Peach Season Coffee Cake

 I love peaches! There is something about the juicy, tangy fruit and just says 'summer' to me. Right now we are getting some lovely peaches at the farm stand that also sells strawberries. I decided to make a coffee cake using some, plus some blueberries. I looked at a number of recipes online but couldn't find what I wanted...a single layer cake made with self-rising flour and moistened with buttermilk. I decided to make my own recipe and hope that I got the proportions right.

It turned our really well, with a tender, moist cake that had a slight buttermilk tang, soft and sweet peaches and blueberries, and an oatmeal based streusel flavored with a bit of nutmeg that brought it together as a coffee cake. Hope you enjoy my recipe.  Give it a try and you'll see that it's fairly simple and very delicious.

Elle's Peach Blueberry Coffee Cake with Streusel

For the cake:

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 3/4 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 very large or two smaller peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced into  16 or 18 slices
1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried with paper towels

Prepare a 9-inch cake pan with at least 2" tall sides, or a 9-inch springform pan by spraying with baking spray. Put a 9-inch round of parchment paper in the bottom and spray the bottom. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. after centering a rack in the oven

In a large bowl, beat the butter until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and beat another minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated, being sure the scrape bowl and beaters after each is incorporated. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat another few seconds to incorporate.

Add the flour, baking soda and the pinch of salt and beat on low speed for about 20 seconds, just to get some of the flour incorporated, but there will still be lots of flour not mixed in. With mixer running on low, slowly add the buttermilk and then beat 2 minutes until batter is fully mixed and thick. Scrape bowl and beaters, then mix a few more seconds just to fully mix.

Scrape half the batter into the prepared pan and use a spatula to make the batter as even as you can. Evenly sprinkle the blueberries over the batter. Scrape the rest of the batter into the pan and spread it over the blueberries. Take the peaches and place them around the cake, pressing the sharper edge into the batter. The center probably won't have any peaches. Bake for 15 minutes. The peaches will sink a bit into the batter, but that's OK.

While the cake is beginning to bake, prepare the Streusel:

For the streusel:

3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
1/2 cup cold butter (I used right out of the fridge)

In a medium bowl combine the first 5 (five) ingredients. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the bowl. Use your clean fingers to rub the butter into the dry ingredients. When you are done the mixture will be fairly cohesive with some dry bits.

After the cake has baked for 15 minutes, removed from the oven. Place on a baking sheet and, using your clean hands, sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the top of the cake. Return the cake on the baking sheet to the oven and bake another 20 -25 minutes. Test for doneness by pressing lightly in the middle of the cake. If it feels at all soft or jiggly, bake longer. If it springs back against your pressure, it's done. Top should be golden brown. Cake might be pulling slightly away from the sides of the pan when baked.

Take the cake off the baking sheet and put the cake pan on a wire rack. Cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pan, then invert the cake onto a plate. Remove the pan and parchment circle from the bottom of the cake. Put your serving plate, good side down, over the cake and grasp the serving plate and the wire rack. Turn the cake right side up onto the serving plate. Remove the wire rack and extra plate.  Let cake cool completely before serving.

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.

Apricot Coffee Cake

I know that the post title is boring, but the coffee cake wasn't. It was zingy with fresh apricots, crunchy due to the sugary topping, and warm and mellow and tangy because it was warm from the oven and had some buttermilk in it. I love that this one is baked in a cast iron skillet because it gets a bit crusty on the bottom, too. We had some the evening it was made, but I didn't take photos. The next morning we had some for breakfast with our fruit bowl and some coffee. Heavenly!

The fresh apricots came for our local strawberry farm on Hwy 12. The wonderful family that farms there are from Thailand and the stand was recently written up in the regional paper. Lo and behold, the lines became longer and longer, especially on weekends. A couple of years ago hardly anyone knew about the place, which seriously has the sweetest strawberries ever. You never know when they will be open, so if we drove by and the flag was out, we would pull over and buy berries, or what ever else they were selling.

