Recipe: Black & Blue Spoon Cake combines blackberries, blueberries
This easy dessert makes the most of summer berries. Debbie Arrington
Wild blackberries grow near our house, but I rarely seem to collect enough to make something “all blackberry.” In this old-fashioned dessert, juicy blueberries complement my wild harvest – and offer a chance at word play: It’s Black & Blue Spoon Cake.
The almond flour and melted butter create a very soft, spoon-able cake embedded with all those berries. You could use all all-purpose flour (and less butter), but the texture is not quite the same.
(You could use all blackberries – or all blueberries, too. Other berries including strawberries also work.)
Black & Blue Spoon Cake
Makes 6 servings
Ingredients:
2 cups blackberries and/or blueberries, picked over
¼ to 1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into pieces
¼ cup vanilla yogurt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine berries with ¼ to 1/3 cup sugar (use less for sweeter berries) and lemon juice. Lightly toss. Set aside so berries can release some juice.
In a large bowl, sift together remaining sugar, all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Put butter in a 9-by-9-inch baking dish and place in warmed oven to melt, about 3 minutes. Remove dish from oven and swirl melted butter so it covers bottom of dish and sides. Then, pour melted butter into flour mixture; stir with a spatula.
Mix together yogurt and egg, then stir into the flour-butter mixture. When well combined, pour batter into the buttered dish.
Cover the top of the batter with the berries, spreading them evenly. Return dish to the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is golden and puffy.
Remove from oven. Let cool for a few minutes.
Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.
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Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 2
During this stormy week, let the rain soak in while making plans for all the things you’re going to plant soon:
* During rainy weather, turn off the sprinklers. After a good soaking from winter storms, lawns can go at least a week without sprinklers, according to irrigation experts. For an average California home, that week off from watering can save 800 gallons.
* February serves as a wake-up call to gardeners. This month, you can transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.
* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.
* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).
* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.
* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.
* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.
* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.
* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.
* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.