Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

If you haven’t got a fall season apple cake in your baking files (what?!), add this one! I made it a couple of weeks ago to bring to a friend who I was visiting for the weekend (you know who you are!). I thought it would be the perfect Sunday morning coffee-and- newspaper treat. And it was. Maybe a little too good, as I couldn’t resist eating a piece the next two mornings! Then I cut the rest into individual squares and froze them for a future “I need cake!” emergency.

It's got all the fall feels - apples, cinnamon, walnuts; it's fabulously delicious and so moist!

This comes from In the Kitchen with Matt. The only thing I changed was to add chopped walnuts to the streusel, because in my mind, streusel needs nuts! Make it & let me know how you like it.

Just out of the oven - look at that streusel!

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

Adapted from In the Kitchen with Matt

Ingredients:

1 large egg

1/2 C buttermilk or use normal milk (I used buttermilk)

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/4 C butter or oil (I used butter)

1-1/2 C cake flour or AP flour (I used AP)

1/4 t baking soda (leave it out if using normal milk)

1 t baking powder (double it if using normal milk)

1/2 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

3 medium apples or 2 large apples (I used granny smith, but you could use fuji, gala, etc)

Streusel:

3 TB butter, softened

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/3 C AP flour

1 t cinnamon

1/4 C chopped walnuts

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 400 F/205 C. Wash, peel, core, and slice the apples into small chunks.
  
• In a large bowl whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sugar, and melted butter. Melt the butter in the microwave or stovetop, until barely melted and not hot.
  
• Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and add it to the bowl of wet ingredients. You can whisk them together if you don't have a sifter.
  
• Mix the dry ingredient in with the wet using a whisk. Then stir in the chopped apples. The batter is ready to go. Pour the batter into an 8x8 inch baking pan, or use a 10-inch round or even a springform pan that has been greased with shortening and floured or sprayed with cooking spray. Spread it out evenly with a spatula.
  
• In a small bowl mix together softened butter, flour, sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon with a fork until it is crumbly and resembles small chunks of damp sand.
  
• Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the cake and bake it in the oven, middle rack position, for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the center. Once it comes out of the oven allow it to cool for 25 to 30 minutes.
  
• Serve the cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!
  

Note: You can use normal milk if you like. If you do, leave out the baking soda, and double the amount of baking powder. 

You can also make a simple buttermilk substitute, by adding a teaspoon of lemon juice or white distilled vinegar to the half cup of milk. Stir it, then allow it to sit for about 10 minutes. 

Welcome Winter Coffee Cake

Tomorrow, December 21, brings the winter solstice. To be clear, I am not a fan of winter (too cold, too dark, too long), but I am a fan of baking up something to warm your house and heart. And this coffee cake is just the ticket. 

I’ve been making this for years and cannot believe I never wrote about it! A man named Jack gave my husband this recipe years ago - hence the recipe’s real name: Jack’s Jewish Coffee Cake. It makes a large cake (9x13) but if you’re thinking that in quarantine it’s too big and you’d have no one to share it with, not to worry - it freezes like a dream. So do as I do - bake it up, enjoy one (or two - we don’t judge) squares with a warm cup of coffee or tea, then cut it up into portions, wrap well (in plastic wrap and a Zip-lock bag), and store in the freezer. Then when you’re in need of some deliciousness, just reach into your freezer, pull out a portion, and in an hour or so, it will be ready to enjoy.

This cake has all the feels - a cinnamon-nutty streusel (both on top and in the middle), a moist sour cream base (resulting in a very tender crumb), and fills your house with an incredible aroma while baking. Just what the doctor ordered to lift our spirits through the winter.

Wishing you a healthy winter season! 

Jack’s Jewish Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

1/2 lb butter

2 C sugar (can reduce to 1-1/4 C if needed)

2 t vanilla

4 large eggs

4 C flour

3 t baking powder

2 t baking soda

1 pint sour cream

Streusel:

1 C chopped walnuts

1 C sugar

1 TB cinnamon

Directions:

1. Grease and flour 9x13x2” pan
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. With electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar and vanilla.
4. Add the eggs and beat for 2 minutes.
5. In a separa
6. 
   
