Merry Berry Coffee Cake
Merry Berry Coffee Cake
Now, we come to the first recipe from my menu and that is the one called the Merry Berry Coffee Cake. I know that some of us have looked at advertisements and images of the past and thought, “Who would ever in their right minds eat that!” We’ve all done that, but I am here to tell you there are some dishes made in the past that should be continued or revived and if this one hasn’t it should!
The great thing about this recipe is that you can use frozen or fresh fruits in season and whip it together and pop it in the oven and go about your morning while it bakes itself into a wonderful blend of flavors. They meld together nicely and are great alone or with eggs. I like to pair my coffee cake with none other than coffee. It is one of those sweet delights while watching the sunrise over the snow-covered landscape.
I need to add here that we did not eat this for Christmas Day as we have a tradition of eating Stollen for Christmas morning, I don’t bake that, we buy it from Aldi here in town. Well, I figured that making this coffee cake for Christmas Eve morning would be just as good. I mean who says you have to make any of these things for just the holidays. I have now made this several more times since the first time I tried it and it has not diminished in taste or ease of baking this. This does take 45 minutes to bake this so it is not a last-minute breakfast plan, but if you have the time to get up early to get it started you can pop this in the oven and let it mingle and do its thing while you get people ready for church, or school, or even give yourself time to check e-mail, messages on whatever Social Media or get caught up in the Pinterest vortex. Whatever you do it is not standing over the stove cooking breakfast and you are not just pouring milk over cereal.
I know you are probably getting impatient so here is the recipe:
Merry Berry Coffee Cake Makes 9 servings
2 cups biscuit mix
⅓ cup sugar
¼ cup instant nonfat dry milk
⅔ cup water
1 egg
1 ½ cups of blueberries, fresh or frozen (drained)
Topping
⅓ cup sugar
2 tablespoons soft butter
¼ cup instant nonfat dry milk
¼ cup flour
You will combine the biscuit mix and the nonfat dry milk.
Then to that mixture, you will stir in water and the egg until all of that is well blended
Now spoon that into a buttered 9-inch square pan. If you do not have a square I am sure a round pan would work. Maybe even a bread loaf pan. The batter needs to go somewhere though and of course nothing shallow.
Now you will add the blueberries to the top of the batter, do not mix them in, they are best if resting on the top of the batter.
In another bowl combine ⅓ cup sugar and the butter, mix in dry milk and flour until the mixture is crumbly.
Sprinkle the mixture over the berries
Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 45 minutes. Serve warm.
Merry Berry Coffee Cake not just for Christmas.
Well, there it is, the coffee cake. Serve it with eggs or not. The second time I made this I served it with baked eggs. The recipe for that can be found here https://www.thespruceeats.com/make-ahead-scrambled-eggs-480283. The great thing about the eggs and the coffee cake is they cook at the same temperature. I’m thinking you could probably make the batter ahead of time too and while the oven is preheating make up the topping mixture. Then you put the berries on the mixture and the topping stuff and pop that in the oven for 45 minutes, when it has cooked for 25 minutes you just pop the eggs into the oven.
Be careful though because even if you hate to cook this will make people sit up and notice. You might have to make this on a few weekends, or when company comes over, or make the whole thing for dinner. Who knows but, I’ll tell you my kids love both the coffee cake and the eggs that I found. I do enjoy that the kids like it. It’s a change of pace from the oatmeal and egg meals they eat in the winter. In Michigan, winter can last 6 months and that just gets to be too boring for them, there are times even teens will put their foot down, so you have to change it up once in a while.
There you have it the first recipe out of the way from the menu. Next up: Christmas Sandwiches. Oh, and a big shout out to Consumers Power Company of Michigan, I believe there are a few left. Very thankful for their attention in the 1970s to develop this pamphlet.
