Ingredients
For the streusel
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (48 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter, melted
For the coffee cake
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter
- 2 cups (254 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 8 ounces (227 grams) sour cream or plain full fat yogurt, at room temperature
For the topping
- 1/2 cup (63 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon milk
Directions
-
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8-inch square metal pan with parchment paper or foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Make the streusel:
-
In a small bowl, combine all of the streusel ingredients with a fork until the texture resembles wet sand.
Brown the butter:
-
In a medium slightly deep stainless skillet set over medium heat melt the butter. Swirling the pan occasionally, continue to cook the butter. It should become foamy with audible cracking and popping noises. Once the crackling stops continue to swirl the pan until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom. Once the bits are amber in color, about 2 to 3 minutes after the popping stops, remove from heat and pour into a medium mixing bowl and let cool slightly.
Make the cake:
-
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugars.
-
To the browned butter, add the milk, eggs, and sour cream. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients then pour in the wet ingredients. Gently stir until just combined. Don’t overmix.
-
Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the streusel. Spread the remaining batter over the streusel. Sprinkle with the remaining streusel.
-
Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes.
Make the topping:
-
In a small bowl combine the sugar and milk until a thick yet pourable icing forms. Drizzle over the warm cake. Cut into squares and serve. Store leftovers, covered, at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Made this for breakfast this morning. Delish! I did add pecans to the streusel. Otherwise didn’t make any changes. Turned out great. Will definitely be making it again.
This was a huge hit with my family! The butter really adds a great, rich flavour. Recipe was easy to follow and came out great!
The most delicious coffee cake ever!
Omg Tessa!! You’ve outdone yourself with this recipe. On my list of favs now.
Wonderful! So happy you enjoyed this recipe 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
I know this is a tough question for baking – but I really want to make this ! My daughter has an allergy. Any idea which egg substitute would be best for this recipe ?
Flax seed egg or applesauce ?
We haven’t tried either, so I can’t say for sure! Please let us know how it goes if you give it a try!
Would it be okay to add 1/2 c pecans to the streusel?
Tracy
We haven’t tried that, but you’re more than welcome to experiment, it sounds delicious! Let us know how it goes!
Hai…
Pardon my question, the recipe called brown butter coffee cake. However, I don’t find any coffee in the Ingredients, did I miss it ?
Thanking you in advance for your reply.
Hi Corran! Coffee cake in the United States is meant to be served with coffee, it doesn’t always contain coffee as an ingredient!
Why is it called coffee cake if it doesn’t contain coffee?
Hi Natalia! This type of cake is typically served with coffee, which is where its name comes from. It doesn’t actually have coffee as an ingredient 🙂
What is the bake time when baking two of these at the same time? I’d like to bake these as gifts for my neighbors for the holidays and would like to speed up the process. Thank you!
Hi Gigi! We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure! Please let us know how it goes if you give it a try.
Would you consider a copper colored pan to be light or dark metal? If that’s my only option, would glass produce better results? Thanks!
Hi Jordan! Tessa has used the Williams Sonoma and OXO gold coated nonstick pans (browned too much for her liking), but none of the copper colored ones. They would be similar to baking on a dark nonstick. You’ll likely need to reduce the baking time, and maybe even drop the temp by 10-15 degrees. If you use a glass or ceramic pan, you will likely need to increase the baking time. I hope that helps!
I made this cake for a treat this week. Oh. My. Gosh!! It was amazing. Thanks for a fantastic recipe that I will be making again!
Hi! What can I substitute the sour cream with? Would butter milk work or is Yogurt better?
Looks amazing, can’t wait to try it!
Hi Hana! We recommend using plain full fat yogurt as another option. We actually list that in the recipe’s ingredients 🙂 If you try buttermilk, let us know how it goes as we haven’t tested that!
Super love this cake! I love the brown butter flavor!
This recipe is amazing, full of flavor and easy. Thank you Tessa!
So happy you enjoyed it, Osleidys! Thank you for the comment!
This cake is INSANE. Never thought I’d say that about coffee cake but I couldn’t be happier with the results. I ran out of brown sugar for the crumble and had to use white sugar, and used plain yogurt for the sour cream part. Absolutely will be making this again. Excellent recipe. Thanks!
So happy your substitutions worked perfectly, Sarah! Thanks for taking the time to comment!
If doubling the recipe, can I bake it in a 9×13 pan or will cooking two rounds in an 8×8 going to have the best results?
Hi Chelsea! A 9×13 pan should work perfectly fine 🙂 Enjoy your coffee cake!
Hi. Would it work if I used cake flour instead for a more tender cake? Thanks.
I haven’t tried cake flour with this recipe, so I can’t say for sure how it would hold up; however, I will say this coffee cake is already super moist with the addition of sour cream. I’d recommend trying it first to see what you think, and then experiment if you’d like 🙂
Made this for Sunday brunch today and my sisters and I have concluded it’s the best coffee cake we have ever made. We’re real sticklers for texture and flavor, doing everything from scratch. It really is so delicious and wonderful.
I used:
8 oz plain greek yogurt in place of sour cream
An extra 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to the streusel
1/2 tsp of vanilla to the glaze.
Everything else to the T!
Mine took 50 mins rather than 40 but that’s just my oven.
Perfectly moist. Incredible flavor. I can’t wait to make it again!!
Hooray!! I’m so pleased everyone loved this coffee cake! 🙂
Hi, I’m about to make this I think, but do you know if it’s alright to prepare the batter ahead of time, keep it in the fridge overnight and bake the next day?
No, this recipe includes baking soda, so the batter needs to be baked soon after mixing. You could make the entire coffee cake ahead of time though as this recipe keeps particularly well and actually improves over time as the flavors intensify! 🙂
The BEST coffee cake recipe ever. I had never baked anything with brown butter. I was a bit hesitant.
(yes I like to play it safe? The brown butter was easy and the aroma fantastic. I was also concerned that the coffee cake would be dry. NOPE. The whole process was easy and problem free. The best part was the Fabulous moist delicious coffee cake. Thank you.
Linda
YAY!! I’m so thrilled you loved your coffee cake! 🙂