Strawberry Crumb Coffeecake

I used to say that I was not a baker. The exact measurements and ingredient reactions intimidate me. However, this week I have been baking up a storm. I think it's because I am trying to do things in the kitchen that used to scare me. I got some beautiful strawberries at the farmer's market this past weekend and wanted to put them to good use. A couple of weeks ago, I attempted empanadas and I wanted to find something just as delicious with ingredients I already had at home. I ran a bunch of recipes by one of my friends and he OK'ed all of them, but I finally settled on this one.

*UPDATE* I am submitting this to Key Ingredient's July Berry Recipe Contest:


Strawberry Crumb Coffeecake
(Adapted from the NY Times Rhubarb 'Big Crumb' Coffeecake)

For the Strawberry Filling:
1 pint strawberries, washed, hulled, and chopped
1/4 c sugar
2 tsp cornstarch

For the Crumbs:
1/3 c dark brown sugar
1/3 c granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 c melted butter
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

For the Cake:
1/3 c reduced-fat sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp softened butter, cut into pieces

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8 inch square baking pan.

For the filling, mix strawberries, cornstarch and sugar and set aside.

*To make the crumbs, in a large bowl, whisk together the sugars, cinnamon, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in flour with a spatula. It will look like a solid dough.

To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. In a large bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a couple of spoonfuls of the sour cream mixture and mix until the flour is moistened. Add remaining sour cream mixture in 2 batches and beat with an electric mixer on low speed.

Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan. Spoon strawberries over the batter. Dollop the remaining batter over the strawberries, it does not have to be even.

Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs about 1/2 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are that size. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean of batter (it may be moist from the strawberry), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

*I am not a good reader of instructions and mixed together all the ingredients before whisking in the butter. It came out as the crumbs instead of the dough, but still tasted great!!

Although there were a lot of steps in this recipe, it was fairly simple to make and I am so glad I did. now I am going to have delicious breakfasts for the rest of the week and I am definitely gaining confidence in my baking!