Coffee Cake

Alex and Madhuparna's Coffee cake

Alex and Madhuparna are friends of ours who used to live here in Winston and used to make this coffee cake for us a lot. They adapted from The Joy of Cooking and reduced the fat a bit, out of deference to Alex's cholesterol. It was delicious. My cholesterol is fine, however, so I add fat to make it more delicious. Lots of fat. I doubled the butter and added more topping (with butter) because this is a coffee cake and I believe coffee cake needs lots of butter. The wonderful thing is that all that butter makes the topping carmelize a bit, creating dips and valleys of brown sugar and cinnamon goodness. Since I am a believer in adapting recipes, wouldn't it be possible to do this with less butter or even use a butter substitute (margarine, canola oil, or one of those mysterious, non-food bread spread products)? NO. Nyet. Absolutely not. Butter or nothing!

While the ingredients and assembly are quite simple, the result is more than the sum of its parts. I often make this for breakfast guests and houseguests. Works fine to bake it the night before. In cold weather, you can leave it out all night, but in warmer weather, refrigerate (did I mention that there is a lot of butter in this?) and just gently warm up in the morning. Needless to say--though I seem to be saying it anyway--it is great with coffee. Green tea, not so much. Fresh fruit, not really. I just cannot say that this is part of a healthy breakfast. Enjoy it anyway.

A&M Coffee Cake

2 cups brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping (combine separately)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar (approx)
more cinnamon--you decide how much

Mix dry ingredients for cake; combine butter, softened, with egg and vanilla. Combine with dry ingredients and pour into 9"x13" pan. Combine topping ingredients and cover the batter with topping.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Pour the coffee.