Black and blue almond butter buckle

Many years ago (14!) when I was in the middle of my year of pastry school, I discovered a recipe in Bon Appétit for an almond-plum buckle, named for the finely ground almonds that are part of the batter as well as the plum slices pressed on top before baking. I made it a couple of times back then, once with plums/blueberries/strawberries and once with cherries/blueberries. They were a big hit for the folks who were the fortunate recipients, including Steve and myself of course.

I’ve since made it periodically over the years but it’s been awhile for sure. Every now and then it comes back into my memory banks, and I must bake it again, particularly when we’re still in the throes of summer fruits season yet moving into autumn as well.

A buckle is basically a single layer cake in which the batter is topped with fruit and often a streusel topping and then baked. The fruit sinks somewhat and the batter rises around it thus referring to the buckling of the cake under the fruit.

There’s a lot written about this group of baked fruit desserts including crisps, slumps (or grunts), buckles, brown bettys and cobblers, but I’m not here today to describe how they compare in their preparation. I simply wish to share my own tweaked recipe based on the 14 year old one from BA. (Yay! I found it online so I could link you to it.)

As always, I did some basic cake recipe comparisons and made my changes based on a couple of other tasty cakes I’ve made over recent months. There’s a lot of similarity from recipe to recipe, often involving 2 sticks butter, 1 cup sugar, 2-4 eggs, vanilla, 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, perhaps a spice of choice or some citrus zest, some dairy like sour cream/yogurt/crème fraiche/whole milk/buttermilk, maybe some fruit involved and you’re good to go.

Here’s my recipe outlined below as well as this downloadable PDF.

Ingredients:
70 g/3/4 cup almond flour
195 g/1.5 cup all purpose flour (option to sub in whole wheat pastry flour for about a fourth of the all purpose)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
OPT 1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon or spice mix of choice
100 g/7 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
70 g/1/3 cup almond butter
175 g/1 cup minus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup crème fraiche, room temperature
1.5 cups total of mixed blueberries and blackberries (this is mainly an eyeball it decision - you want fruit sprinkled just so over the cake so that there are spots for the cake to rise up around the fruit).

The steps:
1. Heat the oven to 350ºF. Butter a 9” springform pan and place a round of parchment in the bottom.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together almond flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices if using.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle cream the butter and almond butter to blend.
4. Add granulated sugar and cream on medium high until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
5. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, blending well after each. Blend in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.
6. Blend in flour mixture alternating with the crème fraiche just until combined.
7. Spread batter in prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula. Sprinkle fruit evenly over the top. Sprinkle with raw sugar if desired.
8. Bake about 50 minutes until a tester in center comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes, remove from pan and finish cooling.

Ready for the oven!

The primary differences from the BA recipe are using blanched almond flour instead of finely grinding natural almonds; a reduction of butter from 227 g/8 ounces to a total of 170 g/6 ounces of unsalted butter (100 g) and almond butter (70 g) combined plus the addition of 1/2 cup crème fraiche; reduction of sugar by 2 tablespoons (~30 g). That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

I used frozen berries for this one - if you do that, be sure to allow for 5-10 minutes more baking time to allow the center to be fully baked (nothing worse than a gooey center) and be careful not to overload the cake with fruit. I sprinkled both vanilla sugar and raw sugar on top before baking, but cinnamon sugar is an option too.

If you’d prefer a streusel topping, the easiest approach is equal weights flour, sugar, cold cubed butter sanded together to coarse crumbs to top the fruit. For this size cake 60 g of each is plenty. Remember - you can double, triple or quadruple the amounts and have a good freezer unbaked streusel stash on hand to top your favorite crisp, financier/tea cake or baked fruit tart.

The buckle served as a dessert for a Labor Day cookout at cousin Jen’s, topped with whipped cream and a few fresh berries.

Simple and delicious is always good.

Stay well, remain calm and keep baking. It helps.

