Now that local blueberries are starting to pop up everywhere, I’ve got blueberries on the brain. I love blueberry muffins, but since I’m still obsessed with loaves, I decided to take my favorite blueberry muffin recipe and loaf it up, small batch style. It came out wonderfully – cake-y and moist with pockets of blueberry jammy goodness and a crispy sugary top. I baked it up on a Tuesday, just in time to slice it up and wrap it into individual pieces to bring on our first summer camping trip!
They were the sweetest part of the trip, and not just because the other other things we ate were instant noodles and hot dogs. Usually I use vanilla with blueberry muffins and bread and such, but I ran out, so I used some almond extract instead and I think I almost liked it even better than vanilla. There’s something about almonds and blueberries that go together so perfectly.
- 1/4 cup room temp unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup blueberries, washed and dried
- coarse sanding sugar, for the top
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly oil and flour pan a mini loaf pan (6×3 inches or a pan that fits 2 cups liquid) or line with parchment paper.
Cream the butter and sugar until light. Add the egg, beating well. Add the vanilla.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, and add to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk: flour milk, flour, milk, ending on flour. Fold in the berries.
Spoon the batter into the pan and sprinkle the sanding sugar over the tops and bake at for 40-50 minutes, or until the top is golden and toothpick comes out clean. Cover with tinfoil if it starts to brown too quickly.
Let cool in the pan completely then remove, slice and enjoy.