After experimenting with adding ground almonds to Chinese Almond Cookies and reading about grinding roasted pecans into Cook's Country's version of Pecan Coffee Cake (which I found surprising because it's a Bundt cake, which they claim is traditional - even though I've never seen a coffee cake sold or presented in the shape of a Bundt - still, could be true...), I thought I should add some ground pecans (essentially a "pecan flour") to the batter of my recipe. I had previously used the pecan streusel topping to provide the pecan punch - which, although simple, worked rather well. It probably helped that this coffee cake isn't particularly tall (thus the ratio between streusel and cake was not overwhelmingly in the favor of the cake and you were practically guaranteed streusel in every bite). However, adding the ground pecans to the batter turned a good recipe into a great recipe.
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Use a spice grinder or a food processor to finely process 1/4-cup of the roasted pecans (about 25-30 g). Use a succession of quick pulses because too much processing will result in a paste. About ten pulses from my spice grinder provided adequate results. Reserve the rest of the roasted pecans for the streusel.
As usual, assemble your ingredients before beginning. For the dry ingredients, use 1/4-cup (25-30 g) roasted pecans, finely ground, 1 Tbs. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 2 cups (250 g) sifted all-purpose flour. For the "wet" ingredients, gather up 1 cup (225 g) butter, softened, 2 large eggs, 1 Tbs. vanilla extract, 1 cup (230 g) sour cream, and 1-1/2 (300 g) sugar. For the streusel, prepare 1/2 cup (110 g) brown sugar, 2 Tbs. butter, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, and 1 cup (110 g) roasted pecans, chopped.Whisk the flour, baking powder, and finely processed pecans together.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer until smooth (about 30 seconds at medium low speed). Using softened butter, will reduce the tendency for the butter to stick to the sides of the mixing bowl (and thus reducing the need to scrape down the bowl).
Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. Add the sour cream to the mixture and beat until combined.
Scrape down the bowl again, if needed. At low speed, mix in one egg at a time. Mix in the vanilla extract.
Remove the mixing bowl from the mixer and add the flour mixture to the contents. Using a spatula, fold the solids into the batter.
The resulting mixture may have a few lumps. Don't worry about these - they'll cook out as you bake the cake.
Prepare a 9x13-in. baking pan by greasing the bottom and sides with a little butter. To make extraction and cutting easier, I like to line the inside with a sheet of parchment paper that hangs out over the sides. The extra paper will act as handles later when I pull the cake out of the pan. Press the paper to the pan so it is as flush as possible (wrinkles in the paper will result in wrinkles in your coffee cake).
Pour the batter into the baking pan and level with a spatula.
For the streusel topping, melt two tablespoons butter in the microwave (about 10-15 seconds). Meanwhile, combine the remaining pecans with the brown sugar and cinnamon.
If the butter hasn't completely melted, swirl the melted butter around the unmelted piece until it has completely melted. (If this doesn't work, microwave for a few more seconds.) Pour the butter into the sugar/pecan/cinnamon mix. Mix together until it becomes a uniformly darker color.
Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the batter. I find this is easiest accomplished with my fingers. Using a spoon almost always results in uneven coverage and large random clumps which need to be redistributed later.
Bake the coffee cake on the middle rack of the oven for 35 minutes at 350°F (175°C). A toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean (no wetness, perhaps a dry crumb or two). At this point remove the cake from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.
Remove the cake from the pan and set onto a wire rack to fully cool. This is easily done if you made the parchment paper sling. I actually don't know how long it takes to cool the cake because I've never been able to wait long enough - I always cut into it too early because I'm too eager to eat a piece.
