Double Streusel Cherry Almond Coffee Cake

Mountains of streusel.

Lately we’ve been playing a game at dinner where we ask each other questions. Emmett thinks this is so fun and I do too. We learn all kinds of funny things about each other that somehow, we have never covered before. It’s fun for parents and kids because it's middle ground between adult conversations (BORING) and discussing the latest toy craze and why “We NEED those toys in our lives!”.  It’s a game where we can all participate equally. The other night the question was “What is your favorite breakfast?” So that led us down the path of what the best breakfast foods are. Paul mentioned coffee cake, then why we never have it, and casually, “We should make a cherry coffee cake sometime.” Asking for a specific baked good just days before Father’s Day? Well played Paul. Well played. 

“We” got the hint. Truthfully, I don’t know why we don’t have coffee cake more often. It’s so good. And I know I never make it, because I remember the last time I made a coffee cake. VIVIDLY. It was just over four years ago. The day before Eve was born. New neighbors had moved in down the street. I bought all of the ingredients to make them a “welcome-to-the-neighborhood-cake” and didn’t want a little thing like going into labor to cause them to go to waste. Ha! So I made the cake and had 3-year-old Emmett bring it over to their house with me. Because it was for them, we never had a chance to taste it. I remember it looking delicious and thinking that I probably should have made a double batch.  This became especially obvious to me the next morning when I finally had baby Eve in my arms after a long night at the hospital. 

This baby is thick.

I don’t remember much about the recipe or what I changed back then but I do remember that it came from King Arthur Flour and it was a recipe for blueberry coffee cake. When I decided to make this one, I went back to that same recipe and adapted it to make something cherry and almond flavored. Cherry as requested, almond because it goes so well with cherries and we all love it.  I added a touch of cardamom just because. I also used cake flour, because I have some and because I recently looked up several coffee cake recipes where cake flour was used so I thought, why not? 

The top photo is with double streusel, the bottom is with original amount. The batter becomes really thick after adding the frozen fruit.

Initially, I made half of the streusel but once I put it on top of the batter it looked sad and sparse, so I doubled it. How much is too much crunchy, buttery topping? I don’t know. But let me tell you what isn’t too much. Double. I mean this clearly isn’t diet food. I believe that you should just make cake that tastes amazing and have a smaller piece.  I used frozen cherries, which is one reason I think this cake took so long to bake. I know it seems long, but promise it took the entire 75 minutes! Even then I was wondering if I was pulling it too soon, but after letting it cool in the pan for a little while, it ended up being perfectly cooked through.  I was checking intermittently from the 40 minute mark. Even though I used a 9-inch pan, with all that streusel this cake came out tall and thick. I have no idea how to remove a cake like this from a regular cake pan, so I used a springform pan which worked well. For our purposes it wouldn’t have mattered (since we are always happy to eat straight from the pan), but if you want to remove it and put it on a plate, keep in mind that you might lose some streusel when you turn it out onto one. 

This should be my new zoom background.

Double Streusel Cherry Almond Coffee Cake 

Ingredients 

For Streusel

2/3 cup  sugar

1 cup cake flour (or all-purpose)

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, at cool room temperature  

For Cake

2 cups cake flour or all-purpose

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, softened

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract 

1/2 cup milk, at room temperature

12 ounces frozen cherries

Directions

 Streusel

Grease a 9-inch cake or springform pan.

 For streusel, combine flour, sugar, salt, cardamom and almond extract in a bowl.

Using a pastry cutter or your hands, combine butter into flour mixture until the texture is crumbly.  Set aside. 

Cake

Preheat oven to 375F. Combine sugar, and butter in the bowl of a mixer and mix until fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add egg and extracts and continue to beat for another few minutes until the mixture is pale and well combined.

While you are mixing the butter and sugar, combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 

Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture.  

Once milk and flour mixture are thoroughly combined with the butter mixture, add frozen cherries and stir until just combined. 

