Sour-Cream Blueberry Cakes
As you may have noticed, there was no posting last week. I did make a vintage receipt, but it was repeat of one already posted: Blueberry Muffins. Having taken advantage of farmer’s market special on blueberries, the past two weeks I’ve made blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes (modern recipe), and tonight, Sour-Cream Blueberry Cakes.
This receipt comes from page 100 of the 1891 cookbook New England Breakfast Breads, Luncheon and Tea Biscuits by Lucia Gray Swett. Using these vintage receipts for “sweets” such as this reminds me how today’s “sweets” are overly sweet. Although this is called a “cake” I would define it more as a biscuit in the American sense. (In Europe, “biscuits” are what Americans know as “cookies.”) The texture is like a drop biscuit, only slightly sweetened and with blueberries.
While making this for the first time, I decided to halve the ingredients. The quart of flour (= 4 cups) seemed it would make quite a lot. Plus, the pint and half of blueberries would require my using most of what I had left. Instead, halved, I only had to use a cup and a half. Since I didn’t have sour milk, I used the standby method with lemon juice and regular milk. That is, for each cup of sour milk, put 1 tsp of lemon juice in a one cup measure. Then added regular milk to that, to equal one cup. After letting it set 5 minutes, it becomes “sour” milk.
If I were to do this again, I would mash the blueberries a little before adding to the dough. And maybe have used just one cup instead a cup and a half. It was difficult mixing them into the dough. They kept rolling around! Besides additional flour to “flour hands,” I had to use a little more while forming the ball shapes, so the blueberries would hold.
The “very hot oven” I used was 450° but probably 425° would be okay, too. The receipt neglects to give the amount of time this needs to bake. But, as most cooks in that day knew how long it takes biscuits to bake, it was needless to say it would take about 12-15 minutes. I baked them 15 minutes in a round cake pan. The half-receipt I made yielded about 9 “cakes.”
Again, if you’re expecting a sweet dessert, this may seem bland. But if you’re anticipating slightly sweet cakes, such as served at teas, you’ll find this an elegant receipt.