Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake Squares

As promised: more from Christina Putnam and the Meadow Hill Bed and Breakfast in Middle Grove, New York! She writes of my then 11-year old son Joe's adventures picking wild blueberries from up in "the horseshoe," an area of undeveloped land with an unpaved road that circled around at the top of our neighborhood. The "horseshoe" is now occupied by newer homes and paved roads, but once upon a time it was a place of exploration and adventure for the children of our little neighborhood called Fox Hollow Estates. Christina has a great photo of Joe that I'll add to this post later (after my next visit to the B&B). Christina writes:

"Summer is my favorite season of the year. Partly because of strawberries and blueberries. They seem to make just about everything better.

A favorite line from the 70's movie Yellow Submarine had the Beatles commenting to the Big Blue Meanies, "I didn't know you were Blueish".

It is great to be Blueish. There is an image clear in my mind of the Adirondack Baker's son, Joe Eddy, smiling hugely, with his faced bruised with what looks like a deadly purple pox. He had, in fact, gone wild blueberry picking in the yet-to-be developed woodsy area of our country neighborhood. I don't think many blueberries made it home, but the berry picker was sure pleased with himself. Fortunately, I had my camera to catch his joy!

Today I made Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake Squares. This is one of those great recipes that freezes so well. You can thaw it a little and cut however many sguares you wish to serve and put the rest right back in the freezer in a good zip lock bag. This is an important feature because if you thawed it and served just part of it, you you be cutting a little piece and eating it all day long. I KNOW this to be true.

The cake is very light and tender and very moist. I use square aluminum cake pans and break this recipe into two parts. Cover with plastic wrap when cool and place in a good ziploc freezer bag until you wish to thaw and serve."

Here we go: Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake Squares

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of dried grated lemon peel
2 cups of all purpose flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup water
2 cups of washed fresh blueberries that have been tossed with 1/4 cup of flour ( I do this in a ziploc bag)
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese that has been diced in cubes about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter
TOPPING:
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons of cold butter

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the lemon peel. Combine the 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour to the creamed butter and sugar mixture alternately with the milk and water. When nicely combined, fold in the cream cheese cubes and then the floured blueberries. Pour into two greased square baking pans. Topping: Using a pastry blender or a fork blend the sugar, flour, lemon peel and cold butter until crumbly and streusel like. Spoon on top of the cake batter. Bake the cakes for 35 to 40 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool completely, cover top with plastic wrap and place in a ziploc bag for freezing.

Christina Putnam
Meadow Hill B&B

Tomorrow's post: Do you remember Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake? Come back and read about it tomorrow!

Photo credit: http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/books/eat-to-beat-high-blood-pressure/Blueberry-Swirl-Coffee-Cake-af.jpg