This Cranberry Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake shouts out fall. My love of cranberries is known to those that follow the blog. I can hardly wait until they appear in the market.
While this is an easily made coffee cake, the one thing that makes it stand out when mixing is how the batter becomes very, very cold and stiff after the frozen cranberries are added.By freezing the cranberries, they are easily chopped by pulsing them in a processor. This is done at the last minute so they don’t juice too much.
Because the batter is so cold and stiff, this Cranberry Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake takes almost twice as long to bake since it had to come to room temperature in the oven before the baking starts. So don’t be impatient. The wait is worth it.
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Pecan Streusel
¾ cup brown sugar (150 grams or 5 ⅓ ounces)
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter, cut up and cold
¾ cup pecans, finely cut (85 grams or 3 ounces)
Place the sugar, flour, cinnamon in a processor bowl. Pulse several times to mix. Add the cold butter and process until it starts making crumbs. Some butter may not be incorporated. That's fine. Add the pecans and pulse several times until they are finely cut in. Refrigerate until needed.
Cranberry Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake
1 – 12 ounce bag fresh cranberries (340 grams)
1 large orange
2 cups all-purpose flour (280 grams or 10 ounces)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature (114 grams, 4 ounces or 1 stick)
2 eggs
½ cup sour cream (114 grams or 4 ounces)
2 teaspoons vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 9 x 2 inch square cake pan with parchment paper. Spray with a non-stick baking release and set aside.
Place the cranberries on a rimmed baking sheet and pick over them for any mushy ones. Freeze the cranberries until rock hard.
Grate the zest of the orange and set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Cream the sugar, butter, and orange until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, mixing well, Scrape down and add the eggs one at a time.
Beat until light and completely combined. If the mixture curdles, and it probably will, raise the speed of the mixer to bring it back together. If that doesn’t do it, adding the flour in the next step will.
Add the flour in three parts and sour cream in two alternately, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
Add half the sour cream.
Continue alternating with the second additon of flour, then the rest of the sour cream, ending with the last of the flour.
Last, place the cranberries in a food processor
and pulse to coarsely chop.
Add to the batter and mix just until well combined. The batter will be very firm at this point because of the frozen cranberries. After you have mixed by machine, be sure to mix by hand a few times to incorporate any unmixed batter on the bottom and sides.
Spoon the batter in the prepared pan.
Spread it out evenly.
Top with the reserved pecan streusel.
Because the batter will be almost frozen from the cranberries this takes longer than normal to bake. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Cover the top loosely with foil if it starts to brown to quickly.
Yield: 1 9” Cranberry Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake – about 9 servings
If you enjoy this coffee cake, you may want to take a look at these.
Candied Cranberries
Chocolate Cranberry Curd Tart
Chocolate Cranberry Quick Bread
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