Yummy Apple Coffee Cake

Not long ago I saw this wonderful coffee cake on Michele's blog, My Italian Grandmother, and I was intrigued. So much so that every weekend I'd buy apples and then get too busy to make it, someone would eat the apples during the week and the cycle would begin again the following weekend.

Finally I got down to business this morning. I even had time to wrap my head around this marvelous coffee cake and come up with a little alteration.

Bundt sounded good. And of course when I think of Bundt, I think of Monkey Bread...and that oowie gooowie pecan, brown sugar glaze....and a light bulb went off in my head. It didn't take long for the bulb to blow a fuse, but luckily it was in working order long enough for me to put this baby together.

Cake batter:
2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped up (I used macintosh and jonathan)
1 3/4 cup a.p. flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla (I probably spilled....oops, gee darn, a tad bit more in the dish)
2 eggs
1 cup ricotta cheese

Streusel:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup a.p. flour
1/4 cup oats
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup pecan pieces
3 tbsp butter, diced

Glaze:
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 340' F (nope...not 350....340). Spray your Bundt pan with some cooking spray...

Combine all of the streusel ingredients, except for the butter, in a food processor. Then add the butter, pulse a few times (maybe 10?) and then process for about 5 - 10 seconds until there are no butter lumps.

Set aside

Combine the dry ingredients for the cake batter (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt), in a medium sized bowl.

In a larger bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well.

Then....add the flour and ricotta cheese, alternating between the two, mixing until well combined

Now...this next step is what I did, but probably not what I'll do next time.

In a small sauce pan, combine the glaze ingredients, and heat until bubbly and all the butter has melted and sugar has dissolved...stirring constantly. Pour into the bundt pan

Theeeeeen....spoon 1/2 of the cake batter onto the glaze, carefully. I think its easiest to use small amounts and dab it around....and kinda pushing it to spread. You'll see what I'm talking about. Next sprinkle the streusel over the batter. Now (this is when I peeled and chopped my apple so it wouldn't discolor) it's time to scatter the apple chunks over the streusel and last but not least.....carefully spread the remaining cake batter over the apples....

Pop that baby into the oven and bake for about 45 minutes.

Being that this was an experiment (with the glaze and all) I wasn't sure what to expect. I removed the pan from the over and tried to gently run a knife around the edges....just in case (may have not been a real good idea). I put an upside down plate over the top of the cake and flipped it over....and veeeeeeeeeery carefully removed the pan....

ooooooh....crap.

Some of that glaze was left in the pan. Thank God it's sticky stuff. I scooped it out of the pan and slapped it back onto that baby.....Voila!!!

Not bad. 

Could've been worse, right?

I think next time, I'll put the glaze over the cake after it's already cooked. 

But I do like the Bundt look :)


And it tastes incredibly good.


So good that I must take this to work with me.


The whole thing


Otherwise I'll eat it.

All!

(ya, it's that good!)