Blueberry Bourbon Buckle |Cooking With Amanda

Blueberries and bourbon.

Is there a better combination than the two of those? The oaky vanilla caramel notes of bourbon are just like a gift to sweet and sometimes tart blueberries. For most people bourbon is their winter drink, but it's an all-year round for me and I especially love it paired with fruit. They just scream to be soaked in it and then tossed into a cake or mashed into a cocktail.

I wait all year for berry season, not just to eat my weight in it but to have fun with what cocktails and desserts and I can make with them. For the longest time I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to make a bourbon scented blueberry buckle, but didn't really know what a buckle was.

A quick google search gave me the answer. It's a crumb cake with fruit. Tell me, why don't you just call it that? I've been eating "buckles" all my life, I guess us New Yorkers just prefer to call it crumb cake! It also turns out that I had baked up something similar in my first few months of blogging. I'd share it with you, but I don't want to frighten you away with those horrid photos. Let's just say this is a vastly improved version of that blueberry muffin bar I baked nearly 4 years ago.

This buckle, though, is more about the blueberries than the cake part - and well, the crumb. You have to have the crumb topping! This is the type of cake you need after you go blueberry picking and wonder what you are going to do with the bounty. This is also the type of cake to have around for a leisurely brunch with friends and a sweet treat is needed at the end.

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Blueberry Bourbon Buckle Recipe

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Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons, unbleached
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
lemon zest, from 1 lemon
1/2 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons bourbon, divided
3 cups fresh blueberries, approximately 18 ounces

For the Streusel:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Directions

Heat your oven to 350°F.
In a small bowl place 1 cup of blueberries and mash them with the back of a fork and add 1 tablespoon bourbon. Mix together and set aside.
In a medium bowl combine the 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, then vanilla and lemon zest. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spoon.
Mix in half the flour until combined, then half the milk and remaining 2 tablespoons bourbon. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk.
Add the remaining blueberries to the bourbon blueberry mix and toss in 2 tablespoons of flour to coat.
With a spoon, gently fold in all the blueberries so that they are coated.
Pour the batter in a large cast iron skillet.

For the Streusel Topping:

In a small bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, cane sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the mix. Using your hands mix it together to form small clumps and add it to the top of your buckle batter.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick insert in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Let cool completely before serving.
The cake is best served the day it's made. If storing, store in a flat even layer in an airtight container for 1-2 days.