CEiMB: Blueberry Coffee Cake

My friend Bri over at Yoshimi Vs. Motherhood chose coffee cake for this week’s CEiMB recipe, and even though I usually shy away from anything baked, I had to cook along with her! I love fruity breads/cakes so I was really looking forward to this and was even questioning why I don’t bake more often. Well, a big pile of dishes in the sink later, and I remembered why I have this aversion to baking. I am more of an “eyeball the ingredients and dump them all into a pan” type of cook, and baking is more of a “add this to this bowl, and this to this bowl, and this to this bowl, then add a bit of bowl a to bowl c, etc.” type of activity. Inevitably, every time I do bake, I end up feeling so stressed out the whole time, and make myself read the recipe repeatedly to make sure I’m doing it all right.

I promise you this recipe is easy and does NOT require all that agitation. It’s a personal problem that maybe I will one day overcome, but in the meantime, I’ll be happy to make dinner in exchange for someone else making dessert any night of the week!

The other thing I don’t like about baking is that you never really know how it’s going to turn out as you’re making it. For example, I can taste a soup along the way, season it as needed, add more broth if necessary to change the texture, etc. With baking, it’s not that easy. Or maybe it is once you’ve gotten the hang of it, but it’s not easy for me. My batter was so sticky going into the pan that it was like a big blob that I had to use my fingers to push around the bottom of the dish. I was sure I had messed something up. Yet it turned out great!

I’m not sure if I’ll be rushing to make this again simply because I still stand by the claim that baking is not for me. But, this was quite good and definitely worth making if you aren’t a weirdo like I am. It wasn’t overly sweet, but it had a nice flavor and great texture- not at all dry like some light cakes can be. I pretty much stuck to the recipe the way Ellie wrote it except that I did cut the recipe in half and use a loaf pan to make 8 squares versus a larger cake with 12 servings. I also used pecans instead of walnuts because it’s what I prefer. The only change I would make in the future would be to use fresh berries in place of the frozen because they got a little soggy during baking.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup fat-free plain yogurt
1/2 cup frozen blueberries, thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, the baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, cinnamon and pecans. In a large bowl, beat the brown sugar, butter and oil until fluffy. If necessary, use the back of a spoon to press out any lumps in the brown sugar. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until fully combined. Beat in the vanilla and yogurt.

Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, stirring until just combined.

Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the nut mixture over the batter and top with the blueberries, gently pressing them into the batter. Spoon the rest of the batter into the pan, smoothing the top. Sprinkle the remaining nut mixture over the cake, pressing gently. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool slightly and then unmold and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

8 servings
Source: Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger