Plum Streusel Coffeecake

Prior to making yesterday’s Plum Butter, I measured out ¾ pound of plums and set them aside to make coffeecake.  You know how you tear recipes out of magazines, then put them in a file and never look at them again?  Well, I decided to look at that file last week, and found this recipe from a 1995 issue of Gourmet.  My mother is the coffeecake maker in our family these days, but I wanted to give this one a try.  Imagine then, my dismay, when one of the plums went missing!  I have baskets of peaches, nectarines, a bunch of bananas, and sliced melon all available for consumption, but did my husband go for any of these things?  No!  He managed to find the plums (well, plumcots, if you must know) that I had hidden behind the cauliflower in the vegetable bin, and he ate one!

“Boy,” he said, “was that plum ever delicious.”

“Yeah,” I said through gritted teeth, “I’ll bet it was!”

For a man who can’t find the butter that is right in front of him, he was sure an ace at ferreting out my saved plums.  So, after an unwanted, and curmudgeonly, I might add, trip to the grocery store to buy one lone plum, I was finally on my way to creating this delicious breakfast cake.  It’s make ahead, can be frozen prior to baking and baked later, or frozen after baking, and it's beautiful, and delicious!

Plum Streusel Coffeecake

Gourmet, September 1995

For streusel
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

For cake batter
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 pound Melissa's plumcots (4 to 5 medium), sliced
confectioners' sugar for sifting over cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter and flour a 9-inch round or square baking pan at least 2 inches deep.

Make streusel: In a food processor pulse together streusel ingredients until combined well and crumbly.

Make cake batter: In a bowl with an electric mixer beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and vanilla. Sift in flour with baking powder and salt and beat until just combined.

Spread cake batter in pan, smoothing top, and arrange plum slices over it in slightly overlapping concentric circles. Sprinkle streusel over plum slices and bake cake in middle of oven 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Coffeecake may be made 1 week ahead: Cool cake completely in pan on a rack and freeze, wrapped well in plastic wrap and foil. Reheat cake, unwrapped but not thawed, in a preheated 350°F. oven until heated through, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake slightly on a rack and sift confectioners' sugar over it. Serve coffeecake warm or at room temperature.

If you love coffeecakes, check out this book.  It’s the Bible for coffee cake lovers:

This post is linked to:

On the Menu Monday

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

What's Cooking Wednesday