A Midsummer Day's Dream . . . Cream Cheese Nectarine Cake with Crumbly Streusel

Nectarines . . . really fine, really sweet nectarines. Not something one can necessarily count on finding here in Michigan. Usually, though, that doesn't matter. Why? Because typically, in mid-July, we're wallowing in a surplus of glorious local cherries, baking them into this and stirring them into that, not giving those pretty nectarines from out of state a second thought. But late winter weather played holy havoc with Michigan's cherry orchards this year, leaving us with the most pathetic harvest in decades. Trees that would normally be bending under the weight of crimson fruit look instead as if they've been ever so lightly dotted with red.  Just a cherry here, a cherry there. Sorry, folks--forget about "pickin' your own" and keep your fingers crossed for next year.

No home-grown cherries? For born and bred Michiganders that scenario is virtually unheard of. So, nothing left to do but rev up the contingency plans. Time to focus on nectarines instead, nectarines that hail inevitably from elsewhere. A sobering thought, no doubt. Miraculously, though, they're incredibly sweet and more than up to snuff. I've been shocked by their quality, thus I've been munching them the last few days with an unbridled sense of righteous privilege, like a koala in a eucalyptus tree. Don't try to stop me.

About this recipe . . . 

I adapted this from The Grand Central Baking Book, by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson (I love this book, by the way, and recommend it). I started with their recipe for a cream cheese apple cake, but made some significant tweaks.

First, I reduced the overall size of the recipe by about one third, from one that would produce a large 12" bundt cake down to a reasonably sized 9" round cake made in springform pan. I used a relatively small amount of chopped ripe nectarines, unpeeled, in the batter versus a sizable portion of peeled apples. I added in a modest amount of almond flour/meal (if you can't find it in your usual grocery store, check at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or health food stores), which lends a subtle richness to the texture without adding any overt almond flavor. I upped the amount of vanilla, in fact using vanilla bean paste instead of extract, and I also fiddled with the proportion of cinnamon. 


The addition of a streusel topping worked out well, too; I just threw together flour, sugar, almond flour/meal, cold butter, and a pinch of fine sea salt and went at it with a pastry blender. You can count on a cake that happily straddles the fence between a coffee cake and a not-too-dense pound cake. A great cake overall, even without our beloved Michigan cherries.

Cream Cheese Nectarine Cake with Crumbly Streusel


(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Yield: About 16 slices

For the cake:
2 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour/meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened (that's one stick and about 2.5 tablespoons)
8 oz. cream cheese
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
1 extra-large ripe nectarine, unpeeled, pitted, and chopped into very small pieces

For the streusel:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup almond meal/flour
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons of cold, unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
1 pinch fine-grain sea salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9" springform pan.

Make the streusel first:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, almond meal/flour, and all purpose flour. Toss in the butter chunks and combine with a pastry blender or a fork until most of the mixture is in pieces approximately the size of a large pea. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge.

To make the cake batter:

In a medium bowl, lightly whisk together the flour, almond flour/meal, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the large bowl of your mixer, using the paddle attachment on medium-high speed, beat together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until the mixture is fluffy and light in color (beat for at least five minutes and as long as eight). On low speed, add in all of the vanilla, and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Stop and scrape the bowl and paddle periodically.

Still on low speed, add in all of the nectarine pieces, beating just for a few seconds to combine, then add in all of the dry ingredients. Mix only until the flour looks completely incorporated. Scrape all the batter into your greased and floured cake pan. Sprinkle all of the streusel evenly over the top.

Bake the cake on the middle rack of the oven for about 55-65 minutes. You'll know it's done when the top is lightly golden, the sides are just beginning to pull away from the pan, the top of the cake doesn't jiggle at all when you move it, and a toothpick inserted in the center come out mostly dry. Check your cake after about 40 minutes and if it appears to be browning too fast, lay a piece of foil loosely over the top. Let the finished cake cool in its pan on a rack for at least 15 minutes, then run a thin knife around the sides, remove the springform carefully, and let the cake finish cooling on the rack.

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Raspberry Euphoria Coffee-Cake . . . A Tale of Magnetron Redemption

It was 11:00 on Wednesday morning and I stood in my kitchen, face to face with a kindly appliance repairman. "Whatcha need here is a new magnetron . . . that's whatcha need." His tone was laced with sympathy. He knew the very word sounded expensive: Magnetron. Like something Superman might keep stashed under his cape for emergencies.

