It's all about the recipe. Really, it is! I have amassed quite a collection of recipes from my favorite cookbooks and food magazines, and now, because of all the foodie blogs out there, I am adding more every day! I test every recipe I post. Some I've been cooking for years, decades even, others I have cooked just once or twice. I don't post mediocre recipes. I don't post good recipes. I post GREAT recipes, recipes that I LOVE. When I find a recipe like that, I can't wait to share it! And the only thing better than sharing a recipe is hearing that someone else tried it and is as excited about it as I am :) Please, try something! Then let me know if you love it as much as I do! Or even why you don't... Either way, I'd love to hear from you!
I love New York style coffeecake. For years I have had in mind the perfect New York style coffeecake, and I have tried many recipes in order to produce that coffeecake. What I have in mind is a 1:1 ratio of cake to topping, a coffeecake that is delicious at room temperature, one that stays moist and delicious for a few days, and one that had to be baked in a 9×13 pan. I might finally have achieved my goal, melding hints and bits and pieces of several recipes into this one. The topping in this recipe is based on one in “Cake, I Love You” by Jill O’Connor. The coffee coffeecake portion is only minimally changed from “One Tin Bakes” by Edd Kimber.
YES! This New York Style COFFEE Coffeecake has a coffee swirl running through it and a nice thick layer of New York style coffeecake crumbs on top! Coffeecake just doesn’t get any better.
For New York Style
Crumble Topping
320 grams (2 ½ cups) AP
flour
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter
For the Coffee
Ripple
100g (1/3 cup) brown
sugar
4 tsp. instant espresso
powder
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
For the Sour Cream
Coffeecake
175 grams (6 oz) unsalted
butter, at room temperature
300 grams (1 ½ cups)
sugar
315 grams (2 ½ cups) AP
flour
1 tablespoon baking
powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
180 ml (3/4 cup) sour
cream
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Line 9×11 pan with parchment paper.
First, make the New York Style Crumb Topping first. Mix the flour, sugars, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in a bowl, and set aside for a minute.
Next, brown the butter. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. The butter will melt, sizzle a bit, then foam. As it foams, brown specks will form. You want those. Don’t let the brown specks burn though.
When butter is nicely browned and smelling a bit like nuts, remove from heat and pour over dry ingredients.
Using a fork, combine the butter and the dry ingredients, until the mixture clumps together. You want clumps! If you don’t have some big clumps, squeeze dough together until you get some.
Pop the crumble topping into the freezer (you can do this the night before, if you’d like).
Next, combine all the ingredients for the coffee ripple and set aside.
Now make the cake. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes with a stand mixer.
Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
Combine all the wet ingredients into another bowl and mix well. Set aside.
Add 1/3 of flour mixture to butter sugar mixture and mix well. Add 1/3 of wet mixture and mix well. Repeat two more times to use up all the flour and the wet ingredients.
Spoon ½ (or a bit more) of cake batter into prepared 9×13 pan.
Sprinkle Coffee Ripple mixture over the batter.
Spoon remaining cake batter over Ripple mixture. Cake mixture should completely cover the coffee mixture.
Take the New York Style Crumb topping out of the freezer and sprinkle all over the cake mixture. The cake should be completely covered by the topping.
Bake for 50 minutes in a preheated 350 F oven. Check that the middle of the cake is completely done before removing from oven.
Let cake cool at least 20 minutes before removing from pan.
Serve cake warm or at room temperature. Leftover cake will keep 2-3 on counter in a closed container.
Just a reminder, there’s no coffee in coffee cake. Coffee cake is cake
to be eaten with a perfect cup of coffee.
And that, my friends, is what a weekend quarantine breakfast is all
about. Throw in a good book or a good
companion and you’re in heaven.
I’ve been making this cake for decades, except that I had forgotten all about it for the past five or six years. Somehow this recipe went missing from one of my 13 recipe binders. I didn’t even notice. Then my daughter Hannah brought this coffee cake over as a first day of on-line school snack during the 2020 pandemic. I asked her for the recipe. To which she responded, with a disbelieving eye roll, “Mommmm, it’s YOUR recipe”. Ooops.
So here it is, the replacement for the missing recipe, the best blueberry coffee cake on the planet, Blueberry Upside-Down Coffee Cake.
Hint #1: If there’s no need for a fancy display, then there’s no need to actually turn the whole cake upside down. Just carve out a slice and turn upside down onto your plate. You can add whipped cream, or not, depending on your breakfast/brunch rules.
