Recipe: Whole Grain and Yogurt Coffee Cakes With Pecan And Cacao Nib Streusel
Here's a coffee cake recipe that matches the intensity of flavors provided by our local coffee roasters.
In a region that supports as many quality independent coffee roasters as ours, I was inspired to come up with a coffee cake that is robust and self confident enough to be an equal partner to some of these intensely flavored brews. I want to address something right off the bat — this recipe uses a fair amount of dairy product between the butter and the yogurt, which means it is not the least expensive coffee cake recipe you could turn to nor one that could boast being “low fat." My choice to use these fats and flavorings is based on a few things:
- The texture, flavor and increased shelf-life conferred by these animal fats is superior to baked goods using vegetable oils.
- We live in a dairy producing part of the country and I like to buy the best that our local food shed produces.
- My research and experience, while not exhaustive or scientific per se, has led me to believe that animal fats from healthy, pastured animals is more health supportive for us than processed vegetable oils.
Now on to the best reason to make these yummy little cakes — they are such a pleasure and a joy to eat!
Whole Grain and Yogurt Coffee Cakes with a Pecan and Cacao Nib Streusel
Yield: 12 individual coffee cakes baked in silicone muffin molds or regular muffin tins
Ingredients:
½ pound of salted butter, softened
1 ½ cups turbinado sugar
4 large pastured eggs, at room temp
4 cups whole wheat flour (I use whole wheat Spelt which is an heirloom wheat varietal)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tea. fine sea salt
2 cups whole milk vanilla yogurt
Filling/Topping:
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1 tea. cinnamon
1/4 tea. ground cardamom
1/2 tea. freshly grated orange zest
1/2 cup chopped pecans
½ cup cacao nibs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir well to evenly distribute the leavening and salt.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and thoroughly incorporate. Add one third of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine thoroughly. Add one third of the vanilla yogurt to this mixture. Alternate thirds of the dry ingredients with the yogurt until all are incorporated.
Make the filling and topping:
3. Simply combine all the filling ingredients in a small bowl and stir well to evenly distribute.
4. If using regular muffin tins, line them with muffin liners.
5. Fill each muffin mold half-way with the batter, then sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of the streusel over it. Add more batter until muffin mold is mostly filled then sprinkle 1 teaspoon of streusel on top. If you have any left over topping just divide it evenly over the tops of the cakes.
5. Place the molds in the center of the oven and bake for 20- 25 minutes. Start testing for doneness at 20 minutes and add 3-5 minutes if a toothpick still comes out a little gummy. This is a moist cake but it still should not be gummy in the middle.
6. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before unmolding the cakes. They keep well for up to 3 days at room temperature, in the refrigerator for up to 10 days and keep a couple of months in the freezer.