7. te bowl, sif
8. t together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
9. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.
10. Add sour cream and beat for approximately 2 minutes.
11. In a small bowl, stir together the chopped walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar for the streusel.
12. Put half of the batter into the prepared pan, then sprinkle with half of the streusel. Pour the rest of the batter on top, smooth out, then sprinkle the remaining streusel on top.
13. Bake for approximately 50-60 minutes (if your oven runs hot, check it at 45 minutes*). A cake tester should come out clean (or if using a thermometer, cake should register approximately 190-200F).

* In our previous home, my Wolf oven was very accurate and I almost never worried about over-baking cakes. But in this oven, I’ve found things over-bake quite easily. So I just bought a fabulous instant-read thermometer after the one we had for years died. The Thermapen MK4 is incredible - why did I wait so long to buy a “real” instant-read?! It’s a bit pricey, but we’ve now used it for everything from cake to steak to chicken and it’s hands-down the best instant-read we’ve ever had. They have other less expensive models, but this one gives you super-fast 2-3 second reads, is waterproof, has a backlight, an auto-rotating display, and a motion-sensing sleep/wake mode. And if you needed anymore evidence, it was rated #1 by America's Test Kitchen. 

And, no, I’m not getting any compensation for my glowing review; I just wanted you to share in my joy! 

Blueberry Crumb Cake

We just returned from an incredibly inspiring trip to Tanzania, which I will write about soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this delicious, perfect summer dessert. 

You may know that I am a HUGE lover of all things coffee-cake-y and streusel-y. Throw in some plump, sweet blueberries and I’m a happy girl. Make this for your next gathering or just as a treat for yourself. It couldn’t be easier to throw together and it keeps well.

Happy Summer Baking!

Blueberry Crumb Cake (Ina Garten)

Ingredients:

Streusel:

1/4 C granulated sugar

1/3 C light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 t ground cinnamon

1/8 t ground nutmeg

1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1-1/3 C all-purpose flour

Cake:

6 TB unsalted butter, room temp (3/4 stick)

3/4 C granulated sugar

2 extra-large eggs, room temp

1 t pure vanilla extract

1/2 t grated lemon zest

2/3 C sour cream

1-1/4 C all-purpose flour

1 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1/2 t kosher salt

1 C fresh blueberries

Confectioners’ sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9” round baking pan.

Streusel:

Combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in melted butter and then the flour. Mix well and set aside.

Cake:

Cream butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment on high speed for 4-5 minutes, until light. Reduce the speed to low and add eggs 1 at a time, then add vanilla, lemon zest, and sour cream. In separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Fold in blueberries and stir with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread it out with a knife. With your fingers, crumble the topping evenly over the batter. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely and serve sprinkled with Confectioners’ sugar.

Print here.

Peaches!

You know here in the Garden State, we’re all about #Jerseyfresh produce, and summer is the time when it really gets into high gear. Jersey peaches are something I look forward to every year, but they don’t come into their prime until July through September. So when I saw an article in Food & Wine raving about peaches from a small, specialty grower in Georgia, I decided to splurge and order a box.

Whoa! Wow! Wonderful! And, of course, OMG!

My order of Georgia peaches sent from The Peach Truck arrived on a Friday, perfectly timed for weekend eating and baking. When I opened the box, I found thirteen beautiful peaches, carefully wrapped in paper, packed in foam to prevent bruising, and at peak ripeness. When I picked one up and held it to my nose, that’s where the first “wow” came out of my mouth. It was the aroma and essence of summer. 

Now, what to do with these beauties? Well, of course, the opportunities were endless. I knew I would bake something, but what? Right now, I needed to sink my teeth into one of these babies. Wonderful! The texture was perfect - no mealy, blah flesh. And sweetness like I’ve never had in a peach before. 

Now I was peach-obsessed! Need to eat them, use them, in EVERYTHING! 

I started with a little pre-dinner snack. How about Jersey tomatoes, Georgia peaches, homegrown basil, and fresh mozzarella? Whoa! This, my friends, is what summer is all about! We had this simple dish for lunch every day that weekend.