Last year they started putting in a lot of other crops including onions, garlic, melons, cabbage, green beans, and more. The stand started to be open more, too. Everybody wins and some great recipes are swapped while we are in line waiting for our turn. I have yet to see anybody grumpy about the wait, probably because they know that in the end will be amazing strawberries! Recently there have also been sweet cherries, blueberries, and these apricots. It's pretty hot this weekend, so next week there should be even more bounty.

My Mom received a digital photo frame for Mothers Day so I have been spending time recently going through my photo files and putting pictures up on the frame. I'm starting to scan old photos from pre-digital days so that they can go on the frame, too. Good times and good memories overall.

Happy Sunday, dear reader.

Apricot Almond Coffee Cake
An Elle original recipe

4 tablespoons sweet butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4-5 fresh, ripe apricots, peeled, pitted, and sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter well a heavy 9-inch skillet that can go in the oven.

Cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg. Scrape beater and bowl.

Stir together the buttermilk and almond extract. Set aside.

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat half into creamed mixture, beat in half of the milk, Repeat, beating well.

Pour batter into prepared skillet. Arrange apricot slices on top of batter...5 pretty much covers the top.

Bake for 25 minutes. While cake bakes, prepare the topping.

Topping
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped almonds (I used whole raw almonds with skin on them)
4 tablespoons sweet butter

Cut ingredients for topping together in a small bowl with a fork.

After cake has baked for 25 minutes, open oven and quickly crumble topping over apricot slices.

Close oven and bake for another 8 minutes, or until cake is firm and has pulled away from edges of the skillet.

August BBB Delight Hints at Autumn

 

The days are truly getting shorter and school started in our neighborhood yesterday, so this month's Bread Baking Babes bread, Nut Roll Coffee Cake from our Kitchen of the Month Jaime of Life's a Feast, is perfect because it has the cinnamon and nuts that hint of holiday baking to come.

I only made half the recipe, baking it in a long loaf pan, but this one is so delicious that I urge you to make the full recipe, if only so that you can share it with friends. A rich, brioche-like dough is rolled around a most unusual filling. It's a nut meringue with cinnamon and the combination is amazing. Two of those lovely rolls are stacked, one on top of the other, in a tube pan, then allowed to rise a bit. After it is baked you let it cool a little bit before removing from the pan. You are supposed to let it cool completely according to the recipe, but don't. The warm, buttery, fragrant with cinnamon bread is tender and, frankly, addictive if you eat it while it retains some of the heat from the oven.

 

The remarkable thing about this bread is that it is a no-knead one. Rolling up the bread once you have spread on the meringue filling is about the hardest part of making this. If you have done anything with a jelly roll type rolling up, it will be a snap for you. The results will bring a smile to your face...and a desire for just another piece. The finished roll didn't look pretty when it came out of the pan, and it was a little hard to cut without making a mess since it had sunk a little while cooling, but it tasted so spectacular that we didn't care a bit.

 

Thanks to Jaime for picking such a perfect recipe for August. Do check out the bread baked by the other Bread Baking Babes. I'm also sending this over to Susan (Alumnae Babe) at Wild Yeast for her Yeast Spotting round up of the week.

Last, but not least, come bake with the Babes this month. Make the bread, snap a photo, send an e-mail to Jaime with a brief description of your baking experience (plus that photo) and she'll send you a Buddy Badge and include you in the round-up.

If you have kids going to school between now and the 29th, I can assure you that they will be thrilled to arrive home to the warm fragrance of cinnamon which will perfume the house when you bake this Nut Roll Coffee Cake.

 

Here is the full recipe from Jamie:

NUT ROLL COFFEE CAKE
You will need a stand mixer or beaters to whip egg whites for the meringue filling and a 10-inch (standard) tube pan.

