Pumpkin Coffeecake

Book Update: No books! I have been working on a craft to share and revolutionize the kitchen! Okay, no not really. But, it did make my poor dining chairs look a lot nicer after 6 years of children in the house.

Our book club books for this month are “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and “The Rent Collector.” Now, I did read “The Kite Runner” ages ago, but not his newer one “A Thousand Splendid Suns.”

Recipe: This is probably one of the best coffeecake recipes I have tried. It ties with the Lemon Blueberry Coffeecake from a couple years ago!! I must stress though that it tastes TEN times better served warm. Even slightly warm. Once the cake hits room temperature, it seems ordinary. Or, maybe I’m being weird. But that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Serve it slightly warm. Freeze the rest for later. Do what makes you happy. This cake will make you happy. 🙂

Pumpkin Coffeecake
serves 12

Topping:
1/2 cup (2.5 oz) flour
1/2 cup (3.75 oz) dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup (4T) butter, cold

Cake:
2 cups (10 oz.) AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup (3.75 oz.) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or canola or grapeseed)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup milk or buttermilk

Icing:
1 cup (120 grams) powdered sugar
1-2 Tb. of cream, milk and/or maple syrup

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees or convection oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9×9 pan with cooking spray.

2. Topping: Mix together the dry stuff in a bowl – flour, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cut the cold butter into cubes. With your fingers, toss it into the dry mixture to make coarse crumbs.

3. Cake: Now use the “muffin method”!! In a great big bowl, whisk together the dry stuff – flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In a not so great big bowl, whisk together the wet stuff: pumpkin, dark brown sugar, oil, maple syrup and milk. Add wet stuff to dry stuff. Using a spatula, stir just until barely combined. A few flour specks poking through are okay.

4. Assemble: Pour the batter into the 9×9 pan. Use your spatula to spread out the batter. Top with the crumb topping. Pop into the oven for 30-35 minutes. Test with a toothpick in the middle and you should not see any crumbs or maybe just a little speck.

5. Icing: In a small bowl, pour in your powdered sugar. Add your milk a little at a time until you get the consistency you like. I like mine thick, so I used half cream and half maple syrup. Milk will work great, too. Then, drizzle onto warm cake. To make pretty lines, put the icing in a ziplock bag and cut off one corner. Squeeze out the icing onto the cake.

(I brought this to a meeting and since I was running late I only had time to use my phone camera)