For National Coffee Cake Day ...

 

Photo is from Faithfully Gluten Free

 
Yes, who knew?  Yesterday, April 7, was apparently National Coffee Cake Day!   

It's a neat fact to know because we love coffeecake in this house and would be happy for a reason to celebrate. 

One practice I've been developing in recent years is the technique of turning muffin recipes into coffee cakes.  Muffins are great and we do enjoy them, but as I age I am finding it more and more trouble to spoon batter into tins or paper muffin cups.  Inevitably there are spills on the rims of the tins which need to be wiped off or they will burn.  

So I've begun working on ways to adapt muffins to coffeecakes.  Sometimes it can be done with no changes at all to the recipe proportions; other times the quantities need to be increased or at least tweaked a bit.

Years ago in Nevada we greatly enjoyed some maple apple muffins we trted at a favorite coffee shop,  We learned that these muffins were not baked in-house, but had been purchased at Costco,  One year we even bought a dozen to take home with us and a plastic box to carry them in so they could be safely stashed under the seat in the airplane.

After a bit of searching I found a muffin recipe on AllRecipes.com that tasted very much like our old favorite, and I baked them fairly often.  

Recently I got to wondering if I could turn this maple apple muffin recipe into a coffeecake.  My hubby, fast becoming the resident baker, was game to try.  This is what we ended up with:

Maple Drizzled Apple Coffeecake

1 3/4 cups flour (a bit more if you think it needs it)

1 1/3 cup quick oats

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder 

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

1/3 cup maple syrup 

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 1/2 cups chopped peeled apples 

Chopped pecans if desired

Glaze:

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

2 1/2 Tablespoons maple syrup 

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  In a small bowl, mix milk, butter, syrup, and eggs; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in apples.  Spread batter in a greased 13 x 9 pan; sprinkle with chopped pecans if desired.  Bake at 375º for 45 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan on a wire rack.  When completely cooled, combine the glaze ingredients in a small bowl and drizzle over the coffee cake.

We did add the additional 1/4 cup flour as we thought it needed it.  However, the coffee cake was a bit crumbly, so maybe another time we would add only 2 additional tablespoons.

The coffeecake might not be quite as yummy as the original muffins, but it is tasty and we have even brought it along for coffee breaks this week for the volunteer work crew!

So Happy National Coffee Cake Day to you all!  If you'd like to celebrate, even a day or two late, this just might be your recipe.