Sunday, July 8, 2012

Blueberry coffee cake with raspberry-orange jam and almond streusel topping



Okay, so I need a better name for this cake. Suggestions welcome...

I make this coffee cake often. Not this specific variation--I've never put in blueberries or jam before--but I make the cake part often. It's fine on its own, but slightly boring, so I usually use the cake batter as a jumping-off point for whatever fruit I happen to have in the house at the time. My standard variation is to peel, core, slice, and saute a couple of Granny Smith apples in butter, with cinnamon, sugar, and maybe a little amaretto if I have it on hand, which makes an apple pie-like filling and is generally met with enthusiasm.

Oh, standard disclaimer: There is usually a point in my baking projects at which I just sort of cease measuring. So, um, good luck there.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9x9 pan. Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Sift together:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cups almond flour (ALMOND FLOUR IS THE SECRET TO ALL OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES YOU GUYS)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream: 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick or 4 tablespoons)
1/3 cup sugar (NOTE: When I do the apple variation, I usually only use 1/4 cup sugar, because there's so much sugar in the sauteed apple mixture.)

Then add:
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Mix in dry ingredients.

Then mix in however many blueberries you have, or want to add. This is the point at which I stopped measuring. I probably had 1 1/2 cups of blueberries, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Pour into greased pan, then dollop jam over the top. Again, I failed to measure. Maybe half a cup? I'm going to guess that the amount of jam you want will depend on a) how much you like jam and b) how strong/sweet your jam is. Mine was homemade raspberry jam, to which I added some orange juice and orange zest. I'd tell you how to make that but it was, of course, experimental, and I forgot to measure.

Anyway, swirl the jam around, like if you were making a fudge marble cake.

Streusel topping:
Chopped almonds...um, 3/4 cup, maybe?
2 or 3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar

Whirl it in a food processor until it's crumbly, then spread it on the cake. Bake for 25 minutes or until done. You do have to gauge doneness by eye, a bit, because the jam layer makes the toothpick test kind of irrelevant. If the streusel's light golden brown, that's a good sign.

One day, I promise to measure everything.

1 comment:

  1. Secret Almond Flour Coffee Cake

    That's the new name.

    ReplyDelete