St. James Coffee Cake from Penzeys

I made this coffee cake Labor Day weekend to bring to my aunt's house, who was hosting a small get together at the Jersey shore.  It's from a Penzeys catalog, so you know it's going to be good.  :)

Here's what you'll need:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Penzeys Cinnamon (best cinnamon ever!)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup raisins (or currants)
• 1 cup chopped nuts, I believe I used hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and spices.  Cut or rub in the butter until the mixture resembles corn meal.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the mixture.  In a second bowl, combine buttermilk and baking soda.  Pour this into the remaining crumb mixture in halves, beating thoroughly after each addition.

Stir in the raisins and nuts.  Spread the batter into a greased and floured 9"x13" pan.  Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour until brown and springy when touched or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Walnut Coffee Cake

Today's recipe comes from Cooking Light Everyday Baking, it's one of the cookbooks I got for Christmas from my secret santa, who happened to be my sister-in-law, Meghan.  This was the first recipe I have cooked from this book, and it was great.  It was your classic coffee cake without all the really horrible stuff in it you'd find in an Entenmann's.  There's a sweet streak of brown sugar, cinnamon and a little bit of a crunch of walnuts.  If you're allergic to walnuts you can substitute them for pecans.

Here's what you'll need:

• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (chopped to the size of a pea)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 14.5 oz. or 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 10 tablespoons butter, softened
• 6 large egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat buttermilk
• Cooking spray

First preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the first 3 ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Weight or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.  Combine flour and next 3 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.  Combine granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well combined (about 3 minutes).  Add egg whites; beat 3 minutes or until combined.  Beat in vanilla.  Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating well after each addition and scraping sides of bowl.

Spoon half of batter into a 10-inch Bundt pan coated with cooking spray.  Sprinkle half of brown sugar mixture evenly over batter.

Spoon remaining half of batter into pan.  Top with remaining brown sugar mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan.  Cool completely on wire rack.