Yum Peaceful Cooking: Yummy Apple Coffee Cake

Sunday, November 1, 2009

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!)


25 comments:

  1. Wow! That first photo is awesome! I really want to try this one! My father in law dropped off a ton of apples today!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mmm...apple cake. It looks wonderful and perfect for the season.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This cake looks so tasty! I love the crumb topping. Adding the glaze after the cake is cooked is a good idea.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I want some! YUM! (lol, for reals)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow...absolutely delicious...some of my favorite ingredients combined!

    ReplyDelete
  6. yeah this looks amazing! I just posted an apple cake on my blog recently, but it definitely didn't have that topping on it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a great twist! It looks wonderful! Thanks for the linking to me!

    ReplyDelete
  8. long as it tastes good, but that is an amazing looking thing... great post

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh your cake looks divine!

    Very lovely blog you have and Congrats on the foodie blogroll!

    Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Haven't we all had that problem? However, your coffeecake looks perfect to me! Love that topping!

    ReplyDelete
  11. mmm this looks incredible!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love it! Still need to find another word for moist, though....wet? dewey? spine tingling? LOL I don't think there is one.

    ReplyDelete
  13. We both made apple bundt cakes! This looks incredibly delicious! Apples and cake are such a delicious combo!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh my goodness, that looks divine. Must make the Italian Grandmother's Yummy Apple Coffee Cake ASAP. So glad to have discovered two new food blogs at once.

    ReplyDelete
  15. ungourmet - Thank you :) well, now you know what to do with 2 of those apples LOL

    Deb - the aroma was incredible while it was baking (and on its way into my mouth)

    Fresh - I'm only worried that the glaze will be too runny and just end up on the plate. :\

    Linda - If I still had some, I'd be glad to share it. I took it to work this morning and went to get a slice at 2:30. It was aaaaaall gone :(

    Simple Life - thank you so much for stopping by :)

    DD - ROFL @ YUM!! hahaha I love you man!!

    Erica - I know, right? how can you go wrong with those ingredients

    Megan - ooooh...I'll have to stop by your blog and check out your apple cake.

    Michele - Thanks for posting the recipe so I could twist it up LOL

    Grill - thanks man :)

    Pam - thank you! and I'm glad you enjoyed my blog :)

    Barbara - Welcome to my blog! and thank you. I think I could just eat that topping on its own LOL

    Foodfitness - thank you....and thanks for the visit!

    Sam - Something about cinnamon and apple that soooo fall

    Cathy - ROFL!! hmmm...moist...soggy? LOL nope...moist is moist...good or bad

    Reeni - How funny!! GMTA!!! and your apple cake looks incredible. I only had a chance to briefly check it out, but I'll be back in a bit to give it a thorough look see.

    Margie - Thank you for stopping by. I'm sure you will LOVE the My Italian Grandmother blog. I've made several of her recipes and have not been disappointed.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh yummm your looks great!
    LOL I can't believe we both made apple cakes either! But ya know great minds think alike!!
    I'm taking some to work today, before I eat it all! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  17. It is heart breaking when the bundt doesn't let go - I've been there.
    But it looks wonderful anyway - great flavours!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow that looks good! I will have to give this a try!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Gooey glaze, apples, cinnamon and ricotta...OH MY! Sounds like something we would love!

    Don't you love to experiment!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh man, I love coffee cake! It looks amazing, I would totally eat it all too. Heh.

    ReplyDelete
  21. the presence of a streusel alone makes me giddy, but throwing a glaze on top of that makes me downright ecstatic. this is a phenomenal creation and i'd be hard-pressed not to eat the entire thing at once. :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Tango - gmta!! its that spooking bakespace thing we all have going on!! I took mine to work and it was gone by lunch time!

    Natashya - thanks. I think if i had let it rest for a few minutes before I removed it, I would've had better luck. I was just too impatient LOL

    Tracy - let me know whatcha think when you try it :)

    Michelle - I love to experiment when it turns out LOL

    Bob - I'd have to fight you for it dude. hahaa

    Grace - you always say the funniest and sweetest things :)

    ReplyDelete

I apologize for having to use the word verification but you know how spammers are. All comments with links will be treated as spam. Thank you for visiting. I will do my best to return the visit.
Cheers!