Apple Coffee Cake
I have a weakness for coffeecake, and when the temperatures started to dip and Christey from Fotocuisine was coming over for a playdate with the kiddies I couldn’t help but resist to warm up the house with….coffee and coffee cake! I had never thought to add fruit to coffee cake until one day I was eating an apple ugly (aka apple fritter) from our local mom and pop donut shop. If someone could combine diced apple with a donut dough, why couldn’t the same be done with coffee cake? From there I have always been curious how fruit would taste in our basic coffee cake recipe.
I had a few goals going into this recipe: healthier, fruitier and bigger! I wanted to make the recipe healthier so I would not feel guilty about wanting that extra piece or two. First, I substituted the shortening for applesauce. Then I peeled and apple to shred. The apple was about the size of a baseball, and I only used maybe half of it, and the rest of it was eaten as a snack. Unfortunately, I don’t recall what type of apple it was, but it was not a Granny smith or a Red delicious!
Finally, to make it bigger I used my 11″ tart pan. I wrapped the bottom of the pan with some aluminum foil since I wasn’t sure if any batter would leak out, and it was much easier to do this rather than cut a big circle of parchment paper. Using the tart pan allows you to have a nice size piece of cake, and still have a lot of topping on it.
Christey, me and 3 kids managed to eat about half the coffee cake (or coffee pie as my daughter kept calling it). There was enough for breakfast the next 2-3 days, and Christey even took a slice for her mom that day!
Apple Coffee Cake
- 11″ tart OR 8×8 pan
- 1 1/2 cups AP flour
- 1/4c Unsweetened applesauce
- 3/4 c Sugar
- 3/4 c Milk
- 2 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
- 1 Egg
- 3/4 tsp. Salt
- 1/4 Shredded apple (no peel)
- Pinch of cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Topping:
- 1/3 c Brown sugar
- 1/2 c Finely chopped nuts (Pecans were used in this recipe)
- 2 tsp. Cinnamon
- 2 tbs. Butter
- Pinch of nutmeg
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees, and lightly spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Batter: Combine all ingredients together, except the topping in a bowl.
- Topping: Combine ingredients together. (I use my mini-food processor.)
- Sprinkle the topping evenly over the surface of the coffee cake batter
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top becomes a light golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when placed in the center.
Found your blog on twitter! What a cute blog you have here. 🙂 I love coffee cake too! I don’t drink coffee but I eat coffeecake with hot cocoa. 🙂 This looks delicious.