Best Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Everyone has their favorite time of year and mine without a doubt is fall. It has great holidays, Thanksgiving come to mind. The weather suits me perfectly, cool but sunny. Finally, I love the fall fruits, particularly pumpkins and apples. So, when I see a pumpkin recipe, particularly a coffee cake recipe, I’ve got to make it in honor of the best season of all.
Adapted from and inspired by a recipe on www.crunchycreamysweet
Click here for recipe
Topping
1/3 C (2 1/3 oz/65 g) brown sugar
1/3 C (2 1/3 oz/65 g) granulated sugar
1 t (2 g) ground cinnamon
½ t (3 g) salt
¾ C (68 ) graham cracker crumbs (4 ½ crackers)
¾ C (3 ¾ oz/106 g) all-purpose flour
½ C unsalted butter melted, cooled
Cake
2 ¼ C (11 ¼ oz/319 g) all-purpose flour
1 ¼ t (5 g) baking powder
1 t (4 g) baking soda
½ C (3 ½ oz/99 g) brown sugar
1 C (7 oz/198 g) granulated sugar
½ t (3 g) salt
2 t (10 ml) vanilla extract
2 ½ t (6 g) pumpkin pie spice
1 C (9 oz/258 g) pumpkin puree
2 large eggs, room temperature
½ C (120 ml) vegetable or canola oil
¾ C (180 ml) buttermilk, room temperature
Place oven rack in middle position and heat to 350° F (177° C). Spray a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with nonstick baking spray with flour. Set aside.
Topping – In medium bowl, whisk together sugars, cinnamon, salt, flour and graham cracker crumbs. Add cooled, melted butter and stir with fork until coarse crumbs form. Set aside.
Cake – In large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugars, salt and pumpkin spice.
In another medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, vanilla, oil and buttermilk.
Add wet and dry ingredients together and whisk until smooth, approximately a minute.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Tap pan on counter to release air bubbles. Sprinkle crumb topping over batter, spreading evenly.
Bake for 32 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in a few places near center comes out clean. Rotate pan one half turn midway through baking. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature on wire rack. Slice and serve.
Serves 12
Click here for Baker's Notes
2 Oct 18 – Used WinCo graham crackers in crumb topping, Samtiam pumpkin puree and canola oil for the cake. I sampled the Samtiam pumpkin puree and didn’t think it tasted as good or flavorful as Libby’s. The next time I would use Libby’s specially considering it was ATK’s pick. Otherwise, I followed the recipe and ingredients as written. The ¾ C of graham crackers turned out to be 9 ea, square (not rectangular) crackers and weighed 68 g. I was impressed with the quantity of topping knowing it would provide a thick, crunchy streusel which I like. I mixed the topping ingredients in the medium glass bowl, the wet ingredients in the small-medium glass bowl, and the dry ingredients in the large glass bowl. Mixing the wet and dry ingredients produced a nice consistency batter which easily poured into my parchment lined baking pan. I baked the coffee cake in the island oven on convention set at 330° F for 39 mins. I visually checked doneness it at 28 mins. The center giggled noticeably and I baked it another 11 mins or a total of 39 mins before removing it from the oven. It had a nice strong pumpkin aroma and the center did not stink once cooled which was a good indication it was not under done. After cutting, the texture looked and felt good. The pumpkin flavor was OK but not overly strong.