Apple Ricotta Coffee Cake

Beneath a crunchy, nutty topping lies a pleasantly sweet, velvety cake layer. In between the cake there are wonderfully tender apple pieces and more streusel. It's also a good keeper. While it's not obvious that there's ricotta in this cake, it brings a depth of flavor and moistness - that 'je ne sais quoi' - to the finished product. With 2 whole apples I like to delude myself into thinking that I'm getting a serving of fruit when I have a slice.

This would be a great coffee cake to serve to guests as it stands tall and proud and slices beautifully. The cake filled my spring-form pan to the top and didn't shrink down even after cooling. I already have a ton of apple recipes in my recipe box but this one is definitely going to join my ever-growing collection.

Apple Ricotta Coffee Cake
9" Round Cake | adapted from Mostly Foodstuffs

Streusel:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cake:
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups ricotta cheese
2 crisp apples

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9" springform pan.

2. Streusel: Place the brown sugar, flour, rolled oats, cinnamon and salt in a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the 6 tablespoons of butter, and pulse until you can no longer see lumps of butter. Refrigerate until ready to use (can be done ahead of time).

3. Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Alternating the two, add flour mixture and ricotta until just combined. It will be a stiff batter.

4. To assemble: Spread half the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the streusel filling, and all of the apples. Spread the remaining batter of the top -- Glob spoonfuls over the top and spread gently. Sprinkle with the all the pecans and the remaining streusel. Bake until a tester comes out clean, about an 60 minutes. Cool before serving.