Monday, November 9, 2009

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Reasons why I love coffee cake:

1. It is dense and moist.
2. It usually has some yummy crumbly topping inside or out.
3. It always accompanies a delicious hot and frothy drink.
4. It is the perfect thing to serve on a fall or winter morning, or after dinner with friends.
5. It feels like you're eating super delicious bread - not cake.

I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie. I like the tradition, but actually sitting and eating spoonfuls of warm pumpkin custard - not that great. So, I'm working on pumpkin recipes that I will enjoy, because it's pumpkin season. This coffee cake was an instant success with my family. Its a mild pumpkin spice flavor with a brown sugar and butter crumble. I recommend serving it with White Hot Chocolate.
(Regular hot chocolate would be great too, and you could do a chocolate drizzle on top, or even fold chocolate chips into the batter - whatever mood you're in)

Ingredients
2 1/2 c cake flour + 2 T
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 t nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 c pumpkin puree
3 extra large eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla

For the crumble:
3 T butter
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t salt

Method
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer using the paddle attachment. Then add the eggs one by one, then the vanilla, then the pumpkin. Sift together the flour baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Set the mixer to low, and add in the dry ingredients until just combined. Turn the mixer off and finish folding the batter together with a spatula. Pour the batter into a greased 8 inch springform pan. (You can also use a tube pan, or a square baking dish. Smooth out the batter and top with the crumble. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

*If you do use a tube pan, invert the pan to turn out the cake, and serve crumble size up.

For the crumble:
Place all the ingredients in a bowl, and pinch together with your fingers until you have small pea sized pieces

6 comments:

Dayna said...

I will definitely be trying this when I get to Maryland next week. Can't wait.

Carrie said...

Looks delish. I want to make it right now, but since it's almost 10 pm, I think I'll wait till morning. Lucky for me I have some pumpkin puree on hand.

ashley schmutz said...

YUM!!!!!! Can I use all purpose flour?

Caroline said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Caroline said...

looks delicious...perhaps a guest posting on www.twolittlechefs.blogspot.com? I will call you to see if you would be interested.

ashley schmutz said...

I made it... then devoured it! The topping on mine wasn't nearly as pretty, but SO GOOD! Thanks for the great recipe!