Blueberry Pancake Bread Recipe

Warm blueberry pancakes slathered in maple syrup are one of the most perfect breakfast meals. Now imagine that, instead of having to make an endless supply of individual pancakes to feed the whole family, you could get that same experience in a convenient bread that incredibly easy to make. That is what this blueberry pancake bread recipe from developer Jessica Morone seeks to do. This bread is packed with tart blueberry and sweet maple syrup flavors, and then is topped with a buttery crumble. And with just 15 minutes of active prep time you can put this bread together quickly, so you can get to the part where your kitchen smells like sweet, fruity, syrupy pancakes as fast as possible.

Aside from the convenience of making the bread, there's also a certain convenience in just how portable it is once sliced up — perfect for busy mornings and on-the-go families. You can slice it up and get blueberry pancake flavor wherever you are, whether that is at home, at work, or in the car. This bread is also really versatile, with the ability to swap in different berries or mix-ins. Enjoy a slice all on its own, or topped with butter, lemon curd, or chocolate hazelnut spread.

For the blueberry pancake bread itself you will need flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, eggs, brown sugar, maple syrup, vegetable oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and blueberries. For the crumble topping you will need to get some granulated sugar,  brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, flour, and salt. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Grease a 9×5-inch bread pan with nonstick cooking spray or butter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups flour, the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, maple syrup, vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract.

Stir the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

In a small bowl, gently combine the blueberries and 1 tablespoon of flour until the blueberries are coated.

Gently fold the blueberries into the batter until combined.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Make the topping: In a medium bowl, toss together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, melted butter, flour, and salt with a fork until crumbles form.

Spoon the crumble topping evenly on top of the batter and press it down lightly into the batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Let bread cool for at least 10 minutes, then remove from the pan, slice, and serve.

As this type of bread is considered a "quick bread," it ends up being pretty similar to a muffin in flavor and texture. The biggest difference from muffins (and nice thing about quick breads) is that you don't have to divide up all the batter in individual cups like you do with muffins. As such, all the tips for making the perfect muffins apply to this pancake bread as well. The main thing to avoid to make sure this pancake bread is to make sure to not overmix the batter. When the wet and dry ingredients are combined they should be mixed just until you can no longer see streaks of flour in the batter. 

One step you definitely don't want to skip in this recipe is dredging the blueberries in flour before you add them to the batter. Coating the blueberries in flour helps to keep them evenly distributed in your batter and prevents the berries from sinking to the bottom of the bread while it bakes. Finally, pay close attention to the bread as it bakes; while a clean toothpick is the best indicator of the bread being done, also pay attention to the crumble and make sure that it turns to a nice, golden brown color.

Using frozen blueberries instead of fresh ones is an appealing option when fresh berries are out of season or aren't readily available. You can swap the frozen ones in for the fresh berries with one important change, you have to wash and dry the frozen berries before you combine them with the flour. If you skip that step you could end up with a batter with an unappetizing green-blue hue to it, and while the bread would still be edible, it wouldn't look nearly as tasty.

Aside from the berries, there are a few other ingredient swaps you could make in this bread. If you don't happen to have buttermilk on hand, you can use Greek yogurt or sour cream in a 1:1 ratio to replace it. You could also make a version of buttermilk using milk and lemon juice. 

You can also make this any kind of pancake bread you want by swapping out the blueberries with other berries like chopped strawberries, blackberries, or raspberries. If you are looking to bulk up the bread even further, you could consider adding some nuts or chocolate chips to this bread for more texture.