Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Breakfast treat or dessert?

I figure my stomach doesn't mind what time it digests certain foods. Well, within reason, of course. It does care about spaghetti sauce an hour or so before bed. But baked goods? No biggie. For about a year during high school, all I would eat for breakfast were those horribly sweet brownies from Little Debbie. Minus the nuts, though.

Thankfully, I've improved since then. ;) (I wouldn't touch those brownies with a ten foot pole!)

The evening after I made this, my mom decided to pair it with some caramel-swirl ice cream and declared it a hit. My dad has it as his after-lunch treat. I slip a slice in before heading to work. Or an after-work snack. It's gone by this point, I should add.

Sometime last week, I came across a recipe that called for buttermilk. Which I never really have on hand. When I bought some, I couldn't find the recipe. Doh! Thankfully, Baking Bites exists. :)

The recipe comes together in a breeze, with a very light, vanilla-y batter. Instead of chocolate chips, you could always substitute dried fruits or nuts. I like it's versatility, and will definitely save this recipe for the future.



Ingredients:
1-1/3 cups flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar
½ cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup buttermilk
3/4 cup chocolate chips

For streusel topping:
3 Tbsp. flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
3 Tbsp. butter, cold

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan or springform pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, then add vanilla. Add half of the flour mixture, beating until just combined. Follow with buttermilk, then remaining flour mixture, beating only until the flour is just mixed in. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread in prepared pan.

Combine flour, brown sugar, and cinnmon. Add the cold butter, using your fingers until it resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle on top of batter.

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Let cool completely in pan.

The Unphotographables: Blackberry Coffee Cake

It's such a long, crazy story as to how I wound up with this... item. Started at Baking Bites, for a blackberry pound cake. That got scratched when I saw that there was no buttermilk. Alright, so we move from there. Long evolution story short, I wound up piecing together a recipe or two. Which isn't always a bad thing, as we all know. :)

So I mix it together, gently fold in the blackberries, pour into the pan, etc. I'm cleaning up the mixer bowl when I realize there's a faint scent of... burning popcorn from behind me. What the duck? Well, despite using the the proper size pan and everything, we had leakage.

Leakage, of course, meaning a blob reminiscent of something out of '50s sci-fi movie. Entertaining, but not what you want all over the bottom of the oven. Especially when it smells like burnt popcorn. Which then wafts its way across the house, like it does, and wakes up your mother, who had surgery the day before. Doh!

Anyways, despite how it sounds, The Day the Blackberry Coffee Cake Oozed, doesn't taste bad. It just looks all kinds of hideous. Hence a new category in the blogdom... The Unphotographables. Not that I have the best picture taken skills in the world, but this guy, ooh. I think I'd need a studio with fancy lights to make him look good.

I'll post the recipe, but do keep the Blob in mind if you decide to make it. Maybe a different size pan would help, too. :)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup sour cream
1 pint blackberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8- or 9-inch round pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sour cream and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients. Spread into prepared pan. Top with as many blackberries as you'd like.

Bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for a bit before serving.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Well, my weekend didn't go exactly as planned. I did sort through a lot of books from my younger days that are going to be donated. The current count is 325 books. Mostly of the Sweet Valley Twins, Sunset Island, Freshman Dorm, etc. My pre-teen and teenage years books, mostly. And I still have more going; probably about a hundred of the Babysitter's Club books. Yep, I was one of those. Had to have every single one. No, those obsessive traits aren't around anymore at all. ;)

Anyways, I didn't get to make the lime blondies yet. Maybe next weekend. This morning I concentrated on making something that I could bring to work. When Dave and I went to the grocery store, there were blueberries on sale - a pint for $1.50. Not bad, right? Thus my search for blueberry-related baked goods was on.

I found the basic outline of this one over at AllRecipes and altered it a bit, adding brown sugar and some more spices. Looking back, some sour cream would have done well, too, but the convenience store at the top of the street charges insanely high amounts ($2.98 for an 8-ounce package of cream cheese!) It tastes well enough, though. The 'streusel topping' leaves a lot to be desired, though. But it's decent enough. *shrug*



Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup milk
2 cups fresh blueberries

½ cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
Ginger
Nutmeg
3 Tbsp. butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in berries. Gently spread into prepared pan.

Mix together brown sugar, flour, and spices, then cut in butter, mixing until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 375F for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack before cutting.

Cinnamon Chai-Spiced Coffee Cake

Knowing that we were going up to Half Moon Bay's Pumpkin Festival today, I decided not to overwhelm Dave with the pumpkin-ness. It was a good trip - traffic was a bit much on Route 92, but I sang along with the Spamalot soundtrack and therefore didn't care so much. :) Sadly, there was no pumpkin fudge this year, which has been a highlight for me every time that I've gone. Even sadder, since we're moving next May/June, I won't be going to the Pumpkin Festival again for a while. I'll either have to make my own or find someplace in New England that makes it.

Also, unfortunately, I can't remember where I found this recipe. I copied it out when the printer was being moody, and failed to write down its source. Oops.

It turned out well. I loved the batter, so light and smooth. I almost feel like there was too much. The edge pieces are a bit big and definitely more than a biteful! If I made this again, I'd add some cinnamon to the batter was well. In contrast to the topping, it seems almost plain. *shrug*



Ingredients:
Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. cardamom
½ tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. salt
1½ cups flour
½ cup butter, melted

Cake:
1-3/4 cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1½ tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup sour cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.

Whisk together all crumb toppings except for butter. Gradually add butter. Once incorporated, squeeze small clumps together, varying in size. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Alternately add flour mix and sour cream, until well mixed. Pour into prepared pan. Top with crumbles.

Bake at 350F for 40-45 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Cut into squares.

Pumpkin Streusel Coffeecake

To me, nothing invokes feelings of autumn than pumpkin. I know, it's good year-round, but something about that first chill in the air brings warm memories of, well, pumpkin. And shushel-ing through the fallen leaves (Oh, how I miss that, living in California!)

Ingredients:
Streusel Topping:
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
3 Tbsp butter
½ cup coarsely chopped nuts

Coffeecake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

For Streusel Topping:
Combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is crumbly; stir in nuts.

For Coffeecake:
Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Spoon half of batter into prepared cake pan. Sprinkle 3/4 cup Streusel Topping over batter. Spoon remaining batter evenly over Streusel Topping; sprinkle with remaining Streusel Topping.

Bake at 350F for 45 to 50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Raspberry-Cheese Coffee Cake

I think the best 'intro' to this recipe would be my original comment, back from 2005, "Well, if the dish any sign of a dessert's goodness... There's just about half left. It's a good thing." :)

As a side note, any kind of preserve can be used, with seeds or without.

Ingredients:
1 8-oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter
1-3/4 cups flour
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. vanilla
½ cup seedless red raspberry or strawberry preserves
Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 13x9-inch baking pan; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for about 30 seconds or until combined. Add about half of the flour to the cream chese mixture.

Add the granulated sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla to the cream cheese mixture. Beat on low speed until thoroughly combined. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Beat in remaining flour just until combined.

Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Spoon preserves in small spoonfuls on top of the batter. Using a small narrow spatula or knife, gently swirl preserves into the batter to create a marble effect.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.