Cinnamon Streusel Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Anyone who occasionally reads this blog knows that I make treats every week for the staff of The City, the company where my husband is the software architect. This week, my treat was a shame. I think I'll blame convection. My oven has that option and sometimes I flip the little switch to speed up a baking process. This is rarely a good idea. The cake ended up crusty hard and brown on top and dry throughout. The recipe itself wasn't my favorite anyway. Chocolate and cinnamon are wonderful together, but the method just wasn't quite to my liking. The chocolate chips were layered in the middle of the batter and not incorporated throughout and the topping was a heavy sprinkling of cinnamon sugar and a cup of chocolate chips, but no struesel. I sent the cake anyway, my frugal roots not wanting it to be wasted, but the rating was a paltry 3.5 stars and Zack confirmed a disappointing result. I just couldn't leave things like that! So, tonight, I did a do-over, making some changes and adding a thick struesel topping. The resulting cake was inspiring enough to deserve an entry here. It was moist, chocolaty, cinnamony, struesely perfection.



Cinnamon Struesel Chocolate Chip Coffeecake
loosely adapted from two Smitten Kitchen recipes

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon kosher salt (This is a lot, but I think the salt really balanced it out)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 3/4 cups flour

For the cake:
2/3 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 tbl vanilla extract
2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
12 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 8 pieces.
1 1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips (miniature really is key here)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 9 x 13" baking pan or 12 6oz ramekins (for individual cakes)

2. To make crumbs, in a large bowl, whisk sugars, spices and salt into melted butter until smooth. Then, add flour with a spatula or wooden spoon. It will look and feel like a solid dough. Leave it pressed together in the bottom of the bowl and set aside.

3. To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Fold in chocolate chips.

4. Scrape batter into prepared pan or fill ramekins each half way full.

5. Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are around that size. Sprinkle over cake. You can put a few chocolate chips on top so its clear that its chocolaty. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter, 25-28 minutes for individual cakes or 35-40 minutes for a 9 x 13 pan. Serve warm or room temperature, dusted with powdered sugar. This is a great breakfast treat, but if it happens to come out warm at 9pm, serve it with some ice cream. :)

Yield: 12 individual servings or 16-20 squares.