Saturday, November 08, 2014

Amazing Overnight Cinnamon Coffee Cake



I was overjoyed when I discovered this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. It is really great to be able to wake up in the morning knowing that the breakfast treat you want to serve your family and friends is mostly made, with little or no more work required other than baking. I've come to depend on the Amazing Overnight Waffle for those times when I know we will want waffles in the morning, so now I have a great coffee cake that requires nothing more in the a.m. than preheating the oven, taking the pan out of the fridge and sliding it into the preheated oven. Piece of cake, literally.

This make a lot of coffee cake. I took mine to a meeting this morning, so that helped, about three quarters was gone by the time the meeting was finished. Of course if you cut it into bigger pieces it might not take much time at all to polish it off. It has a tender crumb, lightly flavored with vanilla, a ribbon of cinnamon sugar and cocoa running through the middle and a topping of crumbly streusel. Delicious!

My only complaint was that it took a lot of bowls to make since you have one for melting the butter, one for the topping, one for the filling, and at least one more for the batter. I'm going to think about the instructions and see how I could reduce that pile of dirty bowls a bit. I know there has to be a way.

Don't let the dirty bowls deter you from making this. There are also lots of ways to doll it up...nuts and/or dried fruit mixed in the batter or piled on top of the filling, grated apple to put on top of the filling...you get the idea. Nuts could also be added to the streusel. I used the version where you can weight the ingredients on a scale, using the pound version. There is also one for grams and one by volume on the King Arthur site, plus great photos.



Cinnamon-streusel Coffeecake

Streusel Topping
8 3/4 ounces granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt (if you use unsalted butter)
6 1/4 oz. all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 oz. butter, melted


Filling
7 1/2 ounces brown sugar, light or dark
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Cake
6 oz. butter
1 teaspoon salt (1 1/4 teaspoons if using unsalted butter)
10 1/2 oz. granulated sugar
2 1/2 oz. brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
6 oz plain yogurt (or sour cream) 
10 oz. milk (anything from skim to whole...or even milk mixed with buttermilk, which is what I used)
16 oz. all-purpose flour
·        

·     1)    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan, or two 9" round cake pans. (If you are going to  bake the next day, skip the preheating of the oven until before you bake, but allow enough time for      the oven to heat up to 350 degrees F.)

2) Make the topping by whisking together the sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Add the melted butter, stirring till well combined. Set the topping aside.

3) 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.

4) To make the cake: In a large bowl, beat together the butter, salt, sugars, baking powder, and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

5) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

6) 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.

7) Add the flour to the butter mixture alternately with the milk/sour cream mixture, beating gently to combine.

8) 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.

 9) Sprinkle the filling evenly atop the batter.

 10) 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.

 11) Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.

12) 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. (I started checking 10 minutes before time and was glad I did.)

13) Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before cutting and serving. Serve cake right from the pan.

Want to prepare this coffeecake the night before, then bake in the morning? It's easy; simply cover the unbaked cake with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator overnight. Next morning, bake the cake as directed. Start testing for doneness before the end of the suggested baking time, but you'll probably have to add 5 minutes or so to the total time, to account for the batter being chilled.



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