Once the cake has been completely cooled (or you can't wait any longer), transfer to a cutting board and cut into reasonable sizes. Coffee cake is pretty rich and is generally consumed with coffee or tea as a snack or a brief respite from the daily grind, so too large of a piece seems to not fit its purpose for existance. (Anyway, you can always grab a second piece...) I cut them into sixteen pieces of approximately 2-in. by 3-in. dimensions. These are fairly sizable, so you may wish to make smaller pieces.Pecan Coffee Cake (serves 16)
Batter
| 1 cup (225 g) butter, softened | cream | beat | mix in 1 at a time | mix | fold in |
| 1-1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar | |||||
| 1 cup (230 g) sour cream | |||||
| 2 large (100 g) eggs | |||||
| 1 Tbs. (15 mL) vanilla extract | |||||
| 2 cups (250 g) sifted all-purpose flour | whisk to combine | ||||
| 1/4 tsp. (1.5 g) salt | |||||
| 1 Tbs. (14 g) baking powder | |||||
| 1/4 cup (25 g) chopped pecans | toast | process to crumbs | |||
Streusel
| 2 Tbs. (30 g) butter | melt | mix | |
| 1 cup (110 g) chopped pecans | toast | mix | |
| 1 tsp. ground cinnamon | |||
| 1/2 cup (110 g) brown sugar | |||
Pecan Coffee Cake
| Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and line 9x13-in. pan with parchment paper | |||
| Batter | pour into 9x13-in. pan | top | bake 350°F (175°C) 35 min. |
| Streusel | |||
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Look at the two recipe summaries below:
Summary #1 - Dry ingredients listed second - works in Firefox
<table class="TRN"><tr><td>1 cup (225 g) butter, softened</td><td rowspan=2 class="vertical">cream</td><td rowspan=3 class="vertical">beat</td><td rowspan=4 class="vertical">mix in 1 at a time</td><td rowspan=5 class="vertical">mix</td><td rowspan=9 class="vertical">fold in</td></tr><tr><td>1-1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar</td></tr><tr><td>1 cup (230 g) sour cream</td><td class="righthide"></td></tr><tr><td>2 large (100 g) eggs</td><td colspan=2 class="righthide"></td></tr><tr><td>1 Tbs. (15 mL) vanilla extract</td><td colspan=3 class="righthide"></td></tr><tr><td>2 cups (125 g) sifted all-purpose flour</td><td rowspan=3 colspan=2 class="righthide"></td><td rowspan=4 class="vertical">whisk to combine</td><td rowspan=4 class="righthide"></td></tr><tr><td>1/4 tsp. (1.5 g) salt</td></tr><tr><td>1 Tbs. (14 g) baking powder</td></tr><tr><td>1/4 cup (25 g) chopped pecans</td><td>toast</td><td>process to crumbs</td></tr></table>
Summary #2: Dry ingredients listed first - broken in Firefox!
<table class="TRN"><tr><td>2 cups (125 g) sifted all-purpose flour</td><td rowspan=3 colspan=2 class="righthide"></td><td rowspan=4 class="vertical">whisk to combine</td><td rowspan=4 class="righthide"></td><td rowspan=9 class="vertical">fold in</td></tr><tr><td>1/4 tsp. (1.5 g) salt</td></tr><tr><td>1 Tbs. (14 g) baking powder</td></tr><tr><td>1/4 cup (25 g) chopped pecans</td><td>toast</td><td>process to crumbs</td></tr><tr><td>1 cup (225 g) butter, softened</td><td rowspan=2 class="vertical">cream</td><td rowspan=3 class="vertical">beat</td><td rowspan=4 class="vertical">mix in 1 at a time</td><td rowspan=5 class="vertical">mix</td></tr><tr><td>1-1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar</td></tr><tr><td>1 cup (230 g) sour cream</td><td class="righthide"></td></tr><tr><td>2 large (100 g) eggs</td><td colspan=2 class="righthide"></td></tr><tr><td>1 Tbs. (15 mL) vanilla extract</td><td colspan=3 class="righthide"></td></tr></table>
In Internet Explorer, they both render as expected - but in Firefox, Summary #2 makes it look like the eggs don't get mixed in at the proper step. Using the DOM Inspector shows that the horizontal line separating "mix in 1 at a time" doesn't belong where it is rendered! I tested this with Firefox 1.5.0.1 and Firefox 1.0 - both exhibit the same behavior. If I change the code so it does not perform a style="border-left:0px" and uses a style="border-left:1px solid red" the line miraculously disappears! Unfortunately, this isn't what I want. I'm pretty sure this is a Firefox bug.
