Confession: I’m not a cake person.
I’d rather have pie loaded with whip cream; it’s much more nostalgic. However, I recently discovered the downside of pie: it’s not acceptable to eat for breakfast. I mean could you imagine walking into a Starbucks and ordering a slice of French Silk? Here come the judgy looks.
But coffee cake? Totally cool. Load up my plate at 8am with buttery bliss and give me a shot of espresso.
I think I can totally get down with the cake for breakfast thing.
There’s something special about enjoying a slice of coffee cake with your favorite person. In fact, sometimes that is exactly what you need. Trust me on this. I’ve become an expert in wooing people with desserts.
So here’s what I did: I made you a coffee cake that tastes like a moist, fluffy blueberry muffin. The crunchy streusel topping is wonderful and I think you’ll find it perfect served warm with a cup of joe. Plus, it gives you an excuse to brown butter!
Just do it, okay?
More delicious brunch recipes to try:
The Best Cinnamon Rolls You’ll Ever Eat
Melt-in-Your-Mouth Brown Butter Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Pecan Gingersnap Cookie Streusel
Dark Chocolate, Almond & Sea Salt Banana Baked Oatmeal
The Best Healthy Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins (gluten free!)
Upside-Down Orange Caramel Pecan French Toast Bake
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Brown Butter Blueberry Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- Topping:
- 1/4 cup butter, softened and cut into small cubes
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- For the cake:
- 1/2 cup unsalted good-quality butter (1 stick)
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup whole or low-fat milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 heaping cups fresh (or thawed) blueberries, preferably organic
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, to coat blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or grease an 8x8 inch pan.
- To make the topping: In a medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add the butter pieces to the bowl and cut with a pastry cutter or rub together with your fingers until the mixture resembles a crumble texture. Place in refrigerator.
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown, turn an amber color and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes or until warm to the touch.
- Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl; set aside.
- Whisk together milk, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until well combined. Add the cooled brown butter and whisk until well combined.
- Slowly add brown butter and milk mixture to the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
- In a medium bowl, toss blueberries with 2 tablespoons of flour. Gently fold blueberries into the batter.
- Add batter to prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with brown sugar topping. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or just with a few crumbs attached. Serve warm or at room temperature with a cup of good coffee. Best if enjoyed with lovely people.
42 comments
In Pennnsylvania Dutch country, eating pie for breakfast is a regular thing. Apple pie with a side of sausage in the dead of winter makes a fabulous breakfast.
Gorgeous coffee cake! I just made a blueberry coffee cake a couple days ago and now, I want to make this. Can’t get enough blueberries. Or cake 🙂
I’m not a cake person either…I much prefer a cookie or brownie; although, this coffee cake sounds delicious. It would be great for brunch!
Amazing, Monique – this looks so fantastic. So tender and I love that crumb on top!
I don’t like cake either! Coffee cake is great though — especially with brown butter! And for the record, fruit pie is my favorite breakfast ever…!
This looks amazing!
Love me some blueberry coffee cake.. I can only imagine how amazing it is with brown butter!! DROOOL
This coffee cake looks amazing- I am also all behind anything that allows me to eat dessert earlier in the day. I have never eaten pie or cake for breakfast, but it has made up a few of my lunches. The chalkboard styling is also adorable.
These look amazing but there is nothing wrong with a generous slice of pumpkin pie for breakfast! No judgy looks comin’ from me!
Your coffee cake looks so good, I love the combination of brown butter and blueberries!
I am also more of a pie person and when I have leftovers in my house I eat pie for breakfast. No shame. I definitely wouldn’t argue about this cake for breakfast though. Brown butter and blueberries sound fantastic!
I beg to differ. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream is a most excellent breakfast. Especially if you’ve made it with a nice oatmeal crust. And I will eat pretty much any cream pie or fruit pie for breakfast as well, usually with coffee, a fried egg, and toast. Who says you can’t have dessert with breakfast? Whoever they are, they can bite me.
These look absolutely delicious! Blueberry coffee cake is my favorite thing to have for breakfast.
This looks absolutely perfect!! Blueberry and brown butter!
This looks incredible, and I’m a pie person, too. 😉 Can’t wait to make this!
definitely going to make this, but with buttermilk.
I just made this with buttermilk (reduced the amount of baking powder and added a half teaspoon of baking soda), because I like the extra tartness and because I had some I wanted to use up. It’s cooling now, smells fantastic.
Having this for breakfast sooo good!
Yum!
This recipe is misleading. It took me 90 minutes prep time. And, it’s just as good as the Bisquick recipe for coffee cake. Save yourself some time and effort: just throw some floured blueberries into a Bisquick batter.
Sorry to hear that you found the recipe time consuming; I’m a scratch baker at heart so I always appreciate a recipe that’s homemade!
I made this cake in December for a dinner party. Huge, huge hit. Everyone had seconds! I’m making it this weekend for a different group of friends. I can’t wait to see their reactions!
🙂
Jessica – Hamilton, ON
Just made your cake…I too would rather bake from scratch. I don’t recall ever seeing brown butter bisquick mix…Anyway, the house smells amazing. Have to wait for it to cool down before digging in! I did however bake my cake for about 70 minutes instead of the prescribed 45-55min..could be because I used frozen berries instead of fresh. Thank you for the recipe!!
Can you omit the blueberries if needed? It is snowy here and not too safe to go on the roads right now. But, I still want to make this. Also, what would I do if I want to make this 9×13? Thank you!
Hi Anne! If you have other berries or fruit it would be ideal to add them, otherwise it should hold up without them. In a 9×13 I would check on the baking process at about 25-30 minutes!
Yum this looks so tasty but I am a little confused as there is no coffee in it?
I’m from Australia so maybe I am missing something?
coffee cake is named because its sweet taste pairs well with coffee as a drink with it.
this coffee cake is SO GOOD!
Can you substitute the milk with almond milk instead?
Yes that should work!
Hi!
When I made the topping, it didn’t crumble as much as the topping does with your blueberry muffin recipe. When I tried to mix it together it didn’t crumble as well and there were still chunks of butter that wouldn’t mix with the other ingredients very well. Did I do something wrong? I saw that this recipe calls for softened butter and the muffin recipe called for melted butter.
Thanks!
Hi, there. Sorry for the delay! With softened butter you just want to make sure to really incorporate it well with a fork or pastry cutter. I like to use my hands and if the butter is at proper room temp then you should be able to work it into the other ingredients. Sorry you had trouble! You can always use melted butter but sometimes I find the crumble becomes too wet.
This recipe is awesome! I followed the recipe exactly and it came out amazing. Shared it with some neighbors and they all really enjoyed it. Definitely making this one again!
Thank you! So happy to hear you guys all loved it 🙂
Super moist and flavorful with the brown butter, my son and I both loved it! Left out the blueberries for him but I would love it with too. Perfect with my latte. Will definitely be making this again!
Nice! Happy you enjoyed it, Julie 🙂 So perfect alongside coffee!
I’ve attempted this twice with no success. I did not rise well, the batter seemed to runny to begin with. I substituted almond milk otherwise followed the recipe. Might try this one more time.
Sorry to hear that! Not sure what might be happening. I do have a recently tested brown butter strawberry coffee cake for which you could easily sub blueberries instead. I’d recommend trying that one!
I make coffee break snacks for construction workers and this cake was a huge hit.
That is SO kind of you! Glad everyone loved this one!
Hello! I was wondering if I could sub maple syrup for the granulated sugar?
Hi! I wouldn’t suggest it for this recipe because adding another liquid will change the texture.