Pour batter into prepared cake pan and top with streusel. 

Bake for 65 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Midwest Made: Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle

True story. Last time I made a pie, an apple pie, I pulled it out of the oven, set it on the counter and ran out to the grocery store.  When I returned, my dear husband, Paul, had cut into it prematurely and ALL of the juices were spilling out into the gaping hole left from the piece he had served himself. I was SO.MAD. Like couldn’t see straight mad. Like the maddest I remember being in YEARS! Which, in retrospect, is actually pretty funny. Still, I think we can all agree that it’s super frustrating to spend a few hours making a pie just to have someone ruin it the minute you pull it out of the oven to rest. I explained to him that ALL pies need to rest before you cut them. Fruit pies, so that the juices can cool and thicken properly, and custard pies so that the custard can set.  He said that leaving a warm pie on the counter was entrapment. Ok. Fair point. Regardless, I think my anger scared him straight. I don’t think he’ll ever cut into a pie without permission again.  

I guess I’m glad that cutting into a pie too soon is about the most infuriating thing Paul has done in the last several years. But trust him around baked goods? I unequivocally do not. Which is why, after finding this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle a week or so I go, I knew I had to make it when he was not home.  The directions call for “cooling completely” before removing the brittle from the cookie sheet. So unless I was up for getting in between Paul and a warm Chocolate Chip Cookie-type situation, I was waiting.  

Turns out I didn’t have to wait too long. Thanks to Chicago Public School’s and all of the random days off they give the kids, there was no school this Friday.  Perfect opportunity to bake with Emmett. Good thing he’s a lot better at waiting than his dad. I love this brittle. It’s reminiscent of a Chocolate Chip Cookie, but definitely not a cookie. 

It’s something entirely different. Even if, like me, you love thin, crunchy cookies, this is still not that, it really is more of a brittle.  The surprising accuracy of a name! I feel like you have to try it to understand. And you should! The only problem with the recipe, and brittle format, is that I feel like it’s REALLY easy to eat way too much of this.   

Child baker or serial killer? You decide. (This was actually the least wacky of the camera smiles he gave me. Ha!)

It took us under 10 minutes to prep these and after about 20 minutes in the oven they were ready.  I think it was harder for me to wait for it to cool than it was for Emmett. Truth. But don’t tell Paul. 

He jammed an animal cookie in his mouth to give him sustenance for continued whisking.

We made these with mini chocolate chips, regular chocolate chips and chopped hazelnuts and sprinkled them with additional sea salt before putting them in the oven.  I think they would also be incredible with pecans, or white chocolate and crushed pretzels. I suggested pretzels but Emmett didn’t like the idea. Crazy kid. I hope the girls and Paul like this brittle as much as I do because I don’t trust myself with a whole container of this stuff in the house. 

I’m going to say this is a must make. I’m definitely bringing it to the next party I’m invited to. Maybe I’ll even bring some to the store tomorrow for the Cocoa Crawl! It’s from the book Midwest Made by Shauna Sever. If you love all things Midwest, like me, you will love this book.  You can find the recipe here. Also, I want to bake just about everything else in the book. As you can imagine, there are a bunch of homey, Scandanavian-influenced recipes in there.  Nothing Irish about it but I’m guessing it would all be Ireland approved fare. Ehhem, Potato Chip Shortbread, Brewer’s Cheddar Bread, I’m looking at you. Actually, there is a recipe for Brown Irish Soda Bread that’s on my list, so I stand corrected. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to squirrel away some of this brittle before the rest of the family gets home. Have a great weekend and if you don’t have plans tomorrow, stop by Long Grove for the Cocoa Crawl.

