Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake
from http://www.kingarthurflour.com
"This coffee cake is a German-style Streuselkuchen made with baking powder instead of yeast, layered with a cinnamon filling and topped with streusel. For those of you looking for a cake with less filling, one where the golden cake itself is the main attraction, reduce the amount of brown sugar in the filling to 1/3 cup, keeping the remaining ingredients the same."
FMM: This was good, but it has a lot of sugar it in - a little over 3 cups! The recipe was clearly designed for someone with a sweet tooth. I would cut back the Streusel topping by 1/3 or 1/2. Also, I think less sugar could be used in the cake batter - I'd cut it back by half. The filling was good - nice and cinnamony, although you could cut the sugar back in the filling as the recipe in the above paragraph suggests. Otherwise it is a good recipe and makes a wonderful streusel topped coffeecake with a cinnamon filling such as you may buy in the store, but better. Next time I will also cut the recipe back by 1/3 for just the two of us and bake it in an 9 x 9 " square pan. The coffee cake keeps well and the sour cream keeps it moist.
Basic streusel topping: You don't need to remember the proportions of the ingredients because they are exactly the same for sugar and butter. The proportion of the flour is always double.
Anothe recipe uses this mixture both in the cinnamon layers and on top (2 inside layers and 1 on top) using a 10-inch tube pan: 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. This would change the coffee cake quite a bit, but gives a nice sugary topping in place of the streusel.
Also see Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake (made with almond flour)
Streusel topping (also see Streusel Toppings) Filling |
Cake |
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan, or two 9" round cake pans.
Make the topping by whisking together the sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Add the melted butter, stirring till well combined. Set the topping aside. [until all the dry ingredients are moistened and start forming clumps]
Make the filling by mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. Note that the cocoa powder is used strictly for color, not flavor; leave it out if you like. Set it aside.
To make the cake: In a large bowl, beat together the butter, salt, sugars, baking powder, and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream or yogurt and milk till well combined. You don't need to whisk out all the lumps. Add the flour to the butter mixture alternately with the milk/sour cream mixture, beating gently to combine.
Pour/spread half the batter (a scant 3 cups) into the prepared pan(s), spreading all the way to the edges. If you're using two 9" round pans, spread 1 1/3 cups batter in each pan. Sprinkle the filling evenly atop the batter.
Spread the remaining batter atop the filling. Use a table knife to gently swirl the filling into the batter, as though you were making a marble cake. Don't combine filling and batter thoroughly; just swirl the filling through the batter.
Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.
Bake the cake until it's a dark golden brown around the edges; medium-golden with no light patches showing on top, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes for the 9" x 13" pan, 50 to 55 minutes for the 9" round pans. When pressed gently in the middle, the cake should spring back.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before cutting and serving. Serve cake right from the pan.
Yield: 9" x 13" pan, or two 9" round cake pans
