5 Ingredients or Fewer

One-Bowl Blueberry Buckle

August 10, 2021
4.5
39 Ratings
Photo by Ty Mecham. Prop Stylist: Oliva Bloch. Food Stylist: Sam Seneviratne.
  • Prep time 20 minutes
  • Cook time 1 hour
  • Serves one 9-inch buckle
Author Notes

During the summer before my senior year of high school, my friends and I would wake up early every Saturday in June to pick blueberries. As we drove to the blueberry farm in East Feliciana Parish, familiar suburban fixtures melted into endless rural landscapes under the Louisiana sun. Armed with a repurposed gallon milk jug with its top cut off, which I tethered to my denim short-all’s belt loop, we’d head into the fields in search of the plumpest blueberries. I reached both hands high over my head to pluck blueberries so dark they were ashy. I always filled my belly before the makeshift bucket.

One of my oldest friends, Grace, shared this recipe with me after one morning of blueberry-picking. I have since made this one-bowl buckle countless times. The admirers of this crave-worthy dish either love it or learn to love it. If you’re not swooning the first time you try it, the buttery
and caramelized edges of the cake that rise over the plump, juicy berries will have you hooked by the second time. Be sure to serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream—the perfect creamy, cold complement to the syrupy, warm berries.

This recipe uses self-rising flour, a staple in most Southern pantries that contains leavening and salt. If you don’t have any on hand, just add 1½ teaspoons baking powder and an additional ¼ teaspoon salt to the flour. You can refrigerate the buckle, covered, for up to 3 days.

Helpful tools for this recipe:
- Nordic Ware Aluminum Loaf Pan
- GIR Silicone Grip Whisk
- Ice Cream Scoop

Reprinted with permission from Life Is What You Bake It by Vallery Lomas (Clarkson Potter, 2021).

This recipe was featured on our new cook-along podcast Play Me a Recipe. Listen as Vallery cooks her way through this technique, offering insider tips and backstory along the way.Vallery Lomas

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
One-Bowl Blueberry Buckle
Ingredients
  • 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
Directions
  1. Heat the oven to 375°F and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Place the butter in a 9x5-inch loaf pan and put it in the hot oven. When the butter has melted, remove the pan from the oven.
  2. Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, sugar, milk, and salt in a large bowl (it’s okay if the batter is a little lumpy). Pour the batter into the pan with the melted butter and use a spoon to lightly mix it. There should be visible streaks of melted butter that don’t get completely mixed; this yields the buttery, caramelized edges.
  3. Place the blueberries on top of the batter in an even layer. Bake until the top is golden brown all over, 50 to 60 minutes. (If you remove it too early, the buckle will indeed “buckle” in the middle and fall—which would still be tasty, though sunken!) Wait until it’s golden all over the top and set in the center. Place the buckle on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before serving warm with a scoop of ice cream.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Bonnie
    Bonnie
  • Taquiena Boston
    Taquiena Boston
  • Kimberley Simpson
    Kimberley Simpson
  • Kooky
    Kooky
  • CK
    CK

75 Reviews

Sunitha G. June 17, 2024
The buckle turned out so yummy and delicious. Made it for dinner get together and all my guests loved it. The crispy edges and soft in the middle was delicious with vanilla ice cream on top. Only adjustment I did was reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup instead of 1 cup of sugar and baked for 60 mins. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
 
MaxMom October 15, 2023
I made this twice this summer. It is a dangerously delicious way to get the antioxidants in blueberries. This has to be in my top 10 online recipes of all time. Low work to high reward ratio too. I spied a frozen bag of blueberries at the grocery store yesterday and I knew I had to make it again. It’s also a fine exercise in selflessness if you can manage to share it.
 
Jesse August 6, 2023
So good! Easy and perfect for summer
 
Aep241523 March 3, 2023
How can 1 cup be 125g, 150g, and 200g? These measurements make no sense. I measured by grams and it was so watery I added 100g more flour.
 
Adina A. July 30, 2023
Because weight and volume are two different things.

Take a 1 cup measure and fill it with water. Take another one and fill it with flour. They don't weigh the same, do they?
 
[email protected] February 5, 2023
i am sorry but after 4 atempets i have to say this does not work at all...
to sweet ,verry buttery ,under cooked no matter what i did
 
Shanewh4 December 28, 2022
This turned out very well! I was making for a crowd so I doubled the recipe and baked in a 9x13” pan. No self-rising flour so I eyeballed the same amount all-purpose flour plus roughly 1.5 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt per cup of flour. I used frozen mixed berries. It baked up exactly as expected, with the edges being SUPER buttery, crispy, and delicious. This one’s a keeper.
 
ChrissyA September 29, 2022
Love this blueberry recipe. Delicious. I did use salted butter and used Himalaya salt. I've used kosher salt for years just switch to pink salt last year. Taste so good! Keep making again and again.
 
Swanky August 19, 2022
So simple and delicious! Make sure to follow the recipe and use Kosher salt.
 
Carol S. August 19, 2022
This has been a favorite for years, You can also substitute peaches!
 
anne R. August 19, 2022
Thank you Carol. I was waiting for someone to say peaches and i am going to make it this weekend!
 
Sarah212 July 13, 2022
This recipe is incredibly delicious and simple to make. Like so easy. I read through the reviews, which can be helpful, but was a little uneasy after several said this recipe didn't turn out well. The opposite was true for me. I'm honestly not sure how you could mess this up. I did add coconut oil to my pan before melting the butter, just to be sure there was no sticking, as some mentioned. I also added a sprinkle of coconut sugar and sea salt flakes to the top before baking. To me this tastes like a mix between a blueberry muffin + cobbler laced with browned butter. I don't think ice cream is even necessary. You need this in your life.
 
anne R. June 17, 2022
I totally forgot about this recipe until I saw Bonnie's comment.
I made it so many times last year. And it was so good! Every time!
I am going to make it again this weekend.
 
