Our neighbor is one of the sweetest people around. She is such a great neighbor. She is a huge OSU fan, loves the little boy, and is just a good person. This week she had shoulder surgery so I decided to take her some goodies as a "neighborly" get well gesture.
I told you that story to tell you this story: as I was grocery shopping for the weekend, I had to walk down the bread aisle. There is not only bread on the bread aisle, but there are also donuts, muffins, and assorted other sweet breakfast items. Usually, these products don't really tempt me, but on this day, a package of Hostess Coffee Cakes caught my eye... Then I heard them calling my name. O no. When I was a kid I loved those little individually wrapped cakes with cinnamon topping. It was dessert for breakfast- what kid wouldn't love that? In a moment of nostalgia, I almost put a box in my cart... but then I thought twice (who knew a pregnant woman craving sweets could have such self control?). If I bought those little coffee cakes I would get them home and first, look at the nutrition facts and cringe, then, decide to just eat them and not care, and finally I would spend the next week disappointed that I ate them. So, I made myself a deal that I would make my own (healthier) coffee cake and, as my "get well gesture" I would give half of it to my neighbor along with some blueberry muffins. Crisis solved.
I came home on a mission to find a really good coffee cake recipe. Cue allrecipes.com. I love this site and the people that review the recipes! Apparently, in the world of coffee cake, there are many variations. There are fluted pan coffee cakes, streusel coffee cakes, apple, blueberry, pineapple, pecan, and hazelnut varieties. I had no clue which kind I was looking for, but I knew what ingredients I had so that narrowed my focus to something of the cinnamon variety. I found a recipe that had 4.5 stars and the title was "Quick Coffee Cake". Works for me!
If you've never read the reviews on allrecipes.com you're missing out on an even better recipe than the one you pulled up. Seemingly "expert" reviewers make suggestions on improving the recipe. Not all the suggestions are good, however, most of the time they are quite helpful. So here is the recipe with reviewer changes made, in brackets are substitutions or changes I made... this may also be a good time to tell you I NEVER add salt when I'm baking- NEVER. Try it, you won't miss it, I promise.
Ingredients
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan.
2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and sugar. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender to the size of small peas.
3. In a separate small bowl, beat the egg well, then stir in the milk and vanilla. Add the egg-milk mixture to the flour mixture all at once. Stir carefully until just blended.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Drizzle top with melted butter. [I drizzled the butter after adding the topping because one reviewer said it made the topping crispier. I'm not sure if that's true or not but it worked for me.]
5. In a small bowl mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of cake. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean
This was a really great coffee cake. Much better than the store bought one would have been :)
Just a side note (read: shameless plug) the Square Pan and Mini-Serving Spatula are the perfect compliment to this recipe. Ask me how you can use them in your kitchen or go to my Pampered Chef website: www.pamperedchef.biz/lynnseychildress and make them yours!
Yes, he is eating the crumbs out of the pan. This recipe is also toddler approved!
This is what I took to my neighbor, I hope she enjoyed them!
No comments:
Post a Comment