Walnut Coffee Cake
Have you ever noticed when you are focused on something you see it everywhere?
Right now walnuts, walnuts are everywhere! It’s all because I just received California Walnut Blogger Challenge package.
I saw them in walnut coffee cakes, at the end of every grocery line, in the new Canadian Living cookbook (in a fantastic pasta with rapini, gorgonzola and walnuts) and in one of my favourite fall salads, the Waldorf.
Walnuts are a great nut to work with in everything from savory to sweet dishes, and since the California Walnut Blogger Challenge was to share an original recipe using at least 1 cup of California Walnuts, I thought I’d share one I’ve been working on for a while now.
You see, there is this wonderful little coffee shop called Planet Coffee in the Byward Market in Ottawa tucked in a lovely little courtyard that was on my way home when I lived in Ottawa. I love the market, I love the courtyard, I love Planet Coffee and I LOVE their walnut coffee cake! Unfortunately, now I’m not working on CheapEats Ottawa all the time, I don’t get to Ottawa very often any more.
So I’ve been working on a copycat recipe to allow me to have something sort of like Planet Coffee’s Walnut Coffee Cake when ever I want it. It’s a fantastic coffee cake, and not exactly like Plant Coffee’s, so I’m still over the moon when I get to Ottawa and can sneak a little time for myself to sit on the patio, sip a latte and eat a slice of their walnut coffee cake.
Here’s my Walnut Coffee Cake, inspired heavily by Planet Coffee.
Planet Coffee inspired Walnut Coffee Cake
This coffee cake recipe is inspired by a coffee cake I love from Planet Coffee in Ottawa. But since I don't live in Ottawa anymore, I had to find a way to get something like it at home.
It's a fairly straightforward loaf cake batter but the best part comes when you start layering in the walnut streusel/crumble. So very tasty.
Ingredients
- 1.5 c flour
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 t baking powder
- 1/2 c butter
- 1 c sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 c milk
- 1 c brown sugar
- 6 T butter
- 1 T cinnamon
- 1 c California Walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and prepare loaf pan either by greasing & flouring a loaf pan or bundt pan.
- Chop walnuts into fairly uniform, small bits.
- Cream together brown sugar & 6T of butter, then mix in cinnamon and walnuts to create the streusel.
- Combine flour, salt & baking powder ingredients.
- Cream sugar & butter together
- Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add flour mixture to the butter mixture in batches alternating with milk.
- Pour 1/2 of the batter into the loaf pan.
- Cover with 1/2-3/4 of the streusel.
- Pour in the remaining batter and top with the remaining streusel mixture.
- Bake in the oven for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Then try and keep your hands off it until it cools, because trust me, it doesn’t slice well when it’s still hot… and it’s hard not to try and dig in early!
