When Pete and I first met, we had one nice first date before I left for Japan for two weeks. When I came back, his sister let me know that he had been in a motorcycle accident and he was okay. I saw him in the hospital’s trauma center, and then in the regular hospital, and then in the rehabilitation hospital. He broke both legs and had to wait for them to heal before he could stand again, so there was a lot of time between our first and second dates.
When he finally left the rehabilitation center, he went to his parents’ house to stay for a while because he still couldn’t stand. So we spent many nights at his parents’ kitchen table, sitting, eating, and getting to know each other.
On one of those nights, someone had baked him a get well soon coffee cake that he shared with me. It was delicious. I never did get the recipe, so I had to make up one of my own.
One of the funny things about coffee cake is it’s a misnomer because there’s usually not any coffee actually in it. So with my recipe, I actually make a hazelnut glaze with hazelnut coffee that infuses into the cake. It’s delicious.
Coffee Cake with Hazelnut Glaze
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What You’ll Need:
For the crumb topping:
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 sticks butter
For the cake:
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup milk
For the glaze:
• 1/4 cup Dunkin’ Donuts® Hazelnut K-Cups® coffee
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
What You’ll Do:
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Start by making the crumb. Melt two sticks of butter in the microwave, then add the sugar, vanilla, and cake flour to it.
Stir until everything is combined and starts to form those big crumble chunks you dream of.
Set it off to the side and start making the cake.
Combine the cake flour and baking soda in a large bowl.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer for about five minutes, until the butter is completely broken up. Add the eggs (including the egg yolk) and vanilla. Mix for three minutes. Add half of the flour and mix, then add the milk and mix, then add the rest of the flour and mix until everything is combined.
Pour the cake batter into a greased non-stick pan. I know, I know, non-stick means you don’t need to grease it, but I always do anyway. It makes the cake pop out a lot easier and it will keep its shape. Smooth the cake out to make sure it is even.
Use a spoon to break up the crumble mixture. The best way I can put this is: Get shabby with it. Really use the edge of the spoon to break up the large clumps of the crumb topping. Pour that on top of the cake batter. Make sure that creates an even layer as well.
Bake in the oven for an hour. As it bakes, it will rise a bit and you will have pretty much an even cake-to-crumble ratio (which is great because everyone knows the crumble is the best part).
Take out the cake when it is done and let it sit in the pan for five minutes. I can’t stress how important it is to let it sit. It smells so good and you’re going to want to eat it so badly, but it will crumble if you don’t let it sit.
Put two sheets of paper towels under a wire rack and move the cake to the wire rack.
Now it’s time for the glaze. Make a Dunkin’ Donuts Hazelnut K-Cup Coffee. It’s so easy to use a K-Cup for this part because you only need 1/4 cup of the hot coffee, so you don’t want to brew a whole pot.
Take 1/4 cup of the coffee and add it to a pan with the powdered sugar. Heat over medium-high heat until the ingredients combined, then keep it on the heat about five minutes, stirring constantly.
While the glaze is still hot, pour it over the top of the coffee cake. Allow it to cool completely before serving.
Would you make this coffee cake?