Thursday, September 2, 2010

Huckleberry Streusel Coffee Cake

Congratulations to Lorna Yee over at The Cookbook Chronicles for winning my first ever recipe contest with her truly decadent Huckleberry Streusel Coffee Cake. You might recall I posted the call to action way back in February after tiring of the usual ho-hum Huckle Buckle.

The judges included everyone in my immediate household, and while we sampled lots of delicious coffee cakes that did donuts around my humble Buckle, I suspect it was Lorna's topping that finally gave her the edge, especially with the young judges here at FOTL Headquarters.

Click here for Lorna's Huckleberry Streusel Coffee Cake recipe.

Full disclosure: I know Lorna, who writes for Seattle Magazine and is a regular on the local food scene. But her recipe delighted my kids, and for that she is the winner. Thanks to everyone who entered—and please accept my apologies for having to wait until now to find out who won. At least huckleberries are now fresh and in season for those who want to try the winning recipe.

By the way, you can find a similar recipe for Blueberry Streusel Muffins in Lorna's new book (co-authored with Ali Basye), The Newlywed Kitchen, which is a treasure-trove of lovebird kitchen fun—even for those of us with more distinct memories of diaper-changing fiascos than honeymoons.

Photo at top by Lorna Yee.

6 comments:

Peabody said...

LOL- I totally forgot about this.

sarah said...

I went up Stevens Pass on monday for huckleberry picking and found few to none. I go every year and this is the worst I have ever seen. Have you heard of any good pickin this year in WA?

Langdon Cook said...

Peabody - I know, lame. Might be my first and last contest.

Sarah - I haven't gone out for mountain hucks yet but might this weekend and will report back.

Anonymous said...

was up around N. bend this weekend seems Mt. huckleberries are still forming, did find some patches of thimbleberries--but not enough to bother harvesting. Seems like a really weird year, or maybe it's just me.

LJ said...

I've been told (or should I say corrected) that contrary to what I thought for years, the pictured shrub isn't actually a huckleberry but some sort of wild blueberry.

I did some research and couldn't find any guidebooks showing huckleberries with smooth (rather than finely sawtoothed) leaves and had to concede the point. Got any ammo I can use to refute the "those are blueberries not huckleberries" argument?

Langdon Cook said...

Nik - Thanks for stopping by. Will check out your site.

Anonymous - It's not you--this *has* been a weird year. I hope to check my never-fail huckleberry spot soon to see just how weird a year it is.

LJ - Whether they're called blueberries, huckleberries, bilberries, or whortleberries, they're all members of the genus Vaccinium. Generally speaking blueberries are found in the eastern U.S. and huckleberries in the West, but the common names are used interchangeably. Another distinguishing characteristic is that blueberries have smaller seeds. The one pictured is Vaccinium ovalfolium; it's called both huckleberry and blueberry but is more tart like a traditional huckleberry. Hope this helps.