I adore coffeecake. Coffeecake is served warm, so it’s comforting and can be served directly from the pan it was baked in. It doesn’t have frosting, so it’s not too-too overly sweet. It’s communal, shouting out to be shared with others. Coffeecake goes as well with tea as it does with coffee, so even with it’s unfortunate name it appeals to non-coffee lovers.

This recipe for coffeecake has even more going for it—four cups of summer fruit!

The four cups of fruit are interchangeable, and they don’t all have to be summer fruit. The coffeecake pictured here has peaches, apples, and blueberries. Other good fruits to use are cherries, apricots, nectarines, plums, pears, mango, blackberries and raspberries! They don’t even have to be fresh off the tree, use frozen fruit if that is what you have on hand 🙂 I wouldn’t use bananas which tend to overpower the delicate flavor of the other fruit, and I’d caution about using a lot of strawberries—a few would be fine—but strawberries tend to release a lot of liquid, shrivel up and lose most of their color and flavor.

Often I have a few pieces of fruit languishing around, maybe a peach past it’s prime or a few apricots, a random apple, a some leftover berries, and maybe a few extra blueberries in the freezer, that’s when it’s a good time to make this coffeecake. Peel the fruit and cut into chunks of around ½”-1″, rather than slices. Small plums and apricots should be pitted and quartered.

The recipe includes the zest of one lemon or orange, which makes the cake sing, but if there’s no orange or lemon languishing around your fruit bowl, it’s ok to leave it out.

Most cooks will add nuts to the streusel mix, so your coffeecake will probably look even more delicious than the one pictured here—I don’t do nuts.

The original recipe was from a Sunset cookbook, probably from the late 1970s. I first made it the year I was married, 1981. I have made some adjustments to it over the years, which are reflected below. This coffeecake has truly stood the test of time—the marriage, unfortunately, did not.

Summer Fruit Coffeecake

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (200 grams) sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Zest of 1 medium-sized orange or lemon
• ½ cup cold butter—from refrigerator or freezer
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups fruit, chopped

For the Streusel Topping

• 1/3 cup (about 66 grams) brown sugar
• ¼ cup (about 33 grams) all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons firm butter
• ½ cup chopped nuts-pecans, walnuts, almonds…

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Prepare a 9×13″ pan—either line with parchment paper, rub a light coating of butter on the bottom and sides, or spray with Pam for Baking.
   • If you have a food processor, use it for the next two steps. If you don’t have a food processor, do all the steps by hand.
3. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and zest together in either the bowl of the food processor or a large bowl. Stir or whirl to combine.
4. For a food processor, cut the frozen, cold, very firm butter into chunks, add to the flour mixture and then whirl until just combined—batter should be moist and chunky, resembling cornmeal. Working by hand, grate the butter into the flour. You may have to stop occasionally to dip the butter into the flour so it’s doesn’t stick to your hands or melt too much. Once the butter has been added to the flour, toss or use a fork to combine—the pieces of butter should be coated with a dusting of flour.
5. In another bowl combine the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat lightly to combine.
6. Add the liquid mixture to the butter-flour mixture and stir just until moistened—if working with a food processor, turn the mixture out to a large bowl, then add the egg mixture, stirring until just combined.
7. Pour batter into a 9×13″ pan.
8. Spoon the prepared fruit on top of the batter, pressing down lightly.
9. Prepare the streusel topping by combining the brown sugar, flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Grate the firm butter into the dry mixture and toss to combine, then stir in the chopped nuts.
10. Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the fruit.
11. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 50-60 minutes or until center is fully baked and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean—200-205° on an instant read thermometer. To get an accurate reading be careful not to insert the probe into a piece of fruit or let it touch the bottom of the pan.
12. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before cutting into squares and serving warm.

Enjoy!