All my life, I have been considered odd. Out of all my family members, I’m the only one who doesn’t like ketchup. And though over the years my tastes have changed, (I now eat a lot more vegetables than I used to) I still despise that slimy red condiment. When it comes down to it, I hate all condiments. Relish, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles. All of them rank on my “I will never voluntarily eat these” list. That’s right. I eat my burgers plain- with only a nice slab of cheese.
Running along the same line, I hate nuts in most of my foods. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the value of nuts by themselves. I could sit down and eat an entire bag of pistachios. I love almonds on my salad. I can eat cashews by the handful. But for heaven’s sake, don’t put nuts in my cookies. Keep them away from my brownies. And most importantly, NEVER make me eat chunky peanut butter. There is just something about the texture of nuts in a nice chewy dessert that I find truly upsetting. Because of my weird hatred of nut-filled recipes, most of the things you see on this blog will be nuts-optional. You may want to add them. I, however, will probably not.
Some might think my taste is boring. I entirely disagree. I like to consider myself a food purist. My strongest desire is for all ingredients in a dish to enhance, rather than detract from, the other flavors of the dish. When I eat a burger, I expect it to taste like meat. I don’t want it to taste like some strange tomatoey concoction. When I eat a sandwich, or a burrito from Chipotle (my favorite!), I want it to taste like the main ingredients. This is primarily the reason I don’t even like to order lettuce in subs or burritos. It detracts and it makes me sad. I believe brownies should taste like a chocolate explosion, and chocolate chip cookies should taste like buttery, sugary, chocolatey goodness. Not walnuts. Thus…no nuts.
That being said, I will give in and say that there are certain foods that are honestly better with the addition of nuts. This coffee cake is one of them. This recipe has been in my family for as long as I can remember. And I’ve eaten it so many times, I’ve probably tried it with any nut you can think of, as well as minus the nuts. Pecans are unquestionably the best. Walnuts probably run a close second. But, as I have a longstanding grudge against walnuts, odds are I would avoid them. But in this particular cake, the nuts add a certain necessary crunchiness to the streusel crumble. So if you leave them out, you’ll be missing out.
Since it is one of my favorite flavors from my childhood, I hope you enjoy it!
-Andrea
Coffee Cake
Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup nuts (pecans or walnuts work best)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 and butter a pan with a tube in the center.
Blend together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and vanilla and mix well. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add to the creamed mixture and stir until just blended.
In a separate bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts for the topping.
Pour half the batter into the pan. Sprinkle half the topping over the batter. Add the rest of the batter. Top with the remaining sugar mixture. Bake for 45 minutes.
