Monday, July 13, 2009

Blueberry buckle and a quest for the past


When I was growing up, we lived in what used to be known as the country. Of course that's not the case now. The only thing that was even remotely close by was a small health food/general store called Sunrise Farmer's Market. Odd combination, I know. At any rate, when I earned money (which I did in any number of ways, I was very entrepenuerial), I chose to ride my bike down to the market and spend it on a treat for myself. I was brought up in a healthy house where sugar was only around in very limited quantities. Even our cereal was unsweetened.

I always bought one of three items at the store to reward myself for my hard-earned money. It was either a Dove ice cream bar, a Ben & Jerry's brownie bar (good luck finding one of those now) or a piece of blueberry cake. When I say cake, I mean it more in a sheet cake fashion with no icing. This was made by Ninth Street Bakery. I've never been a fan of blueberries, but wow was this cake good.

Like anyone else, I occasionally crave food from my childhood, probably because I know I can't have it. Ninth Street Bakery is still very much in business, but they mostly make bread and my guess is that this cake/bar concoction is long gone.

Skip to Sunday, I was at the grocery store and spied blueberries on sale. I decided I was going to attempt to find a recipe similar to the cake. I found a recipe here for blueberry buckle and it seemed to be close to what I remembered and relatively healthy and easy to make.

The only modification I made was that I used salted butter instead of unsalted and I baked it in a 9x9 square pan instead of a spring form pan. I don't keep unsalted butter in my house. Whoever dreamt up such a thing!?

The cake was delicious, but sadly, wasn't quite what I was remembering. It tasted a bit more like coffee cake because of the cinnamon streusel topping, but it was still excellent. If anyone knows a good recipe for something that sounds like what I'm describing, or where to get a Ben & Jerry's brownie bar, please let me know.

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2 comments:

Malena said...

What a lovely anecdote from your childhood...I could almost see you on your bike with your brown hair catching the wind.

I am so sad at what this world is coming to, and it's so unsettling to not know what kind of world our children will grow up in.

Lauren said...

that sounds so nice that you were able to ride your bike places! (even if limited)

I have fond childhood memories of blueberry buckle myself. My mom used to make it a lot... we'd go blueberry picking and come home with buckets of blueberries and I'd always beg her to make buckle right away.

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