Blueberry buttermilk coffeecake(s), one with almond streusel

The local store often only carries buttermilk in quarts, so anytime I buy some I'm usually scrounging around for recipes to use up the rest. (Yes, I've been told it freezes well, but I know myself, and that means three years from now I would be thawing and tossing old buttermilk.) So I tried a pair of blueberry coffeecakes that both called for buttermilk. Two very different takes, but both winners.

Blueberry-almond coffeecake

Adapted from “Happy Holidays from the Diva of Do-Ahead,” by Diane Phillips. Do-ahead in this case simply means baking the cake ahead of time. While a room temperature coffeecake is still cake, to my mind it’s not nearly as good as a freshly baked warm coffeecake for breakfast. I opted to premix most of the streusel and dry ingredients the night before and was able to get a warm cake on the breakfast table in about an hour.

Ingredients

Streusel
½ cup sugar
½ cup flour
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Cake
1½ cups flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon almond extract
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup blueberries
1 cup sliced almonds

Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 10-inch springform pan.

Combine streusel ingredients: sugar, ½ cup flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and 4 tablespoons melted butter. Set aside.

Combine 1½ cup flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream ½ cup softened butter with brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time until well combined. Mix in buttermilk, almond extract and lemon zest. Stir in dry ingredients until blended. Fold in blueberries. Pour into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle streusel on top, then top with almonds. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until it passes the toothpick test. Cool 15 minutes on a wire rack before attempting to remove cake from pan.

The recipe notes that you can double the ingredients and bake it in a 13-by-9 pan.

Rating: Heavenly. If you love almonds, you will adore this cake. Nice and moist, good flavor, definitely repeatable. Will probably try the sheet cake option next time, but the round version has more presentation possibilities.Only regret: I didn't put a tin foil sheet under the springform pan, which resulted in a bit of grease leakage on the over floor.

 

Berry and buttermilk cake

From “Apples for Jam” by Tessa Kiros, a really lovely looking book that organizes food by colors, an interesting concept that actually kind of sort of works. Pity about the choice of a font so faint it’s nearly unreadable. But you'll note that I made the recipe anyway. The recipe notes that you could use halved  hulled strawberries in this recipe as well. Blackberries, anyone?

If you don't have superfine sugar, give regular sugar a few pulses in the food processor.

Ingredients
2½ cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ cup superfine sugar
Nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
¼ cup butter, melted
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup blueberries
2½ tablespoons raw sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease and flour an 8-by-12 pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and a generous sprinkling or grinds of nutmeg. In a separate bowl, beat eggs together until light and fluffy. Combine eggs, buttermilk, butter and lemon zest. Stir into flour mixture with a wooden spoon just until combined. Spoon into prepared baking dish, spreading to cover the bottom. Sprinkle berries over the top of batter. Sprinkle raw sugar over the top and bake for 25 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.

Rating: Really very nice. Wonderful berry flavor comes through, very nice texture, and that raw sugar topping makes a really nice crust on top that’s not as overwhelming as streusel can be, and much faster to make all around. I’d definitely make this one again. Lovely on a snowy Sunday morning so gray I couldn't find any natural light in which to photograph this, not even a sun room with windows on all three sides.It's much more homespun than the other version, but there's a place for both.

Now: About that pan size: While I do own a pan that size, it's really a scalloped-sided ceramic baking dish, because who owns a pan that size in the U.S.? This is the second time I've run across a recipe stipulating that size, and it's a bit challenging, since even this handy King Arthur guide to alternative baking pan sizes doesn't address it. Not addressed in this Joy of Baking guide either. If you go ahead and bake this in a 9-by-13, I'd recommend checking the cake sooner since that would affect the baking time. I gather this is a much more common size in Europe and Canada; not sure I'm willing to buy one more pan I have to store, although I guess I could give up one of my six 9-by-13 pans accumulated over the years ...