Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Blueberries pack this homey dessert

Recipe: Blueberry buckle has a touch of sour cream

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED AUG 2, 2020

Slice of blueberry coffeecake — Blueberry buckle is chock full of juicy fruit. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

Blueberries in colander — Our blueberry season is ending. It's a great time to

make a buckle.

Blueberry season is wrapping up now in California. The fact that there is even such a thing as a "California blueberry season" is thanks to modern hybridizing, which created blueberry varieties that require less chill to produce fruit.

Packed with antioxidants, blueberries rank among the healthiest foods you can grow. That's helped make blueberries best sellers in produce markets and farmstands.

How to enjoy all those late-season blueberries? This buckle is a twist on an old-fashioned favorite (the difference is sour cream). Basically a giant biscuit with the fruit baked inside, blueberry buckle belongs to the same family of homey coffee cakes and desserts as cobblers, betties and crisps -- all with evocative names. Most of then have a crumbly topping, too.

How do blueberries "buckle"? As it cooks, the fresh blueberries turn into ooey, gooey, juicy filling, encased by sugary biscuit. Fruit packs this easy comfort food -- no ice cream or whipped cream necessary.

Chopped peaches, apples or pears may be substituted for the blueberries.

Pan with blueberry batter — This homey dessert goes together quickly.
Don't forget the sugary topping!

Blueberry buckle
Makes 9 servings

Ingredients:

1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup low-fat milk
2 cups blueberries

For topping;
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Grease a 9-inch square baking dish; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together shortening and 3/4 cup sugar. Beat egg and add to mixture.

This buckle is fresh out of the oven. Let it cool for a bit.

Sift together 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Stir together sour cream and milk. Add flour mixture and sour cream mixture alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Batter will be stiff. Gently fold in blueberries.

Spread batter into prepared baking dish.

Make topping: In a medium bowl, stir together 2/3 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour and cinnamon. Cut butter into cubes, then cut butter into mixture until crumbly. Spread topping over blueberry mixture in baking dish.

Place dish on baking sheet to catch any overflow from fruit. Bake at 375 degrees in center of oven for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until topping is golden and a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean (at least batter-wise -- the blueberries will be juicy).

Let cool a few minutes before serving. Cut into nine 3-by-3-inch pieces.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

baking recipes gardening Sacramento farmers markets summer fruit summer produce backyard produce produce management seasonal cooking blueberries

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Food in My Back Yard Series

May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can

May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success

April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth

March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space

Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting

Local News

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Sites We Like

Garden Checklist for week of May 18

Get outside early in the morning while temperatures are still cool – and get to work!

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. Transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Are birds picking your fruit off trees before it’s ripe? Try hanging strips of aluminum foil on tree branches. The shiny, dangling strips help deter birds from making themselves at home.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Find our winter recipes here!