Still trying to re-create Grandma's coffee cake

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For the streusel topping:
1/4 c. (2 oz) brown sugar
1/4 c. (1 oz and a tiny pinch) flour
1/8  c. (2 Tbl or 1/4 stick) cold butter, in pieces
1/8  tsp baking  powder
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mash together with a fork to create a medley of uneven crumbs.

For the cake:
4 Tbl (1/2 cube) butter, melted
1 egg (beaten)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup (4 1/4 oz) sifted flour
1/2 c (3 3/4 oz) sugar
3 tsp (1 Tbl) baking powder
1/2 tesp salt

Butter a 8 or 9 inch baking pan. Preheat oven to 375F.
Melt butter, cool slightly and mix with egg and milk.  Whisk dry ingredients together. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and stir only long enough to smooth out lumps. Quickly pour batter into greased baking pan and sprinkle streusel over unbaked cake. Try to get the larges pieces and the small pieces evenly distributed, but time is not on your side.
Bake 14-16 minutes in 375F oven.

For the next version, I might add a little vanilla or cinnamon to the cake batter.

 

Comments

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I tried this again using a 8inch Teflon-coated metal cake pan, and adding 1/8 tesp vanilla to the cake batter. Still very wobbly after 15 minutes baking and tester did not come out clean.
Less wobbly after 18 minutes, but tester comes out clean in most places and it's just starting to pull away from the sides.
Damn! When I tried to de-pan it, the center fell out as under-baked.
The vanilla is not noticeable.

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

Tried the stabby version, didn't work as hoped. Next time I'll try doubleing the butter in the strusel. Mom (Connie) suggests using a 1/4 tesp of cardamon, or a 1/8 tesp of nutmeg in the mix.

too many variables to be a good experiment

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

For the streusel topping:
2 oz brown sugar
1 oz flour
3 Tbl cold butter, grated
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

For the cake:
4 Tbl (1/2 cube) butter, melted
1 egg (beaten)
1/2 cup milk, and 1 tesp lemon juice
4 1/4 oz sifted flour
3 3/4 oz sugar
1 Tbl baking powder
1/2 tesp salt
Small handful blueberries
Shake all dry ingredients together, add to melted butter bowl. Beat in milk and egg.
Butter bottom of 8x8 glass pan. Pour in batter. prinkle with blueberries, sprinkle with strusel. Bake as usual.

Re: too many variables to be a good experiment

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

baked about 22 minutes. The lemon juice was to much for the baking soda, the cake is very light and fluffy, but the sugary goodness has sunk to the middle instead of being on it. Tastes good, and must try the blueberry experiment again when I've got real buttermilk.

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

another try with the blueberries. Added apx 1/3 cup of the little frzn bluberries to top. Then added struesel (increased butter to 3Tbl, and added pinch nutmeg).

Baked about 24 minutes. Looks kinda ugly. The weight of the blueberries pulled the strusel down in spots, so there's more white showing than I'd like. Next time, blueberries on the bottom. Tastes good. :)

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

This time I put about 1/3 cup of blueberries on the bottom of the dish, and it worked pretty well. Smaller berries would be better (The little organic berries from TJ's are much better than the generic ones from Safeway).
3 Tbl of butter in the struesel (insead of 2) makes everything better.

changing the format

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This morning I made a 1/2 batch of cake and baked it as four cupcakes. It worked well, although I underestimated how much they would puff up, I should have made 6 instead of 4. Even with what seemed to be over-much of the streusel, after baking there were white spots on the tops.
Paper cups are a necessity, as well as being prepared to clean the pan of the not-quite caramel left in the bottom of every cup.
Baked 12 minutes @375F

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

Ran the plain recipe through http://www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
and the whole cake is 1,692 calories. Six servings is 321 cals each.
Adding a 1/2 cup blueberries brings the 1/6 up to 328 cals.

advice from Jon Rogers

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

For a much larger cake, look at Pioneer Woman's best coffee cake ever:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-coffee-cake-ever/