I wanted to offer a second baked goods option in addition to a Poppy-Seed Braid at a morning meeting, so I also made the "Sour Cream Coffee Cake" from Zingerman's Bakehouse. According to the cookbook, this is Zingerman's most popular coffee cake and possibly its most popular sweet item.
It's also easy to make. There is a walnut filling that is simply a dry mixture of toasted walnuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon. To make the cake batter, you cream sugar and room temperature butter; add eggs, followed by sour cream and vanilla; and gradually mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt). You pour a third of the batter into a Bundt pan, sprinkle on half of the walnut filling, and then continue layering the remaining batter and nuts.
After baking, I cooled the cake for about 15 minutes and then turned it out of the pan; it came out in one piece with an unblemished and uniformly-colored golden brown crust. The cake in the cookbook photo looks like it has dark blotches of walnut filling visible on portions the crust (it's difficult to tell for sure, because the photo has uneven lighting and some unfortunate shadows going on -- although I'm fairly certain the better-lit photo on the cover of the cookbook is also of this coffee cake). My cake definitely did not, and I had made a deliberate effort to make sure that none of the filling touched the sides of the pan because I didn't want it to stick.
The cake sliced beautifully without shedding any crumbs. It was the Platonic ideal of coffee cake: a substantial but not dry crust, a tight and even crumb, a decadently buttery but firm texture, and packed full of flavor. I preferred this cake over the Poppy-Seed Braid, by a large margin. Coincidentally, the cookbook offers a lemon-poppy seed version of this cake that omits the nut filling and includes lemon oil and a cup of ground poppy seeds. Since I keep poppy seeds and lemon oil on hand, I'm definitely going to have to give that variation a try as well.
The cookbook says this cake keeps well for at least two weeks, but I didn't have the chance to find out how well it holds up since the cake was quickly consumed. Each of the three recipes I've tried from Zingerman's Bakehouse -- the hummingbird cake, the pecan blondies, and this coffee cake -- has been exceptional. I'm really loving this cookbook so far and can't wait to see what other treasures I find in its pages.
Recipe: "Sour Cream Coffee Cake (or Lemon Poppy Seed)" from Zingerman's Bakehouse by Amy Emberling and Frank Carollo.
Previous Posts:
It's also easy to make. There is a walnut filling that is simply a dry mixture of toasted walnuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon. To make the cake batter, you cream sugar and room temperature butter; add eggs, followed by sour cream and vanilla; and gradually mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt). You pour a third of the batter into a Bundt pan, sprinkle on half of the walnut filling, and then continue layering the remaining batter and nuts.
The cake sliced beautifully without shedding any crumbs. It was the Platonic ideal of coffee cake: a substantial but not dry crust, a tight and even crumb, a decadently buttery but firm texture, and packed full of flavor. I preferred this cake over the Poppy-Seed Braid, by a large margin. Coincidentally, the cookbook offers a lemon-poppy seed version of this cake that omits the nut filling and includes lemon oil and a cup of ground poppy seeds. Since I keep poppy seeds and lemon oil on hand, I'm definitely going to have to give that variation a try as well.
The cookbook says this cake keeps well for at least two weeks, but I didn't have the chance to find out how well it holds up since the cake was quickly consumed. Each of the three recipes I've tried from Zingerman's Bakehouse -- the hummingbird cake, the pecan blondies, and this coffee cake -- has been exceptional. I'm really loving this cookbook so far and can't wait to see what other treasures I find in its pages.
Recipe: "Sour Cream Coffee Cake (or Lemon Poppy Seed)" from Zingerman's Bakehouse by Amy Emberling and Frank Carollo.
Previous Posts:
- "A Big Warm Pile of Delicious Cake Disaster: Argroves Manor Coffee Cake," March 26, 2014.
- "Hail to Lunch Ladies Who Bake: 1959 City School Sour Cream Coffee Cake," September 18, 2011.
- "Cake and Topping in Perfect Harmony: Sour Cream Coffee Cake from Heirloom Bakery and Cafe," July 17, 2010.
- "Mo' Crumble, Mo' Flavor! [Cocoa-Sour Cream-Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake]," July 17, 2009.
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