So, what did I bake with the peaches? I thought you’d never ask! There are zillions of peach recipes out there to choose from, but the folks at The Peach Truck have put together a lovely collection of recipes on their site and one, in particular, caught my eye. Their Fresh Peach Coffee Cake with Pecan Streusel. Oh yeah…that’s got my name all over it. If you know anything about me, it’s that I will take a good coffee cake over any other type of sweet or dessert every time! And in reading the recipe, I just had a feeling that this was going to check every box on my “coffee cake must-haves.” Buttery? Check! Cinnamon? Check! Nuts? Check! And just for good measure, this recipe threw in one of my favorite spices: cardamom. 

Off I went to bake last Sunday morning! This makes a nice, big 9” cake, so you could make it for company, take some to work (as I did), or just keep it for yourself and eat it every day (as I did)! The cake is baked in a springform pan (essential so you don’t have to invert it and risk losing any of the incredible streusel!), and is easy to put together. The aroma in our house from the cardamom and cinnamon was heady. 

From the minute it came out of the oven, I was in love. A thing of beauty, I could see the streusel had baked to a perfect golden brown. After cooling, I released the cake from the pan, and waited (not so patiently) to cut it after dinner. 

OMG, people! This was the holy grail of coffee cakes! The body of the cake was super light with a fabulous buttery taste, intermingled with the incredible sweetness of those peaches. And the streusel was over-the-top amazing: sweet, crunchy, spicy. I know I’m gushing, but really, it is all that! If you’re a coffee cake fan (like me), MAKE THIS CAKE! 

Now for the bad news, peach season in Georgia is over, and The Peach Truck is sold out, but Jersey peaches are going strong. And wherever you are, use your local sweets. 

How good was this cake? So good, that I’m making it again today for dinner with friends. I have four peaches left and since the recipe calls for 2-3, believe me, I’ll be enjoying that last peach the old-fashioned way: out of hand, with those slurpy, sweet juices running down my chin.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Print recipe here!

Buttermilk Raisin Cake (aka "Danger Cake!")

Buttermilk Raisin Cake

 

This cake should really be called “Danger Cake.” One tiny piece & you are hooked! This is the definition of everything I love about baking: the ingredients, the process, and of course, ultimately the taste. Oh boy, this is trouble with a capital T (but in a deliciously good way).

From fellow blogger and Jersey girl, Kate over at Framed Cooks, the cake would be perfect for weekend brunch (think Easter, coming up soon). The recipe makes a nice large cake (in a 9x13 pan), it’s chock full of “the good stuff” (raisins, walnuts, cinnamon – my idea of cooking’s trinity), and your house will smell fabulous! I made it yesterday, sampled a tiny square last night while watching episode 11, season four, of House of Cards (deviously better than ever, if that’s even possible!), and could not stop thinking about that cake all night! The moist, buttermilk-based cake kept calling to me. I managed to resist the siren’s song but woke up with a singular thought (must tell my readers about this!). So here is the link to the recipe on Kate’s site. If you’re a coffee cake nut like me, you will love it!

Barb’s Irish Soda Bread

No March post would be complete with my favorite Irish Soda Bread recipe. This recipe comes from someone I worked with years ago and of all the ISB recipes I’ve sampled, this is still my favorite. It’s not traditional because there are no caraway seeds, and the top is sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, but it’s incredibly delicious. If you’ve got some buttermilk left over from the aforementioned “Danger Cake,” this is the perfect use for it! I love this bread for breakfast or in the evening with a cup of tea.

Happy St Patrick’s Day! Remember, “luck is believing you’re lucky.” Tennessee Williams said that.

Gingerbread Pound Cake

During these long, dark, cold winter days you need a little warmth and comfort to get you through to spring. At least I do. And for me, comfort food equals cake. Not just any cake. I need a coffee cake-type cake. It needs to evoke memories of years ago when my Mom would bake her cream cheese pound cake, or sour cream coffee cake, and friends would come over for "coffee and." It didn't involve any fancy cooking or pretense. It was just coffee, cake, good friends, and conversation. Does anybody besides me remember this quaint, old-fashioned custom? God, I miss it. Nobody drops by, nor do we invite anybody, for "coffee and." We're all too busy living our busy lives.

