Cool Things We’ve Done…Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Bake

Here’s another Pinterest recipe that we tried.  The original recipe is from Alexandra’s Kitchen (link).  I pinned it a few weeks ago and finally, this week I managed to pick up a lemon and some blueberries from Publix.  I am the world’s worst about forgetting one crucial ingredient for a recipe and then becoming completely frustrated and swearing I’m never, ever, ever going to make anything with more than two ingredients again.  Anyway, Gracie woke up early this morning and she helped me whip this up and get it the oven.  This was certainly a kid friendly recipe.  Gracie even enjoyed zesting the lemon but her favorite part was tossing the blueberries with the flour – I suggest if you’re doing this with children to put the blueberries and flour in a bowl and cover it with some kind of plastic wrap and then let the child toss to cover.  ‘Cause, otherwise, you might or might not end up with blueberries and flour all over the floor.  On second thought, if you’re doing this with children or you’re clumsier than the average person (read, me), you might want to do that.

As usual, we were running late for church this morning.  Anyone surprised?  I pulled this out of the oven just as we were rushing out the door and left it on the stovetop to cool while we were gone.  When we got back, I cut into it, took one bite and declared to to Steve that I am never making blueberry muffins again.  never. ever. ever (or until I don’t have the ingredients for this on hand and am stuck making the more instantaneously gratifying but less satisfying Duncan Hines box method)

I truly think the buttermilk makes this recipe.  I love cooking with buttermilk…the tartness just takes the sweetness of recipes like this to an amazing level.  On a completely different note, I do not like to drink buttermilk.  My grandfather, who drinks it like water, had a glass on the table and I picked it up and took a swig thinking it was something else, and I almost choked.  That’s another story for another time.  Let’s just say that some things that I bake with are not good on their own…I’ll just put shortening and buttermilk on that list for now.

Okay, enough chitter chatter.  Here’s the recipe:

The Stuff You Need:

½ cup unsalted butter
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. pure lemon extract
1 cup sugar with 2 tablespoons reserved
1  egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 pint fresh blueberries
½ cup buttermilk

 

The Things You Need To Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream together butter, lemon zest, lemon extract, and all but the reserved sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of the flour (use the method I talked about above unless you want blueberries all over your floor!)
4.  Stir together the rest of the flour, the baking powder and the salt.
5. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.
6.  Fold in the blueberries.
7. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan with unsalted butter. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining two tablespoons of sugar. Bake for 40-45 minutes.
8. Let it cool before serving (I cooled mine for about an hour and it was perfect, but I don’t know if I’d have had that much discipline if we’d actually been in the house while it was cooling!)

Enjoy!

The only thing that would have made this more delicious would have been if I’d used some blueberries straight from my grandfather’s farm, but I’ll have to wait until early summer for that.

 

Just look at that yumminess!