Blueberry Almond Buckle

We absolutely love blueberries here! They get eaten by the handful and star in muffins, smoothies, pancakes, and waffles regularly. I took LJ, IB, and M2 blueberry picking yesterday. Well, M2 slept on my back in the Patapum carrier. The boys didn't last very long in the sweltering heat, but we did manage to pick about 2 1/2 quarts of sweet purple berries.

My plan was to make muffins, as usual, until the boys let me know that they were tired of muffins. So, when we got back home, I went for my King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I quickly decided on Blueberry Buckle. While I was gathering my ingredients from the pantry, I noticed a bag of sliced almonds and thought I would alter the recipe a bit. I also doubled the recipe but the following recipe is for the original 9X9 pan size. Just in case, you don't want a LOT of this super yummy, moist, flavorful, whole-grain coffee cake bursting with sweet blueberries and topped with buttery, crunchy, cinnamon-y streusel topping, use the recipe as is. If you double, you can use two 9X9 baking dishes or a 9X13 for a tall cake. That's what I did and it needed to bake for a few minutes longer, ending up with the bottom corners a tad bit overdone. Barely noticeable, though. If you would like a better presentation, use a round springform pan and slice into wedges. We're more into quantity and quality around here.

Blueberry Almond Buckle

Streusel
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cups rolled oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cups sliced almonds (opt)

Buckle
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cups milk (I used almond milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (opt., if not using, double vanilla)
2 cups blueberries, rinsed (fresh, or, if using frozen, do not rinse or thaw)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 9" square pan.

Make the streusel: Whisk together sugar, flours, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter to make medium-size crumbs. Toss in almonds, if using.

Make the buckle: Whisk together flours, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Cream together the butter and sugar in large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time, stopping to scrape the sides between additions. Stir in half the dry ingredients, then the milk and extracts, scraping down the sides. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients, then gently fold in the blueberries. Spread the batter in the prepared pan, and sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top.

Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool, in the pan, on a rack.

Linked to Tuesdays at the Table and What's Cooking Wednesday.