This is a report on making the Blueberry Breakfast Cake recipe sent around recently by King Arthur Flour. It’s a simple one bowl recipe, but you have to bake it in a fairly deep 8” or 9” cake pan, since it comes out somewhere between a soufflé and a cheesecake. And while it isn’t really quick since the baking time is 50 minutes and the cooling time at least 15, it is really delicious.

Here are their ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• heaping 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta
• 1 cup sour cream (low-fat is fine)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cupKing Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• cinnamon-sugar mixture, for topping

All you do is mix the eggs and sugar and add the butter, and then mix in the ricotta, sour cream and vanilla extract.

Then you mix in the flour, salt, and baking powder and pour into the baking pan.

Ideally you would like an 8 or 9” spring form pan so you can get the cake out easily, but lacking that we used a 3” deep 9” cake pan lined with parchment paper all up the sides so we could grab the corners to lift the cake out.

You sprinkle the blueberries over the top and bake for 50 minutes at 350° F.

Then you take the cake out, sprinkle it with the cinnamon-sugar mixture,  and let it cool a bit. When it is very hot it is pretty fragile and would be hard to cut. After 15 minutes we peeled off the sides of the baking parchment and sliced it into wedges. It was still warm and delicious.

Our only suggestion is that since the blueberries were pretty sour, and we’d probably increase the sugar next time.

The idea that this serves 8-10 is a canard. Two of us were hungry after waiting for it that long and devoured half of it.

King Arthur also suggests small curd cottage cheese as a substitute for the ricotta. That seemed a little weird, and we bought a small container of ricotta when we bought the blueberries.

This is a great recipe and we’ll surely be making it again. But not for a big crowd!

These rich and delicious muffins get their flavor from all the butter in the recipe, and they are irresistible. The recipe is a variation on one taken from the Williams Sonoma Muffin Book.

In this version, we line our muffin pan with 5” squares of parchment paper. This gives you muffin papers that do not stick to either the pan or the baked muffin. The muffins also make much more uniformly, and do not have soggy bottoms. And they are easy to reheat in the microwave, since there is no aluminum foil muffin cup.

Topping

• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 Tb granulated sugar
• 2 Tb light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 Tb cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.

Stir together the flour, sugars and cinnamon. Cut in the butter, using a pastry blender, or use a food processor briefly.

 

 

Muffins

• 7 Tb unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• 2 Tb flour

Preheat the oven to 375º F.

In an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg.

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.

Stir in the vanilla.

Toss the blueberries with 2 Tb of flour, so they won’t sink to the bottom.

Fold in the blueberries, taking care not to break them too much. If you use frozen blueberries, let them thaw and drain before adding them.

 

Line a muffin pan with 5” squares of parchment paper. The trick is to use a small can or jar to force the paper liner to the bottom of each muffin cup. Hold the paper in place on its left side while you spoon the batter into each muffin cup with your right hand, using a cookie scoop or small measuring cup. Once you have some batter in each muffin cup, it will hold the parchment down, and you can add more batter to even them out.

Sprinkle the topping on each muffin using a spoon or your fingers.

Bake until golden, about 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Check instructions if baking in the machine (more details at www.village-bakery.com).

Let cool for 5 minutes before lifting the muffins out and serving them. You can just pick up each muffin by the corner of its parchment square. It won’t stick to the pan, and the paper peels off neatly without sticking to the muffin!

Eat them hot!