I think one of the hardest things about food blogging is naming a new recipe.
Okay, I'm exaggerating... that's probably the easiest part. But it's still a mini challenge of its own. Being the detail person that I am, I want you to know every interesting ingredient/flavor in a recipe just from reading the title, but unfortunately, that can quickly go too far. Case in point: this isn't just Peach Coffee Cake. That sounds plain and boring and typical, and this is anything but. This is Peach Coffee Cake with a Brown Sugar Cinnamon Streusel, and even that's leaving out some of the details. It has two layers of cake, two layers of peaches, a streusel filling in the center, and giant brown sugar-cinnamon crumbs on top. SIX layers of heaven - count 'em.
I've had this idea in my head for a while about making an all-out, no-apologies, ultimate kind of coffee cake. With the streusel filling, with the giant crumbs, with all the components of a classic coffee cake at its best, but also with a twist. As soon as I saw some gorgeous fresh peaches at the farmer's market a few weeks ago, I knew exactly what that twist would be: peaches, and loads of them. And ohhh my, if this isn't the best coffee cake that's ever come out of my kitchen, and the best peach recipe I've ever made, I don't know what is.
The cake is soft, tender, and light, and every bite comes with a chunk of sweet, butter-and-cinnamon- coated peach. The streusel filling is rich and cinnamon-y, and the crumble topping is giant, crisp, buttery-sweet perfection. And by the way? There's a whopping 5 teaspoons of cinnamon in this coffee cake - 5 teaspoons and not a bit too much.
You guys? Peaches are in season; DO IT!
P.S. As you'll see if you take a look at the recipe below, there are four components to this: crumb topping, streusel filling, peaches, and the actual coffee cake. It sounds like a lot but honestly, it's not that bad at all. Also, the bottom layer of the coffee cake stays a bit dense after baking (from all those peaches!),but it's not underbaked. :)
Peach Coffee Cake
This is the ULTIMATE fruity coffee cake - a light and tender cake layered with butter-and-cinnamon-coated peaches and a brown sugar cinnamon streusel. It's topped off with a crisp, mega-crumb topping, because no coffee cake is complete without big crumbs!
- Cook Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 pieces
Ingredients
Crumble Topping:
- 2 ½ ounces (⅓ cup, packed) brown sugar
- 1 ¾ ounces (¼ cup) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 6 ⅜ ounces (1 ½ cups, spoon and level) all-purpose flour
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- 1 ¾ ounces (¼ cup) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
Peach Layers
- 1 lb ½ ounce (3 cups) coarsely chopped yellow peaches*
- ¾ ounces (1 ½ tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
- ½ ounce (2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Coffee Cake
- 8 ½ ounces (2 cups, spoon and level) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 4 ⅞ ounces (⅝ cup) canola or vegetable oil
- 2 ½ ounces (⅓ cup, packed) brown sugar
- 2 ⅜ ounces (⅓ cup) granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 9 ounces (1 ⅛ cup) plain greek yogurt (I used nonfat)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line an 8” square baking pan with foil, leaving enough foil over the edges of the pan to pull the bars out once baked.
Crumble Topping
- Whisk together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Add the melted butter and whisk in until well-incorporated. Fold in the flour until it is completely incorporated into the mixture and the dough comes together in a ball; you may need to use your hands to finish clumping all the dough together. Set aside while preparing the remaining recipe components.
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- In a small bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon until evenly combined. Set aside.
Peach Layers
- In a medium bowl, toss the peaches with the butter, flour, and cinnamon until evenly coated. Set aside.
Coffee Cake
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until well-combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in until smoothly incorporated into the batter. Add the yogurt and vanilla and beat in until smooth.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold in just until no dry streaks are visible; do not overmix.
