Bunch o' Brunch

Janet here:

I love, love, love eating breakfast out. It's an oddity of sorts because it's not like I make a big breakfast at home. No, I eat — and have eaten — yogurt just about every day for, oh, decades. (I used to only eat one kind — Dannon coffee, still my yogurt of choice — but I have expanded my repertoire to include Stoneyfield organic in recent years.)

Anyway, my second favorite breakfast thing is brunch. Maybe it's because, like breakfasts in restaurants, brunches are slower. You're not supposed to do anything but sit there for a while, talking, relaxing, maybe even having a bloody Mary or two. You give yourself permission to slow down and that's a wonderful way to start the day.

Peter's cousin and husband, Kerry and Hal, stopped by last weekend for a quick visit after dropping their daughter back at college. They were slated just in time for brunch so brunch it was.

I tossed together some fruit salad, brewed up a batch of coffee and made some delicious scrambled eggs (with shallots, lox and a little 1/2-and-1/2, delicious!). And we topped it off with this terrific blueberry crumb coffeecake from the Barefoot Contessa At Home cookbook. Regular readers know I'm a BC fan. It's rare one of her recipes fail me. If you're looking for an easy coffeecake that will win rave reviews, try this one. And have a mimosa for me. :)

Blueberry Crumb Coffeecake

ingredients for the streusel
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups flour

ingredients for the cake
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberries

method
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch round baking pan.

For the streusel, combine the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Stir in the melted butter and then the flour. Mix well and set aside.

For the cake, cream the butter and sugar in a bowl. I used a hand mixer, but BC recommends using an electric mixer with a paddle on high for 4-5 minutes until light. Reduce speed to low and add the eggs one at a time. Then add the vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Then fold in the blueberries and stir with a spatula until completely mixed.

Spoon the batter into the pan. With your fingers, crumble the topping evenly over the batter. Bake 40-50 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar (if you want. I didn't; it seemed like overkill.)