For the dough:
2 packages (1/4 ounce/7 g each) active dry yeast
¼ cup (@ 65 ml) warm water (110°F to 115°F)
16 Tbs (225 g) unsalted butter, melted
½ cup (125 ml) warm 2% fat/lowfat milk (110°F to 115°F)
4 egg yolks
2 Tbs sugar
¾ tsp salt
 2 ½ cups (350 g*) all-purpose flour (I use French regular flour), more as needed

* when I measure flour I spoon lightly into the measuring cup and then level off so 1 cup usually weigh approximately 140 g 

For the filling:
3 egg whites
1 cup + 3 Tbs sugar, divided
2 cups ground walnuts
2 Tbs 2% fat/lowfat milk
2 tsps ground cinnamon

The day before, prepare the dough:
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the butter, milk, eggs yolks, sugar, salt and flour. Beat until smooth – the mixture will be sticky. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The day of baking, prepare the filling:
In a small bowl, beat the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 1 cup sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a time, on high speed until the sugar is incorporated and dissolved.

In a large bowl, combine the walnuts, milk, cinnamon and remaining sugar; fold in the meringue.

Prepare the Coffee Cake:
Grease a 10-inch tube pan.

Divide the dough in half. On a well-floured work surface, roll each portion into an 18 x 12 –inch (45 x 30 cm) rectangle. Spread half of the filling evenly over each rectangle within 1/2 –inch (1 cm) of the edges. Roll each up jelly-roll style, starting with the long side; pinch seam to seal.

Place one filled roll, seam side up, in the greased tube pan. Place the second roll, seam side down.

Let rise for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).  Bake in the preheated oven for 40 – 45 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing the coffee cake from the pan to a cooling rack to cool completely. Top may crack when cooling.

Eat as is or drizzle with glaze or dust with powdered sugar.

Cake Slice Bakes Last Cake from Cake Keepers

The Cake Slice Bakers have been baking for a while from Lauren Chattman's Cake Keeper Cakes cookbook, mostly with good to great results. Now we are getting to the end of this cookbook and thinking about the next one.

The August recipe that was chosen by the group is Hungarian Coffee Cake, a type of Monkey Bread. Balls of muffin-like dough are rolled in cinnamon-sugar and put into a Bundt cake pan, interlaced with walnuts, raisins, (and in my case shredded Gravenstein apples). August is Gravenstein apple time, and the apple flavor goes so well with cinnamon and raisins and walnuts that it seemed like a match made in gustatory heaven.

As I often do, I made some changes to the recipe. My raisins were a bit dry so I soaked them in 1/4 cup warm rum for 15 minutes. I saved the rum I drained off the raisins and added it to the butter/brown sugar mixture...why waste good rum? The cake batter seemed bland so I added 2 tablespoons of sugar, about 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg and I added a beaten egg to the buttermilk. I also used my food processor to make the cake dough, which worked well since the butter was totally frozen. I had planned to make this cake earlier in the week and had left the butter in the freezer, already cut into small pieces.

The resulting cake was delicious! Everyone wanted seconds. I loved the way the topping shone and it was a sweet counterpoint to the less sweet cake. Because of the added egg, the cake was moist and similar to a muffin instead of being like a scone. I loved the flavor combo of walnuts/apple/rum-raisin/cinnamon, like a hint of autumn in summer.

If I make this again I'll probably bake it in two loaf pans instead of the Bundt pan. That way I can freeze on loaf for later enjoyment.

Do visit the other Cake Slice Bakers to see their versions of this cake that makes your home smell like cinnamon buns. The recipe below includes the changes I made. Come back at this time next month for a surprise!

XO Elle


Hungarian Coffee Cake
(a variation of a recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Topping:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled (unsalted is called for but I used salted and it was great)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
rum drained from raisins (see below)

Whisk together the melted butter, light brown sugar and rum. Set aside.

Cake:
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup rum
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup shredded tart apple

Combine raisins and rum in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave at full power 15 seconds. Set aside for 15 minutes, then drain, reserving the liquid to add to the topping mixture (see above).

In a zip-lock bag combine the 1/2 cup granulated sugar and the cinnamon. Set aside.