Hint #2: Don’t skimp on the lemon zest. The lemon zest (and butter) is what makes this cake sing!
I like this cake much better than any cake cooked with blueberries mixed into the batter. Cooked blueberries mess with the texture of any cake. In this cake, the blueberries shine as a layer, and the buttery cake also shines as a layer. You get to enjoy both the cake and the blueberries without one interfering with the other. Win-win! Oh, and it’s supposed to be served warm, win-win-win!
Blueberry Upside-Down Coffee Cake
For the Blueberry Layer
¼ cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
3-4 cups fresh blueberries (18-24 oz)
1 ½ tsp grated lemon zest
Get out your best 9×13 inch pan.
In a small saucepan, melt butter.
Stir in brown sugar and boil gently for 3 full minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pour the mixture into the bottom of the 9×13 pan, spreading carefully to make an even layer.
Pour fresh blueberries on top of butter/brown sugar mixture.
Sprinkle lemon zest evenly over the blueberry layer.
For the Cake
¾ cup butter
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (310 grams)
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk
1 ½ teaspoons grated lemon zest
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
With an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar. Continue to beat until light and fluffy, approx. 3-5 minutes.
Gradually add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in vanilla.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
Add 1/3rd of dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture and beat well.
Add half of the milk and beat until all of the milk has been incorporated,
Add another 1/3 of dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture and beat well.
Add remaining milk and beat until all of the milk has been incorporated.
Add remaining flour mixture and beat well.
Stir in lemon zest
Pour batter over blueberries in 9×13 pan. Smooth with a spatula.
Place pan in a 350-degree oven for 45-50 minutes. The top will be well browned. Use a toothpick to check that cake in the middle of the pan has been cooked.
Remove cake from the oven. If inverting, let cool for 3 minutes. Run a knife along all sides to loosen the cake from the pan. Invert onto a large rectangular platter or cutting board.
Serve warm, with or without optional whipped cream or pouring custard.
This is one of my favorite cheesecakes! It’s showy and special and tastes wonderful 🙂 The method for this cheesecake is different from my usual method, but it works like a dream, and I’ve never had this cheesecake crack. The only tricky part is getting the right ‘Cream of Coconut’. Try to find the Coco Lopez brand, or any other brand used for making mixed drinks such as the Pina Colada. Don’t use canned coconut milk or even the new canned coconut cream [this is getting so confusing!], you need Cream of Coconut. It’s sweet and thick. Here are pictures of the two brands I have used successfully.
Hope you can make this for a special occasion in your life. It’s a winner!
Coconut-Mango Cheesecake
Coconut Crust:
2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
8 whole graham crackers, broken
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, diced
Cheesecake:
32-ounces Philadelphia-brand cream cheese (do not use reduced-fat, fat-free, or whipped) The cream cheese MUST be at room temperature. Do not proceed with cold cream cheese!
2/3 cup sugar
1 15-ounce can (sweetened) cream of coconut (such as Coco López, look for it in the alcohol mixers section. Do NOT USE COCONUT MILK!)
This is the cake I wanted for my birthday this year and it’s
what a friend requested for her birthday a few months ago. It’s a fabulous trifecta
of chocolate: semi sweet chocolate in a brownie-like cake on the bottom, a
smooth and rich milk chocolate mousse for the middle layer, and a creamy white
chocolate mousse for the top layer. After
that description, I’m guessing you’ll want it for your birthday, too! The torte
not only tastes fantastic, it looks impressive, it slices well and it holds it’s
shape after being cut. Magnifique!
The torte is a bit of effort to make, but each step, each layer,
is easy and is relatively quick to accomplish.
Make the bottom layer before going to bed, let it cool on the counter
while you sleep. The next day, make the
middle layer, refrigerate it, and wash the dishes. Then make the top layer and
refrigerate the cake until serving time. Cake will keep 24 hours in
refrigerator, but I always serve it on the day I make the second and third
layers.
And look, here’s a link to a how-to video about making the torte!
The original recipe is from Cooks Illustrated. I think it was a cover recipe for one of their magazines. You can access the recipe online at Cooksillustrated.com, but it will cost you (and I hate that about Cooks Illustrated recipes).
So, after watching the video you’ll know this is not a difficult recipe. Just follow the directions. Melt the chocolate slowly. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixtures. Use an electric mixer when specified and hand whisk or a spatula when specified. If you can read, you can make this cake. “It’s all about the recipe” is my tag line, and I truly believe it!
