Blueberry Buckle (with yogurt of course!)

Blueberry Buckle

(with yogurt, of course!)

Official Post № 7:

Well, it's been a while, welcome back! A lot has happened since our last post, and it's been way too long!

The best news for us is that Mami has recently accepted a music therapy position! She's working for a number of different clients around the Bloomington, Indiana area, for both children and adults with developmental disabilities. She gets paid for about ten hours a week but spends around thirty hours total with all of her preparations and reports for each client. This is on top of working as a cake decorator. Yep, she's busy! We are both very excited that she is able to work as a music therapist again!

Since blueberries have been in season recently, we've been having many a good blueberry adventure recently with our yogurting. This is just one of the many that have turned out to be a success! Keep checking back and you'll find a recipe for a delicious Blueberry Yogurt Pie which Mami found on a Japanese website, which we think is originally from Sweden. We'll get back to you on that one!

Blueberry Buckle:

The cake turns out nice and moist, and the best part that there is no butter or oil in the cake itself (although there is butter in the crumbly topping). The original recipe called for a 1/2 cup of shortening.

Hungry yet? :)

Here's what you'll need:

For the cake:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups fresh blueberries

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar (white or brown both work well)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces

Start preparing by heating your oven to 350 F. Also grease an 8X8 glass baking dish or round cake pan.

Fresh berries are obviously the best choice, but we aren't ashamed of using frozen berries when fresh berries aren't available, as is evident by our Blueberry Yogurt Muffin-top Cookies recipe.

Rinse your blueberries (if using fresh berries). Now, set the berries somewhere out of reach, or they will somehow disappear.

Cream yogurt and sugar. Add egg and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry mixture to creamed mixture, alternating with the 1/2 cup of milk.

We tried the next part two ways, and we enjoyed the second option much better. First we tried it with the all of the batter on the bottom, and all of the blueberries on top. On our second try we layered the cake with the blueberries, and we liked how it turned out this way better than all blueberries on top.

If you bake like I do, you will need to wash another cup of blueberries at this point. I'm really not sure how half of them disappeared before they made it in the cake! :)

Combine all topping ingredients until crumbly. White or brown sugar both work.

Sprinkle over top of cake mixture and bake at 350° F for 45-50 min. Use a toothpick test to make sure it's done in the center. If you have the patience to wait, let cool a little before devouring. It's great served warm or cool, with or without ice cream or whipped cream. Just eat it! :)

It won't be hard, but we recommend eating within a few days, and refrigerate after cooling. Enjoy!

That's it for now! Now we're off to Utah to visit family, it's going to be a great week!

Thanks for tuning in! Please let us know how the recipes turned out! Happy yogurting!

~Jeff & Mami

Did you miss the fantastic Yogurt Lover Mixed Berry Pancakes recipe or the Orange Drinkable Yogurt from a few weeks ago?
Still curious how to make your own yogurt? It's easy!

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin-top Cookies!

 Blueberry Yogurt Muffin-top Cookies

No butter, no oil!

Official Post № 4:

As we all know, the best part of any muffin is the top. If I had the choice and if I had enough muffin tops, that's all I would eat. So, why make the rest of the muffin if it is just going to be a waste?

Apart from these muffin-top cookies being wonderful, this is a good first example of yogurt as a substitute in baking. Check out the recipe ingredients below, and notice that there is no oil or butter. But how can cookies taste good without butter you ask? Try this recipe and you'll find out!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions: Combine dry ingredients. Beat the eggs, then add all wet ingredients (except blueberries). If using frozen blueberries, microwave for a few seconds (20 would be plenty) to let the juices seep out. Gently stir in blueberries. Bake for roughly 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

You can find the original recipe here that was used as a basis for this recipe.


The batter turns out to be a little thicker than a cake batter, but not as thick as cookies. The only variable here is the thickness of the yogurt you use.

Of course fresh blueberries would be best. But, using frozen berries turns out very well. In fact, that's what we used. If you use frozen, zap them for a few seconds in the microwave (20 seconds or so). This lets out all of those beautifully rich purple juices to color the batter.

We used a baking sheet, but a greased pan would have worked just fine.

They do expand a little while baking, and some of the purple disappears :(

And they turn out oh so good! I was so excited to have Mami try them (she works on Saturdays when I'm home) that I hopped on my bike and rode to her work to have her try them. She was so surprised!

One of the cookies didn't make it long enough for the next picture :) It turns out they're good warm and cool!

Enjoy! Let us know how they turned out! Did you try anything different? Maybe some lemon juice or zest?

Thanks for checking it out!

~Jeff & Mami

Did you miss the fantastic Yogurty Orange Julius recipe from last week?
Still curious how to make your own yogurt?