Blueberry-Yogurt Coffee Cake

The Great Northwest is famous for many foods, and while hazelnuts and salmon usually come to mind as the obvious meibutsu, we also grow spectacular berries. Among them, Vacciniums – huckleberries, cranberries and blueberries – are Queen. These Ericaceous lovelies, to which my namesake heather is related, thrive in Oregon’s acidic, volcanic soils and maritime precipitation.

When I get the chance to buy a flat of organic, local blueberries, I jump at it. Most of the blueberries from this flat were frozen or canned with elderflower cordial into jam and pie filling, but a few handfuls were destined for a loaf of crumbly-moist coffee cake. These are some of those.

I used the ain’t-broke-so-don’t-fix-it blueberry crunch coffee cake recipe from Joy of Cooking , opting to use full-fat yogurt and taking creative license to add a bit of lemon zest to the batter and a little cinnamon to the brown sugar and sliced almonds that were destined for nutty caramelized  bottom (the topping, once inverted). Though I usually bake breakfast-type loaves in my long, aluminum terrine pan, this time I obediently opted for the Pyrex loaf pan. Fortunately, the interior turned out perfectly moist-crumby, without any of the raw spots as sometimes happens when baking with fruit (which is why I usually bake in the terrine pan).

I love being in a newly-baking way. Today is another cool and cloudy day, and I have plums and figs that need eating. Tarte tatin?