I use Lindt chocolate bars in each layer. You’ll need two of the large bars for the bottom layer (around 70% cacao), two large milk chocolate bars for the middle layer, and two white chocolate bars for the top layer. Throw in an extra bar of your favorite type to grate on top. That’s about $20 worth of chocolate. In a pinch, you could use chocolate chips, which would be cheaper but wouldn’t taste quite as good and you’d have a harder time melting the chocolate (chocolate chips are not made to melt).
You’ll need a 9-inch springform pan, with sides at least 3 inches high to make this torte. If you’re in town, you can borrow mine. You could also order one off of Amazon, the Fat Daddio’s brand is my favorite. TJ Maxx/HomeGoods has started carrying Fat Daddio’s pans, usually at half the price Amazon sells them for, but it’s hit-or-miss at TJMaxx, isn’t it? Sur la Table and other specialty cooking stores will definitely carry 9-inch springform pans, usually at the same price as Amazon.
Triple Chocolate Mousse Torte
THE BOTTOM LAYER
6 tablespoons (3 oz) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces (plus extra for greasing pan)
7 ounces semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I prefer semi-sweet).
¾ teaspoon instant espresso powder
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs (separated)
Pinch salt
1/3 cup light brown sugar
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with sides at least 3 inches high and set aside.
Melt the butter, chocolate and espresso powder in a large heatproof bowl set over a bowl of really hot water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.
Whisk in the vanilla and egg yolks into the chocolate mixture and set aside.
With a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and salt at medium speed until frothy, about 30 seconds. Add half of the brown sugar and beat until combined, about 15 seconds. Add the remaining brown sugar and beat at high speed until soft peaks form when the whisk is lifted, about 1 minute longer, scraping down the sides halfway through.
With a hand-held whisk, whisk one-third of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain.
Carefully transfer the batter to the prepared springform pan, gently smoothing the top with an offset spatula.
Bake until the cake has risen, is firm around the edges, and the center has just set but is still soft (the center of cake will spring back after pressing gently with your finger), 13 to 18 minutes.
Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour. (The cake will collapse as it cools).
Do not remove the cake from the pan!
THE MIDDLE LAYER:
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-processed, Hershey’s is fine).
5 tablespoons hot water
7 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped
1½ cups cold heavy cream
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon table salt
Whisk together the cocoa powder and hot water in a small bowl
and set aside.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over another bowl filled with
very, very hot water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat and
cool for 5 minutes.
Whisk the cocoa powder mixture into the melted chocolate until
smooth.
With an electric mixer whisk the cream, granulated sugar and
salt on medium speed until the mixture begins to thicken, about 30 seconds.
Increase the speed to high and whip until soft peaks form.
With a handheld wire whisk, stir one-third of the whipped cream
into the chocolate mixture to lighten. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the
remaining whipped cream until no white streaks remain.
Spoon the mousse into the springform pan over the cooled cake
and gently tap the pan on counter 3 times to remove any large air bubbles;
smooth the top with an offset spatula. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes
while preparing the top layer.
THE TOP LAYER
¾ teaspoon powdered gelatin
1 tablespoon water
6 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1½ cups cold heavy cream (divided use)
Additional grated chocolate (milk or dark) or cocoa powder for decoration, optional
In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the water; let stand for at least 5 minutes.
Place the white chocolate in a medium bowl.
Bring ½ cup of the heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat or in the microwave.
Stir the gelatin mixture, into the hot cream, whisking until fully dissolved.
Pour the cream-gelatin mixture over the white chocolate and whisk until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is completely smooth (I usually sit the bowl of chocolate over another bowl of boiling water to help it melt).
Cool mixture to room temperature, stirring occasionally, 5 to 8 minutes. The mixture will thicken slightly.
With an electric mixer whisk the remaining 1 cup heavy cream at medium speed until it begins to thicken, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to high and whip until soft peaks form when the whisk is lifted.
Whisk one-third of the whipped cream, with a hand held whisk, into the white chocolate mixture to lighten. Using a rubber spatula, fold the remaining whipped cream into the white chocolate mixture until no white streaks remain.
Spoon the white chocolate mousse into the pan over the middle layer. Smooth the top with an offset spatula.
Return the cake to the refrigerator and chill until set, at least 2½ hours.
Garnish the top of cake with grated chocolate or dust with cocoa powder, if desired.
Run a thin knife between the cake and side of the springform pan, then remove the side of pan. Place torte on serving plate.
Cut into slices and share (for clean slices, dip a sharp knife into hot water and wipe dry between cuts).
NOTES: The cake can be made up to 1 day in advance and refrigerated.