Cut the 9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) into small pieces and put into a bowl, then into the freezer while doing the next steps of the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a nonstick 12 cup Bundt pan and set aside.

Place the flour, the 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar still left, the baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in the bowl of a large food processor or electric mixer. Use knife blade in food processor or whisk attachment in electric mixer to combine the dry ingredients.

Add the chilled butter pieces to the dry ingredients. In the food processor pulse to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal. In the electric mixer mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse meal. For both, add the buttermilk and the egg.

In the food processor pulse to blend the liquid and dry ingredients into a dough, stopping when dough comes together. In the electric mixer bowl, stir the liquid into the dry ingredients until a dough forms.

Scoop up small balls of dough (I used my fingers and sort of pinched off pieces the size of a walnut). Place the dough balls into the bag with the cinnamon sugar mixture and shake the bag to coat the balls.

Placed the coated balls into the prepared pan, sprinkling the walnuts, raisins and apple shreds over them as you go. Once all the dough balls, nuts, raisins, apple shreds and any leftover cinnamon-sugar mixture have gone into the pan, pour the melted butter mixture over it all. Rotate the pan briskly to settle the topping.

Bake until the cake is firm and well risen and the caramel is melted, about 35 - 40 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and serve immediately. Store uneaten cake (if any) in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for 1 day.

Warm Raspberries

Being in the midst of berry season is a great place to be. Prices at the stores are reasonable, the blackberries in the lower field and by the apple tree are prolific this year due to all the spring rains, and Costco recently had 6 half pints of beautiful ripe red raspberries for a very low amount of dough so I have had more than enough raspberries to have fun with than ever!

I enjoy most berries both fresh and cooked but I have preferences, too. Strawberries taste best to me when they are fresh and untouched, although I enjoy them chilled, too. Blackberries are great either cooked or uncooked, especially combined with other fruits. Blueberries seem to expand their flavor when warmed…think blueberry muffin and you’ll know what I mean. And then there are warm raspberries, Mmmmmm!

Raspberries are most enjoyable (to my way of thinking) cooked. The heat releases that wonderful fragrance and intensifies their sweet, unforgettable flavor.

To celebrate my windfall of raspberries I got my warm raspberry fix. Just after July 4th weekend I baked some in a delightful fresh coffee cake with a crunchy streusel topping. The unbeatable Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: from my home to yours has a great recipe for Blueberry Crumb Cake and the same recipe can be played with using…tada!...raspberries…and fresh peach chunks for that Melba flavor combo.

I used orange zest to rub with the sugar and put some of the crumb topping inside the cake as well as on top, but otherwise it is as written in the book. If you haven't bought this wonderful book, or gotten it out of the library, this might be the time.

What you get is a rich buttermilk cake, lightly touched with orange. The raspberries and ripe and juicy peeled peach chunks are folded into the cake batter so every bite has some fruit and some of the nutty, crunchy sweet topping.

Served warm from the oven, this cake fulfils every warm raspberry desire…for now.

Spring Coffee Cake with Cherries

Spring is fully here. The birds are everywhere singing their sweet songs. Most of the spring bulbs have finished blooming and are being followed by the first flush of roses in pink, red, white, yellow and coral. The wild flower seed I sprinkled on bare earth in January actually germinated in a few places. I’m not actually sure of their names, but they are pretty with blue, yellow, white and pale lavender blossoms showing their cheery faces.


The veggies are being planted in the garden, the grass has been mown yet again, and all of the fruit trees have finished their bloom. The blackberries along the road are in bloom now and soon the grapes will break bud as well.


Although the cherry blossoms have come and gone, it’s still a bit early for fresh cherries. Fortunately good sour cherries can be found at the store put up in glass jars in a light syrup. When you drain them, reserve the syrup for other uses…like making a cherry sauce for ice cream.

This recipe is a variation of one that my mom gave me. It used a pre-mixed biscuit mix along with yeast. You get the ease of using a quick mix along with the wonderful down home fragrance and taste of yeast. Takes a little longer than a coffee cake made just with the biscuit mix, but the flavor and tenderness are worth it. It doesn't rise very much, but the crumb is light and tender.

