I love coffee cake! It’s like baked comfort food so when I saw Abby’s recipe I practically jumped out of my skin. I needed to get home so I could start playing with flour.
Back in February, I had a bit of a rant about coffee cake vs crumb cake. Similar but not the same, at least in my mind. Abby’s is very much a coffee cake and is just the way I like ’em. But okay, the whole point of #baketogether is to take one of her recipes and change it up to make it your own.
I recently had a Twitter conversation with a couple of knitterly friends, theindigomuse and pegknitz, about about pumpkin spice lattes, chocolate and the combination of pumpkin and chocolate. It all actually started with a cheesecake, chocolate cupcake batter and pumpkin butter in Tanya’s (theindigomuse) freezer…
Anyway, the point of the matter is I was thinking about taking this wonderful pumpkin bundt cake recipe I’ve made in the past and tweaking it so that I could add chocolate to it. Then I saw the coffee cake and thought better of it.
I’ve changed up the base cake recipe by adding pureed pumpkin and tweaked the spices a bit.
I melted some chocolate and mixed it with a bit of the batter and a touch of milk to make a chocolate swirl layer.
Finally I added some pecans to the streusel topping cuz I like pecans and pumpkin…I also like pecans and chocolate, go figure. Of course if you are allergic you can absolutely leave them out.
This was a fun recipe and really tasty.
If you have never had the combination of chocolate and pumpkin (Peggy I’m talking to you!) what are you waiting for?! It’s delicious, and this is a great recipe to try out the combination. Give it a shot!
Happy baking!
Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Sour Cream Coffeecake
Recipe Adapted from Abby Dodge
Makes 8 to 10 servings.
For the streusel
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
For the cake
2 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon milk
To Make the Streusel
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and pecans. Drizzle over the melted butter and, using a fork (or use your fingers), mix the ingredients are well blended and form small crumbs. Pop in the frig while you make the cake batter.
To Make the Cake
1. Chop the chocolate and put into microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second intervals until almost melted. When a few small chunks remain, stir vigorously until they are melted. Set aside to cool.
2. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour the sides and bottom of a 9 x 2-inch square baking pan. (Note: I had my oven on convection so I reduced the temp by 25°)
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt. Whisk until well blended.
4. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed until well blended, about 3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stop to scrape the bowl and beaters as needed.
6. Add about one third of the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until blended. Add the sour cream and continue mixing just until blended. Add another third of the flour mixture until just blended and then add the pumpkin and continue to blend. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the remaining flour mixture.
7. Scoop out about 1/3 cup of the batter and combine with the melted chocolate. Add the milk to thin it out a bit.
8. Scrape half of the remaining batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Dollop the chocolate mixture over the batter and then swirl with a knife or skewer as if you where making a marble cake.
9. Spoon the remaining batter evenly over the chocolate and spread evenly. Scatter the streusel evenly over the top.
10. Bake until the top is browned and a pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes on convection, 43 to 45 minutes for a conventional oven.
11. Cool the pan on a wire rack until warm or room temperature.
I love coffee cake too! We should start a club. lol. Pumpkin and chocolate go so well. Your cake looks absolutely divine Deb! xx
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Beautiful photo and I like your recipe alteration. I used chocolate in my coffee cake, too.
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I love a good coffee cake myself and love pairing chocolate with pumpkin. I often throw chocolate chip into my pumpkin bread.
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sounds scrumptiuosly tasty..
first time here…amazing space you have..
love your presentation with gorgeous cliks..
happy following you..
do stop by mine sometime..
Tasty Appetite
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Thank you so much Jay! I’m so glad you found my site and that you like it! I will stop by your site this evening when I get home.
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[…] Deb combined pumpkin and chocolate – oh my. https://knitstamatic.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/pumpkin-chocolate-swirl-coffee-cake-baketogether/ […]
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Love this cake Deb, Happy Chanukah!!
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Thanks Shulie! A Happy Chanukah to you too!
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[…] some use-it-now goodies as well, so I decided to make a coffee-cake type dessert. I had a look a three different recipes, and then made one up based on the general idea of what I’d seen. […]
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