Coffee Cake
One of my favorite weekend treats growing up was coffee cake. My mom would buy it from our local grocery store. She would have it with, what else? Her morning coffee, of course! I just enjoyed the sweet cake and crumbly topping without coffee at that time. As I grew up and began drinking coffee, I too enjoyed it with coffee cake, but since being diagnosed with celiac disease I have had plenty of coffee, without cake! Lol! So I finally said enough is enough and developed a recipe for gluten free Coffee Cake. My family is hooked and so are a few of my neighbors who helped with taste-testing.
4 Bowls
I am always looking for ways to minimize clean up. Unfortunately, since this recipe has wet and dry ingredients, a filling and a topping, you’ll need 3 smaller bowls and 1 larger bowl for the final mixed batter. I start with combining the light brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl for the filling. For the topping, I combine the flour, light brown sugar and cinnamon well first, then drizzle in a little melted butter at a time until it resembles damp sand. In another small bowl, I combine the gluten free flour blend (I use Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour), baking powder and salt for the batter. I set all of these aside and then work on the batter.
The Coffee Cake Batter
There isn’t anything complicated about bringing this batter together. Begin by creaming the butter and sugar together with a hand mixer. Add the eggs, then ½ and ½ and vanilla. Mixing between each to combine well. Then add the flour mixture with your mixer at a low speed. Once the dry ingredients are combined well, turn the speed up on the mixer and whip for another minute.
All About Layering
As best as you can, spoon half of the batter into your prepared baking pan. Spread it out from edge to edge evenly. Then sprinkle the filling evenly over the batter. Top with the remaining batter, carefully spreading it from edge to edge as best as you can. Then the topping gets sprinkled on as evenly as possible. That’s all there is to it! In the oven it goes.
Size of the Pan
I have made this gluten free Coffee Cake in several different pans. I have found that a 9 or 10 inch square pan or a 10 inch round pan works the best. You can see in the photos where I used a 9 inch round pan and the batter threatened to pour over the side. It didn’t quite spill, but boy did it get close! The struggle with going any larger with the pan is that the batter layers would be spread too thin, so I would try to stick to these sizes if at all possible.
More Deliciousness Like This
Seriously Great Banana Bread, Zucchini Bread, Blueberry Muffins, Elevated Almond Cake, Chocolate Banana Cupcakes or English Scones. All just happen to be gluten free too!
Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup half & half
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum (I use Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
Filling:
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
Topping:
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum (I use Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3 tbsp butter, melted (*may need a little more or less)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 9 square or 10” round baking pan.
- In a small bowl, combine the 2 cups of flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon for the filling. Stir well and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon for the topping. Stir well to combine, then gradually add the melted butter until it resembles damp sand. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter with a hand mixer. Add the eggs and continue to mix. Add the ½ & ½ and vanilla. When all is combined well, add the flour, baking powder and salt mixture. Mix at a low speed until all of the dry ingredients are mixed in, then scrape the bowl and continue mixing for another minute until it is smooth & creamy.
- Pour half of the batter into the bottom of the baking pan and smooth it out from edge to edge with a spatula. This will be a pretty thin layer… only about ½ inch thick. Sprinkle the filling mixture evenly on top.
- Pour the remaining batter on top of the filling and carefully spread it out in an even layer. Sprinkle evenly with the topping mixture.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes until the center no longer is soft and jiggly. Watch it closely after 40 minutes so that it doesn’t get over baked.
- Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cooled to room temp, it can be inverted onto a serving plate and cut for serving. Serve with coffee, tea, whipped cream or ice cream.
