Buttermilk Coffeecake

I am not a natural baker.  Great baking seems to require precise temperatures, careful measuring, and sifting.  I don’t have the patience for any of that.  Which doesn’t stop me from baking, often, since it is an undeniable fact that I love to eat cakes and cookies and muffins, frequently to my detriment.  It helps that I’m not terribly picky about what I’ve baked.  Chances are, it has loads of butter, sugar, vanilla, plus fruit or chocolate or nuts, or some combination of the three; what’s not to like?

The other reason that I bake a lot is that my kids love to help me bake, and we all have a great time.  They are at an age where it takes so little to please them.  When my son – with my help – dumps a teaspoon of vanilla into a bowl, then bounces up and down and grins because he is so pleased with himself, that experience becomes something that I try to replicate as often as I can.

So – since I think it probably goes without saying that I’m lazy – I’m always looking for a baking shortcut, some magical ingredient that will render my final product both light and moist, without the tedium of sifting or the frustration of trying to bring an egg to room temperature.  For a while, I was using a lot of sour cream, which does make cakes moist, but sometimes a bit heavy.  I’ve found a better dance partner now: buttermilk.

Being from a family of coffeecake lovers, I’ve long sought the perfect coffeecake.  Several of my family members are indifferent to chocolate (a gene that bypassed me entirely) but are helpless before a crumb topping.  Recently, I fed this cake to my family, and got rave reviews.  You must remember that this is a population who will never hesitate to tell me if something sucks, particularly something as important as coffeecake.  (I also fed it to my co-workers – and it was gone in about sixty seconds, accompanied by moans of pleasure – but the truth is that my co-workers will eat anything if it’s free, so I don’t put too much stock in that.)  This cake is not only moist, light and delicious, it appears to be pretty foolproof to boot.  The topping will survive without the nuts, but I love the pecans, and you could certainly substitute walnuts, or any other nuts you have on hand. 

BUTTERMILK COFFEE CAKE

 2 cups all-purpose flour + 1 Tbsp flour

1 scant cup of sugar

1 tsp salt

10 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (no, this is not a typo, I listed the butter twice)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¾ cup buttermilk

1 extra-large egg

2 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp lemon zest

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

½ cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter a 9-inch springform pan.  (I just take the wrapper from the butter cube and smear it all over the pan to grease it.)   Sprinkle with the 1 Tbsp of flour and shake it around to coat, then dump out the excess.

In a dry pan, toast the pecans just until they are fragrant.  Cool, and then chop them up.   (I chop them by dumping them into a ziplock bag and then whacking the bag with a rolling pin until the nuts are crushed.)  Set the pecans aside.

Put flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.  Add the softened butter, cut up, and rub the butter into the flour mixture with your fingers, until it resembles coarse meal with some small clumps.  Set aside 1 cup of the mixture.

Mix baking powder, baking soda, buttermilk, egg, vanilla and lemon zest into the remaining flour mixture and beat together with a wooden spoon.  Pour into the springform pan.

Add the pecans to the leftover cup of the flour mixture, along with the brown sugar, cinnamon and the 3 Tbsp of melted butter.  Stir together until you have coarse crumbs, then pour it on top of the cake batter, spreading it evenly.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 45 minutes.  Cool completely and serve.