I used to work near a used bookstore, and every so often, I would spend my lunch break browsing the selection of cookbooks in the basement. My favorite find is a like-new copy of Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters. It's a collection of 150 recipes, from the late 1800s to the 1970s, gleaned from manuscript cookbooks and updated to use modern ingredients and techniques (for example, baking temperatures and times are not usually listed in heirloom recipes). I love the book because it features a wide variety of recipes that rely on easy to find, basic ingredients, rather than convenience mixes or exotic spices.
As I was paging through the book, looking for inspiration for a dessert to serve at a family gathering, I came across Mary Williams' Coffee Cake with Streusel. It proved to be just as luscious as the photograph, although I did use a slightly unorthodox method to form the coffee cake.
For the streusel:
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
For the cake:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat an 8 x 8 pan with baking spray.
Streusel: Cook the pecans in a medium skillet over medium heat until toasted, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Cut the butter into the sugar mixture with a pastry blender* until the mixture looks like wet sand. Stir in toasted pecans. Cake: Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender*, cut the butter into the mixture. Add egg, milk, and vanilla and stir until combined.Spoon about half the cake batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half the streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter into the pan and top with the remaining streusel.**
Bake for 25 minutes, longer if you are using a conventional, rather than convection, oven. The cake is done when a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Cool completely and slice. Store loosely covered at room temperature.
*Recipes often indicate that you can cut butter into dry ingredients using your fingers or two knives. I am a complete failure at both of these methods, and the $5 I spent on a pastry blender was one of the best kitchen investments I've ever made.
**At this point, I realized that my batter formed a gentle hill rather than an evenly thick square, despite my best smoothing efforts after spooning each half of the batter into the pan. Since I realized that my cake would burn on the edges before the middle was done if I left it as is, I placed a piece of wax paper over the entire pan and smooshed the batter down until it was an even thickness. You may be able to skip this step if you have more finesse that I do at batter-spooning.