Butter Streusel Coffee Cake
We have spent the most wonderful couple of days up in the mountains. We have been hiking, relaxing by the fire, watching movies and eating lots and lots. Growing up, my mother would always serve Sara Lee’s Butter Streusel Coffee Cake as a side for breakfast when we had a house party up here. She would warm it up a little bit, and it was so so delicious. We never got it at home until- only in the mountains, and it seemed like such a special treat. When I lived in New York for a long time, they did not carry the Sara Lee Butter Streusel Coffee Cake in the grocery stores for some reason- a real tragedy. While I do think the Sara Lee version is pretty fantastic and obviously very easy, here is a great recipe from www.thekitchn.com for a Butter Streusel Coffee Cake that is really great. (Photo courtesy of www.kitchn.com)
Butter Streusel Coffee Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake
1/3 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 package active dry yeast (2 teaspoons)
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) good-quality unsalted butter, softened (try Plugra or Kerrygold)
1 whole egg plus 2 yolks
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
For the streusel topping
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
4 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cubed
Directions:
Sprinkle sugar and yeast over the warm water and let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the beater blade, combine flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, and butter. Mix until the ingredients are completely combined (almost creamed). Add the eggs and vanilla, followed by the salt and dissolved yeast. Continue mixing until the ingredients are just-combined. (Dough should be wet and sticky, like a very thick cake batter.)
Transfer the dough to a well-greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Transfer the bowl to the refrigerator and chill overnight.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to one hour. In the meantime, prepare the streusel topping (recipe below).
Preheat the oven to 350°. Thoroughly coat a tube pan with nonstick cooking spray. Press the dough (it will be very sticky) evenly into the pan. Top the dough with the streusel mixture. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes, until the streusel is golden and the cake is cooked through. Allow to cool for five minutes, then carefully remove the cake from the tube pan (slip a knife around the edges of the cake and beneath it). Serve warm, with coffee.
To reheat, wrap cake or cake slices in aluminum foil and cook in a 300° oven until warmed through.
To make the streusel topping, pulse the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt in a small food processor. Add the butter and continue to pulse until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Keep in refrigerator until ready to use. (This can also be done with your hands or a pastry cutter; just as if you were making a pie crust.)
We are on day 6 with the 5 kids, and I can’t believe how smoothly it is going. Don’t get me wrong, I am exhausted, but so far, they are all alive, do not seem sleep deprived or malnourished and in general are pretty happy. I could totally handle this every day- no, no I could not. Last night, because of everyone’s crazy schedule, was the first night that the seven of us all had dinner together at the same time. Spaghetti and meatballs was definitely the easiest thing to feed that many mouths, and I made cheesy garlic bread and green beans to go along with it. The garlic bread was a hit. I got to “take and bake” loaves of french bread from the grocery store, mashed up some garlic, added some butter and mozzarella cheese and they devoured it. I felt like the best cook in the world. Cheese makes everything better!
One of the easiest and best breakfasts is to make a German pancake. First they are delicious, second they poof which is fun to watch at any age, but especially for kids (I am talking really poofy if you are lucky), and third you can serve it with anything- fruit, syrup, powdered sugar, nutella etc. We did try to make one once when we were up in the mountains, and the altitude was a problem and the pancake did not poof which was rather disappointing. However- if you are not way up in the mountains, this is a fun tasty breakfast idea.
Tomorrow morning I am running my first ever race, the Folly Beach “Save the Lighthouse” half-marathon. Here is a picture of the lighthouse- who wouldn’t want to save that! I am getting fairly nervous as it has been snowing and icing since Tuesday, which means that I have not gone for a run since Monday, which actually is not really a big deal- more to the point, I am nervous about running and being able to complete 13.1 miles without crawling/crying across the finish line. I have been googling all morning race day preparations, and a lot of websites and blogs suggest eating a banana and some toast for breakfast pre race. Well, that is not much of a recipe so I thought I would share a great banana bread recipe instead, and while I will not eat this tomorrow morning, I will look forward to it on Sunday morning- if I can actually get out of bed. Will keep you posted on how the race goes- wish me luck!
It is supposed to snow in Charleston tomorrow. People are initiating emergency guidelines. We are preparing for total shut down for the forecasted one inch of snow. I haven’t heard anything yet about potential school closings, but I am getting prepared to have a rambunctious 10 year old home from school either tomorrow or Wednesday. And what better way to spend the day than making soft pretzels! My only concern about this is it being so cold in the house that the dough won’t rise properly, but I will keep you posted on that when we make them. This is a picture from a long weekend up in the mountains last February- I seriously doubt that we will get anywhere near that much snow- but the kiddos sure did have fun!
I have always wondered about figgy pudding- what is it? I do very much like the line in the Christmas carol about it, demanding figgy pudding is just kind of funny to me. So, of course, I googled it, and while I don’t think it will make it into the holiday repertoire of traditions, it does sound interesting.