In a parallel universe, this blueberry crumble would have been perfectly topped with fresh juicy berries, but alas, I misread the directions and dumped the entirety of the blueberries into the batter and baked it all to a golden hue. I ate that crumble, but each bite taunted me with defectiveness – the tops were excessively sweet. The crumbles yearned for their berry counterparts only to melt into the batter’s sweet oblivion.
I ate more of the crumble, examining the bottom of my failed cake lined with defunct berries: They must have drowned in the heat of the batter like lifeless corpses, unable to float.
I dispensed my shameful cake to others and spoke endlessly about the defeat of executing recipes in haste though no one else shared my disappointment; free confections are always accepted with graciousness. I began to regard my kitchen blunder more graciously, with warmth. I thought, There’s a special place in dessert heaven for failed cakes.
The photo, too, was a failure, but I love it. It seem to speak about the parallel universe of failed ambitions. I’d rather have a flawless blueberry crumble, but this instance of corresponding images will suffice.
I wish I could write a recipe for failed blueberry crumbles, but most will do – just dump all of the berries into the batter and bake away. Failure tastes better when shared.
Hardly a day passes when I don’t go to Sightglass for a cup of “baby latte”. If there’s not been breakfast or brunch, the lattes are accompanied by these hearty blueberry muffins topped with bits sunflower seeds and raw sugar from Piccino Bakery. They are not delicate, but after eating a variety of the baked goods at Sightglass I have declared these my favorite.
Inspired to find a similar recipe, I tried baking a whole wheat version from King Arthur Flour, topping them with a nutty “streusel” of cinnamon dusted seeds and sugar. This particular recipe yields the most moist muffin I’ve ever made, and the brown sugar and whole wheat flour makes it especially hearty and maybe heart healthy. Twelve muffins lasted 1.5 days.
This recipe was so successful, I’m going to have to dig deeper into their whole grain book a little more…
Recipe modified from King Arthur Flour
2 1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. brown sugar
3/4 ts. salt
1 ts. baking powder
1/2 ts. baking soda
1/2 ts. ground cinnamon
1 c. fresh blueberries
1 ts. vanilla
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
Streusel: 1/3 c. pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds mixed with 1/4 ts. cinnamon. Raw Sugar.
Preheat your oven to 400 °F
+ Sift together Flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Gently mix in fresh blueberries.
+ Whisk together vanilla, oil, and buttermilk.
+ Fold wet and dry mix together until just combined (do not overmix).
+ Spoon batter (I used an ice cream scoop) into 12 muffin cups until nearly full. Top each muffin with 1/8 ts. of raw sugar and some cinnamon seed streusel.
+ Bake for 20 minutes and remove from tins after 5 minutes of resting. They were so moist it is easy to squeeze them too hard… Let cool completely on a rack. Eat them warm!