The flowering crab I photographed last spring + some wild grapes

A couple of autumn tarts

Apples! Pears! Berries! What better way to celebrate autumn, eh?

On the prowl for a couple of Sunday desserts, as well as a way to use some of the local Michigan pears and apples I had on hand, tarts were definitely on my mind. Natch! This project involved two versions of tart, one apple/pear/blackberry with classic brown sugar crumble topping and one apple/pear/raspberry with crunchy almond topping. Ooooohhh how delicious.

I’ve been a fan of Bosc pears for some years now, and, on the apple side of things, this season I’ve taken quite a shine to Jonagolds too.

I typically poach my pears soon after purchase as a way to avoid the ripening wait as well as to hold them in the fridge for use when needed. But after reviewing some of my numerous pastry books I opted for the slice/dice/sauté in a little butter and sugar approach. Works like a charm!

For a couple of full sized tarts I peeled, halved, cored and thinly sliced about 4 pounds of apples. That would normally be a decent quantity for one tart, but, since I was mixing in pears and berries, it worked very nicely for two.

Then on medium heat melt 2 ounces/56 g unsalted butter in a sauté pan or Dutch oven large enough to hold all of the apples, then stir in the slices until coated. Add 100 g dark brown sugar, a large pinch of salt, the zest of one lemon and a large squeeze (a tablespoon or so) of lemon juice, increase heat to medium high and stir about a minute.

Now here’s where I took Elisabeth Prueitt’s advice from her “Tartine all Day” book - cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and let the apples cook for about 10 minutes until softening and juice-releasing has happened. Then scoop the apple slices out with a slotted spoon (I placed them in a large strainer over a bowl to allow dripping then transferred them to a clean bowl) and cook down the juices for a few minutes until very thick - apple caramel! Mix the thickened juices in with the apples and you’re good to go. You can add a little cinnamon and nutmeg here if you’d like - I kept mine au naturel. Set aside to cool until you’re ready to fill your tart shell.

For the pears, again using about 4 pounds, I peeled, halved, cored and diced them into 1/2 inch cubes then followed a similar sauté approach in butter and sugar. For these, simply cook them over medium high heat until they start to soften and become lightly caramelized (maybe 5-8 minutes) then set them aside to cool until ready to fill the tarts. No juice reduction here.

I used two of my favorite tart doughs - pâte brisée for the blackberry version and pâte sucrée for the raspberry - blind baking them before filling. Once baked I brushed the bottom with egg white and popped ‘em back in the oven for a couple of minutes to “dry”. That provides a seal to the dough and reduces the chance for a soggy crust.

Pear apple blackberry waiting for assembly

I mounded the apple/pear mix in first then tucked my blackberries into the various nooks and crannies. These were plump frozen berries that I broke up into pieces for more efficient cranny-ing.

The brown sugar crumble is equal weights flour, brown sugar (you can use light or dark, whichever you prefer) and diced cold butter sanded into the dry ingredients. I usually make a bunch and store it in a zip-top bag in the freezer to use at a moment’s notice.

Loaded with crumble!

Since the crust is already baked and the fruit “cooked”, the primary task here is to brown the crumble and get the fruit to juicy-up. Bake at 350ºF for 20-25 minutes until the crumble is golden and some juicy bubbling is visible.

The approach to the raspberry version is pretty much the same. Fill the blind baked crust with the pear/apple/raspberry mix.

But this time the topping is made with 2 large egg whites, 100 g/1 cup confectioner’s sugar and 125 g/1.25 cups sliced almonds all mixed together and spread over the fruit.

Ready for the oven

This one also bakes at 350ºF for about 25-30 minutes until the nuts are browned and have taken on a certain luster and there’s some fruit juiciness visible around the edges.

Talk about a treat! Whether it’s crunchy toasty almonds or a more classic crumble that melts in your mouth, both of these tarts delivered with the lovely fall flavor of pears, apples and berries. And a side of vanilla ice cream doesn’t hurt either!

Now don’t hesitate to make your own version of a delicious autumn tart.

Happy baking!