I gaped at him silently. "Why not just tell me I need a new cyclotron?" That's what I wanted to say, but I  merely nodded and let him continue. "Now, you might still be under warranty, but I dunno. Gotta go to my truck and check it out." While he was gone I pondered the implications. The odds were slim and none that I wouldn't have to pay to replace this futuristic-sounding part. All I wanted was for my once-high-end built-in microwave oven to heat stuff again, and to do so without making aggrieved grinding noises. It had suddenly conked out a couple of days before. My 15-year-old son, a devoted user of the thing, stuck a little note on it that read, "May God help us all."

Imagine my surprise when the friendly repairman popped back in the door and glanced at me reassuringly. Yep, I was still covered and he actually had the part with him! He finished the job within half an hour and my bill was minimal, relatively speaking. I was so happy I just had to bake something. Not in the microwave, of course, but you know what I mean. Sometimes when little daily events like that actually go well, a girl gets the urge to celebrate by baking. It's a perfectly natural response, don't you think?

About this recipe . . .

This one is all mine. Yep, a completely original recipe right from the get-go (whoo hoo!) and I thought the cake turned out really well--not overly sweet, not too rich, just right. It's a simple formula that makes use of ricotta cheese in the batter, and a small amount of cream cheese in the streusel. Fresh raspberries and a smidgen of seedless raspberry jam factor in as well. So, all in all, it was a very good day. I made the cake shortly after the repairman, whose name I never did catch (Clark Kent, maybe?), drove away. If he'd still been here, I'd have given him a nice big wedge of it to take home.

Raspberry Euphoria Coffee-Cake
(or, if you prefer, Raspberry Ricotta Coffee-Cake with Cream Cheese Streusel)

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. This can be made in a 9" round regular cake pan, or a 9" found springform pan.

Butter your pan. Line the bottom with a round piece of parchment paper, then butter the parchment. Flour the inside of the whole pan, tapping out the excess.

Ingredients for the streusel topping, and glaze:
3 oz. cold cream cheese, cut into 1/2" chunks
2 oz. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" chunks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 small pinch salt (I used regular salt)

3 Tbsp. seedless raspberry jam (to drizzle atop the streusel when you assemble the cake)

For the glaze:
1 cup (or more) confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp. milk (add more if you'd like a thinner glaze)
1/8 tsp. almond extract (optional)


Ingredients for the cake:
1 cup traditional ricotta cheese, not too cold
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted but not hot
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. coarse kosher salt
6 oz. fresh raspberries

Make the streusel first:
In a medium size bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and salt with a fork. Cut-in the cream cheese and butter chunks using a hand-held pastry blender or a couple of knives (you can even do this with your fingers if you're quick about it), until small visible chunks of miscellaneous size remain. Cover the bowl and chill the streusel while you prepare the batter.

Make the batter:
In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the large bowl of your mixer, using the paddle attachment on medium-low speed, mix together the ricotta, eggs, melted butter, sugar, and vanilla until smooth; about two or three minutes.

Now on low speed, add the flour in gradually, mixing just until well combined for a minute or so. 

Spread half the batter into your prepared pan.

Dot the batter with half the fresh raspberries and gently press them partway down into the batter.

Spoon the rest of the batter on top and smooth it out with a small offset spatula; scatter the remaining berries and gently press them into the batter.

Stir the chilled streusel with a fork, and evenly scatter all of it onto the top of the cake batter. Drizzle the seedless raspberry jam here and there in little streaks over the top of the streusel.

Bake the cake on the middle rack for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly dry. The cake should be just lightly golden on top, and more golden on the sides. The sides of the cake should look like they've begun to pull away from the sides of the pan.

While the cake is starting to cool, mix up the glaze. In a small bowl, stir together the confectioners' sugar, milk, and almond extract. Just keep stirring until the glaze is completely smooth. Add more sugar if you'd like a thicker glaze; add slightly more milk if you prefer a thinner glaze. 

Let the cake cool for 15 minutes, no more and no less, on a rack before attempting to remove it from the pan.

Run a thin knife or metal spatula around the sides of the pan. Place a plate over the top of the cake and quickly invert it, tapping firmly on the bottom of the pan to help knock it out. Lift off the pan, then place the cooling rack on the cake bottom; still holding firmly onto the plate, re-invert the cake back onto the rack to let it finish cooling.

 

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Cranberry Cream Cheese Coffeecake with Streusel Topping . . .

