Blueberry Almond Coffee Cake

A recipe for Blueberry Coffee Cake from Cooking Light has been patiently waiting for me in my stack of unorganized recipes (I’ll get on that someday, I swear) and I thought it would be great to tweak. I’ve had some frozen wild blueberries from Trader Joe’s in my freezer and the results were pretty amazing: we ate some for dessert last night and it was great for breakfast this morning as well. It has a wonderfully sweet hint of almond that pairs well with the blueberries.  Success!

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups flour;
• 1 tsp baking powder;
• ½ tsp baking soda;
• ¼ tsp salt;
• ¾ cup granulated sugar;
• 6 tbsp butter, softened (I used earth balance vegan butter, but regular butter is fine too);
• 1 tsp vanilla extract;
• 1 tsp almond extract;
• 1 egg;
• 1 egg white;
• 1 cup almond milk, curdled with 1 tbsp lemon juice (You can also substitute this for 1 cup buttermilk, or substitute the almond milk for soy or regular milk and curdle. To curdle, combine milk and lemon juice together and stir briefly. Set aside for 10 minutes to thicken);
• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used Trader Joe’s frozen wild blueberries and it worked wonderfully. If using frozen, don’t thaw them!);
• ¼ cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted;
• 2 tbsp cane sugar (turbinado);
• cooking spray;

Recipe Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Stir to combine.
3. Beat granulated sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended (1 to 2 minutes). Add vanilla, almond extract, egg & egg white and beat well. Add flour mixture and milk/lemon juice mixture (or buttermilk) alternately to sugar mixture, blending after each addition. Gently fold in 1 cup of blueberries.
4. Spoon batter into 9-inch round baking pan coated with cooking spray. Spread remaining 1 cup blueberries evenly over top, then spread toasted almonds and cane sugar evenly as well. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour (I used frozen blueberries and it took about 70 minutes, but if you are using fresh ones it will likely be less time).
5. Cool in pan for 15 minutes on wire rack then remove from pan. Serve warm.