So last week post-blizzard, and feeling like my cat desperately trying to stay warm (cute, isn't he?), I rummaged around in my files for just the right cake. I could have made the cream cheese pound cake, or any one of a dozen of my Mom's recipes, but I wanted something new. And I found it in the Brown Eyed Baker's Gingerbread Pound Cake. It had all the right stuff - cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, sour cream, molasses, and brown sugar. And it had that great pound cake texture I was looking for. 

It did not disappoint. The house smelled wonderful and the taste was perfect, just gingerbread-y enough, not overpowering. 

Do yourself a favor. Make this cake, then invite some people you really like for "coffee and." I will be doing just that!

Eat well, stay warm, be happy.

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/gingerbread-pound-cake/

Baked Goodness!

Holiday Greetings!

Even though it doesn't feel like December in New Jersey (it will approach 67 degrees on Christmas Day here!), and even though we are heading South to spend Christmas in the hot Mexican sun, I still had to bake! It's like a sickness (but in a good way).

For a special birthday dinner this weekend, I made Maida Heatter's fabulous Budapest Coffee Cake. This cake contains everything that a good coffee cake should: raisins, cinnamon, walnuts, brown sugar, cocoa, and sour cream to help keep it moist. Layering the batter alternately with the filling, assures delicious mouthfuls of streusel with every bite. And it makes a big bundt, so there'll be plenty to give your guests little "to go" packages (and enough for you to snack on the next day). 

Truth be told, I had forgotten about this gem of a cake. During "I Love Cheesecake's" peak, we made this all the time as part of our offerings. I found it again while doing a search for sour cream coffee cakes on Food52. When I saw it, I knew I just had to make it, especially because it's a favorite of the birthday girl. If you're into coffee cake, make this beauty.

This morning, when for some dang reason, I couldn't sleep past 4am (!), I started rooting around for something to bake (what's that saying about idle hands?). Leafing through my Evernote recipe collection, I found a little cookie saved recently that sounded wonderful. And I also happened to have everything in the pantry (very important at 4 in the morning).

So straight from my early morning kitchen, I give you Cinnamon and Rye Shortbread. These were also a Food52 find (BTW: if you aren't a Food52 reader, you really should check it out). I had purchased a bag of King Arthur rye flour awhile ago and was hankering to make good use of it (other than a bread type item). 

Folks, these shortbread are fabulous! Sweet, salty, buttery, adorable little bites of deliciousness. They go together easily and quickly and would be a really nice addition to any holiday cookie plate.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and all good things for the New Year!

Eat well, stay warm, be happy!

Plum Coffee Cake

It's that time of year again.  The dreaded end of summer - goodbye to the easygoing, laid back, whatever goes, kind of attitude. Goodbye to fabulously sweet local corn from our favorite purveyor in Chestnut Ridge, NY.  Goodbye to no jacket or sweater needed. 


But lest you think this is going to be one downer of a post...Hello, Italian Prune Plums! These delicious little plums herald the changing of the guard from summer to fall and they appeared last weekend at our local farm stand - I scooped up a container and raced home. I could always make my September stand by, Freida's Viennese Plum Cake, but I was craving something more coffee-cake-y. 

I found the perfect recipe on-line (where else?) in a Times-Picayune article from 2007, titled Plum Cake with Crumb Topping (Pflaumenkuchen mit streusel).  I am a sucker for anything "mit streusel." 


It couldn't be easier and it's got a great batter that you work with your hands. After refrigerating the dough for one hour, you are ready to add the plums, the streusel, pop it into the oven, and you're 30-40 minutes from warm, moist, luscious plum cake (put the coffee on!). It keeps very well covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator for about one week.


I know you'll be breaking out the grill this weekend for the Labor Day festivities; try adding this recipe in for your dessert course. If summer has to go, at least the transition to fall can be delicious.

Print Recipe Here


As a side note, I'm off to Chicago this weekend and I'm sure I'll have some fabulous food and restaurant reports for you when I return. I've got reservations at Cafe Spiaggia and The Publican, and now I've just got to score a table to Frontera Grill - wish me luck!