Blackberry Yogurt Coffee Cake

My freezer is still full of blackberries from last summer. In fact, it has gotten to the point that my parents are now shuffling off their overabundance onto me because the new harvest will be coming up quickly. Considering that our little sprig-like bushes are going to need some time to come around, I’ve gladly accepted all they have offered.

I’ve been tempted to fill the house with desserts, but have had to pull the reigns the past few weeks as my husband prepares for his first marathon this weekend. Of course, I try to use little to no processed sugar and flour in most of our desserts (there are exceptions on occasion), but we still don’t need an overabundance of sweets around at the moment.

I keep hoping I’ll find more and more people to pawn off my desserts too, but right now most of the goodies end up hanging out in our kitchen for a while. If you work from home, you know exactly how dangerous that can be.

Speaking of that I have a question I’ve been meaning to ask. For all of you who pump out posts of dessert after dessert on your food blogs, what do you do with all of it? Big families, neighbors? I’m interested to know.

So what do you do when you don’t want to make a dessert, but still want to use up frozen berries and have something sweet? Well, you make something that is actually a dessert hidden under a name that classifies it into another meal category.

Coffee cake. Problem solved.

Coffee cake is one of those things that I rarely make so maybe that is why I’ve had it on my mind lately. I’ve seen quite a few posts up on other food blogs featuring it likely because coffee cake is great for springtime brunches. So for whatever reason, I wanted to make one.

This recipe successfully used up berries and combines some of my favorite ingredients; one of these being honey-flavored Greek yogurt. I recently found Greek Gods Greek Yogurt at our local supermarket and have been hooked ever since. I used it in this recipe and it resulted in a tender, moist cake with a slightly sweet flavor. I suppose you could use any Greek yogurt, but if you decide to use plain you might want to up the sugar in the recipe a bit. Especially if you are using tart berries, or a minimally refined sugar which are typically more complex and not a sweet as processed white or brown sugar.

I ended up using clove as the sole spice as I wanted something more creative than the traditional cinnamon. This resulted in a cake with berries that remind you of summer and a background flavor that whispers of the holidays. I already have plans to make it again. It is simple to throw together and I’m thinking the berry and fruit options are endless.

Blackberry Yogurt Coffee Cake

½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup mascavo sugar
1 egg
¾ cup honey-flavored Greek yogurt
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp clove
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
¾ cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup frozen blackberries

Topping:

¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup mascavo sugar
¼ cup white whole wheat flour
¼ cup rolled oats

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a square 8 x 8 inch pan. In a mixing bowl beat together the ½ cup of softened butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat until light and fluffy. Next, mix in the vanilla and yogurt. Sift together the clove, salt, baking soda, baking powder and flour and slowly mix into the wet ingredients until everything is combined. The batter will be very thick. It is almost like a soft cookie dough.

Spread half of the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Evenly distribute the berries over the batter, pressing them in gently. Next, cover the berries with the remaining batter spreading it as evenly as possible.

In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the topping. Sprinkle it evenly over the batter. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 9 slices.