Add Blueberries To Coffee Cake And It Becomes This Vintage Dessert

Coffee cake is a nostalgic American treat with European roots. It cemented itself in the New World in the 1800s as immigrants brought  recipes from countries like Germany and continues to feature on bakery shelves today. What's interesting about coffee cake is that its name refers more to when you eat it than what it contains. Coffee cake is meant to be eaten as a tasty sweet when enjoying a hot beverage, but it doesn't actually call for coffee — and if you add fresh blueberries to the mix, this tender retro treat becomes what is known as a blueberry buckle.

Popularized in New England where blueberries are plentiful, the blueberry buckle had a moment after the recipe was printed in Elsie Masterson's 1959 "Blueberry Hill Cookbook." Both coffee cake and blueberry buckle rely on a classic batter that features flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and eggs, and the main difference is that blueberry buckle calls for sweet and zingy blueberries to be folded into the mixture and scattered on top before the addition of the crumbly and buttery streusel topping. As the buckle bakes, the fruit causes the surface to "buckle" around the plump berries, hence the name.

Transforming a coffee cake into a buckle is really just about adding the fruit component. Even better, a blueberry buckle can be made with either peak-season fresh blueberries or frozen berries if fresh ones aren't available. If you are using fresh fruit, don't fall for the myth that bigger berries means they are tastier. Bigger berries have more water content, but the flavor of smaller berries may be more concentrated. Experts also suggest tossing your berries in a bit of flour to absorb excess moisture and prevent the berries from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

Coffee cakes are ideal for sharing with a friend or two over a catch-up and a hot drink. Since they are served at room temperature, you can make them ahead leaving you time to linger with your guests. Whichever variation you choose, make sure not to overmix the batter, which will yield a dense texture instead of a more airy-feeling coffee accompaniment. Buckle fans rave about the delightful combination of sweet fruit and the moistness that it lends to the tender crumb-topped base, but if you'd like to branch out beyond blueberries, you can also layer fruits like apples into a coffee cake for a sweet honey apple crumb cake.