Well, the tree's finally up and twinkling away, as are the Christmas lights outside. I baked what felt like twelve thousand cookies last week, and still have tons of dough leftover in case more(!) are needed. So, yes, progress is evident around here. But I haven't yet wrapped a single gift, nor have I sent out a single card; they're on the agenda over the next couple of days. In the midst of all this bustle, I somehow decided to experiment on Saturday afternoon with a coffeecake recipe, and the results were pretty yummy (or, if you prefer, "scrummy"--sort of short for scrumptious--as my Ireland-based baking-friend, June, would say). I was particularly pleased at this cake's staying power; even this morning, it was still very moist and good.

When you're trying to figure out what to serve on Christmas morning for breakfast or brunch, a homemade coffeecake that can be produced ahead of time, and that can be counted on not to dry out before it's served, is like money in the bank. I tried a little slice this morning to see how it was holding up, and I actually think it's improved with age. Don't you love it when something you've made does that?

About this recipe . . .

My version of this recipe has three key parts: the cakey base, the cranberry filling, and a cheese-cake-like creamy filling that you drizzle beneath and atop the cranberry layer. I took many liberties in adapting it from this lovely raspberry ripple tea cake that I found in A Bloggable Life.

I offer one caveat with this recipe. Were I to make this cake again (and I definitely would) I'd absolutely use a 9" or  10" springform pan with 2" sides, versus a 10" tart pan with 1" sides. Despite the pretty scalloped edge, it wasn't big enough. I had to trim off the outer edge of my cake when it came out of the oven because it rose over the sides (I neglected to take pictures of that little episode).

Cranberry Cream Cheese Coffeecake with Streusel Topping
(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour, or coat with baking spray, a 9" or 10" springform pan (not a 10" tart pan; see my note in the blog post above regarding the need for a springform pan of this size).

Ingredients for the cranberry filling:

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
Scant 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1 Tbsp. corn starch
1 and 1/2 Tbsp. orange juice


Ingredients for the cream cheese filling:

6 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Ingredients for the cake base and streusel:

2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached.)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt (I used coarse kosher.)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk, or 3/4 cup plain yogurt that's been thinned with a tablespoon or two of milk

To make the cranberry filling:

In a medium-size heavy saucepan, heat the cranberries, sugar, orange juice, and spices on medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture starts to bubble. Turn the heat down and let it simmer until it starts to thicken. In a very small bowl, mix the corn starch with the 1 and 1/2 Tbsp. of cold orange juice; stir until it looks completely smooth. Pour it slowly into the hot cranberries, stirring constantly. Raise the heat a little and keep stirring slowly until the mixture noticeably thickens up. Cook another minute or two. Take the pot off the heat and set it aside to cool.

To make the cream cheese filling:

Beat the softened cream cheese for a couple of minutes, on low speed, until smooth. Add in the lightly beaten egg. Gradually pour in the sugar, still on low speed; beat for a couple more minutes until completely smooth. Set aside.

To make the cake batter and streusel, and to assemble the cake:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar. Using a hand held pastry blender, cut in the cold butter until the biggest lumps are no larger than peas. Scoop out 1/2 cup of this mixture and set aside; this will be used for your streusel topping.

Into the large bowl add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring to distribute evenly. Hollow out a well in the middle of the bowl. In another small bowl, whisk together lightly the egg, and the buttermilk or thinned yogurt, whichever you're using. Pour this into the dry ingredients, stirring only to moisten and combine. The batter will seem pretty thick.

Spread 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan, nudging the batter up the sides just a bit to create a rimmed effect (easiest if you use a small offset spatula, or the back of a spoon). Drizzle half of the cream cheese filling over this.

Spread all of the cranberry filling carefully over that, being careful to keep it away from the sides of the pan. Drizzle the remaining cream cheese filling over the cranberries, again avoiding the sides of the pan.

Now, gently spread the remaining batter over the top, all the way to the sides, then sprinkle on all of the streusel.

With the pan placed on a cookie sheet, bake the cake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or more, until the top looks lightly golden.

Let the cake cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes before attempting to remove the sides of the pan. Let it finish cooling while still on the springform pan's base, placed on a rack.

Stays nice and moist for two days or more if well-covered.

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Coconut Almond Bread with Dark Chocolate Chips and Almond Streusel . . .

