A Great Streusel from the Biggest Little City: Atlantis Steakhouse Coffeecake

When I wanted to make some baked goods for a morning meeting at the office, a coffeecake was an easy option. And I even had a Los Angeles Times Culinary SOS recipe on my to-bake list that was waiting for just such an occasion: the Atlantis Steakhouse Coffeecake.

This coffeecake has both a pecan filling and a streusel topping. The filling is a combination of brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, salt, chopped pecans, and room temperature butter that you mix by hand. Likewise, you hand mix the streusel by combining brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, salt, honey, vanilla, and room temperature butter. Both my filling and streusel formed nice clumps of crumbs.

The cake batter is straightforward. You cream butter with sugar; add eggs; and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and baking soda) and sour cream. You spread half of the cake batter into a pan, sprinkle on the pecan filling, carefully spread over the remaining cake batter, and top the cake with the streusel.
I checked the cake at the minimum suggested baking time of 45 minutes and it was clearly not done -- the center of the cake jiggled as I pulled it out of the oven. I put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes, at which point it was clearly done. Or perhaps a little overdone.

The streusel topping melted together to form a solid crunchy layer, although I liked the fact that you could still make out distinct clumps of crumbs. I give both the streusel and filling layer of this cake an A. The firm, buttery, cinnamon-y streusel is fantastic, and the pecan filling really helps break up what would otherwise be a very tall cake. I didn't think the cake itself was all that great, although this may be my fault for overbaking it; it was dry and the flavor wasn't particularly interesting. This coffeecake as a whole was still quite enjoyable, but I don't think I'll be making it again.

Recipe: "Atlantis Steakhouse Coffeecake" from the October 9, 2014 Los Angeles Times.

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