During the summer before my senior year of high school, my friends and I would wake up early every Saturday in June to pick blueberries. As we drove to the blueberry farm in East Feliciana Parish, familiar suburban fixtures melted into endless rural landscapes under the Louisiana sun. Armed with a repurposed gallon milk jug with its top cut off, which I tethered to my denim shortall’s belt loop, we’d head into the fields in search of the plumpest blueberries. I reached both hands high over my head to pluck blueberries so dark they were ashy. I always filled my belly before the makeshift bucket.
One of my oldest friends, Grace, shared this recipe with me after one morning of blueberry picking. I have since made this one-bowl buckle countless times. The admirers of this crave-worthy dish either love it or learn to love it. If you’re not swooning the first time you try it, the buttery and caramelized edges of the cake that rise over the plump, juicy berries will have you hooked by the second time. Be sure to serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream—the perfect creamy, cold complement to the syrupy, warm berries.–Vallery Lomas
One-Bowl Blueberry Buckle
Ingredients
- 1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter
- 1 cup self-rising flour*
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
- Vanilla ice cream, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
☞ TESTER TIP: For easier cleanup, line your pan with foil or parchment paper.
- Place butter in a 9- by 5-inch (23-by-13 cm) loaf pan and put it in the hot oven. When the butter has melted, remove the pan from the oven.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, milk, and salt (it’s okay if the batter is a little lumpy). Pour batter into the pan with the melted butter and use a spoon to lightly mix it. There should be visible streaks of melted butter that don’t get completely mixed; this yields buttery, caramelized edges.
- Place the blueberries on top of the batter in an even layer. Bake until the top is golden brown all over, 45 to 50 minutes. (If you remove it too early, the buckle will indeed “buckle” in the middle and fall—which would still be tasty, though sunken!) Wait until it’s golden all over the top and set in the center.
- Place the buckle on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before serving warm with a scoop of ice cream. Leftover buckle can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Notes
*How do I make self-raising flour?
If you don’t have any on hand, it’s pretty simple to make. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder plus 1/4 teaspoon salt to 1 cup all-purpose flour. Make sure to sift well and you’re ready to go.
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Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Did you know only 68% of the recipes we test make it onto the site? This recipe survived our rigorous blind testing process by multiple home cooks. It earned the Leite’s Culinaria stamp of approval—and the testers’ reviews below prove it.
I love a lot of things about this one-bowl blueberry buckle recipe. Firstly, it’s quick and easy. It would be a fun thing to let your kid help with. I think this recipe is also infinitely flexible; you could change up the fruits and add some different spices for the seasons, and maybe even try different milk.
I love how the finished buckle is such a great combination of flavors and textures (Sweet! Crunchy! Juicy!). Add a scoop of ice cream to it, you have another texture. The top crust and sides get nice and caramelized, but I had some challenges getting the first piece(s) out of the pan. I think it would be worth it to use a shallower pan, or barring that, line your loaf pan with some parchment, just to be on the safe side.
It isn’t very often that a recipe is both incredibly simple and incredible tasting. I was blown away by this one-bowl blueberry buckle! It was very flavorful, perfectly sweet, caramelized around the edges, and had a super moist crumb. I am interested to try it as a base recipe for other seasonal fruits. I made mine with frozen wild blueberries which worked very well, but would love to try it with figs, raspberries, and maybe even sliced nectarines.
The look of the buckle in a loaf pan was also a great idea—it made it easy to slice and serve in equal pieces. The buckle smelled wonderful coming out of the oven and in my opinion, didn’t even need a scoop of ice cream, but I’m sure that wouldn’t hurt things at all.
I initially thought this one-bowl blueberry buckle recipe was going to be a disaster. The amount of liquid to flour seemed out of proportion and the batter was very thin, almost like a heavy cream consistency. But, to my pleasant surprise, it turned out great! Not only was there plenty of batter to encase all of the juicy blueberries, but it also puffed up beautifully. It also didn’t “buckle” much, if at all.
