Friday, September 18, 2015

Cherry Coffee Cake from Gather Around the Amish Table Cookbook

I woke up on the weekend after reading the Gather Around the Amish Table Cookbook and I was inspired to start cooking some of the recipes. (see full review for the whole book here)



I decided to start with the cherry coffee cake because I had all the ingredients and it was still breakfast time so it would be fun to have a breakfast treat.





I pulled out all the ingredients just to be super sure that I had everything that I thought that I did in the new kitchen.  The only thing that I was running really low on was stick butter so I used a little of the coconut oil Melt that I got.  I love the flavor of coconut oil but I tried it on some things and it wasn't what I expected.  I have been using it in my loaves of bread which have been really tasty so I figured that this would be perfect for this recipe.




 I measured the butter and sugar and put them in the mixing bowl.





I creamed the butter and sugar until they were incorporated.


Then, I started adding the eggs one at a time.


I added the dry ingredients to the mixture.




Then, I mixed the batter together.  It made a thick batter but I expected it to be a little thicker like cookie batter so I sat down to try to remember if I missed any flour but after a few seconds of pondering, I was sure that I counted right.  If your cake turns out different, let me know because I didn't put in the right measurement of flour.




I greased the pan and spread the layer across the pan.  It said to use 2/3 and I am not sure how close I got but it seemed like I was pretty close.


I opened up the can of cherry pie filling with my can opener and spread it across the batter.  It looked so good and I wanted to steal a cherry but I left them all there....I might have licked the spatula with the cherry goodness.


Then came the hardest step (other then not eating the canned cherries with a fork), putting the batter on top by spoonfuls.  I figured that it didn't have to be pretty so here is what mine looked like in the new oven and ready to bake.



The top spread out really nicely while cooking to make a wonderful finished product.  Mine took a little on the longer side to start to brown (although the recipe said nothing about browning but I thought it would look better).




The top was very pretty with the cherry peaking out but it wasn't a lot because the dough on top spread out a lot in the baking process.


We ate a few sliced hot out of the oven and a few after they cooled off and a few the next day.  I think that this is one treat that does taste better cooled off and maybe even the next day.  They were tasty and interesting because I was still thinking that it was going to turn out more like a sugar cookie with cherries in the middle but this was a nice big slice of cake that had great flavor.  When served hot, I thought that cake was a little dry but after you let it sit (like you are supposed to but I never have patience for), the moisture soaks into the cake.  It was like a really good shortcake recipe that you could make ahead almost as tasty as a pound cake without being as heavy.


I hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.  I would like to share but there is none left.  

The recipe called for an icing glaze which I thought might be nice but my husband doesn't like icing so we tried it just as it was.  I hope that you try it and let me know what you think with or without the glaze!

Cherry Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 can cherry pie filling (21 oz)

Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each. Add vanilla. Blend in remaining ingredients except cherry pie filling including flour, baking powder and salt. Spread 2/3 of dough in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Cover with pie filling and spoon the rest of the batter on top. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 350° F or until golden brown.

Glaze (optional):

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoon milk


Gradually add the powdered sugar to the melted butter, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides frequently. Then add the milk (use warm milk to make thin consistency), 1 tbsp at a time until the glaze is smooth. Drizzle over warm coffeecake.



Other options:  Bake in a jelly roll pan (10½" x 15½") for a thinner coffee cake which will feed more people if serving a crowd.  Bake for 20 to 30 minutes at 350° F or until golden brown.

5 comments:

  1. Curse you, Alison, for making check my pantry at 8:45 a.m. to see if I had cherry pie filling, LOL! Ohhh, it looks so good... and if my cream cheese icing from 2 weeks ago is still good, I could use it on top... I don't have any cans of pie filling (I didn't think I did but you never know since I tend to accumulate cans and boxes of food that I wouldn't buy at full price if I find them on clearance) but I do have a can of dark cherries in heavy syrup so I might try that. This is not going to be good for the diet I'm supposed to be on! I'll let you know how it turns out if I make it :)

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    1. Mine was from Aldi over the holidays. My mom wanted to make my husband a cherry pie and she thought that we should get three cans even though I told her that I only use two in a pie. I made the pie with two and had this one leftover that I didn't know what I was going to do with it. Until I saw this recipe. It can be used with any kind of pie filling but cherry is our favorite and what the recipe called for. If you use anything else as the filling, you might want to add a little more sugar to the batter because it really wasn't that sweet. We really enjoy this and it got better as it soaked into the cake!! Hope you make it soon and let me know what you thought :)

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    2. So I did make it this afternoon because I had told Greg about it yesterday and he kept on pestering me about it :) The cherries' syrup was very liquid so I first added a cup of confectioner's sugar to it, and then some cornstarch and I nuked it. I should have added more cornstarch because it still wasn't thick enough but I wanted to get on with it so I just used it like that. The can of cherries was only 15 oz so there weren't that many cherries and the pan I used might have been a larger one too. I did use the rest of the cream cheese icing made on 9/5 since it didn't taste or smell bad. Greg really liked the cake! We ate our first piece right out of the oven so it was still crumbly. He liked that it wasn't too sweet. To be fair, without the icing, I don't think he would have liked it as much because it would have been too plain (with the cherries instead of the pie filling). My son had some too and liked it.

      I got my can of cherries at Aldi during the holidays too! I noticed that the "expiration" date was July 2015 so this was a great way to use up something that might have gone bad soon, as well as using up that left over icing. Thanks for posting the recipe!

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    3. Glad that they liked it and didn't leave it all for you to eat! So often is the case that I end up playing clean up on things that don't get eaten and I finish them all up so I understand :) I will try to post less appealing recipes next time ;)

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