There's an old but enduring health food store not far from the house where I grew up, and I stopped there last Friday on the way home from visiting my father. He still lives in that same house, along with one of my older siblings, and once a week I come to spend time with him and take him out. We breakfast together at a local restaurant he's been frequenting for decades. No longer able to drive, and now without my mom to accompany him, he's told me half-jokingly that his sanity depends upon these little outings, so I try not to let anything derail them.

As we trek slowly from his silver Buick to the restaurant's entrance, he grips the hand-me-down walker that still bears my mother's name on a little paper sticker. Three or four of the waitresses smile as we enter, and fuss over him. They, too, have been there for decades. One of them, a tiny woman in her late fifties, even kisses his cheek now and then, or pats his shiny bald head with familiar affection. The morning regulars are more and more like my dad--elderly widowers who come to enjoy a predictable, but hot and decently prepared, meal. Predictability is a virtue he finds comforting.

We always pass by the health food store at least once while we're on our weekly outings, and my father rarely fails to comment on its longevity. Somehow, the fact that it's managed to abide and endure for over fifty years, despite fierce economic odds, is comforting to both us. After all, so little stays the same. I like to think that it will be there for a long time, so I stop in now and then to roam through the aisles, never failing to find some arcane item worth buying.

Though it's been renovated and expanded, it's still something of a time capsule with an aura that my husband would likely describe as "old hippy." All in all, it's a nice place. And that's where I bought the unsweetened coconut, as well as the canned coconut milk, that I used for today's coconut almond bread.

This is a recipe that I newly re-adapted from a recipe that I'd already adapted once for a coconut bread post last July. I made several small changes to it, and I think it now evokes all the flavors of an Almond Joy candy bar. (Don't you love Almond Joys? I do, and so does my dad.)


Coconut Almond Bread with Dark Chocolate Chips and Almond Streusel
(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease and flour one 9" x 5" loaf pan.

Prepare the almond-streusel topping first:

1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup All Purpose flour
1/3 cup of coarse/sanding sugar
1 very small pinch of salt

3 Tbsp. melted unsalted butter, slightly cooled

Stir the four dry ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside. (You'll wait to mix the melted butter into the dry ingredients until just before you're ready to put the streusel on top of the unbaked loaf.)

For the coconut almond bread:

2 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup and 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 cups unsweetened, dried, finely flaked coconut
3 eggs, large
2/3 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 tsp. coconut flavoring, or about 3 drops of coconut flavored oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup dark chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and coconut together well with a fork or a hand whisk.

In a medium bowl, still working by hand, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, regular milk, melted butter, coconut extract/oil, almond extract, and vanilla extract.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in all of the liquid mixture. Stir just until combined; it's okay if a few streaks of flour remain.


Pour in the chocolate chunks and again stir just until the chocolate is more or less evenly distributed. Be careful not to overmix the batter.


Pour all of the batter into the greased and floured loaf pan.



For the streusel:
Just before you're ready to bake the loaf, mix the 3 Tbsp. of melted and slightly cooled butter into the dry streusel ingredients using a fork. (You can use your fingers to help mix it all up quickly if that helps.)


Sprinkle all of the mixed streusel evenly over the top of the unbaked loaf.


Bake the loaf for about 60 minutes or until the top crust is golden and a toothpick inserted deeply into the center of the loaf comes out clean. (Definitely check the loaf after about 35 minutes, and cover it loosely with foil if it seems to be browning too quickly. The top of the finished loaf should be nicely golden, but not too brown. I covered mine with foil after 30 minutes, and at about 40 minutes I moved the oven rack it was on from the middle of the oven to the upper rung. My oven always runs pretty hot so I have to take precautions!)

Cool the finished loaf in the pan, on a rack, for about ten to fifteen minutes. Run a thin knife down the sides to loosen it, and then turn it turn carefully out of pan to let it finish cooling completely on the rack. (If you slice it before it's completely cool, the slices might fall apart, so try to be patient.)


Recipe full disclosure! The almond streusel portion this of recipe was adapted from one at this link: http://www.valleyfig.com/Lemon-FigBreadwithAlmondStreusel.htm

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Dutch Apple Cake . . . History Will Remember This Cake!

Apples have been on my mind lately. More specifically, apples in cakes. And if we're narrowing it down even further, the famous apple cake they sell at IKEA (the gargantuan Swedish furniture and home-goods store), in their cafeteria, has been on my mind. I've tasted this cake maybe three times at most. If you've never tried it, and someday you have the opportunity to do so, you've got to have at least one big bite. It's fantastically good. Fantastically. I wouldn't lie to you about a subject this serious.

