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. 

I Just Can't Quit You.

As much as I try, I can’t tear myself away. I meet others, but they’re just, just not the same. They don’t live up to the (probably) impossibly high standard set previously. That’s why I come back again and again…

I’m not talking about a human love interest here. The obsession I’m talking about is the OG Viennese Plum Cake I’ve been making for over 20 years. It was my late mother-in-law’s recipe that she made every September. After she passed away, I became the keeper/baker of this family treasure. A mantle I was happy to carry. No one is sure where the recipe came from; Freda clipped it from a newspaper oh, so many years ago.

Like I said, I’ve tried others, but they’re missing “something.” Don’t get me wrong, almost any baked good that combines Italian prune plums with cinnamon and sugar, in a yeasty or non-yeast-risen form, will be tasty. But none of them have that, shall we say, je ne sais quoi, that this cake has. I love the deep, dark caramelization of the plums. Maybe it’s that the arrival of these plum babies signal the end of summer and the beginning of fall. Or maybe it’s nostalgia for old-world traditions? Who knows? I could be analyzing it way too much. Maybe it’s just a damn good cake. I’m gonna go with that.

All I know is that I keep returning to it. And I am never disappointed. 

Bakers in Austria and Germany have been making plum cakes (plum kuchen) for years after the fall harvest, and with good reason. It combines the delicious sweetness of these dark little fall-season-only plums with a rich buttery cinnamon-sugary cake, which is the perfect accompaniment to afternoon coffee. I typically shower it with some confectioners’ sugar just before serving. But you could serve it after dinner and gild the lily with a dollop of whipped cream and it would certainly not be frowned upon. Maybe offer your guests a small glass of port with the cake? Who could turn that down? Not me.

While you still have time, get your hands on some sweet Italian prune plums and make this cake. The season is short, make the most of it. I think after your first encounter with this love, you won’t be able to quit it either.

Freda’s Viennese Plum Cake

Ingredients:

For pan:

1 t butter, softened

1 t flour

For cake:

1/2 C butter, room temp

1/2 C granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/4 t salt

1 C AP flour

1 t baking powder

16 medium-sized Italian prune plums, washed, halved, and pitted

For topping:

1/2 C sugar

2 t cinnamon

1 T butter, cut in small pieces

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

Butter and flour 8” square pan, and set aside.

Using electric stand or hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed.

In small bowl, blend together flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine flour mixture with creamed butter mixture, until well blended.

Spread dough evenly in prepared pan. Place plums, skin side down, on top of dough.

Mix together cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over plums, dot with the butter. Bake 45 minutes or until top is golden.

Let cake cool completely. Serve at room temp. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Fall Plum Pound Cake

It’s that time of year, friends, when the Italian prune plums arrive! They have a very short season so we must make the most of it.

In previous years, I have made one of my very favorite prune plum recipes, but this year I wanted something more like a pound or loaf cake. I found it in this recipe from a New Zealand food site, and it is terrific. 

The original recipe calls for regular black plums, but when prune plums are available, that’s my go-to. It also calls for a sugar icing, but I really don’t think it needs it. I did add a sprinkle of powdered sugar when I served it, just to gussy it up a bit. 

Enjoy!

The coffee's on, come on over!

Plum Pound Cake

Adapted from Claire Aldous, Dish

Ingredients:

10 Italian prune plums

3 TB brown sugar

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t ground Chinese 5 spice

Cake:

1 C butter at room temp

1 C granulated sugar

1 t vanilla extract

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1-3/4 C AP flour

1/2 t sea salt

1 t baking powder

Directions:

Grease a 9x5, 8C capacity, loaf pan and fully line with parchment paper. 

Preheat oven to 300°F.

Halve and stone the plums and set aside. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and 5 spice in a bowl and set aside.

Cake:

Beat the butter, granulated sugar and vanilla until pale and light. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a TB of the flour if they start to curdle.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder and gently mix into the butter mixture. Don’t over beat or the cake will be tough.

Spread half of the batter in the base of the pan, then scatter half of the plums over the batter. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture over the top. Repeat with the remaining batter, plums, sugar.

Bake for about 1 hr and 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cover the top loosely with foil if getting too brown. Cool completely before removing from the tin.

To serve: dust with confectioners’ sugar, or drizzle with a glaze made by combining 1/2 C confectioners’ sugar with enough lemon juice to make a smooth, thick but pourable icing.

Makes 1 loaf.

