Tag Archives: coffee cake recipes

Blueberry Boy Bait

I love looking around antique fairs for cookbooks and recipes. I stumbled upon the 1954 Pillsbury Grand National Baking Contest recipe book and was drawn to the recipe with the amusing title Blueberry Boy Bait. A young teenager won the 2nd prize in the Grand National Junior Contest  with this recipe she made her friends. There are many adaptions of this receipt from Nigella Lawson to Smitten Kitchen , sharing my favorite from Smitten Kitchen. With a name like Blueberry Boy Bait the cake is had to resist and so good you can understand why it is boy bait. too bad I didn’t find this recipe a long time ago!!

From by the bay, wishing you fond boy bait food memories!

Maryann

blog blueberry boybait 2

 

Blueberry Boy Bait
From Smitten Kitchen , which adapted it from  the Cook’s Illustrated version, which was adapted from the original

 

Serves 12, generously

2 cups (250 grams) plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks, 8 ounces or 225 grams), softened
3/4 cup (145 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup (235 ml) whole milk (though buttermilk, which was all I had on hand, worked just great)
1/2 cup (about 85 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not defrost first as it tends to muddle in the batter)

Topping
1/2 cup (about 85 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not defrost)
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

Whisk two cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated and scraping down bowl. Reduce speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of milk. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Toss blueberries with remaining one teaspoon flour. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries. Spread batter into prepared pan.

For the topping:
Scatter blueberries over top of batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl and sprinkle over batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes, then turn out and place on serving platter (topping side up). Serve warm or at room temperature. (Cake can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.)

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Streusel

blog pumpkin coffee cake 1


If you read New York Magazine, you would have heard that pumpkin is the new bacon ( See link below). I’m not sure I would agree with that statement , however, I sure do love to cook with pumpkin this time of year. I can’t think of a better way to help celebrate Halloween than baking , especially with pumpkin! I was experimenting in the kitchen with some of my favorite ingredients to come up with this delicious and rich coffee cake. It has everything I like best in a good coffee cake, a wonderful streusel topping , with the added crunch of some walnuts. In my family we love the crumbs on top, so this recipe has plenty of crumbs and they are large and chunky when I toss them on top of the batter. The cake is moist from using both pumpkin puree and sour cream. To add to the richness is a nice layer of brown sugar filling. When baking the house is just filled with the delicious aroma of cinnamon and brown sugar. You’ll want to eat this the second it comes out of the oven, but it really needs to cool so that you can enjoy all the layers of flavor. Try to resist or you’ll just to have to eat some twice, warm and then cool as well. The trouble is this cake will just disappear……….probably the ghosts and ghouls have gotten to the cake !

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/pumpkin-2012-10/

From by the bay wishing you pumpkin, cinnamon and brown sugar food memories!
Maryann

blog pumpkin coffee cake

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Streusel
Serves 6-8
Ingredients

Streusel Topping

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Filling
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

 

Cake

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree ( canned)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8” square baking pan. ( I find an 8″ square glass baking dish works best).  Make the topping for cake by combining all dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in melted butter and make large  chunky crumbs, between 1/4″ to 1/2″ inch depending on preference.  Place crumbs onto a parchment lined baking sheet and put into the refrigerator to cool for about 15 minutes.  To make filling combine the dark brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.To make cake batter sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt in a bowl. Use an electric mixer to cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Mix in the flour alternately with the sour cream and pumpkin puree and mix well. Once combined pour half the batter into the prepared baking pan and spread out with a spatula. Sprinkle the filling evenly atop the batter. Spread the remaining batter on top of the filling. Use a table knife to gently swirl the filling into the batter. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Place in the oven to bake until golden brown  and a cake tester comes out clean, when inserted into the center of the cake. This is approximately 50 to 55 minutes. Remove the cake from oven and let cool on cake stand about 20 minutes before removing from pan to serve.

Blackberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

blog bowl of blackberries

I grew up in New York City. My back yard was the hard gray pavement. Most of my childhood games were played on the sidewalk, games such as hopscotch, jump rope and stick ball. Every summer though my family would go on vacation and we would spend two glorious weeks away from the city. We would drive up to the Adirondack Mountains and stay at a cabin on Loon Lake. Much like Dorothy, my world went from Black and White to Technicolor. The cabin was in a wooded area just a short walk from the lake. The surrounding woods were filled with little paths to other cabins. Every afternoon I would take a long walks along the paths.  The woods were filled with blackberries, raspberries and blueberries. I would fill my pail each afternoon and return to the cabin. Many days I would return from my walk and my sisters and I would just eat the berries straight from the pail, too impatient to make them into a dessert. But on those few days that we controlled our impulses to eat those berries immediately we would stand at mom’s side and make a dessert.  We kept our desserts pretty simple: pies, cobblers and crisps. The blackberries almost never lasted until the morning so I bought enough recently so that I could make this delicious coffee cake, it’s moist and slightly sweet bursting with blackberries. Even better is how easy it is to make. Picking and cooking with blackberries were some of the happiest and most delicious moments of my life.

From by the bay wishing you delicious blackberry memories!
Maryann

blog blackberry coffee cake

Blackberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup buttermilk
5 ounces fresh blackberries
For crumb topping
1/3 cup all purpose white flour
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 cup cold butter, cut into pieces ( 1/2 stick)
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a non stick 8″ square baking pan and cover bottom with a square piece of parchment paper. In a small bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix. In a medium size bowl add the oil, sugar and egg. Beat using a spoon until well combined. Slowly add the flour and buttermilk alternately, blending well after each addition. Turn batter into the greased pan. Top with the blackberries. In another bowl add the ingredients for the crumb topping and mix well using your fingers until butter is incorporated and texture is crumbly like sand. Sprinkle evenly on top of the batter. Place pan on a baking sheet and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. When cake comes out of the oven let cool 5 minutes and then loosen the sides with a knife . Let cool another 5 minutes and turn onto a wire rack. Remove the parchment paper and let cool another 10 minutes. Place on a serving plate . This is great to serve warm or at room temperature.