Description
This easy apple butter coffee cake is perfect for fall!
Ingredients
For the crumb topping:
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup flour (60g)
- 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), softened at room temperature
For the coffee cake:
- 210 grams all purpose flour (about 1 3/4 cups when measured correctly by scooping and leveling)
- 1 cup sugar (201 grams )
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (6 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (5 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (5 grams)
- 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon (10 grams)
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3/4 cup apple butter (200 grams)
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (2 grams)
- 1 large apple, cored and diced
Optional garnishes and toppings:
- 2-3 Tablespoons powdered sugar, for dusting
- 1/4 cup cream cheese glaze
Instructions
Prep:
- Heat oven to 425° Fahrenheit. NOTE: you will reduce this temperature part way through baking.
- Grease and flour a 9-inch baking pan.
Make the crumb topping:
- Use a fork to mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and softened butter in a small bowl until you have a coarse, lumpy mixture. Set aside while you make the batter.
Make the batter:
- In a large bowl, stir together sugar, flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and ground cloves.
- In a separate small bowl, stir together apple butter and melted butter.
- Add apple butter mixture, eggs, and vanilla to dry ingredients and mix until no lumps remain.
- Add chopped apples and stir to fold them into the batter.
Bake:
- Spread batter into your prepared pan.
- Spread the crumb topping evenly over the top.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425° F, then reduce the temperature to 375° F and bake an additional 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of the coffee cake comes out clean.
- Serve warm or let coffee cake cool to room temperature. Top with a drizzle of cream cheese glaze or a dusting of powdered sugar if you like (optional).
Notes
What kind of apple butter should I use? We developed this recipe to work with both our Stovetop Apple Butter and our Slow Cooker Apple Butter! We have also tested this coffee cake with Eden Organic apple butter and store-bought applesauce. Keep in mind that the sweetness, flavor, and liquid content of apple butter can vary from brand to brand (and from recipe to recipe!)
Let your apple butter come to room temperature before using it if you can: when the apple butter is too cold, it makes the butter seize up a bit and you end up with a thicker batter that's a little more difficult to stir. Not the end of the world, but it saves a little bit of time and effort if the apple butter isn't extra cold!
Substitutions and Additions. Use melted coconut oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil in place of the melted butter in the cake batter. Add walnuts or pecans (we like to toast them first!) to the batter for extra texture. Drizzle a quick cream cheese glaze over the top of the coffee cake when it’s cooled (use this in place of or in addition to the crumb topping). Use pears or peaches in place of the diced apples if you like.
What kind of pan should I use? We recommend a 9” cake pan (round or square) or a 9" springform pan for best results here. You can use an 8-inch cake pan, but you may need to add an extra 3-5 minutes of bake time.
If you have a kitchen scale, please use it here! Measuring flour by volume (with cups) is notoriously unreliable - for best results, grab your scale and use the gram measurements provided! If you need to measure the flour here with cups, use the scoop and level method for best results. Flour is the most unreliable ingredient to measure by weight, which is why we’ve listed the gram measurement for the flour first in the ingredients list above. The rest of the ingredients here are fairly consistent when measured by volume, so you can follow the volume measurements for those if you prefer - but we’ve also included gram measurements if you’d like to measure everything by weight! For small amounts (1 teaspoon and less) we recommend just using a volume (teaspoon) measurement because many kitchen scales aren’t reliable in such small amounts.