can also bake this batter as streusel-topped muffins, if you'd like.
A Note On Baking Times
Baking times will vary depending on the size and shape of your pan and the depth of your batter. My final buckle was 9" in diameter and about 2" tall, and it took about 50 minutes to bake. Plan your time accordingly. If you use an 8" pan, it will most likely take an additional 10 minutes or so. If the cake seems to be browning too much, loosely cover the top with foil.Nutrition
And there you have it, friends. Enjoy the blueberry buckle.
Take care, and have a lovely day.
What are my qualifications to teach you baking and pastry? As a former working pastry chef and special educator, I marry my passions for both teaching and for baking into explaining techniques, methods, and developing the best possible recipes. For more info, you can read more about me.
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Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef says
OMG Jenni, this looks fantastic. When I saw that crunchy topping I was sold. Take it out of the pan? Heck, just give me the pan and a big spoon! Amazing!
onlinepastrychef says
Thank you, Maureen! There are only 2 reasons why I didn’t just sit down immediately and dig in: 1)The Beloved would have been appalled and 2)The Beloved would have been appalled! 😉
Grace says
This is a very intresting, but unique recipe…I like it!
onlinepastrychef says
Thank you, Grace. I hope you try it; I was very pleased with the way it turned out:)
vanillasugarblog says
now that’s one thick cake.
browned butter really should be a staple in creative baking.
thanks for sharing!
onlinepastrychef says
Just trying to feed your blueberry jones, Dawn! 🙂
Denise says
I love buckle, but have never made one. There is a coffee shop in our hood that serves mini buckles, but they would be much better with the addition of blueberries. No excuse now, I must make a buckle!
Jennifer Field says
None at all, Denise–so easy to make, and the brown butter adds so much nutty goodness. I mean, I’m sure the coffee shop buckles are *good* and all, but still… lol
Anonymous says
Robin Chesser says
Key Lime Pie
Jennifer Field says
An excellent choice! Good luck in the giveaway Robin!
Carol says
Ice cream!
Jennifer Field says
Always! 🙂 Good luck in the giveaway, Carol! xo
beth says
The detail in this post about how to make the brown butter is so helpful. and then those step by stap batter photos – I just know I’ll succeed.
Beth says
The effort you go to to help your readers learn and succeed making these recipes themselves is just fantastic Jenni! I’ve always wanted to see someone make brown butter to be sure I was doing it right!
Jennifer Field says
People have found it to be a very soothing video with the sound of the mixer and the sizzle of the butter! I hope it gave you the affirmation you needed!
Erica Acevedo says
I have been DYING to make a buckle ever since I learned what they were…and you sold me with the streusel and brown butter. You truly know the way to my heart. That crunch and the bursting berries are heavenly!
Jennifer Field says
Woman, it is time. Buckle up!
Renee Goerger says
Renee Goerger says
Your recipes are always so comprehensive and delicious. This one for brown butter blueberry buckle is certainly no exception! Love it!!
Jennifer Field says
Thank you, Renee! I love the way the nuttiness of the brown butter plays with the mellow berries and the bright lemon. 🙂