Sour cream coffee cake

I brought this coffee cake into work and set an all-time record for quickest consumption by my coworkers. Someone even left a sticky note on my keyboard, it was that good. The recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. The primary differences are they don’t use nuts for the first two layers of streusel (because the nuts won’t get toasted inside the cake), and they use cake flour.

Sour cream coffee cake with streudel — from America’s Test Kitchen
1 C (two sticks) butter, cut into tablespoon-sized chunks
2 1/2 C unbleached flour
1 C sour cream
2 whole eggs plus 2 yolks
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
3/4 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 C walnuts
1 C packed brown sugar
4 T cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, put the baking rack on the lowest setting.
2. In a food processor, mix the nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon. Pulse until it’s uniform.
3. Place the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda in a bowl and mix briefly with the paddle to blend. Mix in the chunks of butter. The mix will be very granular. Add 1/4 C of the sour cream and mix until the dry ingredients congeal — about 30 seconds.
4. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, remaining sour cream, and vanilla.
5. With the mixer on, slowly add the above mixture to the dry ingredients. Every 20 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl. When all of it’s been added, mix on high for one minute. The batter will be uniform and fluffy.
6. Pour 1C of the batter into a greased, Bundt/tube pan. Add 1/4 of the cinnamon-nut mixture. Pour another 1C on. Add anohter 1/4 of the cinnamon mixture. Add the remaining batter. Cover with the remaining cinnamon mixture.
7. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. Cool for an hour. Run a knife along the perimeter and center of the cake. Invert the cake onto a cookie sheet, then flip again onto a plate.

There are three interesting variants forgoing the streusel.

1. lemon glaze consisting of 1 C confectioner’s sugar, 1 t lemon zest, 1 t butter and 2 T lemon juice. Whisk the ingredients until the glaze is smooth enough to drizzle.
2. orange glaze substitute orange zest and orange juice for the lemon zest and juice, respectively.
3. Marble cake The batter is pretty thick. Spoon four dollops on compass settings (north, south, east, west). In the remaining batter, whisk in 2 T of cocoa powder. Dollop the remaining batter in between the plain batter.