Cardamom streusel coffee cake
Recipe & Food Styling Mari Loewen, Photography Ross Cornish
Here ends my quest for the ultimate coffee cake with a surprising ingredient — roasted cardamom pods. Don’t be intimidated, roasting the pods requires only 10 minutes but the exotic fragrance that wafts through your home makes it well worth your time. Lavish amounts of buttery brown sugar streusel cascades throughout and brings a perfect balance of streusel and cake to every bite.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Vegetable oil cooking spray for pan
Streusel
Ground cardamom from 18 whole cardamom pods, less 1 teaspoon used for batter (baked, finely ground whole, passed through mesh sieve, pods discarded)
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup salted butter, room temperature
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Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F.
First, make ground cardamom by baking the 18 cardamom pods on parchment-lined baking sheet about 10 minutes. Cool. Finely grind in spice grinder and pass through mesh sieve, set aside.
For streusel, whisk flour, brown sugar, the cardamom (less 1 teaspoon) and salt in medium bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, set aside.
For cake, spray 10inch round angel food cake pan with cooking spray; set aside. Place butter and sugar into bowl of electric mixer and mix on mediumhigh speed until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs, one at a time. In another bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1 teaspoon cardamom, cinnamon, and salt. Add flour mixture to batter in batches, alternating with sour cream. Add vanilla and beat well.
Spoon half the batter into baking pan. Top with 2 cups streusel. Top with remaining batter, then squeeze remaining streusel into large and small clumps and sprinkle on top of batter. Bake until golden brown and cake tester inserted into centre comes out clean, 60 to 75 minutes. Let cool. Remove cake from pan carefully and transfer onto wire rack to cool completely. Serves up to 12.
