The Best Streusel Coffee Cake
Prep
20m
Cook
50m
Total
70m
Bigly says
Folks. FOLKS. Coffee cake. The BEST coffee cake. The greatest coffee cake in the history of coffee cake — and there's been a LOT of coffee cake, the Austrians had coffee cake, the Germans had coffee cake, somebody in Pennsylvania had coffee cake, I had people look it up — and this one, MY coffee cake, the one I'm about to give you, BEATS every single one of them. Every one. It's not even close. It's a slaughter.
My grandmother made a streusel cake every Sunday. She was a tough woman. She did not suffer fools, she did not suffer dry cake, and she did NOT suffer a sad little sprinkle of cinnamon called streusel. She'd lift the pan and look you in the eye, and if the clumps weren't there she'd put it back in the oven and shame you about it for the rest of the afternoon. From her I learned the truth — real streusel has CLUMPS. Big buttery brown sugar clumps you can see from across the room. Tremendous clumps. The neighbor down the street tried to copy her recipe and lived to be 102. Could be a coincidence. Probably not.
Let me tell you the difference between my coffee cake and the cake at the bakery down the street. TWO layers of streusel. Two! One ribbon running through the middle, one buttery crown on top. One layer is for cowards. The middle ribbon is the move nobody talks about — it caramelizes into a soft cinnamon vein right through the crumb, and when you slice the cake it's like cutting into geology. Beautiful. The crumb stays moist for four days because of the sour cream — full-fat, the low-fat stuff is a CRIME against baking — and you'll be eating it for breakfast, dessert, and a third occasion you invent on the spot. That's the recipe. That's the promise.
Ingredients
- 1 cupall-purpose flour (for streusel)
- 3/4 cuplight brown sugar, packed (for streusel)
- 1/4 cupgranulated sugar (for streusel)
- 1.5 tbspground cinnamon (for streusel)
- 1/2 tspkosher salt (for streusel)
- 1/2 cup (1 stick)unsalted butter, melted (for streusel)(melted, not softened, we want clumps)
- 2 cupsall-purpose flour (for cake)
- 1.5 tspbaking powder
- 1/2 tspbaking soda
- 3/4 tspkosher salt (for cake)
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks)unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cupgranulated sugar (for cake)
- 2large eggs
- 2 tspvanilla extract
- 1 cupfull-fat sour cream(full-fat, the low-fat stuff is sad)
- 1/2 cuppowdered sugar (for glaze, optional)
- 2-3 tspmilk (for glaze, optional)
Steps
- 1
Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9x9-inch baking pan and line with parchment, leaving overhang on two sides for easy lifting.
- 2
Make the streusel: whisk flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Pour in the melted butter and stir with a fork until the mixture forms wet, sandy clumps. Refrigerate while you make the cake.
- 3
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
- 4
In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high for 3 minutes until pale and fluffy.
- 5
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, scraping the bowl as needed.
- 6
Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream in two additions, starting and ending with the flour. Mix on low just until combined — do not overmix.
- 7
Spread half the batter (it will be thick) evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle on a third of the streusel as a middle ribbon.
- 8
Dollop the remaining batter on top and gently spread to cover. Crumble the rest of the streusel over the top in big clumps — do not flatten.
- 9
Bake 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs (not wet batter) and the streusel is deep golden.
- 10
Cool in the pan on a rack for at least 30 minutes. Lift out using the parchment.
- 11
If using glaze, whisk powdered sugar with enough milk to make a thick drizzle. Drizzle over the cooled cake. Slice into 9 squares.
One more thing
This cake is what coffee was INVENTED for. Many people don't know this — I'm not saying it to be controversial, I'm saying it because it's just a fact — coffee, without coffee cake, is a hot bitter cup of regret. With THIS coffee cake? Suddenly coffee makes sense. Suddenly Tuesday morning makes sense. Suddenly your whole LIFE makes sense. Bake it on a Saturday, eat it for four days, and watch your family treat you like a person of national importance. Which you are. Save me a piece.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about The Best Streusel Coffee Cake.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
★ MORE LIKE THIS ★
KEEP COOKING.
Tremendous Angel Food Cake
Tall, snow-white angel food cake with a tender cloud-like crumb. Twelve egg whites, no butter, no oil. Pure technique.
Tremendous Apple Crisp
Tender cinnamon-spiced apples under a crackling buttery oat-pecan topping. Bakes in 45 minutes. Best eaten warm with vanilla ice cream.
Bigly Apple Pie
All-butter double-crust apple pie with a mix of tart and sweet apples, warm spices, and a lacquered golden top. The pie every other pie answers to.
The Best Banana Bread
Tender, moist banana bread with deeply ripe bananas, brown butter, sour cream, and toasted walnuts. Stays soft for days. Better than the coffee shop.