"Everyone needs a delicious coffee cake recipe in their repertoire, and this cinnamon streusel coffee cake is the perfect option." Martha Stewart was right and knew exactly what she was doing with this recipe. Its the perfect sweet treat for a quick breakfast or with an afternoon cup of coffee, and yes, I've had it both ways!
When making this recipe I found that my ingredients did not exactly line up with Martha's. She called for chopped pecans, however one of my best critics (my sister) is allergic to pecans. I decided to substitute almonds, instead. She also calls for unsalted butter, but I naturally buy salted (it tastes better on toast), so I used less course salt than the recipe calls for to even it out. That's the best part of cooking and baking: you can make it your own using what you've got in the kithcen!
Here's my spin on the recipe:
(for the streusel topping and center)
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
course salt
1 1/2 sticks cold salted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups chopped almonds
(for the cake)
1 stick salted butter, room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
course salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
(for the glaze)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tb whole milk
1. Make streusel topping: Mix together flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cut in butter using pastry cutter or rub in with your fingers until small clumps form. Refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Make streusel center: Mix together remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1 cup chopped almonds.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the cake: Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt into a separate bowl. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour. Continue to mix until combined.
4. Spoon half the batter into a buttered pan (I used a bundt cake pan for this recipe). Sprinkle streusel center mixture evenly over batter. Top with remaining batter, and spread evenly. Sprinkle streusel topping mixture over batter.
5. Bake until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Remove cake from pan and allow to rest with moving onto the next step.
6. Make the glaze. Wisk powdered sugar with whole milk and drizzle over coffee cake. Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.
Whoever you serve this to will love this coffee cake. It's phenomenal! I have never made a cake with sour cream in the recipe, but now I understand why: it's perfectly moist, yet fluffy at the same time. This was not a recipe I had confidence in at first, but I stuck to the recipe (for the most part), and it turned out better than I had hoped! I encourage you to try out new recipes, and push yourself in the kitchen. I promise you'll start to surprise yourself!