Summary #3: Dry ingredients listed first - border-right:0px replaced with 1px
<table class="TRN"><tr><td>2 cups (125 g) sifted all-purpose flour</td><td rowspan=3 colspan=2 class="rightred"></td><td rowspan=4 class="vertical">whisk to combine</td><td rowspan=4 class="rightred"></td><td rowspan=9 class="vertical">fold in</td></tr><tr><td>1/4 tsp. (1.5 g) salt</td></tr><tr><td>1 Tbs. (14 g) baking powder</td></tr><tr><td>1/4 cup (25 g) chopped pecans</td><td>toast</td><td>process to crumbs</td></tr><tr><td>1 cup (225 g) butter, softened</td><td rowspan=2 class="vertical">cream</td><td rowspan=3 class="vertical">beat</td><td rowspan=4 class="vertical">mix in 1 at a time</td><td rowspan=5 class="vertical">mix</td></tr><tr><td>1-1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar</td></tr><tr><td>1 cup (230 g) sour cream</td><td class="rightred"></td></tr><tr><td>2 large (100 g) eggs</td><td colspan=2 class="rightred"></td></tr><tr><td>1 Tbs. (15 mL) vanilla extract</td><td colspan=3 class="rightred"></td></tr></table>
This is the first time I've been less happy with Firefox than with IE. Oh well, you can't win them all. Maybe, one day, I'll resort to using images instead...
Anyone know how to submit a bug to Mozilla development? I looked really quick to see if there was a submission form, but didn't see it. I'll look again later when I have time.
(I've also noticed that sometimes Firefox will render tables with some missing vertical lines - a reload usually results in a "good" render. Intermittant errors in rendering web code shouldn't occur - should they?)
Hope this helps...
Kyle
great greasing instrument. Use the paper wrapper on the pan to be greased, greasing sides and bottom of the pan. They can also be refridgerated until needed.
Great website, I enjoy the receipes and information :)
Obviously, it's not light and fluffy like angel food cake, but it is surprisingly light and fluffy in comparison to most coffee cakes. Trust me, you'll like it.
Wow. I thought this comment was to inform me that someone copied out my recipe and posted it to allrecipes. Then I went to look at the recipe and realized that this comment was suggesting that I used the allrecipes recipe without providing credit - which seems like an obvious conclusion since the recipes are indeed IDENTICAL except for the use of 1/4 cup ground pecans in the batter and some slight differences in mixing order (which won't affect the final product). I've had recipes come out very similar to other recipes that I hadn't seen before, but this is probably the first time I've made something that came out so close to another recipe. I guess you'll have to take my word, that I did not plagerize the allrecipes recipe submitted by Vimala Naidoo. Hopefully, my track record will speak for itself...
I posted the message. I was puzzled because the recipe on allrecipes was posted first by quite a while, but yours contained the paragraph at the front that shows you created it yourself. That's all. The recipes really are virtually identical which is crazy, but I don't wish to imply that you copied it and took credit.
Have you considered crossposting your recipes to allrecipes? That would be really useful for some cooks, and might get more traffic for your site.
BTW the cake is just as delish' the day after.
I prepared it basically the same, except I had no sour cream so I used 3/4 cup goat milk (its just what I have around, ok :)). I also left the crumbled pecans out of the batter. Instead of using a brownie pan though, I used a loaf pan. I poured half the batter in, sprinkled it with half the struesel, then repeated with the other half. It had to bake longer, about 50 minutes, but it was so worth it. The cake is awesome, and now instead of letting my mouth water at the thought of pecan quickbread, I can make it!
Interesting recipe anyway..
My only deviations from the recipe were probably [u:0eecf729ca]slightly[/u:0eecf729ca] higher amounts of sour cream and baking powder due to guesstimation of their volumes. What other factors could cause this?
cake doughs need a bit of cooling for the structure to firm up.
I love this site.
Just make sure that the individual cups all have adequate ventilation to ensure consistent baking.
If your not using paper, butter then flour.
L-J