I'm not quite sure what it is specifically that makes a cake a coffee cake, but this one has blueberries, so I'm calling it coffee cake so that I might eat it for breakfast without raising eyebrows.
This cake is incredibly moist, thanks to a big dose of yogurt. See? It has yogurt! That makes it healthy! I've tried to take the picture very close so that its moistness would show through.
One thing I like about this sort of recipe is you don't need a mixer or anything. You only need 2 bowls, a fork, a spatula or wooden spoon, and a cake pan. You can have it on the breakfast table in just over an hour, although it is definitely better the next day.
Yuzu juice is incredibly hard hard to find in Columbus. I have found it three times at Tensuke, and I am including a picture of it at the bottom of the post to aid in your search. (it's also expensive; I don't know if you can see the $9.99 price tag for the 100ml bottle) If you can't find it, you can use all Meyer lemon juice or a mixture of lime and lemon juice. The flavor is actually closer to Meyer lemons and limes than it is to regular lemons. A little yuzu juice goes a long way, so don't overdo it.
You do not have to use cookie crumbs for your pan, but it is a great trick I learned from the Silver Spoon Cookbook. All of the cake recipes call for butter and crushed amaretti cookies instead of butter and flour. Brilliant! Flour has no flavor, but cookies are delicious and their larger grain helps the cake come out easily. I love it! You can even use stale cookies. I used about 4 small crunch gingersnap I had knocking about. Graham crackers would also be a great choice.
Meyer Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake with Yuzu Syrup - serves 10
1 cup thick plain yogurt
4 eggs
1 1/2 sticks butter melted, plus one tablespoon for greasing your pan
1 tbsp cream or milk
juice from 4 meyer lemons
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
zest from 2 Meyer lemons
1-2 tbsp whey from the yogurt or a little milk
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 tsp flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp yuzu juice (or other citrus juice, see above)
Preheat the oven to 325. Brush a Bundt pan liberally with butter and sprinkle with cookie crumbs, tapping out any extra.
Combine the yogurt, eggs, cream, lemon juice and vanilla. Stir to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, sat, and sugar. Whisk with a fork to combine. Sprinkle the whey over and stir just to barely moisten the flour (this helps the cake stick together and not become crumbly. I learned that from Shirley O'Corriher! Works for cookies too!)
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until just completely combined, but do not overmix.
Toss the frozen blueberries in a little flour, until they are all lightly dusted (supposedly this keeps the blueberries from all sinking to the bottom, who knows. I like to use frozen because then they don't mush and turn everything green).
Pour half of the batter in the pan and sprinkle half of the blueberries over the batter. Add the rest of the batter and sprinkle with the rest of the blueberries.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The cake will not turn brown on top, and it might still look damp, because of its moistness. Rely on the toothpick test.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack for an hour, and then turn it out of the pan onto a plate.
Combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil in a small pan. Remove from the heat, allow to cool about 5 minutes, and then stir in the yuzu juice. Pour about a fourth of the syrup over the cake, wait about 10 minutes and repeat until the syrup is gone, allowing it to dry in between. Serve with coffee or tea!
