Sunday, April 20, 2008

sunday morning

warm coffee cake on a sunday morning - yum!

i like sunday mornings. i'm usually in the mood to have a nice breakfast and often have time to cook something, unlike the weekdays. on this sunday morning, i wanted coffee cake, apple specifically, because i had some less-than-crisp apples to use up. i lucked out today because i found a recipe with buttermilk, another item i needed to use. i always find that with buttermilk, i use a little bit and end up tossing the rest. sour smelling dairy products gross me out in general, so fresh buttermilk is difficult enough...week (ok two...ok three) old buttermilk? yikes. 

today's recipe is from cooking light and i like that because it makes me feel just a little bit better about indulging. 
 
they didn't even know they weren't good enough raw. 

buttermilk-apple coffee cake
1 1/2 c thinly sliced apples
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 c flour
1/2 tsp baking sode
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 c sugar
2 tbsp softened butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 c buttermilk
2 tbsp sliced almonds

1. combine first 4 ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat 
2. cook 5 min until syrupy, stirring frequently; cool
3. combine flour, baking soda and salt 
4. cream butter and sugar until combined
5. add egg and extracts and beat well
6. add flour mixture alternating with buttermilk to wet ingredients (start and end with flour)
7. pour batter into baking pan (8 inch round/square sprayed with cooking spray)
8. arrange apple mixture over batter and sprinkle with almonds 
9. bake at 350°F for 25 minutes, until cake pulls from sides of pan and toothpick comes out clean


syrupy apples and cinnamon - see the bubbles?

yes, i mixed this by hand. don't tell the kitchen aid.

even before baking it looked ready to eat - i believe that's a good sign!

i've made and eaten a lot of coffee cakes and this might be the very best one i've had. husband agreed and consumed three pieces, one after the other. the combination of buttermilk and the apples being on top made the cake fluffy and moist. the top was almost like apple pie...but without the crust. paired with a cup of trader joe's breakfast blend, this was a perfect sunday breakfast. (ok, a bit of a plug there...but it's my FAVORITE coffee - so much so that it gets to be in caps. also so much so that i bought 5 cans of it during my last trip to tjs and persuaded a few customers to try it as well.)

haha, you won't be able to eat just this tiny piece. oh no. 
by the time you're done, only few crumbs will remain.

1 comments:

Thomas said...

Without the almonds, I would love it. I heart me some delicious coffee cakesez.