Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

I bought a blueberry bush today. Couldn't resist with my new-found green thumb.

And, well, I thought it might be a good idea since my son and I love them so much and they're just so expensive. The plant was only eight bucks so why not give it a go, right?

Blueberries don't usually stick around very long here, but if by chance there are any sitting around after a few days, I'll use them up in a recipe before they go bad. I love to use blueberries in cooking and baking soone day, a coffee cake sounded good. I was also looking for something easy so I thought I'd use the crescent dough can that had been lingering in the fridge. It seemed like it would work really well since it bakes up nice and flaky so I worked out a couple ideas and ended up with this super easy, super yummy dessert.

It's bursting with blueberries and the cream cheese mixture bakes up nice and creamy while still holding everything together. It's also much easier to put together than it looks. I included step by step pictures below so you can see the process. And, hey, the wonderful thing about crescent dough is that you can always pinch it back together if you cut wrong or make a part the wrong size. It's very forgiving, but don't play with it too much or it won't rise properly when you bake it.

Tip: make sure you use the crescent sheet instead of the crescent rolls. You'll have to spread things out too much and manipulate the dough too much with the rolls so you won't get nice, flaky finish.

The first thing you'll do is make your strips. These will fold over to cover the blueberries and cream cheese filling. Making the strips is easier if you make lines for your guides. I make a thin, shallow line with the back of a butter knife and then cut the strips into 1" wide pieces with a pizza cutter. (You'll see two lines in my pictures because I added length due to the first strips being too short. It's better to start short and add length rather than start out too long.)

Next, you'll fold over the strips to cover the blueberries. Take one dough strip and fold it over at an angle. Take the opposite side's strip and fold it over so the edge goes slightly over the first strip. Keep alternating until you've reached the end.

When the cake is nice and yummy, golden brown, let it cool and then drizzle it with icing.

The filling for this recipe makes enough for two cakes but since you can't cut an egg yolk in half, I have to write out the whole thing for you. You can stick the leftovers in the fridge and use it for something else. (Muffin filling?) It will keep for about a week to a week and a half. Or maybe even make two cakes and freeze one? If you do that, please comment how it works out.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake Ingredients • 1 can crescent dough sheet (or 2 for two cakes) • 3/4 c fresh blueberries Filling • 1 pkg 1/3 less fat cream cheese (or regular cream cheese) • 1 egg yolk • 1/2 TB lemon juice • 1/4 c sugar Icing • 1/2 c powdered sugar • 1 TB milk • 1/4 tsp almond or vanilla extract Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350°. 2. Beat filling ingredients together until smooth. Set aside. 3. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and layout the crescent dough into a 13"x9" sheet on the parchment. (You may have to spread it out a little but if you do, be gentle and don't make it too thin.) 4. Cut 1" strips about 2 1/2 - 3 inches high along each long side of the dough. 5. Spread half the cream cheese filling in the middle between the strips. Leave about a 3/4" border on each side of the filling. Scatter the blueberries on top in a single layer. 6. Take one dough strip and fold it over the blueberries at an angle. Take the opposite side's strip and fold it over with the edge on top of the first strip. Continue folding the strips over, alternating which one from each pair is on top. (If you have an extra strip on each side when you're done, just cut it off.) 7. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. 8. Cool completely then drizzle with icing.