Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake... with Walnuts and Cinnamon (LOW FAT & 135 Calories)

Happy Birthday America!  I want to start off by saying that I am so grateful to be living in this country.  With all due respect to other countries, I personally feel those who are born in the United States should consider themselves lucky, and those who immigrated to the United States should consider themselves even luckier... for me it is the latter.  I still remember the day I took my Oath of Allegiance 16 years after I moved to the US, as I spoke those words that would soon make me a United States citizen, believe it or not, I had tears streaming down my eyes.  Why you may wonder?  Because within the 16 years I spent in this country, I attended elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and even started working.  I finally had my citizenship and felt a sense of belonging.  I had become part of this country that gave me so much.  I am truly blessed to be living in this country that I have always called home, and I can't take the life I have for granted.  Now we can only pray the USA sees better economic times for all of us.

So yesterday I went over my Aunt's place in North Jersey to visit my cousins and their baby.  She fed me some awesome Indian food, including my favorite, Chicken Curry.  I decided to make an Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake and combined 2 recipes I found online to come up with my own version... here and here.  If you can't tell by now, I love blueberries, not to mention they are in season.  This recipe was a huge hit with my family... I hope you like it.

A VERY HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO ALL OF YOU... BE SAFE!!!!!!!! I'M HOPING TO SEE THE MACY'S FIREWORKS OVER THE HUDSON RIVER... CAN'T WAIT!!!

MODIFICATIONS I MADE:

• I combined 2 recipes to come up with my own version. 
• I didn't have any buttermilk or sour cream on hand, so I used 2% Milk with ½ a teaspoon of vinegar.  
• I didn't have almonds on hand so I used walnuts instead.
• In the future, I want to cut down the butter by 1 more tablespoon and substitute half the flour with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour.  In addition, I want to use ¾ cup of blueberries.

APPROXIMATE NUTRITION PER SERVING (yields 9 squares)

• Calories: 135 cals
• Fat: 4 g
• Saturated Fat: 2.5 g
• Carbs: 26 g
• Protein: 1.8
• Fiber: 0.4 g

Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake (LOW FAT) 
(inspired by Chef In You & Madhuram's Eggless Cooking)
~ yields 9 squares @ 350 degrees

INGREDIENTS:

• All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
• Baking Powder - ½ tsp
• Baking Soda - ½ tsp
• Salt - ⅛ tsp
• Unsalted Butter - 3 tbsp
• Sugar - ¼ cup + ⅛ cup
• Unsweetened Applesauce - ¼ cup
• Vanilla Extract - ½ tsp
• Almond Extract - ¼ tsp
• Milk 2% - ½ cup
• Vinegar - ½ tsp
• Fresh Blueberries - ½ cup

TOPPING:

• Brown Sugar - 2 tbsp
• Cinnamon - ½ tsp
• Walnuts - ¼ cup (chopped)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a square pan.
2. In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients... flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a small bowl combine the topping ingredients... brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts.
4. If you do not have buttermilk on hand, then combine the milk and vinegar and set aside for 5 minutes.  This is a substitute for buttermilk.

5. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well blended.
6. Add the applesauce, vanilla extract, and almond extract and blend.
7. Add the dry ingredients and milk to the butter/sugar mixture in 3 parts, starting with the dry and ending with the dry.  DO NOT OVERMIX!
8. Fold in the blueberries.   
9. Pour the batter into the baking dish.  
10. Top with the cinnamon-walnut topping.
11. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  I baked these 25 minutes exactly.
12. Cool before cutting into squares.  Be careful, this cake is extremely soft.

OVERALL RATING:  5 / 5
I loved this cake... I thought it was light, slightly buttery, and so soft with a touch of cinnamon.  Surprisingly, you couldn't taste the applesauce at all.  This is a great cake for people who are looking to make eggless low fat desserts.
Texture: This cake is very soft, so handle with care when cutting these into squares.  
Moistness: This cake was extremely moist and I'm sure the applesauce and buttermilk/milk contributed to this.