A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. That means five ingredients or fewer—not including water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (like oil and butter), since we're guessing you have those covered. This week, Great American Baking Show winner and Big Little Recipes guest columnist Vallery Lomas is sharing an ultra-simple, ultra-smart cake from her upcoming cookbook, Life Is What You Bake It.
What’s a buckle, anyway? It often gets lumped into the same category as cobblers, crisps, and crumbles, but it’s really its own thing—a simple, buttery cake filled with lots of fruit, like berries or peaches. When baked, the batter sinks and creates little craters, or buckles, around the berries on top. That’s how this dessert gets its cute name.
The exact origin is a bit unclear, but it seems that Americans have been making buckles for centuries. They’re definitely an old-fashioned dessert, but that really just makes them a classic. Like high-waisted jeans and tie-dye shirts, I think buckles are ready for their comeback.
I started making this dessert after going blueberry-picking with friends in southern Louisiana. We came home with buckets of berries and needed something to do with all of them. One of my oldest friends, Grace, is to thank for this crave-worthy recipe, part of my forthcoming cookbook, Life Is What You Bake It. The simplicity of this one-bowl dessert, with its caramelized edges and sunken center and jammy berries, makes it a must-bake for my family every year.
Buckles are most commonly made with blueberries, and for good reason. Blueberries have the perfect amount of tartness to balance the sweet, dense cake. This recipe works beautifully with fresh or frozen, so use whatever you’ve got. I love frozen blueberries because they’re preserved at their peak, so they’re dependably delicious. But fresh berries—especially when they’re in season, like right now—are also great. With a high butter content, the cake comes out moist and tender, with crispy edges.
What’s more? It couldn’t be easier to make, or more satisfying to eat. You only need five ingredients (and you probably have most—if not all—of them in your kitchen already). One is self-rising flour, a Southern pantry staple, but don’t worry if you can’t find it: Instead you could just swap in 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
Blueberry-picking is a great activity to do with kids, and it’s gratifying to show them how to transform something they picked into a delicious baked good. You can refrigerate the buckle, covered, for up to 3 days, but it’s best on the day you make it, ideally while still warm from the oven. Just don’t forget to serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
| 1/2 | cup (1 stick/113 grams) unsalted butter |
| 1 | cup (125 grams) self-rising flour (see Author Notes) |
| 1 | cup (200 grams) granulated sugar |
| 1 | cup (240 milliliters) whole milk |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| 1 | cup (150 grams) fresh or frozen blueberries |
| Vanilla ice cream, for serving |
| 1/2 | cup (1 stick/113 grams) unsalted butter |
| 1 | cup (125 grams) self-rising flour (see Author Notes) |
| 1 | cup (200 grams) granulated sugar |
| 1 | cup (240 milliliters) whole milk |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| 1 | cup (150 grams) fresh or frozen blueberries |
| Vanilla ice cream, for serving |
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Written by: Vallery Lomas
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