Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake

This evening we had leftovers for dinner -- we have a ton left from both the roast I made in the crock pot Monday night as well as the stuffed peppers and mushrooms I made last night.  Rather than completely take the night off from cooking -- I decided to do a little baking instead!  I have wanted to make a coffee cake for a while now...so I decided that tonight would be the night!  I wanted it to be "not too sweet"... I wanted a "crumbly streusel-type topping"...I wanted it to "include nuts and chocolate"....and I wanted it to be "fragrant" too!  Usually cinnamon takes care of the fragrance part of most coffee cakes...but I wanted something even more fragrant this time.  I decided that cardamom would be the perfect "fragrance" as well as flavor for my coffee cake...so I made Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake!   I added some fresh orange zest and extract to the cake and topped the streusel topping with chopped Green & Black's 85% chocolate bar.  So...what's not to love here???  I didn't start baking until 8:00 tonight....so I am making a late post this evening because I wanted to taste a piece with a cup of coffee so I could "review" it for you.  One word....awesomely awesome (I lied...that's two words).  It is moist, tender, light, fragrant, flavorful and just really hits the spot with a cup of coffee.  It isn't overly sweet and the smell of orange, chocolate and cardamom is heavenly.  It provides a good dose of aromatherapy too while you eat it -- so, it even makes you FEEL awesome too!   :-)    Alright...enough of the awesome stuff -- it really is good.  I snapped a couple photos below as well as the recipe.  Enjoy!






Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake

INGREDIENTS:


Cake:
⅔ cup Swerve sweetener (or sweetener equal to ⅔ cup sugar)
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1-¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
1-½ teaspoon grated orange zest
2 large eggs, beaten
6 tablespoons butter, melted
½ cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
½ cup water
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure orange extract

Streusel Topping:
½ cup blanched almond flour
⅓ cup Swerve sweetener (or granular sweetener equal to ⅓ cup sugar)
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick), diced
½ cup chopped walnuts
2 ounces 85% cacao chocolate bar, chopped (approximately 1/2 of a 3.5 oz. bar)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Lightly grease or spray a 9-inch square baking pan with butter or oil.  In a small bowl or cup, mix ½ cup water with 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder until dissolved and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine almond flour, Swerve (or other sweetener), baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1-¼ teaspoon cardamom, 1-½ teaspoon orange zest; and whisk to break up any lumps. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, melted butter, buttermilk, ½ cup of water that was mixed with 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder, vanilla extract and orange extract.  Pour into the large bowl with flour mixture and stir with whisk, just until combined.  Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.

Streusel Topping: In a small to medium sized bowl, add almond flour, Swerve (or other sweetener), 1 teaspoon orange zest, cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon cardamom, and mix until blended.  Cut 4 tablespoons butter into the dry mixture using a pastry cutter or dough blender, until crumbly.  Stir in walnuts (the mixture will be crumbly).  Spread the crumbly topping mixture over cake batter in pan.  Sprinkle chopped chocolate bar over the top of crumbly mixture.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Let cool approximately 20 minutes before cutting.

       

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Yuma!! Think I could use ghee instead of butter? And buttermilk and eggs needed for sure? Trying no dairy or eggs. And I have xylitol same amount would work? Thanks

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Carla -- I answered a couple of your questions on your Facebook post (about the butter and eggs). If you don't want to use buttermilk, you could try substituting canned coconut milk in its place (the canned version is thicker than the refrigerated version of coconut milk). That should accomplish the same thing as the buttermilk. I hope that works -- let me know if you decided to try it. As far as xylitol -- I have some but haven't tried it yet. I don't know if that measures the same as sugar, cup for cup. If it does, you should be able to use it with the same measurements in the recipe. If not, you need to find out what the equation is. You can "google"...."how much xylitol equals 2/3 cup of sugar"....etc. That usually works.

Jillian said...

Thank you so much for sharing this, and your other recipes. I've been grain free, low carb since mid-August. It's good to have my brain out of the fog and no food cravings. Items like this are very helpful to have once in awhile or for company so as to not be tempted to eat carb junk.
~Jillian

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Thanks, Jillian! Life without food cravings is amazing, isn't it??? I find it so liberating. I control my food now -- it doesn't control me! When I eat a special treat like this -- it is because I choose to -- not because I "HAVE" to -- it no longer calls my name over and over! I hope you enjoy it. Thanks! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi gourmet girl! Thanks a lot for this awesome recipe! I'm gonna try it next week end...

Carla, I'd like to know if you try it with coconut milk or almond milk instead of regular milk... I dont consume milk either... Just like you I'm grain-free and low carb since last august, but since I dont loose weight, I try to stop dairy products just to see if it triggers weight loss.... Do you know if we have to stop butter too? For the xylitol, I use it regulary, and it's suppose to measures the same as sugar, but at my taste i find it a little more sweet than splenda so I use habitualy a little less in my recipes.

SierraDeb said...

Hi GG -
I was going to try this recipe this morning but have one question. What size baking pan did you use? It looks like a square one, but looks larger than an 8X8 or 9X9.

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi SierraDeb -- sorry I am just now seeing your question -- I used a 9 x 9" pan. I've been out shopping most of the day today and had my kids over for dinner so this is the first I've checked. :-)