Issue #66: Buckle Up!
American Dessert Names, Blueberry Buckles and Beyond
I cannot believe it’s almost September. But the earlier sunsets and chillier nights at the lake won’t let us pretend summer isn’t drawing to a close. We are just a few days away from Labor Day. Still, the markets are full of great produce, our table is full of giant zucchini, and our bellies are full of good food. Make a buckle this weekend. You won’t be disappointed. Thanks for your continued support.—Mitchell
One of my favorite categories of American foods is the simple, homely, delicious fruit desserts you assemble and bake in a pan. These include cobblers, crisps, crumbles, grunts, slumps, dowdies, and buckles, the last, the subject of this issue. Though authorities far more learned than I have tried to distinguish these desserts with some sort of formal taxonomy of common characteristics—ratio of flour to fat, type of fruit, addition of nuts, what have you—I think their names generally seem to refer to the messiness of their form with an almost onomatopoetic accuracy.
Lately, I’ve been baking buckles. Nate and I picked a few quarts of blueberries at a beautiful farm on a hillside overlooking Richford, New York, a tiny town whose four corners is also home to our favorite soft-serve ice cream in the area at Tastee Treat. I swear, before we were home my Instagram algorithm dropped a recipe for a simple, five-ingredient Blueberry Buckle from Food 52 in my feed. (Were the bushes wired, I wonder?)
I was particularly interested in this buckle because it seemed related to the Butter Swim Biscuits I wrote about in Issue #50, which now occupy a permanent spot in my baking rotation. As for those biscuits, for this buckle you melt the butter in the pan as the oven preheats, mix the few batter ingredients together, pour that batter into the melted butter, and swirl it all around. Then, to make it a buckle, you top it with fruit and bake. Without having to cut in the butter, you cut out one of the most intimidating steps in baking.
The original recipe tells you to use a loaf pan. As the buckle bakes, the sides rise up around the fruit in the center and sort of fall in on top, “buckling,” as it were. The edges turn dark brown and crisp. We loved it immediately. But in the country, I don’t have a loaf pan. I used a shallower baking dish, instead.
Of course, I’m not good at leaving well enough alone. And I certainly do not believe that a recipe becomes any more complicated by adding another ingredient or two or switching out a pan. So, I’ve been playing around with the original recipe to create my own variation that is still very simple, has a little more fruit and flavor, and is equally delicious with ice cream, whipped cream, or all by itself.
Although some authorities believe buckles should always and only be made with blueberries, I’ve now made a delicious (if uneven) buckle with ripe nectarines. And I intend to make one this weekend with peaches and plums. What you sacrifice in alliteration, you make up for in variety.
I have to admit, this buckle is a very easy dessert, but it also makes a perfect breakfast. You just need to allot enough time for it to bake, about 50 minutes or so. As with most of my recipes, I use cultured or soured dairy products interchangeably, and I almost always prefer them to fresh, adjusting with one or another for consistency. I added buttermilk to this recipe, but you can also just use all whole milk, as called for in the original.
Despite swimming in butter, the buckle has a tendency to stick to the pan, a bit of a mystery. Because this is a dish from that category of messy American desserts, however, there is no reason to try to serve it in neat portions. Just scoop and scrape it into individual bowls, making sure everyone gets his or her share of crisp, chewy crust.
RECIPE: Fruit Buckle
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
½ cup whole milk
½ cup buttermilk, plain yogurt, half and half, or additional whole milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups, fruit, such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, chopped nectarines, peaches, or plums
Preheat the oven to 375°F. While the oven is preheating, place the stick of butter in a 10-inch by 7-inch baking dish, loaf pan, or similar, and set in the oven just until the butter is melted. Remove from the oven to cool.
Meanwhile, with a whisk, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Add the milks with the vanilla and stir just to combine. Pour this batter into the pan with the melted butter, and using a spoon or spatula, swirl the batter around to draw some of the butter throughout. Distribute the fruit on top and set in the oven to bake until risen, browned, and baked through, about 50 minutes. (An instant-read thermometer should reach at least 195°F. Serve warm, with ice cream, whipped cream, or all by itself.