Saturday, January 9, 2010

Apricot Orange Coffee Cake



I entered the ingredient list for these into an online recipe analyser and they actually came out pretty healthy! They got a B- rating I believe. Now, compare that to some other recipes I've thrown in there, that's pretty good. You don't even want to know the results for brownies or cinnamon buns! That link is a great resource and it's bookmarked for frequent reference.

This recipe is from Cook's Country. I had a 14 day free trial online during which I downloaded a bunch of recipes. I don't think the subscription would be worth it because a lot of the recipes are duplicates and in typical Cooks Illustrated style, they recycle a lot of their content. However, this cake is exceptionally moist from the yogurt it uses. Other variations offered are substituting dried cranberries for the apricots.

Apricot Orange Coffee Cake
1 - 9x13 inch pan | Adapted from Cooks Country

Streusel Topping:
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

Cake:
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups plain yogurt
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
7 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 cup dried chopped apricots
1 tsp grated orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9" x 13" pan.
2. Topping: Mix together sugars and flour. Using fingers, mix in melted butter so it resembles wet sand.
3. Mix all dry cake ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together yogurt, sugars, eggs and butter. Fold into flour mixture and add chopped apricots and orange zest. Mix until combined then pour into prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over top.
4. Bake for 45-50 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Toothpick inserted in centre should come out with just a few crumbs attached.

7 comments:

creampuff said...

I love that analyser! But I love the cake more!

Daydreams of Baking said...

Wow! That coffee cake looks awesome. I just love dried apricots too! I'll definitely have to give this one a try!

And that recipe analyzer is really cool! I'm gonna have to play around with it later. :)

Bergamot said...

This cake looks great... I have bookmarked it

natalie said...

WOW YOUR BLOG IS FANTASTIC. THIS CAKE LOOKS SO YUMMY :)

Anonymous said...

This caught my eye. I love cakes where the fruit looks like jewels. Apricot and orange go well together, Dried apriots and cranberries are two items, I have in the house, almost always. I would add the cranberries.

If I make this soon, I will let you know.

Unknown said...

This blog is wonderful and interesting, i really enjoyed reading!!! i must to say the apricot is delicious and contain many vitamin. That is why i prefer to eat it frequently. Actually when i bought my house through
costa rica homes for sale i didn´t see an apricot tree. Now i am really happy.

Paulette C. said...

I couldn't figure out if I am able to post onto your website or blog (I'm not exactly sure how a blog works!) but I just wanted to let you know that I had done a Google search looking for a recipe to make using apricots, and wound up on your blog/site. I made the apricot coffeecake tonight for dessert for my family (we have 6 sons) and it was sooo delicious! I had to use vanilla yogurt because I didn't have plain yogurt, and was worried it might be too sweet, but it was so moist and a nice foil to the slightly tangy apricots! I had some fresh apricots I needed to use up, and so I substituted those, for the dried. I was unsure if it would exchange ok. And I figured one cup of dry apricots would be worth about two cups fresh apricots diced up. There were so many variables that could've altered the taste and texture. I mean, the water content in the fruit alone, could've thrown it off, but it was absolutely perfect and moist and rose nice and tall and we all loved it!!! enjoying it warm with tall glasses of milk! Anyways, I dont know if the recipe was one you made up or shared from somewhere else, but I just had to extend my gratitude to you, and let you know how much we all enjoyed it! I always like to make a special dessert on Sundays for our family, and this will be a keeper, for sure! Thanks again.

God bless,

Paulette
San Jose, California