Berry coffee cake

I made this coffee cake using the same berries as in the Berry compote recipe. Instant hit with the family. We finished about 1/3 of it already. This recipe is basically adapted from another Berry coffee cake recipe from the Bread Bible. There were few changes that I wanted to do





a) I want to put fresh fruit, and I want to be able to taste the texture of the fruit:- so I want whole fresh berries in the cake
b) the fruit shouldn't change the texture of the cake:- the problem with putting whole berries in any cake is that while the cake bakes, the berries explode while the cake is baking. So, this changes the consistency of the cake around the explosion, which makes that part soggy. Usually, it's fine. You just bake it a little longer, but the other parts are dry
c) I want to put lots and lots of fruit:- The problem with increasing the fruit is again more uncontrolled liquid seeping from the fruit into the cake, which makes it more soggy

Recipe is after the jump, but if you aren't bored yet, here's a somewhat technical explanation on how I got all of this done

So, to solve that problem, I had to take the juice out of the fruit without changing the texture of the fruit and also soften the fruit before it goes in so it doesn't explode. Sure, I could have just mashed the berries to extract the juice, but that would have changes the texture of the fruit too much. Besides, I have never tried to juice strawberries. Instead, I used a process called maceration. No, I didn't make the fruit dance and sing "Hey Macerena!" Maceration is a process by which you soften the texture of the fruit using it own's juices. You coat the fruit with sugar and put it in a wire mesh. The sugar sucks the juice out of the fruit and the juice gets filtered by the wire mesh. The process needs time and temperature to work. If your fruit is right out of the fridge , it will take longer than if it was at room temp.

One cup blueberries

One cup blackberries

One cup strawberries

Dice the strawberries so that they are almost the same size as blueberries. Mix all the berries together, along with 2 cups of sugar


Please note that is a stainless steel bowl which is non-reactive. DO not use copper or iron bowls since the fruit juice can leech metal from the bowl into the food

Mix the sugar so it coats the fruit well. Put the entire mixture in a wire mesh. This essentially starts the maceration of the fruit. It will take anywhere between 30 mins to 2 hrs depending on how cold the fruit is. Allow the fruit to macerate while we prepare the other steps. Just keep mixing the fruit once in a while so that trapped juice has a chance to fall through. Here are the photos showing the maceration process

After 10 minutes. You can see that the sugar is already dissolving in the juice that is seeping out

Not much juice collected after 10 mins. The process is just starting. Please note I didn't do anything to the fruit besides mix it with sugar.  didn't press it or squeeze it

After 1 hr

Ooo we collecting some juice now

After 2 hrs. You can actually see the fruit get smaller

The juice after 2hrs. You can't see it, but the sugar has gone into the juice and it has the consistency of syrup. You might have to mix the sugar and juice together. You can use this syrup for anything, including pouring it over your waffles, or thickening the compote you made with left over berries. I am going to use this syrup in the dough for the coffee cake, though, so I can




This time, just so there are differrent textures in the fruit, I took dried blueberries and freeze dried blueberries and mixed it with the berries. So, macerated blueberries, dried blueberries and freeze dried blueberries are all blueberries but they taste slightly differrent from each other. I just wanted to add another dimension of flavors in the mix.

Dried blueberries available from Costco. I would call these as blueberry raisins

Freeze dried blueberries from Trader Joe's

Mix em all together, and keep the berries on the side









Now, we will make the cake dough, and then assemble the cake dough with the berries and bake the whole thing

Beat 2 eggs
Why did the baker get arrested? For beating eggs and whipping the cream *Nyuk* *Nyuk* *Nyuk*

 Melt 8tbsp(1 stick) of butter
I love the smell of melted butter in the morning. Smells like victory
 And don;t use margarine. Margarine is not butter. It's a chemical that looks like butter. Margarine won't bake your baked goods. Trust me, I have tried to make "low-fat" versions of cakes

  One cup of buttermilk
All the fun of butter with the convinience of milk

Buttermilk is very important. Don't try to cheat and mix yogurt and milk. Also, it has to be the acidic kind of buttermilk, not chaas. Buttermilk is what gives coffee cake it's soft texture. If you don't have buttermilk, take 1 cup of milk and add 1 tsp of lemon juice to it

Mix the juice syrup, eggs, buttermilk and butter together
Little tip:- if the butter is hot, mix the butter with the buttermilk and the syrup first. Don't add hot butter to egg directly, otherwise, the butter will fry the egg and it will turn into scrambled eggs

Mix 3 1/2 ups flour, 2tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. The mixture should be fairly wet and thick. See the spoon sitting on top. It should be thick because it has to take the weight of the fruit.

Take a springform pan and coat it with butter. Put half of the dough in the pan. Make sure  you spread it around so it covers the bottom of the pan

Put the fruit on top. Make sure it;s evenly spread

Put the rest of the dough on top. Spread it around so it covers the fruit
Bake at 375

Tada!! Bake till a toothpick pushed inside comes out clean. It took about 40 mins this time

Let the cake sit for atleast 15 more minutes. Baked goods continue cooking for some time after you remove them from the oven. You have to wait 15 mins to complete that process
After 15 mins, remove the springform pan, flip and place on plate. We are ready to eat

First slice. See how the cake around the fruit is proper consistency. See how the bread has expanded to grab the fruit in intself.  Even though the fruit has become more mushy it keeps it's basic texture. See the amount of fruit. This is atleast double the fruit specified in the original recipe form Bed bath & beyond

The only problem is the fruit is not centered in places. THis is because I put too much dough in the first layer and too little in the second layer