Blueberry Coffee Cake

Last week, the Washington County Fair was held and I entered many different baked items. One of the items was a blueberry coffee cake that I had pinned on Pinterest that led to Amanda's Cookin'.

The recipe calls for two cups of blueberries which is a lot for the thick dough. Because of the number of berries and how thick the dough is, it took a while to get all the berries evenly distributed...or distributed the best I could. 

My family loved this recipe and it was gone in a couple of days. However, the judge at the fair said the ratio of blueberries to dough was too high. I got fourth place on the blueberry coffee cake. It's not that bad considering that the judge only awards six ribbons for all the fruit coffee cake entries. If there are more than six entries, those who don't place don't receive a ribbon and cash award. 

Next time I make the recipe, I'm going to reduce the amount of blueberries to either 1 1/4 cup or 1 1/2 cup. I'll see if that makes a difference in the final product. 

Ingredients 

2 cups all-purpose flour 

1/2 cup sugar 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 large egg, lightly beaten 

1/2 cup milk 

1/4 cup butter or margarine softened (NOT melted) 

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel 

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries 

For the topping: 

1/3 cup sugar 

1/4 cup all-purpose flour 

1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped (I didn't use) 

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

3 tablespoons cold butter or margarine 

For the drizzle (I didn't make this...plus it's an optional part of the recipe): 

1/2 cup powdered sugar 

2 tablespoons milk, more or less, to get to a drizzling consistency 

Instructions 

Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray or grease a 9-inch square baking pan. 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and baking powder. Cut butter into small pieces. Add egg, milk, butter and lemon peel; mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. You may need to finish mixing with your hands to get all the flour incorporated. the batter will be very thick. 

Fold in the blueberries. Because the batter is so thick, this may take a few minutes. Spread into a greased 9-in. square baking pan. 

For topping, combine sugar, flour, walnuts and cinnamon in a mini food processor or bowl. Add butter and process, or cut in if doing by hand, until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over batter. 

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until cake tests done. 

For drizzle, combine the powdered sugar and milk. If too thick, add a few drops of additional milk at a time until it reaches drizzling consistency. Drizzles over the top of the cake and allow to sit until sugar solidifies. 

Notes 

This cake has a very thick batter that will have to be spread into the pan rather than poured.

It's very important to make sure you are measuring your flour properly so that you don't end up with more than you are supposed to. Always measure flour using the "scoop and sweep" method. (Basically, it is scooping the flour out of the bag or container and lightly putting it on waxed paper. Take a spoon and scoop some flour up and then sprinkle it into the measuring cup. This ensures that the flour doesn't get packed.)