Sunday, July 29, 2012

Plum Streusel Coffeecake


Prior to making yesterday’s Plum Butter, I measured out ¾ pound of plums and set them aside to make coffeecake.  You know how you tear recipes out of magazines, then put them in a file and never look at them again?  Well, I decided to look at that file last week, and found this recipe from a 1995 issue of Gourmet.  My mother is the coffeecake maker in our family these days, but I wanted to give this one a try.  Imagine then, my dismay, when one of the plums went missing!  I have baskets of peaches, nectarines, a bunch of bananas, and sliced melon all available for consumption, but did my husband go for any of these things?  No!  He managed to find the plums (well, plumcots, if you must know) that I had hidden behind the cauliflower in the vegetable bin, and he ate one!

Boy, he said, was that plum ever delicious.

Yeah, I said through gritted teeth, I’ll bet it was!

For a man who can’t find the butter that is right in front of him, he was sure an ace at ferreting out my saved plums.  So, after an unwanted, and curmudgeonly, I might add, trip to the grocery store to buy one lone plum, I was finally on my way to creating this delicious breakfast cake.  It’s make ahead, can be frozen prior to baking and baked later, or frozen after baking, and it's beautiful, and delicious!


Plum Streusel Coffeecake
Gourmet, September 1995

For streusel
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

For cake batter
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 pound Melissa's plumcots (4 to 5 medium), sliced
confectioners' sugar for sifting over cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter and flour a 9-inch round or square baking pan at least 2 inches deep.

Make streusel: In a food processor pulse together streusel ingredients until combined well and crumbly.

Make cake batter: In a bowl with an electric mixer beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and vanilla. Sift in flour with baking powder and salt and beat until just combined.

Spread cake batter in pan, smoothing top, and arrange plum slices over it in slightly overlapping concentric circles. Sprinkle streusel over plum slices and bake cake in middle of oven 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Coffeecake may be made 1 week ahead: Cool cake completely in pan on a rack and freeze, wrapped well in plastic wrap and foil. Reheat cake, unwrapped but not thawed, in a preheated 350°F. oven until heated through, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake slightly on a rack and sift confectioners' sugar over it. Serve coffeecake warm or at room temperature.

If you love coffeecakes, check out this book.  It’s the Bible for coffee cake lovers:

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4 comments:

Kelly said...

I had to write--been reading your blog for ages and admire your baking so much, I felt it was time to speak up. I love a good coffee cake and happened to have gone to bed last night with a new Coffee Cake Cookbook by Carole Walter in hand, and your post shows up this morning! It's destiny--I must bake a coffee cake today! I have regular plums, not the ones you mentioned, but I'll make it work!

FABBY'S LIVING said...

This coffe cake sounds yummy!! Your hubby cracked me up..eating your plum for the cake..hahahaaa..Thanks for this great recipe, I just copied it and will make it next week! Happy Sunday.
FABBY

Mich - Piece of Cake said...

I love coffee cakes, and this one looks so amazing. Its funny how hubbies always eat the things we want to bake with. My hubby always eats up the bananas I intend to make a cake with!! Now I hide them LOL

Kathleen said...

Hi Pattie,
I have been catching up here. One wonderful recipe after another!
This cake looks delicious, I added plums to my shopping list.
I haven't been joining many foodie parties, it doesn't seem like many visit others.
I see your life is still full of speed bumps! Prayers for your mom's recovery!