Frozen blueberries were my fruit of choice, as this is what I had on hand. The recipe was a snap to put together. It took about 5 minutes for the butter to melt which gave me enough time to throw the other ingredients together. A bonus was the minimal bowls and clean-up. The only change I would make is experimenting with something to line the pan. Once the batter cooled, it stuck to the pan with great power which means extra elbow grease for scrubbing it clean. (Maybe nonstick foil or parchment?)
Not too rich, this could be eaten for breakfast, a snack, or dessert. (Or just because!) We had it as-is, but any type of creamy topping, frozen or not, would accompany it quite nicely.
I had never made a buckle before, so I was eager to make what seemed like a simple dessert, which required so few ingredients. When I mixed the melted butter and the batter, I made an effort to ‘lightly mix’ the two together as it says in the recipe. However, the two stayed in very distinct layers, like oil and water. I also tried to distribute the blueberries evenly on top of the batter, but they swirl around in the batter as they like. Do not worry about these details-the result is still lovely.
When the buckle had finished cooking, mine did not really look like the picture as all of the blueberries had amalgamated in the centre of the buckle and had burst and formed a jammy consistency.
I found that the recipe gave me 3 good-sized portions of the buckle, but this could have been doubled to 6 portions when the ice cream was added. I served mine with vanilla ice cream, but I thought that it would be lovely with either pouring custard or pouring cream. When ice cream is served with a warm buckle, it melts and gives a similar effect as custard or pouring cream. The dessert is chewy with crunchy edges.
When I read this one-bowl blueberry buckle recipe, I thought there was no way it would turn out. As I was mixing the recipe up, I thought there was no way it would turn out. No creaming butter and sugar. No eggs. Just melt, mix and bake. Well, I am glad I was wrong because it is a super easy, almost magical dessert that comes together in minutes with buttery crispy ends and soft jammy fruit.
It’s a little sweet for my taste so when I make this again (and I will) I plan to experiment with cutting back the sugar while keeping the intention of the recipe. Yes, my fruit sunk to the middle and bottom but who cares because you will be serving a scoop of the buckle from top to bottom anyway. Please do serve warm with lots of vanilla ice cream! (I would eat this warm for breakfast with a big spoonful of vanilla yogurt, too!)
Joy, blueberry buckle joy. A buttery caramelized crunchy exterior that is followed by a lovely soft crumb and then a layer bursting with jammy blueberry goodness. You’ll take one bite and savor that until you can take the next and then the next. And while you are standing there, forks in hand, eating, fighting for the last crumb, you’ll think, I have to make this again. Right now!
Not only is it ridiculously delicious, but it’s also ridiculously simple to make. It all takes less time to mix up than it does for the oven to get to temperature. We ate this on its own but it would be lovely with a scoop of ice cream or served at breakfast with a dollop of yogurt.
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I saw this in the newsletter on July 6th and wanted to try this since fresh blueberries are everywhere right now. It looked very easy to make, but I really struggled with this turning out the way it seems like it is supposed to. Full transparency, I’ve never made a buckle before and hadn’t ever heard the term (even being from the states and living there for nearly 50 years), so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I will say that my first attempt didn’t seem like “the goal”. Not sure if my smaller oven is/was the issue, but I wanted to note the problems I had in case other Europeans run into them and decide against the recipe because of it.
1st attempt: Recipe followed exactly using metric measurements, with the exception of the butter and salt – I used salted butter and reduced the added salt to about 1/4 tsp. I used the middle rack in my tiny European oven with the top and bottom heat setting (no fan, since it’s not recommended for cakes with high oil content). At the 45 minute mark, the top was dark golden but it was very, very wobbly so I waited 15 more and checked again. Still quite wobbly and the top was getting anxiously dark, but I risked 10 more minutes (total bake time 1hr10min).
After cooling, we dove in. It was quite dark, but had a lovely exterior texture. The innards, though, were almost gel-like from being terribly under baked. Tasty, but not right. The non-stick bread tin I used made dumping the remainder in the trash (and clean up) a breeze.
