Sacramento Digs Gardening: Love blueberry muffins? This coffee cake is for you

Here’s a flavorful coffee cake for folks who love blueberry muffins. The lemony batter is packed with big juicy blueberries. Greek yogurt helps keep the cake moist. It’s all topped with crunchy almond streusel crumb topping.

Blueberry-lemon coffee cake with streusel topping

Makes 9 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup lemon or plain Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups fresh blueberries

For topping:

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons butter or margarine, cold

¼ cup almonds, chopped

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease or butter an 8-inch square baking dish; set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together ½ cup softened butter or margarine with sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth. Blend in yogurt and lemon zest. Add vanilla.

Add flour mixture, a little at a time, mixing until smooth. Batter will be thick.

With a wooden spoon, gently fold blueberries into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Prepare streusel topping. In a medium bowl, mix together ½ cup flour and brown sugar. Cut cold butter into several small chunks and add to flour-brown sugar mixture. With a pastry blender or fork, cut butter into flour mixture until crumbly. Add chopped almonds.

Spread streusel mixture over the top of the coffee cake batter. Bake in center of preheated 375-degree oven until top is golden and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes.

Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Fresh the oven, the streusel topping on the baked blueberry-lemon coffee cake will be golden brown.

RECIPE

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

Keywords:

blueberry lemon coffee cake coffeecake recipe streusel Sacramento spring summer fruit breakfast brunch

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

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Garden checklist for week of April 19

After this midweek storm, start getting serious about spring gardening. Flowers are blooming about three weeks ahead of schedule. That includes weeds!

* Get ready to swing into action in the vegetable garden – if you haven’t already. As nights warm up over 50 degrees, set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash; wait on pumpkins until May. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Give citrus trees a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants. If leaves look yellow, your tree may need an iron boost -- apply some chelated iron fertilizer.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden needs nutrition. Give shrubs and trees a slow-release fertilizer. Mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost, which helps the soil, but keep it a few inches away from trunks and stems.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

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