Coffee Cake Recipe

I'm anxious to get my blog back on a more cheerful tone. Sorry it's been a little heavy lately. I thought a delicious recipe might lift the mood! :)

Here is the coffee cake recipe I promised. It's not a quick recipe--but I promise, it's worth the effort. It's delicious!! Oh--and I made it the night before I served it, wrapped it in plastic and then in foil and it was still moist and delicious the next morning.

Enjoy!


Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar-Pecan Streusel

Serves 12-16
A 10-in tube pan is best for this recipe

Streusel

¾ c. (3 3/4 oz) unbleached all-purpose Flour
¾. C. (5 ¼ oz) granulated sugar
½ cup packed (3 ½ oz) dark brown sugar
2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 cup pecans, chopped
2 Tablespoons unsalted better, chilled and cut into 2 pieces

Cake
12 Tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into ½ in. cubes, plus 2 Tablespoons softened butter, for greasing the pan.

4 large eggs
1 ½ cups sour cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups (11 ½ oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups (8 ¾ oz) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon table salt

1. For the Streusel: in a food processor, process the flour, granulated sugar, ¼ cup of the brown sugar, and the cinnamon until combined, about 15 seconds. Transfer 1 ¼ cups of the flour-sugar mixture to a small bowl; stir in the remaining ¼ c. brown sugar and set aside to use for the streusel filling. Add the pecans and butter to the flour-sugar mixture in the food processor; pulse until the nuts and butter resemble small pebbly pieces, about 10 pulses; set aside.
2. For the cake: Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-cup tube pan with 2 tablespoons of the softened butter. Whisk the eggs, 1 cup of the sour cream, and the vanilla together in a medium bowl until combined.

3 Mix the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer on low speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the remaining 12 tablespoons butter and remaining ½ cup sour cream; mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened and the mixture resembles wet sand, with a few large butter pieces remaining, about 1 ½ minutes. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the batter comes together, about 10 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Lower the speed to medium-low gradually adding the egg mixture in three additions, beating for 20 seconds after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the batter is light and fluffy, about 1 minute.

4. Using a rubber spatula, spread 2 cups of the batter in the bottom of the prepared pan, smoothing the surface. Sprinkle evenly with ¾ cup of the streusel filling without butter or nuts. Repeat with another 2 cups batter and remaining ¾ cup streusel filling without butter or nuts. Spread the remaining batter, over, and then sprinkle with the streusel topping with butter and nuts.

5 Bake until the cake feels firm to the touch and a long toothpick or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean (bits of sugar from the streusel may cling to the tester), 50-60 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Invert the cake onto a rimmed baking sheet (the cake with be streusel side down); remove the tube pan, place a wire rack on top of the cake, and reinvert the cake streusel side up. Cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Cut into wedges and serve. (The cake can be wrapped in foil and stored at room temperature for up to 5 days).