The perfect morning for me begins at 5:00 am with a tall mug of hot black coffee, no cream or sugar please, and a delicious coffee cake. There's no need for cream and sugar in your coffee when you've got a coffee cake that perfectly complements with sweet deliciousness. I know 5:00 am is early, but if I want any time to myself I’ve got to get up at the crack of dawn before anyone wakes up just to get in a few quiet moments. The cool thing about coffee cake is how versatile it is and how much you can change it up. While the batter usually stays the same, you can play with the streusel on top or the filling in the center, it’s really up to you. For this coffee cake recipe, I went with a cream cheese center, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
The best part of coffee cake is the crumb topping, or streusel. It’s that extra bit of sweetness and crunchiness that puts that touch of love on the cake. I simply cut together some butter, flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, and chopped up pecans for the topping. You can use a pastry knife to do this or a fork, but the goal is to get the butter about the size of rice.
The next best part of the coffee cake is the center. Now there are a ton of different things you can do here, like brown sugar and butter chunks, or fruit, or icing, but I decided to have the best of all things and mixed together some softened cream cheese and half of the pecan streusel. That’s right: cream cheese, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans as my center. Can you blame me?
Now on the the batter. It’s as easy as creaming together some butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy, and then adding in a few eggs and some vanilla. Next, you mix in the dry ingredients until it’s incorporated. I used
Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Unbleached Flour with some baking soda, baking powder, and salt and it was the perfect combo. Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Unbleached Flour is unbleached, unbromated, enriched baking flour milled from high quality North American wheat and is excellent for all of your baking needs.
Time to load up your Bundt pan with all this delicious goodness. Start by adding half of the batter to the bottom and then layering on the cream cheese filling, the other half of the batter, and then the crumb topping. From there you bake in the oven at 350°F for about 45 minutes. I always say that simplicity is elegant when it comes to food, and that’s why the classic coffee cake is still so dang good. Enjoy!
Coffee Cake with Butter Pecan Streusel
For the Streusel:
For the Filling:
- ½ cup softened Cream Cheese
For the Batter:
- 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- Pinch of Kosher salt
- ¾ cup Unsalted Butter
- 2/3 cup Sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 cup Sour Cream
- ¼ cup Whole Milk
Serves 8 to 10
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan.
For the streusel: Add all of the ingredients to a medium size bowl and using a pastry knife or fork, cut the butter in so that it is the size of rice and set aside.
For the filling: Add the cream cheese and half of the streusel to a medium size bowl and whisk until completely combined, and set aside.
For the batter: Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl and mix until combined. Set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar in a standing mixer on high speed until it is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
Next, add in the egg and vanilla and mix until completely combined. Turn the speed down to low and slowly add in the dry ingredients just until they are mixed in.
Finish the batter by mixing in the sour cream and whole milk until it’s combined.
Next add half of the batter to the prepared Bundt pan, and then layer on the cream cheese filling, the other half of the batter, and then the crumb topping.
Bake for about 45 minutes and cool completely before serving.
Hello, I’m Billy Parisi, but to some I’m known as “Chef Billy Parisi.” I do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but for the most part I’m a Food & Content Creator, Sometimes TV Host, Digital and Social Strategist, Influencer, Picture Taker, Coffee Drinker, Daddy, Husband, College Sports Enthusiast, Fashionisto, Film & Music Lover!
I’ve been in the kitchen since I started washing dishes in a restaurant at the age of 13, and during that time I knew immediately that I wanted to be a chef. I graduated from Arizona’s Scottsdale Culinary Institute and the University of Missouri, and have logged several years as line cook, sous chef, and executive in some of the Midwest’s finest restaurants. I currently live in the city of Chicago with my wife Lindsay and daughter Olivia and cook up new inventions, mash-ups, fusions, and twists on old classics. I’m incredibly spontaneous and outgoing, and run two small businesses, BPMVC, and my latest venture, 5 Loaves 2 Fish!
The best part of coffee cake is the crumb topping, or streusel. It’s that extra bit of sweetness and crunchiness that puts that touch of love on the cake. I simply cut together some butter, flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, and chopped up pecans for the topping. You can use a pastry knife to do this or a fork, but the goal is to get the butter about the size of rice.
The next best part of the coffee cake is the center. Now there are a ton of different things you can do here, like brown sugar and butter chunks, or fruit, or icing, but I decided to have the best of all things and mixed together some softened cream cheese and half of the pecan streusel. That’s right: cream cheese, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans as my center. Can you blame me?
Now on the the batter. It’s as easy as creaming together some butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy, and then adding in a few eggs and some vanilla. Next, you mix in the dry ingredients until it’s incorporated. I used Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Unbleached Flour with some baking soda, baking powder, and salt and it was the perfect combo. Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Unbleached Flour is unbleached, unbromated, enriched baking flour milled from high quality North American wheat and is excellent for all of your baking needs.
Time to load up your Bundt pan with all this delicious goodness. Start by adding half of the batter to the bottom and then layering on the cream cheese filling, the other half of the batter, and then the crumb topping. From there you bake in the oven at 350°F for about 45 minutes. I always say that simplicity is elegant when it comes to food, and that’s why the classic coffee cake is still so dang good. Enjoy!
Hello, I’m Billy Parisi, but to some I’m known as “Chef Billy Parisi.” I do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but for the most part I’m a Food & Content Creator, Sometimes TV Host, Digital and Social Strategist, Influencer, Picture Taker, Coffee Drinker, Daddy, Husband, College Sports Enthusiast, Fashionisto, Film & Music Lover!
I’ve been in the kitchen since I started washing dishes in a restaurant at the age of 13, and during that time I knew immediately that I wanted to be a chef. I graduated from Arizona’s Scottsdale Culinary Institute and the University of Missouri, and have logged several years as line cook, sous chef, and executive in some of the Midwest’s finest restaurants. I currently live in the city of Chicago with my wife Lindsay and daughter Olivia and cook up new inventions, mash-ups, fusions, and twists on old classics. I’m incredibly spontaneous and outgoing, and run two small businesses, BPMVC, and my latest venture, 5 Loaves 2 Fish!
2 Comments