Blueberry Breakfast Buckle in Ball Jars
I'm a sucker for old-fashioned rustic desserts like buckles, slumps, and cobblers. If buckle isn't part of your daily vocabulary, let's change that right now. Essentially a buckle is a light cake with fruit baked into it and scattered on the top. It earned its name because the fruit on top makes the dessert itself buckle ever so slightly. It's like a cross between a messy, fruity, light coffeecake and a more traditional cake. I started making blueberry buckle at the beginning of the summer and decided that it'd be perfect for breakfast. It's kind of like a blueberry muffin on steroids, so it seemed logical that in addition to making it for dessert, why wouldn't folks eat it for breakfast as well? Instead of serving it with whipped cream, why not dollop a little yogurt on the top?
Laying out the Ingredients for Breakfast Buckle
I first became obsessed with buckles and slumps when I came across Julie Richardson and Cory Schreiber's book, Rustic Fruit Desserts. In it, they detail numerous recipes for great old-school desserts focusing on the seasons and really paying attention to the traits of different fruits and how they'll bake up in a variety of situations. They discuss slumps, pandowdy's, betty's, crisps, and teacakes. If you've ever had an inkling to recreate some of the great old-fashioned desserts your grandparents probably made, get this book. So this is where I found the inspiration for the buckle recipe. The one in Richardson and Schreiber's book is quite different--it's for a Tayberry Oat Buckle and uses more sugar and butter and the ever-elusive tayberry. I decided to adapt the recipe to use the more common blueberry and added a bit of lemon zest and less butter and sugar. The result is perfectly breakfast-worthy--I've literally been looking forward to waking up early and grabbing a slice (or a jar) with my coffee lately. And my coworkers are happy. Very, very happy.