Now and then I'd hunted around on the internet trying to zero in on the recipe for that particular cake, but never with much luck. I'd seen a couple of recipes that more or less claimed to be "The IKEA Recipe," but they looked to me like fakers. So you can imagine my cautious glee when I found a promising recipe a few days ago for a Dutch apple cake in sort of a funky looking cookbook that had belonged to my mom. The book is called Heartland Baking from the Midwest's Best Cooks. The recipe had potential, to say the least, and I started laying plans to alter it to fit my purpose as precisely as possible.

Silently I schemed, "Let's see . . . nix all of the lemon zest . . . make the cake in a 10" springform pan instead of a 13" x 9" pan . . . have the crust go up the sides of the pan instead of just on the bottom . . . completely get rid of that topping made with cornflakes (of all things--cornflakes?), and replace it with a nice basic streusel. Decrease the amount of cinnamon in the apple mixture. Hmm . . . there, I think that might do it."

I made the cake today and it couldn't have turned out better. It's not too sweet. Not too dry and not too moist. It slices so cooperatively. If you wanted to, you could add a traditional Scandinavian vanilla sauce to dress it up, though it's perfectly good on its own. It's almost a misnomer to call it a cake . . . it's more accurately the marriage between an apple cake and an apple pie. Such a union would engender just this dessert--I'm sure of it!

So, now that I've effectively given this recipe the Jane's Sweets Seal of Extreme and Undying Approval, I really think you should gather up your baking supplies and go make one. Mmm hmm. Go ahead.

(Just in case you're interested, further details about the recipe's attribution can be found at the end of this post under "Recipe Full Disclosure!"')

Dutch Apple Cake

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 10" springform pan with baking spray, or butter the bottom and sides (I opted for the former, because I didn't want to take any chances, but I assume just buttering the pan would work fine too.)

For the crust:
2/3 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups All Purpose flour (I used unbleached, but I doubt it matters if you use bleached)

For the filling:
2 large eggs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
8 oz. sour cream
Approximately 5 and 1/2 cups sliced, peeled apples (I used a mixture of Honeycrisp, Paula Red, and Golden Delicious)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

For the streusel topping:
1 cup and 2 Tbsp. All Purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2/3 of a stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

To make the crust:
In a medium mixer bowl, using the paddle attachment, mix the butter until soft (about 30 seconds on a medium-high speed). Add the 1/2 cup sugar to the butter and beat until combined. Add all of the flour and beat until the mixture looks crumbly.

Pour the mixture into your prepared springform pan. Press the crumbs to cover the bottom of the pan, and halfway up the sides. Press firmly. (Try to get the thickness fairly even all over, but don't worry if it looks lumpy and rustic; it doesn't have to be as perfect looking as you'd probably want it to be for a cheesecake crust.)

Put the crust into the oven for about 18 minutes, until it becomes slightly golden around the top edge. Remove from the oven and set aside.

To prepare the filling:
In a medium mixing bowl, using the paddle attachment, beat the eggs until foamy. Add the 1/4 cup sugar. Beat for about 5 minutes, until the mixture looks thick and lemon colored. Gently fold in the sour cream.

In a large saucepan, combine the apples with a small amount of water (a cup or so). Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer the apples, covered, for about 3 minutes just until they're tender. Drain them well and let them cool slightly.

Pour them back into a bowl, or back into the saucepan.

In a small bowl combine the 1/2 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Pour this over the apples and stir to coat.

Spread the coated apple slices evenly over the crust. Pour the sour cream mixture evenly over that and spread it with a spatula as needed.

To prepare the streusel topping:
Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl; add in the butter with a pastry blender until you see some pea-sized clumps. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of the filling.

Bake the cake for about 35 minutes, until the top is quite golden. Let the cake cool completely, on a rack, before you attempt to remove the side of the springform pan. Delicious at room temperature or cold.


Recipe Full Disclosure! In the cookbook mentioned above, the original version of this apple cake recipe appears on page 29 and it's called Trudie's Dutch Apple Cake. It is credited to someone named Trudie Seybold, "owner of the Forest View Gardens restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio." I found the sweetest article about the closing, in 2001, of this very lively German restaurant after over 60 years of operation. It must have been a wonderful place. (The article even has a photo of Trudie and her husband kissing!)

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