- Transfer half of the batter to the prepared pan (be sure to divide the dough as evenly as possible; weigh it if you can) and use an offset spatula to smooth out in a flat, even layer that reaches all the way to the corners of the pan. Add half of the peaches on top, spread out in a single layer (again, weigh to divide if possible), and press into the batter lightly - just enough to form a semi-flat layer (this will make spreading the next layer of batter easier). The peaches should still be very visible. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar filling evenly over the peaches; they should be almost entirely covered, if not entirely. Dollop the remaining batter over the cinnamon sugar filling, dispersing the dollops around the pan. Spread out to cover the cinnamon sugar in a flat, even layer that reaches all the way to the corners of the pan. Add the remaining peaches over the second layer of batter, again spreading out in a single layer; do not press this layer of peaches in. Crumble the crumble topping over the peaches to cover entirely in an even layer. You’ll end up with some fine crumbs, but make sure you have a good amount of large, coarse crumbs as well, pressing chunks of the dough together if needed to form larger crumbs.
- Bake coffee cake in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted all the way down into the center of the coffee cake comes out clean. Place pan on a wire rack and allow coffee cake to cool completely. Once cool, use foil to lift coffee cake from pan. Slice into squares with a large serrated knife. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Pieces of coffee cake can be reheated in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, if desired.
Notes
*Use ripe peaches for this recipe, but not super-soft, ultra-juicy peaches.
The bottom layer of the coffeecake may look underbaked when done, but it's not. Don't worry if you notice this!
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Cathy @ Savory Notes
Ohhhh my! If I make this, I will eat all of it, shamelessly, out of the pan, with a fork. I'm gonna make it anyway! (And I can totally relate to the troubles of naming new recipes. I just made an ice cream that was based off an Old Fashioned cocktail, but I couldn't call it "Old Fashioned Ice Cream." ugh!)
alexandra
Haha, you should make it and then quickly give away half of it to someone else. Or not. ;) But if you do make it, let me know!
Is Old Fashioned Cocktail Ice Cream an acceptable title? Haha I think New Fashioned was pretty clever. :D
Annie @ Natural Sweet Recipes
That cake looks uuhmazing!! I agree though, naming a new recipe can be pretty hard. Mainly because it shouldn't be too long or detailed so that people can easily read it or see it but sometimes you want to describe everything. :) I bet this cake is so delicious paired with the peaches. I need to make it. :)
alexandra
Exactly! I want to tell you about all the flavors and everything in the recipe, but for SEO reasons and all that other boring stuff, the 20-word long title isn't going to work. :( You should try the coffee cake, though! It's SO good.
Carole
Hi Alexandra, just popped over to let you know that your link to Food on Friday: Cakes was featured in my Need Some Inspiration? Series on Carole's Chatter today. Cheers
Bill
Being from the peach state, I've been ODing on peaches this year. I've made peach pies, peach crostini, and I've just eaten them by themselves. What a great idea to put them in a coffee cake!! Your photos are awesome. Thanks for a great post!
alexandra
I want to make a peach galette myself! Lucky you that you get so many peaches to enjoy. :) And thanks so much!!
em
this looks lovely, like an even better spruced up new york crumb cake!
im trying to bake with peaches as much as i can at the moment,
i often find myself picking at the crumb toppings of these types of cakes, must learn to eat the whole thing!
em
alexandra
The crumb topping is always my favorite part, but the cake part and the peaches and the streusel are all so good in this cake that I loved every bite. AND there's plenty of crumb topping to go around. ;)
Laura (Tutti Dolci)
That crumble topping looks so tempting!
alexandra
You can never have enough of crumb topping. :D
Erika
Ahhhh I am pondering what to make for a birthday brunch and this looks like it has the potential to be the star of the day!!! Only problem is, everything I want to make is carbs carbs carbs all day...but peaches might help that, right? But seriously, what do people eat for brunch aside from coffeecake, waffles, pancakes, french toast, toast and biscuits? Those are the only food groups right? :)
This sounds AMAZING. Pinning.
alexandra
Haha, basically brunch = carbs. No way of getting around it. And if you're going to make coffee cake, you just go for it, you know? Make it good and enjoy it and then get it out of your system, or something like that. :D Let me know if you end up trying it out!
Julia | JuliasAlbum.com
This looks wonderful! I love using peaches in my desserts. What a perfect summer cake. Pinned!
alexandra
Thanks Julia! I need to do more baking with peaches myself; they're so good!