And now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for.
The double streusel, maple-glazed, and ridiculously moist sour cream coffee cake has arrived.
This is an important moment, because a good coffee cake is one of those things we should all have in our recipe arsenal. It’s the kind of thing that will improve any brunch or breakfast situation immediately, yet it can be equally enjoyed as a dessert. Or a meal. Yes, I would probably eat this for dinner if I could.
Even though I own most of Ina’s cookbooks, I always like to check out the recipes on the Food Network so I can read a few of the comments. This is one of the best things you can do as a new cook – or cook of any skill level, really. It allows you to learn about issues people had or tweaks they made to improve the recipe.
In this case, it allowed me to improve the recipe. Several recommendations to double the streusel? Yes, please.
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Adapted from Ina Garten
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature {I use SmartBalance}
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups sour cream
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour {or mixture of all-purpose flour and cornstarch, see below}
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
For the {doubled-down} streusel:
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted {or SmartBalance} butter, cut into pieces
- 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
For the glaze:
- 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons real maple syrup {No Aunt Jemima here, it has to be the good stuff}
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 10-inch tube pan with Pam for Baking – or, take it old-school and grease and flour.
Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Since I never have cake flour on hand, I make it myself using all-purpose flour and cornstarch. Just replace 2 tablespoons of flour with cornstarch, for each cup you need. Sift together a few times – I usually go for 5; the more you sift, the closer to cake flour it becomes. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. No over-mixing allowed! Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.
For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble. Or, pulse in your food processor until you get there. Mix in the walnuts.
Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle with half the streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Carefully transfer the cake onto a serving plate. Whisk the confectioners’ sugar and maple syrup together, adding a few drops of water if necessary, to make the glaze runny. Be careful not to add too much water – I think I did, because it ran down the cake pretty quickly. I would have liked it to be a little thicker, so more would have sat on the cake as opposed to the dish. Either way, you can’t go wrong – just grab a spoon and drizzle it over the top, and prepare yourself for sour cream coffee cake heaven.
