Apple Coffee Cake
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This delicious Apple Coffee Cake has a soft, tender cake made with applesauce, cinnamon, and other delicious ingredients with chopped apples coated with cinnamon and sugar layered into the cake and topped with a gooey cinnamon sugar layer. It’s the perfect fall breakfast or dessert recipe.
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We love apple desserts around here. We have our own little apple orchard in the yard and I am always excited when Fall comes around to snag them. The family gets together to think of new fun apple dessert recipes to come up with now that I’ve perfected the best apple pie recipe. That only took about 15 tries in one week. Whew!
This year we’ve added apple crisp cheesecake and apple slab pie to the recipe collection and last year I think the standout recipe were these apple cheesecake tacos.
Ingredients
See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for all ingredients and quantities.
- Milk & Vinegar – These two ingredients are used to make sour milk for the recipe. It’s often a substitute for buttermilk. I recommend using whole milk and distilled or white vinegar.
- Vegetable Oil – Any neutral oil will work. Canola oil, avocado oil, peanut oil, etc.
- Applesauce – I used homemade unsweetened applesauce, but store-bought works great as well. Use the unsweetened applesauce to avoid adding too much sugar to the recipe.
- Apples – I love using honeycrisp apples in my recipes, but Pink Lady, Gala, Granny Smith, or any baking apple will work. You’ll need 1 1/2 cups once they’re peeled, cored, and diced.
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Substitutions and Variations
- The milk and vinegar in this recipe can be substituted out with buttermilk.
- You can add apple pie spice, nutmeg, or any other spices that you like to pair with apples in this recipe.
- You can add a vanilla glaze on top of your coffee cake. You’ll need 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon of milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Whisk and drizzle with a spoon once the coffee cake is baked and cooled.
- You can substitute the applesauce with 2 large eggs.
NOTE: This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations
How to Make Apple Coffee Cake
To make the cake, start by first souring the milk. Add the milk and vinegar in a glass and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes.
Step 1: Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.
Step 2: Make a well into the dry ingredients and add the sour milk, vegetable oil, vanilla, applesauce and sugar. Switch to a spatula and mix until the dry ingredients are all combined. If small lumps remain in the batter, that’s okay.
Step 3: Stir together the diced apples brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon until the apples are fully coated.
Step 4: In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter. It will be runny.
Step 5: Add about two-thirds of the cake batter in the bottom of a greased 8×8-inch baking dish. Spread it out evenly and to the edges.
Step 6: Add the apples and all of the remaining cinnamon brown sugar juice that’s in the bowl to the cake. Evenly distribute the apple pieces on top;
Step 7: Add the remaining batter on top of the apples. Use an angled spatula to work the batter towards the edges.
Step 8: Spread the cinnamon brown sugar topping on top of the cake batter as evenly as possible.
Step 9: Place in the preheated oven and bake.
Tips and Tricks
How to Store and Freeze
Because of the apples, you’ll want to store this coffee cake in the refrigerator for for up to 5 days. I’m sure it will be at room temperature for a day or two if you plan on eating it up that quickly.
To freeze this apple coffee cake for a later time, bake the coffee cake and let it cool completely. Wrap it tightly in two layers of plastic wrap and an additional layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Place in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Thaw in the fridge overnight before serving.
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Apple Coffee Cake
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Ingredients
Cake
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon distilled vinegar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
Apple Cinnamon Filling
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 3 small apples (about 1 1/2 cups diced) peeled, cored, and diced
Topping
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup butter melted
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease your 8×8-inch baking pan with a nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl or cup, add vinegar and milk. Stir until combined and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes. This will make soured milk.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Whisk until combined.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the soured milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, applesauce, and sugar in it. Stir well until you no longer see dry ingredients. Some small clumps are fine.
Apple Cinnamon Filling
- Add the diced apples, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and stir until the apples are coated well. Set aside.
Topping
- In a small separate medium bowl, add the flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Whisk until combined.
- Add the melted butter into the mixture and whisk until well incorporated.
Assemble the coffee cake
- Add about ⅔ of the batter to the bottom of the greased baking dish.
- Spoon the apple filling evenly on top of the cake batter.
- Add the remaining batter on top of the filling, carefully spreading the batter over all of the apples.
- Add the topping on top of the batter spreading it out as evenly as possible.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick poking into the center of the coffee cake comes out clean or with a few crumbs. The toothpick may also pick up some wetness from the apples or topping, so looking for a few moist, but fully baked crumbs, is ideal.
- Let cool slightly, ice with icing if desired, and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
(Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice.)
