choose your own adventure … Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffeecake

Every year, I invite friends over to celebrate something I call “Polish Easter”. It’s a made up holiday of mine, planned loosely around the Easter holiday when schedules allow and is primarily a reason to eat the Polish foods of my childhood. It also happens to be my favorite Sunday Lunch of the year. I put on some polka tunes, pile the table high with old and new favorites – sausage and sauerkraut, stuffed cabbage, special breads, various vegetable dishes, the traditional butter lamb and of course the reason we’re all here: pierogies. This year it was too late to purchase a butter lamb so I made one for the first time, calling upon years of watching my father carve one out of stick of butter and with the help of several YouTube videos. It was spectacular. My Polish Easter was also later this year than usual due to busy schedules and happened to fall on May 5^th so I called the event “Pierogi de Mayo”. Because of course I did.

Monday morning I woke to piles of dirty dishes and an excessive amount of wine glasses, a tray of kolacky cookies, enough leftovers for a nice second dinner and a lot of extra ingredients hanging about, mainly dessert things – raspberry filling, cream cheese, sour cream. The solution was obvious. Do the dishes, eat cookies for breakfast and make a coffeecake.

I had a specific recipe in mind: something tender that’s cakey rather than bready, not too sweet with a cream cheese/fruit filling and a crumbly topping. I used to make it frequently for restaurant family meals because it was easy and didn’t require a mixer, just a few bowls and some simple tools. It was also a great way to use scraps of this and that, the bane of every kitchen, professional or otherwise. Chocolate? Sure. Odd amounts of leftover nuts? Sure. Bits of fruit and slightly bruised berries? Sure. The spoonful or two at the bottom of a jam jar? Sure. Miscellaneous bits of crème frâiche, mascarpone, yogurt? Sure.

But where was the recipe? I have a lot coffeecake recipes in the coffers but I hadn’t made this particular one in a long while. Where the hell was that recipe?  It took a bit of digging around in old notebooks but I eventually found it on a spattered, dirty page. A sour cream enriched cake batter with a layer of cream cheese, fruit jam and nutty crumb top. Perfect! I had nearly a full can of leftover raspberry filling from the cookies that would work just fine in place of the jam.

The cake is everything you want it to be: tender, just a bit sweet, creamy with a bit of fruit and a satisfyingly crunchy messy top. It travels well, holds for several days and freezes beautifully. Even better, it used up all my extras in the best possible way.

STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: WELCOME GIFTS. Here’s the thing: everyone loves a good coffeecake. They really do. It is one of the very best things to gift because it doesn’t have to be eaten right away. Food gifts sometimes have a way of being put on a counter and forgotten about. It’s nice to give something that can sit for a few days and is a godsend during busy times. This one does it all PLUS it’s a great vehicle for any extra stuff you have lying about. That it is also wonderfully delicious is your Lucky Strike extra.

Other coffeecake and sweet roll recipes: Classic Yeast Coffeecake, Sour Cream Coffeecake, Apple Cider Rolls, Chocolate Cherry Buns, Orange Sweet Rolls, Post Christmas Eggnog Buns, Swedish Cardamom Buns
ten years ago: Brown Butter Banana Bread, Roasted Tomato & Asparagus Quiche
nine years ago: Bleu Mont Dairy, Homemade Saltines, Kentucky Derby Tarts
eight years ago: Roasted Garlic Potatoes, Homemade Crème Eggs
seven years ago: Strawberries in Hibiscus Syrup, Pickled Ramps, Popovers & Strawberry Butter, Cultured Butter, Buttermilk Biscuits, Ramp Green Kimchi
six years ago: Wine Country Adventures, Avocado Lime Tequila Popsicles, Scallop Ceviche, Queso Fundito, Scallion Pancakes
five years ago: Crispy Prosciutto
four years ago: Flourless Chocolate Cookies
three years ago: Raspberry Speculoos Frangipane Tart, Spicy Mango Lemonade, Turtleback Cookies, Horchata Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream, Coconut Tres Leches Ice Cream
two years ago: Parisian Gnocchi with Asparagus and Brown Butter, Creamy Radish Soup, Homemade Crème Frâiche, Bacon Fat Polvorónes, Plantain Chips with Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Last year: The CBJ (grilled cashew butter, cheese and fig jam sandwich), Sweet & Spicy Cashew & Coconut Mix, Cotija Churros with Guava Sauce, Lemon Knot Cookies

RASPBERRY CREAM CHEESE COFFEECAKE
Makes one 9” cake, about 16 servings
This cake is a great way to use up whatever leftovers you have hanging about. This is my favorite version – cream cheese, vanilla, raspberry jam and almonds – but those can all be varied. Instead of vanilla extract, use almond, lemon or orange flower water. Instead of almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts; even peanuts work (and work particularly well with grape jam). No sour cream? Plain full fat yogurt works too (full fat is key – don’t even think about that non-fat garbage.) Use any flavor jam or fold in chocolate chips or any fruit that won’t give off a lot of liquid. The possibilities are endless.

for the coffeecake:
2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut in 1” pieces
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the filling:
8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 large egg
½ cup raspberry filling or jam

for the topping:
½ cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and place a rack in the lower third of the oven.
2. For the pan: butter the bottom and sides of a 9” springform pan. Pour a couple spoonfuls of flour into the side of the pan and rotate, coating the sides evenly with flour. Tip the pan so the flour is now on the bottom and turn to fully coat. Tap off and discard any excess flour, turning the pan upside down over the sink or garbage can and give it a good whack to knock off any excess flour. Set aside.
3. For the filling: in medium bowl, whisk the softened cream cheese and sugar until combined.
4. Whisk in the egg until smooth. Set aside until needed.
5. Place the raspberry jam in a piping bag or Ziploc and set aside. (While you can certainly spread the jam on top of cream cheese filling with a spoon, I find piping it over to be much easier and neater. Your choice.)
6. For the cake: in a large bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar.
7. Rub the butter into the flour/sugar with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture and set aside.
8. To remaining crumb mixture in the bowl, add the baking powder, baking soda and salt, tossing to combine.
9. In a separate small bowl, whisk the sour cream, egg and vanilla extract until smooth.
10. Add the sour cream mixture to the bowl of crumbs and stir with a rubber spatula until well blended.
11. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and with an offset spatula or spoon, spread the batter evenly on the bottom and up about 2” of the pan sides.  You should have a nice well in which to pour the filling.
12. Pour the cream cheese filling into the cake well, smoothing evenly.
13. Carefully pipe (or spoon) the jam over the cheese filling. It doesn’t have to be a single, even layer but it should be distributed somewhat evenly across the cake.
14. For the topping: in the now empty batter bowl, combine the reserved cup of crumb mixture and the almonds; sprinkle on top of the cream cheese/raspberry fillings.
15. Bake: bake for 55-60 minutes, turning halfway through baking, until the filling is set and cake is a deep golden brown.
16. Cool 15 minutes on a wire rack then remove the sides of the pan.
17. Let the cake cool completely before cutting. Leftovers will keep, tightly wrapped, up to 3 or 4 days. Or freeze for longer storage.