This is my entry in Meeta’s Monthly Mingle. It’s a cake and used a spring fruit and is delicious. Do stop by Meeta’s blog in the next little while to wish her bon voyage for a few months. Better yet, join in the Mingle!

It's also this week's entry in the Yeastspotting event, Susan of Wild Yeast's excellent collection of recipes using yeast or yeasted ingredients.





Sour Cherry Coffee Cake

1 pkg (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
¾ cup warm water (105-115 degrees F.)
½ cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons olive oil (I used Meyer lemon flavored)
½ teaspoon almond extract
4 ¼ cups biscuit mix (like Bisquick)
24 oz jar sour cherries, drained
Streusel Topping (see below)

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and proof (let sit 10 minutes to make sure yeast is active).

Combine sugar, egg, olive oil, and almond extract. Beat until thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Stir in dissolved yeast and 3 ¾ cups of the biscuit mix. Knead until smooth, kneading in the rest of the biscuit mix as you go, about 25 times of kneading. Cover and let rest in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Roll out and place in a buttered 10” X 13” rimed jelly roll pan, pulling an pressing the corners to form a rim of dough.

Arrange the drained cherries on the dough in a pleasing pattern.

Sprinkle with the streusel. Let rise in a warm place 35 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 40-50 minutes. Cut in squares to serve. Serve warm or cooled.

Streusel Topping
Mix ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup flour, ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs, ½ cup chopped almonds, ¼ teaspoon cardamom, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg. Cut in ½ cup cold butter with pastry blender or two knives until crumbly.

Note: I used canned sour cherries, but if you have fresh ones that would be even better. Just make sure to remove the pit, then cut them in halves and arrange on the dough, leaving some space between the cherry halves.

More Plum Lucky

Another part of our luck in landing here in our beautiful home is that we are right next to the volunteer fire station. When we first moved here we weren't sure how lucky that was because they still used the siren to call the volunteer to the station to go out on a call...sometimes at 2 am! Eventually we learned to wake up hearing the siren, think 'Oh, it's just the the fire siren', and then go back to sleep.

Now they use pagers, but we still see how hard the volunteers work. In California volunteers are required to have as much training as paid fire fighters, so there are drills each week on Thursday nights at the fire station, plus practice going on when volunteers can arrange it during the rest of the week. A few evenings ago I decided to make some plum coffee cake for the volunteers who were on call. It's a recipe I've been wanting to make since February and it seemed like plum season would never get here.

A tender, moist, buttery coffee cake with brown sugar, vanilla and cardmom flavors cradles plum halves. The plums first give up their juice as they cook, and then reclaim it s they cool. The plum halves sort of sink into the dough, so some of the dough gets the juices, too. The tang of the plums goes so well with that rich, delicious dough. Sweetie and I had a piece each, then the rest went next door. The volunteers seemed pretty please with the idea of fresh cake. We're really pleased that they volunteer their time to keep us all safe, particularly since fire season has come early to California.

Take a look at this coffee cake...isn't it pretty?

Andrea at Andrea's Recipes is hosting Grow Your Own and this post certainly qualifies since the plums come from my own tree down the drive. Since it is now a twice a month event, if you are growing your own food, consider joining in.

I changed the recipe a bit, using a combination of white and whole wheat flours instead of just white, using dark brown sugar instead of light brown, using a lot more butter and only a tablespoon of oil, and Meyer lemon flavored olive oil at that. Since I had some from making the Danish Braid, I used vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract. I also found that I didn't need to bake it quite so long as called for in the Greenspan recipe.

Simple Fresh Plum Coffee Cake
Based on Dorie Greenspan’s Dimply Plum Cake in Baking:From my home to yours

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ stick (8 tablespoons) butter, softened
3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
Grated zest of one orange
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract or the same amount of pure vanilla paste
1 tablespoon olive oil (I used Meyer Lemon flavored olive oil)
8 small to medium red or purple plums (I used fresh off the tree Santa Rosa red plums), halved and pitted, with the skins left on

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a square 8-inch baking pan. Center a rack in the middle of the oven.

