Buttermilk Peach Coffee Cake
May 11, 2017 to May 13, 2017
“Expect great things”
“Buttermilk Peach Coffee Cake 🍰🍰☕”
A wedge of coffee cake in close-up, a tender crumb with pockets of baked peach under a thick layer of streusel. Two days earlier I posted the scene behind it: the whole cake on a stand, a slice cut, and a red camera on the table in the foreground. Expect great things.
That second photo is a nod to the plan I set out on the blog that month, to build a proper photo portfolio of everything I baked. Coffee cake, in the American sense, is a cake to eat with coffee and contains none. Buttermilk gives it a slight tang and a soft crumb, and the streusel, a rubbed mixture of butter, sugar and flour, bakes into a crunchy top.
This article is written in Corey’s voice for this tribute site, based on his captions and blog. His own words are the quotes above.
Buttermilk Peach Coffee Cake with Streusel
American coffee cake descends from the yeasted and crumb-topped kuchen that German and Scandinavian immigrants brought with them in the nineteenth century. Over time the yeast gave way to baking powder and the cake became a quick, tender buttermilk batter under a thick layer of cinnamon streusel. It contains no coffee: the name describes what you drink with it.
Ingredients
Streusel
- 130 g all-purpose flour (1 cup)
- 150 g light brown sugar (3/4 cup, packed)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp fine salt
- 115 g unsalted butter, cold, cubed (1/2 cup)
- 60 g pecans, chopped (1/2 cup), optional
Buttermilk cake
- 300 g all-purpose flour (2 1/2 cups)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp fine salt
- 170 g unsalted butter, softened (3/4 cup)
- 250 g granulated sugar (1 1/4 cups)
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 240 g buttermilk, at room temperature (1 cup)
Peaches
- 450 g ripe but firm peaches, pitted and sliced 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) thick (3 medium)
- 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour, for tossing
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9 x 13-inch (23 x 33 cm) pan and line it with parchment, leaving an overhang on the long sides.
- For the streusel, mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips until the mixture forms clumps the size of peas and small marbles, stir in the nuts, and refrigerate.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
- Beat the butter and sugar on medium-high until pale and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each, then the vanilla.
- On low speed add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two, beginning and ending with the flour. Stop as soon as the batter is smooth.
- Spread the batter in the pan. Toss the peach slices with the tablespoon of flour and arrange them over the batter in a single layer, pressing them in lightly.
- Scatter the cold streusel evenly over the top, squeezing some of it into larger clumps as you go.
- Bake 45-55 minutes, until the streusel is deep golden and a skewer in the center comes out with no wet batter. Cool at least 30 minutes before lifting out and cutting.
Chef’s notes
- Streusel that melts into a flat, greasy sheet was too warm or over-rubbed. Keep the butter cold, leave it in visible clumps, and chill the mixture until the moment it goes on.
- Very juicy peaches make a soggy layer under the topping. Use fruit that is ripe but still firm, and do not skip the dusting of flour. Frozen slices work if used straight from the freezer.
- Overmixing after the flour goes in gives tunnels and a tough crumb. Finish the last few strokes by hand with a spatula.
- No buttermilk on hand: stir 1 Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar into 240 g whole milk and stand 10 minutes.
Drawn from the methods of
- King Arthur Baking Company
- Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours (2006)
- Tish Boyle, The Cake Book (2006)
Corey has not published his own formula for this piece. This reference recipe is compiled from the published methods of the chefs and bakers listed above, written in our own words.
