Cranberry Buckle
Want to know a secret? I've been married four times. Three times to the same person. What am I, Elizabeth Taylor?
Bruce and I have had a commitment ceremony (1999), a legal civil union (2007), and now a legal marriage in Connecticut (2009).
OK, there's three. But before those, I was married, yep, in "the traditional way" to someone else. Without a lot of blathery confession, let's just say that it was a wonderful relationship with a great person. And in many ways a darn fine marriage: companionable and safe. As well as a part of my life I still cherish. In fact, a part that Bruce and I talk about all the time.
One of the best things about Bruce is this: he's not threatened by any of this stuff. I talk about my past and he doesn't blink. He accepts it--and assumes we'll always talk about things that may be painful, may not include him, and may be made up of great memories that happened long before him. Even relationship memories. If his grace is not the heart of redemption, I don't know what is.
So how does this all relate to buckle, that American coffee cake with a sugary topping so heavy, the cake buckles underneath it? Because my first spouse loved buckle. And I'd make it for her all the time, a breakfast treat for quiet, special mornings--or a dessert after a long day. (I was in grad school; she was working her way far up the corporate ladder.) I associate buckle with that marriage. And mostly feel warm and safe when I do.
Still, I haven't thought about buckle in years--until I ran across a recipe for Blueberry Buckle in The Ultimate Cook Book, our 900-recipe tome. I pointed it out to Bruce, told him about making it so many times before in a "previous life," told the story very nostalgically--and he asked me if I'd like him to make it for me as a treat this past weekend.
Isn't life nuts? It twists and turns into redemption with the most shocking abandon.
Anyway, he did. Except we had no blueberries. Instead, lots of cranberries. (We live in New England, after all.) Here's how to get eight servings of this terrific treat, with some real food morphs on the recipe:
First, position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Lightly butter a 10-inch (25-cm) round baking dish (or even a 10-inch [25-cm] round cake pan).
Melt 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 60 grams) unsalted butter in a small bowl in the microwave or in a small saucepan set over low heat. Set the melted butter aside as you continue with the recipe.
Whisk all of this in a large bowl: 1 1/3 cups (120 grams) whole wheat pastry flour (or cake flour, if you must), 1 cup (200 grams) turbinado sugar (or granulated white sugar, if you must), 1 teaspoon (4 grams) baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) salt in a large bowl.
Add 8 tablespoons (1 stick or 120 grams) cool, unsalted butter cut into large chunks. Use a pastry cutter or a fork to mash the butter through the tines and into the flour, until the whole mixture looks about like coarse sand. Clean out the tines repeatedly and keep at it, working that butter into the flour until you've got something that looks about like my photo.
In a separate bowl, whisk all this together until smooth: 2 large eggs, 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream (or half-and-half for you health conscious types), and 1 1/2 teaspoons (7 ml) vanilla extract. Once this mixture is creamy and uniform, pour it into the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until a stiff dough forms. Stir in 2 cups (285 grams) chopped cranberries, then spoon and spread this rather stiff and thick mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Now the topping. Again, it needs to be so heavy it collapses into the batter as the cake bakes. Mix all this into that melted butter in the saucepan: 1/2 cup (90 grams) packed light brown sugar, 3 tablespoons (22 grams) all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg (those last two come in at less than 2 grams each). Once you've got a gooey, heavy mixture, plop it by sprinkles all over the top of the batter in the pan.
Bake until lightly browned, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake (without hitting a cranberry bit) comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 45 minutes. (Check early and then keep going if you need to.)
Cool the buckle in its pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before cutting into pie wedges to serve. See what I mean about the topping? Once cooled to room temperature, you can cover the cake and it'll keep at room temperature for a couple of days. Breakfast or dessert? Hmm. Maybe both?
Mark Scarbrough | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 at 12:47PM | in Breakfast, Cake, Desserts, Fabulously Empty Calories
Reader Comments (7)
FROM BRUCE
The local cranberries I had and used for this cake were enormous. The package even said "gigantic" on the label. So I went to town with the knife. If yours are smaller, a simple halving might do the trick!
Mark, you're married to the best person in the world! And since we don't get fresh cranberries here, I'll get out my copy of TUC and check out the original blueberry version.. :)
Would it be okay to chop the cranberries in a food processor instead of halving them with a knife, as long as they aren't processed into mush? I love cranberries and this sounds so good!
Suzie
Suzie: Oh, of course. Just make sure you don't "juice" them and thereby make the batter too wet. A few pulses should do the trick--or better yet, a few pulses of the cranberries in two 1-cup batches.
M.
The buckle looks lovely, but I think your story is lovelier! It makes me feel excited about what's ahead in life, and I haven't been feeling very excited about life lately. Knowing that one can have positive feelings about past relationships is beautiful and refreshing. Thank you.
Ann: As I said, life turns redemptive with shocking and sometimes stomach-churning abandon. Just when you expect the worst, something great shows up. I think that's Bruce for me. Do we fight like cats and dogs? Of course! Do we irritate the fire out of each other? Of course. But sometimes, I look across the room at him doing something mundane (stirring a pot, taking out the storm door) and I feel the tears well up in my eyes just because he is who he is.
I'm not sure what I think about the whole marriage thing. But I do think everyone should have at least one free do-over card in their wallets.
M.
love (1,000,000) both story and recipe. Wish I were home in my own kitchen so I could make this buckle. I'll definitely add this to my must try list.