Blueberry Maple Coffee Cake

Continuing the saga of blueberry related recipes, here is a coffee cake that will pick you up any afternoon. Enjoy with your favorite mocha or a cold coffee on a hot summer day!

It is not very easy to lighten up baked goods but I've been inspired by many culinary blogs out there that focus on natural cooking. This cake is sweetened mostly with maple syrup and blueberries. Feel free to substitute for any other berry as well. If you dont like the flavor of maple syrup (what!!), you could use equal parts of agave nectar, brown or cane sugar, even honey!

The cake is moistened with the berries and greek yogurt. The amount of butter has been more than halved from a traditional coffee cake recipe. I used fat free yogurt.

The whole wheat flour makes for a more crumbly cake and is substantial. So a thin slice goes a long way with this cake! I think the orange and the rosemary bring out the freshness of the berries and just remind me of summer. I think next time I'll experiment with raspberries, honey and lemon zest. Maybe a different nut as well- pine nuts?

Prep Time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: ~40 minutes
Serves: 12 modest slices

Ingredients:

Cake-
1/2 stick of butter- room temperature
1/2 cup maple syrup- room temperature
1 egg or 1/2 cup applesauce- room temperature
1/4 cup greek yogurt (fat free is ok)
2 tbsp milk (reduced fat is ok)
2 tsp vanilla
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups blueberries

Topping-
1/2 stick butter- cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup maple syrup or brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp dried rosemary

Beat the butter until fluffy in a large bowl with a whisk. Add in the maple syrup, egg/apple sauce, vanilla and zest and beat well. Sift the flour with the baking powder and soda. Mix in the rosemary. Add half of this to the butter mix. Stir. Add the greek yogurt, stir well. Add the rest of the flour and stir until barely combined. Moisten with the milk and add 1.5 cups of the berries in. Stir gently. Scrape the batter into a well buttered and floured cake pan (1 used a 1 pound loaf tin. You could also line the pan with parchment paper instead of flouring it)

Heat the oven to 350F

Make the topping- In a food processor- pulse all the ingredients about 20 times until the mixture resembles a crumbly, doughy texture. Using your fingers crumble 1/2 of this onto the cake. Sprinkle the remaining berries on top and crumble the rest of the topping onto the cake. Flatten very gently very with your fingers.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean. Cook in pan for a couple minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.