Description
This cozy pumpkin coffee cake features a thread of pumpkin spice filling and a delicious streusel topping!
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 40 grams brown sugar (3 Tablespoons)
- 2 grams pumpkin spice (1 teaspoon)
- 10 grams all purpose flour (1 Tablespoon)
- Pinch of kosher salt
For the Crumble:
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 60 grams brown sugar (¼ cup)
- 2 grams pumpkin spice (1 teaspoon)
- 40 grams flour (¼ cup)
- Pinch of kosher salt
For the Batter:
- 280 grams all purpose flour (about 2 ¼ cups when measured by scooping and leveling)
- 120 grams brown sugar (½ packed cup)
- 4 grams kosher salt (1 teaspoon)
- 5 grams baking soda (1 teaspoon)
- 7 grams baking powder (1 ½ teaspoons)
- 10 grams pumpkin spice (1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon)
- 325 grams pumpkin purée (about 1 ¼ cup)
- 1 egg
- 53 grams melted butter (½ stick, or ¼ cup)
- 60 grams milk (¼ cup)
- 4 grams vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
- 14 grams apple cider vinegar (1 Tablespoon)
Instructions
Prep the components:
- Line a metal 8x8 pan with parchment paper. Heat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit.
- Make the filling. Whisk brown sugar, pumpkin spice, flour, and a pinch of salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Make the crumble. Add softened butter, brown sugar, pumpkin spice, flour, and a pinch of kosher salt to a small mixing bowl. Use a fork to slowly mash the dry ingredients into the butter, until you have a crumbly mixture that holds together when pressed. Keep mashing until no sandy bits remain: Everything should be worked into the butter, kind of like a very thick compound butter. Set aside while you make the batter.
Make the coffee cake:
- Whisk flour, brown sugar, kosher salt, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin spice together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together pumpkin purée, egg, melted butter, milk, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar. This will be a thick mixture, and may not be perfectly smooth - that's ok!
- Add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients a little at a time. Stir until everything is just combined and no dry flour remains. The batter will be thick and somewhat airy.
- Pour half of the batter into the prepared metal pan. Use an offset spatula to spread the batter into an even layer that reaches all corners of the pan.
- Spread filling evenly over the batter. Top with remaining batter, and once again use an offset spatula to spread it out into an even layer (Tip: It helps to place the remaining batter over the surface of the filling in multiple small scoops, rather than spreading out from one large blob in the center, so that it feels like you're connecting the dots as you spread it into an even layer).
- Top with the prepared crumble. Break the crumble up as you go if needed, so that the pieces are fairly uniform in size.
- Bake 40-45 minutes at 325° F, until the top is lightly browned and a cake tester inserted into the center of the coffee cake comes out clean. Let cool completely, then slice and serve.
Notes
Please use a kitchen scale! While we do our best to provide approximate volume measurements, measuring by volume (with cups, teaspoons, etc.) is notoriously unreliable. For best results, use a kitchen scale and follow the weight measurements (given in grams, above!)
Additions and substitutions. Add chopped, toasted nuts (walnuts, pecans) to the coffee cake batter if you like. Omit the filling if you'd like to reduce the sugar in this recipe. Top with powdered sugar or a quick cinnamon glaze if you like. If you don't have pre-mixed pumpkin spice (also called pumpkin pie spice), you can make homemade pumpkin spice blend with a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.
The exact flavor will vary based on the brand or blend of pumpkin spice you use. You may need to adjust the amount of pumpkin spice in each component of this recipe to suit your personal tastes. Especially high-quality or aromatic pumpkin spice blends (like this one from Diaspora Co) can have a much stronger flavor, while an old jar of pumpkin spice that's been in the cabinet for a few years may lose some of its potency.
For more help with the crumble (streusel) topping, including additional step-by-step photos and expert tips, read through our full cinnamon crumble topping tutorial.
