Ina Garten-Inspired Sour Cream Coffee Cake
If your streusel layer ended up as a gritty seam at the base of the tin, the batter was too loose. That is a recipe problem, and it is fixable.
A middle layer of streusel is suspended, not baked in — the batter underneath has to be stiff enough to hold its weight for the twenty minutes before the crumb sets. This batter is deliberately thicker than a normal cake batter. It should be spread with a spatula and hold its shape when you drag a line through it. If it pours, the streusel is going to the bottom.
Resist the urge to loosen it with milk. It is supposed to feel like that.
Jump to the recipe ↓Ina Garten-Inspired Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Serves 12 · Baking
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Total
- 1 hr 20 min
Involved8 steps, 14 ingredients, a technique that commonly fails
~600 kcal per servingestimated
Ingredients
For the streusel
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 100 g plain flour
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 80 g cold butter, diced
- 100 g walnuts, chopped
For the cake
- 225 g butter, softened
- 300 g caster sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 350 g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 350 g full-fat sour cream
Method
- Heat the oven to 175°C (155°C fan). Butter a 25 cm bundt or tube tin.
- Rub the streusel ingredients together to coarse crumbs and set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar , until pale.5 minutes
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
- Fold the dry ingredients and the sour cream in alternately, in three additions, stopping the moment it comes together.
- Spread half the batter in the tin. Scatter half the streusel over. Spread the rest of the batter on top and finish with the remaining streusel.
- Bake , until a skewer comes out clean.50–55 minutes
- Cool in the tin before turning out.30 minutes
Sour cream does two jobs
Its acid reacts with the bicarbonate of soda for lift, and it interferes with gluten formation, which is what makes the crumb tender rather than bready. It also brings enough fat to keep the cake good on day three. Yogurt substitutes for it, but use the full-fat kind or the batter loosens and you are back to a sunken streusel.
Cream the butter and sugar properly, then stop
Five full minutes on medium until pale and fluffy — this is where the aeration comes from. Once the flour goes in, the mixing has to be short. Long beating after flour develops gluten and turns a tender coffee cake tough.
Room temperature eggs, or it curdles
Cold eggs beaten into creamed butter chill the fat and it splits, and a split batter bakes dense. If you forgot, sit the eggs in warm water for five minutes.
Storing
Four days at room temperature under a cloche, or three months frozen whole. The streusel softens on day two — a slice warmed for ten seconds brings the texture back.
Questions people ask
Why did my streusel sink?
The batter was too loose to support it. It should be thick enough to spread rather than pour.
Can I use yogurt instead of sour cream?
Full-fat Greek yogurt, yes. Low-fat versions add water and loosen the batter.
Can I make it in a loaf tin?
Two 900 g loaf tins, about 45 minutes. A single loaf tin is too deep and the middle stays raw.
Why is the crumb tough?
Over-mixing after the flour went in. Fold only until it comes together.
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