Cinnamon crumble coffee cake and TMI

                       

It is a dark, wet Monday morning. A steady drizzle is falling from the sky and I need coffee, badly. F. and I were up all night, our sleep interrupted intermittently by the yet uninterpreted crying of our youngest. I realize that whenever I mention my kids, I describe some form of malady. Case in point, on our drive to Piedmont on Saturday morning, my older one revisited the below described recipe in the car (I promise it was good, although I will admit it did not seem quite as appetizing the second time round, when I was cleaning it off the seats). I however just wanted to point out that they are actually healthy, energetic, happy children, so please do not feel obliged to leave nice, caring comments about their health conditions. Temperatures, snot and digested food in various forms are unfortunately just a part of having darling children, as so many of you know. Ok, I realize this is much too much information for a food blog (or any blog actually), so if anybody is still reading, forgive this digression.

Back to the dark, wet morning...I would not mind a steaming hot cup of coffee and a piece of that cinnamon crumble coffee cake I made on Friday evening. It only requires ingredients you already have at home if you bake every so often and makes a darn good breakfast. I realize I am on a cinnamon roll, but I can't help it. Cinnamon equals fall and the holidays to me and there is nothing that smells quite as good when it is baking away in your oven, so bear with me.

This recipe is adapted from the Joy of Cooking.

Ingredients

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp  salt

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

 2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup melted butter

First of all, a rubber spatula comes in handy for this recipe, and a 13x9 inch baking pan.

Preheat your oven to 325°F (150°C approximately). Grease and flour your pan and set aside.

Whisk together the first 4 ingredients of the list. Then whisk the next four ingredients (starting from the egg) into another bowl, until well blended. Fold in the dry ingredients with the spatula. Drop batter into the pan in dollops, then smooth the top and set aside. 

 

Somebody is making sure I follow the recipe correctly

Stir the 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon into a bowl until well combined. Then pour over the melted butter. Toss with spatula until you see large crumbs form. Sprinkle over batter Bake 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool on rack.

Two notes: 1) I had to bake mine for about 45-50minutes and the batter still was not cooked through completely. 2) There are several suggested additions, which I skipped: adding 1/2 tsp cardamom into the initial batter; adding a 1/2 cup of shredded nuts, pecans or sweetened coconut to the crumble; sprinkling the finished cake with confectioner's sugar (it was sweet enough for me without it).

 

When I finish baking, I don't just have the dishes to do

 

This is our deal: I get to bake, my official taster gets to scatter his stuff all over the place