Pumpkin pie coffee cake

Pumpkin spice gets a bad rap when misapplied to all manner of foods in the name of selling us products in October. But one place where it really has its place is the place it started: in baked goods. 

This cake marries two good things (pumpkin pie filling and a streusel sour cream coffee cake) quite successfully.

If you mix up the dry ingredients, pumpkin filling and streusel, and set the butter out in a bowl the night before, you can get this into and out of the oven in 77 minutes. So it actually can work as a take-to-work morning treat. (Happy birthday, Cindy.)

Sour cream pumpkin coffee cake

From Jennifer Maloney's Seasons & Suppers blog, a source of many things I've pinned to my comfort food board.

Ingredients

Streusel

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons cinnamon

⅓ cup butter, cut into cold pieces

1 cup chopped pecans

Filling

1 ¾ cup pumpkin puree (1 15-ounce can)

⅓ cup granulated sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ginger

Pinch of salt

Cake batter

½ cup butter at room temperature

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

Glaze

½ cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 to 2 tablespoons milk

¼ teaspoon vanilla

Method

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9-by-13 cake pan.

For streusel, mix together 1  cup brown sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon in a medium bowl. Cut in the ⅓ cup cold butter with a pastry blender or two forks. Stir in chopped pecans. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For pumpkin filling, mix pumpkin, ⅓ cup granulated sugar, 1 egg, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and pinch of salt in a medium bowl until combined. (Can be mixed up and stored, covered in the refrigerator, overnight.)

For batter, in a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and powder and ¼ teaspoon salt.  In a large bowl, beat ½ cup butter and ¾ cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in vanilla. Add eggs one a time, beating after each addition. Add dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream and mix to combine.

Spoon half the cake batter into the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle half the streusel mixture on top. Cover with all the pumpkin filling. Then spread the rest of the cake batter over the top. (Start with small spoonfuls because it’s hard to spread big globs of batter over the tacky pumpkin mixture.) Sprinkle remaining streusel mixture on top.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until set and golden. Cool slightly in pan before icing.

For glaze, mix powdered sugar, ¼ teaspoon vanilla and milk (or half and half) as needed to make a thin glaze. Drizzle over cake.

Note: if you want the glaze to be quite noticeable, you’ll want to spread it on a completely cooled cake. I didn’t go that route, because for me warm coffee cakes in the morning outweigh immaculately decorated coffee cakes. This cake is quite moist, so if you’re not going to be able to eat all of it in a day, I’d refrigerate or freeze it. The filling is essentially pumpkin pie, and you wouldn’t leave that out at room temperature for multiple days.

Rating: Not super sweet, with nice subtle autumn flavors, what pumpkin spice was meant to be. I was afraid this might turn out to be a big mush, but I really think this works. And it makes me ponder what other fillings I might try inside this batter combo. Almond-apple filling perhaps?