Bonnie June 17, 2022
It was way too salty for our taste. Ended up throwing it out. 😢
 
[email protected] August 11, 2022
Did you maybe use salted butter? I'm just curious how 1 tsp of salt made the whole thing too salty..?
 
Bonnie August 11, 2022
No. I always use unsalted butter when baking and always measure things carefully. Definitely inedible for us.
 
Twinkle August 12, 2022
Did you possibly use regular table or sea salt, instead of kosher? These are both different from kosher as table/fine or coarse sea salt crystals are much smaller than kosher salt (and thus saltier in the same measurement).

If you did use kosher salt, did you use Morton's or Diamond Crystal? Morton's is a fine crystal than Diamond, which also makes it saltier when using the same volumetric measurement. Most recipe developers don't specify but they often use Diamond; if it's unclear, I typically err on the side of less salt than directed.
 
Bonnie August 12, 2022
I used kosher salt. Morton. Which I always use and never have an issue with saltiness in other recipes. I’ve learned with Ins Gartens recipes to always cut the salt in half at the very least. But Food52 recipes are usually reliable to me
 
Ludovic August 14, 2022
It's the Morton. Too salty by volume.
 
Ash August 14, 2022
I had no kosher salt so I used 1/2 tsp regular table salt; it turned out fine.

When I was looking up kosher to table salt conversions, it said replace Morton's kosher salt 1:1. All other advice said replace kosher salt 2:1, so suggest you try it again with half the required salt.
 
Bonnie August 14, 2022
I’ve always used it as I Diamond isn’t available. It was this particular recipe that I had issues with. I really am not asking anyone to solve this problem. I was just providing feedback in the event that someone else had the same experience.
 
Ludovic August 14, 2022
Right, and you’re getting feedback on your feedback. That’s how these review threads work.
 
Bonnie August 14, 2022
Understood.
 
Taquiena B. May 29, 2022
Easy recipe when you have that sweet tooth and blueberries are in season.
 
Meredith December 26, 2021
This recipe jumped out at me because I have an almost identical one in my files, but for some reason had never made it with blueberries (always another berry/fruit). Mine turned out excellent, but there are some notes from my other version that could help others. First, I used a buttered pie dish. Second, I microwaved the butter to melt. I could see myself forgetting about butter melting in the oven and creating a disaster! I also completely incorporated the butter when mixing, and in a separate bowl. I know this all takes away from the one bowl concept, but for me the results were better, and it’s still a very simple dessert. I also saw comments about the heat being too high and yes, I baked this at 350 for 60 min instead. You can sprinkle more sugar on top before baking. I hate reviewing a recipe that I didn’t make EXACTLY according to directions, but thought this would honestly help with some of the issues people had! The blueberries were amazing in it, and this is a great alternative to pie! I’m not a big pie person but the cakey texture of this one works for me.
 
Kimberley S. November 6, 2021
This has been so easy to make - I have used blackcurrants as that is what I had in the freezer. The smell in the kitchen was wonderful, and this paired with a sour greek yoghurt is amazing.
 
Ilyssa October 8, 2021
This recipe is at the peak of the easy to make and delicious to eat intersection. Few changes based on comments and what i had. Made this with AP flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, browned the butter (by accident in step 1) and sprinkled 1 tbsp demura on top before baking in a metal pie tin. Added melted butter from pie dish to dry ingredients with milk to make for easy stirring. Also added an extra 1/2 cup of berries. Amazing.
 
Kooky September 23, 2021
After I made this recipe for the first time, I made 4 more buckles in the weeks that followed. that’s right: I ended up making five of these buckles in the course of two weeks. I made them with blueberries, I made them with cherries (EXCELLENT!), and I even made them with nectarines. Everyone was gobbling them up; I could not keep up with the demand. And it’s SO EASY. I made it with all purpose flour using them adjustments in the chefs note, and I made it with self rising flour when I got around to buying some later. It just comes out perfect every time. There’s nothing to adjust. Sometimes I add a little almond extract and/or vanilla extract.
 
Kathleen September 21, 2021
Perhaps your oven died? Can't imagine a pan of ingredients causing oven to smoke.
 
Paw September 21, 2021
The butter overflowed onto the bottom of the oven and splattered up on the broiler while it was baking.
 
Paw September 20, 2021
I went to bake ur blueberry bucket and our oven started smoking really bad on the top and bottom. Any suggestions to prevent this in the future. I’m surprised our smoke alarm didn’t go of. I was making it for our neighbors and ended up having to take it over there to finish baking.
Please let me know ur suggestions. Thank u. Pat
 
CK September 19, 2021
Let me start by saying in my head I know exactly what this needs to taste like.

Now…. Let me say I also forgot to add the sugar to the batter until after I had poured it into the pan. So I mixed everything again in the pan with the butter. But I baked it for an hour noting comments about how forgiving the recipe is, and indeed the flavor is delicious.

However…

It is dense and uncooked in the middle. I wonder, is it bc my butter is too intense? I live in Switzerland and the butter is STRONG. Any other folks from dairy lands who can share any tips about whether butter content needs adjusting?

I will try the recipe again augmenting the “cake” part of the recipe. But happy for any other advice on how to fix this bc salty sweet caramelized biscuity crusty fruit-based desserts are my favorites.

Happy baking, y’all! 😘