2nd attempt: Made adjustments. 1) Reduced the heat to 175C (from 190C) and used the lowest rack. 2) Reduced the milk to 1 cup measurement (not quite 240ml). 3) Increased the salt to 1/2 tsp (up from my previous reduction to 1/4tsp) and still used salted butter. 4) The initial attempt’s batter had seemed unusually thin to me, so, this time, I poured half of the melted butter into the batter, mixed semi-well, and then poured the batter into the tin before adding the blueberries. The consistency of the batter after mixing in the butter felt more like what I had initially expected. Still used the top and bottom heat setting (no fan) on the oven.
This one took 94 minutes before it stopped being wobbly. It, again, was tasty, but the sides were grossly over baked. The middle, while gooey from the fruit, was baked fairly well and it tasted very nice, but this was also ‘not right’. We still ate the leftovers the next day.
3rd attempt: Tonight, with leftover blueberries and hoping to find a solution, I made more adjustments, while keeping some I’d previously made. 1) I opted to double the recipe, but didn’t double the blueberries. 2) I upped the salt to 1 1/2 tsp (shy of the doubled 2 tsp) since I was still using salted butter. 3) I only used 200g butter (instead of 226g) which still might have been a bit too much. 4) I, again, stuck with 2 cups of milk (a bit shy of 480ml). 5) I used a 9.5″Lx7.5″Wx3″D glass pyrex dish (I wanted deep sides to help prevent butter splatter in the oven). 6) Again, I poured half of the melted butter into the batter, mixed more thoroughly this time, and then added the batter to the dish before adding the (not doubled) blueberries. Still used the bottom rack in the oven and the top and bottom heat setting (no fan).
This one took 75 minutes to ‘set’ and has a lovely, caramelized crust all over. The bottom and sides are cooked beautifully and the middle area, while still gooey from fruit, is less gooey, baked nicely, and is more cake-y under the fruit. Very tasty, too. I think I’m gonna stick with this version going forward.
Hey, -K. This might be the most thorough comment I’ve ever gotten! Three tries, changes tracked, and notes taken. I truly appreciate you taking the time.
I see you’re writing from Portugal. I remember living in Lisbon and wanting to make a simple American layer cake for a dinner party friends were throwing. I made that damn thing several times, and I couldn’t make it work no matter what I did! (I gave up and bought some treats at the local bakery on my way.)
I say that because there are real differences between American and European regular and self-rising flours. Did you use farinha com fermento (farinha para bolos), or plain farinha (sem fermento) with nothing added? If it was farinha com fermento, know that Portugal’s major brands add about 2–3% leavening and no salt, while American self-rising flour goes up to 4.5% leavening and always includes salt. That could have added to the lift issue.
Last, Portuguese flours tend to have different protein contents compared to American flours.
I hope this helps a bit. Chow!
Ooooh, David, excellent info!
You know, I came to the blog for your recipes and have stayed for your humor and remarkably relatable writing, but I really feel safe and seen because I know you’ve walked into a Continente or PD and thought, “Oh, fuck, this is gonna take some experimenting”.
I used the Pingo Doce brand farinha de trigo super fina com fermento, which is a tipo 55 with bicarbonate soda and pyrophosphate soda added (no salt). I picked that one since I’ve been using the sem fermento tipo 55 for pretty much ALL of my cooking and baking needs here, so I’ve gotten used to how to work with it. I’ve avoided the self-rising (com fermento) flour at all costs here in the past, since I had a couple of major bake failures as a teen when I tried to use self-rising flour in the US.
Back in the states, I always have just added my own leavening agents and salt to regular A/P flour (as you note in this recipe) if necessary, but baking here is already… challenging. So, seeing as how “buckle” was already new-to-me I wanted to try the recipe as close to the letter as possible just to make it easier, HAHA what a fool I was!
While the regular tipo 55 has been great for bread and dumplings and even cakes (guess how often I skip a recipe that requires cake flour), I’m guessing the self-rising version might be all wrong for this buckle. Though, maybe I could have added some extra leavening? I’ll do some research now that I know the percentages are so different. I do have both baking soda and baking powder, here, so next time (I’m determined) I’ll add leavening to the sem fermento and leave the com fermento for the local experts.
-K, this is new obsession. I want to see if we can nail this down Let me know how it turns out. I’m dangerously invested now!