Almond Pear Cake

So it turns out having four kids five and under is busy. It doesn’t really “feel” busier than three, but it must be.  See, I notice it more in the things that don’t get done because I have more priorities to sift through and more goes by the wayside. So while I’ve been managing to get home-cooked meals on the table most nights, taking photos of them, writing down recipes, even trying new recipes has mostly not happened. Evenings are chaotic.  It all is. But it’s also fun. And hard to believe how much the kids have grown up in a few short years. They are able to offer more and more help in the kitchen and everywhere. I’ve also noticed a gradual change in their eating habits. Isla eats a lot these days and Eve has been surprising us by eating all kinds of stuff she never did before, broccoli, mushrooms, celery, etc. Noelle likes everything and Emmett, always a good eater, gets a little better each week.  I’m looking forward to the day when they all eat less like toddlers and I’m hopeful that it might be somewhat soon.

One food we all like is this cake. Well, in the end at least. Emmett swore he wasn’t going to like it before he even tried it because it wasn’t chocolate (he made me promise that he could have candy for dessert instead - ever the negotiator). Of course, he ended up being obsessed and claiming all of the leftovers for himself. I wonder what his kindergarten teacher thought of me sending him to school with a slice of cake in his backpack.  “Mother of the year?” “She must be French?” Hopefully the latter. Either way, I’m so glad I remembered my little trick of making an extra to stash in the freezer.

I made this simple Almond and Pear Cake for Paddy’s birthday this year. It’s really an almond cake with some sliced pears on the bottom - the top when flipped over. It doesn’t taste strongly of pear but is definitely almondy if you like that sort of thing. I’m a sucker for anything with almond paste.  It’s also one of those cakes that gets even better if you let it sit for a day. Which is great if you are having a dinner party and have other dishes to focus on. We also had rack of lamb, green beans with almonds and brown butter and potatoes, though by the time we sat down to eat, food was the last thing on our minds.

That’s because Paddy had gone to church that evening for some kind of event and was supposed to get to our house around 5pm, according to Paul.  When 6pm rolled around and he was nowhere in sight, Paul got worried and started to drive around looking for him. Meanwhile, I was grilling my brother-in-law John about where he could be, whether or not he had a cell phone with him, where the church was, when the meeting was - all questions he couldn’t answer. Paul did know what church it was and had already called. They told him that the meeting ended an hour earlier which only worried him more, so he set off for the church.  

A little while later, Paddy waltzed through the door without a care in the world, talking about how the meeting had run quite long. Classic! Relieved, we all felt silly for being so worried, after all, Paddy has been navigating the world for several decades, most of them before cell phones and gps. The funny thing is, this kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME with the Barry boys. I’m so glad Paul’s sister CeCe has moved back to Chicago to commiserate with me and help keep everyone in line.

The benefit of this little scare was that I think it made us all a little more grateful for another year of happiness and good health with Paddy.  We love him so much! Even more than cake.

Almond Pear Cake

Ingredients

• 2 ripe pears

• 1 cup cake flour, divided

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/3 cups caster or superfine sugar

• 7 ounces almond paste

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature and cut into 1-tablespoon cubes

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 6 large eggs, at room temperature

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line two six-inch (or one 8 or 9 -inch) cake pans with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.

Peel and slice the pears. Arrange them in the bottom of the cake pan.

Whisk together 3/4 cup of cake flour, the baking powder, and the salt. Set aside.

In a food processor, grind the sugar, almond paste, and 1/4 cup of the cake flour until the almond paste has mixed with the sugar and forms a sandy texture.

With the food processor running, add the cubes of butter one at a time, followed by the almond extract. Process until the batter is smooth and light.
Add the eggs one at a time, processing after each addition.

Add half of the dry ingredients and pulse until incorporated. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients pulsing a few times again until just incorporated.

Pour the batter over the pears, then bake the cake in the center of the oven. Check it after 40 minutes rotating in the oven.

Watch it closely, mine took 55 minutes but it can take as long as 70 minutes depending on the pans you use, your oven etc.

When a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, remove the cake from the oven and run a sharp knife around the perimeter of the pan to loosen it from the sides. Let the cake cool completely, then invert it.

Wrap in plastic and keep at room temperature until you are ready to serve.