Blueberry Streusel Sour Cream Coffee Cake
We hosted a brunch here last weekend. The original plan was just to offer bagels and cream cheese (four different kinds!) and smoked salmon with red onions and sliced tomatoes and capers and coffee made to order. That seemed like enough but then I asked myself,”What else would you want there if this were at someone else’s house?” And the answer came to me immediately: “Coffee cake!”
Coffee cake feels as Jewish to me as the bagels do — I grew up eating Entenmann’s coffee cake for breakfast with my dad before school — and yet for this recipe, I turned to the WASP-iest baker on my shelf: the one and only Martha Stewart of Westport, Connecticut.
Martha has you start out by making too much struesel. I’m not sure why she has you make too much streusel, but it’s a separate recipe in her baking book and you only wind up using a cup of it. So I took the rest and put it in a freezer bag and popped it into my freezer for future fruit crisps which, with summer approaching, are a distinct possibility.
Then you make a normal cake batter (butter, sugar, eggs), with the all-important addition of sour cream. If your coffee cake doesn’t have sour cream, why are you even making coffee cake? The sour cream provides two functions: (1) it gives the cake a richness and a tang; and (2) it interacts with the baking soda/baking powder and gives the cake lift.
Once you put half the batter in a sprayed tube pan (and a tube pan is perfect for coffee cake), you add the blueberries.
These were actually frozen blueberries that I ran under some hot water before patting dry with paper towels. Confession: the original Martha recipe is for cherry streusel coffee cake. If you have frozen sour cherries (or fresh ones), use those instead. I bet you could also use raspberries, blackberries, maybe even poached rhubarb. Let your fruity freak flag fly!
Top with the rest of the batter, sprinkle on the streusel, and bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes.
You let it cool for 10 minutes, flip on to a plate, then flip on to a wire rack to cool all the way. I actually flipped mine on to a cake stand so I wouldn’t have to transfer again later.
To finish, you glaze it with a milk glaze which is essentially 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar mixed with 2 tablespoons of milk. Drizzle all over the cake and then let it set up. (I put some parchment paper underneath to catch the drips then yanked it away.)
What can I say? This was the perfect complement to a bagel spread. Was it as good as Entenmann’s? Well, does Entenmann’s have blueberries? Thanks for the excellent recipe, Martha. You may not be Jewish, but you’re certainly a mensch.
Blueberry Streusel Sour Cream Coffee Cake
A simple and elegant Sunday morning coffee cake from Martha Stewart’s Baking Book.
Ingredients:
For the streusel (makes 4 cups, you’ll only use 1… freeze the rest!):
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
For the coffee cake:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 cup blueberries, frozen and thawed and drained well (or fresh will work too)
For the milk glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons milk
Instructions:
First make the streusel. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt; cut in the butter using a pastry blender (or your fingers), until large, moist clumps form. Set aside one cup and refrigerate. Freeze the rest for future use.
Preheat the oven to 350. Butter a 9-inch tube pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the sour cream and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Spoon about half the batter into the prepared pan. Arrange the blueberries in a single layer on top of the batter; avoid placing any berries against the pan’s edge, as they may stick or burn if not fully encased in the batter. Top with the remaining batter, making sure it is evenly distributed, and smooth with an offset spatula. Sprinkle the one cup of streusel evenly over the top of the batter.
Bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back when touched, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet and let the cake cool 10 to 15 minutes. Invert the cake on to the rack, then reinvert (so streusel side is up), and let it cool completely.
Make the milk glaze by whisking together the confectioners’ sugar and milk until completely smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Let the cake sit until the glaze is set, about 5 minutes, before serving. Cake can be kept at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic, for up to 4 days.
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