Guest Author - Anita Burroughs

A buckle is simply a streusel topped coffee cake. The cake often collapse or “buckles as it bakes, so that the fruit sinks a bit and the cake finishes with a crater like surface.

This is a wonderful summer dessert, when the berries and nectarines are ripe and juicy. You can certainly substitute fresh peaches for the nectarines. I live in New England, where it is tough to find really good peaches any time of year, so I prefer to use nectarines. This is a great dessert to whip up when you have last minute guests, and doubles as a great breakfast dish.

Here is the recipe:

For the Batter:

¾ cup sugar
½ stick of butter, preferably unsalted
1 large egg
½ cup milk (do not use fat free)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg, preferably freshly ground
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (unthawed if using frozen)
1 cup nectarines or peaches, sliced

For the Streusel:

¾ cup sugar
¾ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon salt
5 ½ tablespoons butter, softened, preferably unsalted

Directions:

Grease and flour either a nine inch square or a round pan and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

First make the batter. Cream together the butter and sugar either by hand or in a mixer. Then add the egg and mix at medium speed for about one minute (or combine well by hand). Whisk together all of your dry ingredients. Then stir in the milk alternately with your dry ingredients and the vanilla. Scrape down the bowl while you are mixing these together.

Now make the streusel. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, almond extract and salt. Add your butter either in a mixer or by hand, mixing until you have medium sized crumbs.

Spread about half of the batter in your prepared pan. Then layer the nectarine or peach slices on top of the batter. Fold the blueberries into the remaining batter, and place dollops of the batter on top of the nectarines or peaches; you can use a spoon or a cookie scoop to layer on the batter. Then sprinkle the streusel over the batter. If you prefer a slightly less sweet cake, use a bit less of the streusel.

Bake the buckle for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool the cake in the pan. This cake is also good with ice cream or frozen yogurt.

If you wish, you can use all blueberries for this cake and leave out the nectarines or peaches. To do so, mix all of the blueberries into the batter before pouring into the pan; then top with the streusel. If you use blueberries, you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon cardamon for the nutmeg, and 2 or 3 teaspoons of freshly grated lemon zest for the almond extract.