On a sheet of waxed paper or in a bowl, whisk together the flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter until it is soft and creamy, about 3 minutes at medium mixer speed.

Add the dark brown sugar and beat 2 minutes more. Using a rubber or silicon spatula, scrape the bowl and beaters. Add the eggs one at a time and beat for 1 minute after each addition. Using a rubber or silicon spatula, scrape the bowl and beaters. On medium speed, add the orange zest, vanilla or vanilla paste, and the olive oil and beat to combine completely. Reduce mixer speed to low and blend in the dry ingredient mixture, beating until just combined. Using a rubber or silicon spatula, scrape the bowl and beaters. and mix again briefly if needed to mix in any flour from the sides or bottom of the bowl.

Using a rubber or silicon spatula, scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it out in the pan. Arrange the plums on top of the batter, ( in rows of four usually works), pushing the plums down a bit in the batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, or until the cake is golden and puffed around the plums. A thin knife inserted in the center will come out clean.

Place the cake on a rack to cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the pan and unmold the cake. Invert and cool with the plum side up. Serves 8.

A Plum Cake for Mercedes


Much as I might want to, it's not possible to post something for all the birthdays that Daring Bakers have. Time for baking is limited and will be more so soon due to job pressures. Even so, today I baked a nice coffee cake for sweet Mercedes for her birthday tomorrow. If you haven't seen her blog, Desert Candy, do yourself a favor and do so. She has some incredibly good recipes and lovely photos, too.

This cake is a bit unusual since it combines yeast and biscuit mix. I found it when I was sorting out my card file the other day. There is no indication of how old it is or where I got the recipe. I don't actually remember making the cake, but there were juice stains on the card, so I probably baked it a dozen years ago or more. That's a shame because it is a tasty coffee cake and delicious with the fresh plums that are falling off the tree in the yard right now. The original recipe didn't say to peel the plums, but I did because Sweetie found out recently that he doesn't dislike plums, but he doesn't care for the plums with the skin still on them. The dough is tender, but not terribly moist and that is a good foil for the tangy, juicy plums and sweet, spicy streusel.

Since this is a sweet dish and uses fresh, seasonal fruit from my own yard, it is also a good fit for Jerry's of Food and Photo's summer challenge, Summer Flavor.

Despite having yeast in the dough, this recipe doesn't take too long to make. If you have fresh plums (or peaches, nectarines, cherries, blueberries) this is a wonderful coffee cake for breakfast or a snack.

Fresh Plum Coffee Cake

1 pkg (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
¾ cup warm water (105-115 degrees F.)
½ cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons melted butter, cooled
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
4 ¼ cups biscuit mix (like Bisquick)
1 ½ pounds fresh sweet plums (Santa Rosa, Laroda, Nabiana, prune plums, etc.)
Streusel Topping (see below)

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and proof (let sit 10 minutes to make sure yeast is active)
Combine sugar, egg, butter, lemon zest, and extracts. Beat until thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Stir in dissolved yeast and 3 ¾ cups of the biscuit mix. Knead until smooth, kneading in the rest of the biscuit mix as you go, about 25 times of kneading. Cover and let rest in a warm place for 15 minutes.
Roll out and place in a buttered 10” X 13” rimed jelly roll pan, pulling an pressing the corners to form a rim of dough.
Cut plums into ½ “ slices (I peel mine first, but unpeeled is fine, too.)
Arrange the plum slices on the dough in a pleasing pattern. Sprinkle with the streusel. Let rise in a warm place 35 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 40-50 minutes. Cut in squares to serve. Serve warm or cooled.

Streusel Topping
Mix ½ cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon cloves and ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg. Cut in ½ cup cold butter with pastry blender or two knives.

Happy Birthday Mercedes
plum coffee cake
plums
fresh fruit
Summer Flavors