Brown Sugar Plum Cake

Before diving into this wonderful recipe, I must apologize for being AWOL the last month or so. I broke my wrist at the end of August & am still recovering. This accident definitely impeded my writing/typing ability. Even now, I am typing using the old "hunt and peck" method, which takes FOREVER and is a bit painful so this will be short post. 

But one must soldier on so here I am with a fabulous fall recipe for you. Regular Cook's Tour readers will recall that at this time of year, I almost always make my late mother-in-law's plum cake but Italian prune plums are not always available so I thought I'd give you another equally-good option. This recipe uses regular plums, which you can get anywhere. I baked this before breaking my wrist because baking is definitely out of the question for awhile!

Wishing you a healthy and delicious fall season!

Brown Sugar Plum Cake with Sour Cream (adapted from Honest Cooking)

Ingredients:

1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter - room temp

1-1/2 C + 2 TB AP flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/2 C packed light brown sugar

1/2 C granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 t vanilla extract

1/4 C sour cream

4 plums, halved, pitted, and cut into eighths

Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Grease 9" round cake pan lined with parchment (note: I skipped the parchment and sprinkled a bit of granulated sugar after greasing the pan to add a bit more sweetness and a little crunch.)

3. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy

4. In separate large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt

5. With mixer on low, beat in eggs one at a time until incorporated

6. Beat in vanilla

7. Add in half of flour mixture, then sour cream, followed by rest of the flour. Mix until just combined.

8. Spread batter in pan and smooth top with knife or spatula.

9. Arrange plums on top.

10. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.

11. Dust with Confectioner's sugar before serving.

Rum Raisin Cake

I know, it’s October and I should really be writing about a pumpkin recipe, right? Listen, I love pumpkin as much as the next person, but I feel like everywhere (EVERYWHERE!) I turn, the word “pumpkin” is screaming at me. From lattes and bread, cookies (even Paleo cookies) and candies, to pancakes, pasta and beer.  I know that pumpkin has a short window in which to take over our minds and diets (basically from October to late November), but I’m going to buck conventional thinking here and give you a recipe for a fabulous cake that will still give you that cozy, warm, autumn feel (and the house smells wonderful as it's baking): rum raisin cake.

I recently got the new baking book from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh called Sweet. Yotam is the chef-owner of several delis and restaurants in London. He is also a prolific author, having written five cookbooks (I also own his terrific cookbook, Jerusalem), and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers. 

Helen Goh is a pastry chef who has worked closely with Ottolenghi for many years as his lead product developer. 

bake prep

When Sweet came in the mail a few weeks ago, I set it aside. With cookbooks that appear to have real promise, I like to wait until I have a chunk of time to relax with it. Depending on the time of day, I either get a cup of coffee, tea, or a glass of wine, and settle in. I leaf through the entire book, earmarking recipes that sound good. It’s a lovely way to force myself to “detox” from all things digital, at least for a little while.

my well-tagged copy!

And that’s exactly what I did last week. By the time I was done, there were so many post-it notes sticking out of the book that I knew it was a keeper! My goal was to find a cake to accompany a fall-themed luncheon we were planning. And as you may have guessed, it wouldn’t be pumpkin! 

Helen Goh’s description of how she came up with this cake really won me over: Helen and her son have a tradition of sharing a sundae when they go to an ice cream parlor. On the rare occasion they don’t share, she always orders a rum raisin cone. “This, along with her affection for the rum-soaked retro classic rum baba, was the inspiration for this cake.” I loved this little story. I, too, almost always order a rum raisin cone when I go to our favorite ice cream store in the area, Gelotti’s. The combination of the custardy vanilla oozing with boozy raisins speaks to my soul.

So onto the cake! First off, it’s got a good amount of rum in it. The raisins soak overnight in a half-cup of dark rum. And there’s an additional tablespoon if you make the optional rum-caramel icing.

the gorgeous batter

ready to bake!

just out of the oven

isn't this gorgeous?!

The cake is chock full of butter and sour cream so it’s super-moist. But what really makes this cake stand out is the rum-soaked raisins. The rum infuses the cake with a sweet warmth and the now plump raisins are bursting with flavor. 

Due to time and logistics, I simply dusted the finished cake with powdered sugar (which was lovely), but next time I would try the recommended icing or just add a dollop of whipped cream on the side. You can’t go wrong with any of the additions.

ready for your Fall dessert table

The cake keeps very well wrapped in foil for a few days. In fact, I’m going on day four now and it’s still moist and delicious. 

So, my friends, break out of that same old pumpkin routine and bake up something different! 

Print recipe here.

Happy Fall!

Eat well, stay warm, be happy.