Bake Together: Gluten-Free Sour Cream "Coffee Cake" with Chocolate Streusel

Alternative titles for this post:

• Apologies to Abby Dodge, whose recipes should never be mistreated like this
• I just wanted to be one of the cool kids and play in #BakeTogether but I screwed up
• Trying? Pft. Trying is the first step towards failure

You see, for the Bake Together event that Abby Dodge is hosting from up in Connecticut, we were charged with making a sour cream coffee cake with streusel. Oh, streusel, how beautiful you are atop any delicious breakfast treat.

Or, you know, unbaked in a bowl. Your choice.

In any case, I knew I needed to join in this month. And then, during a very, very long run last weekend*, I thought to myself…what if I tried a gluten free version? Yes, what if…what if indeed. What if I replaced the flour with almond flour?

That way, you have even more fat. And how can that be a bad thing? Surely the resulting batter will be tasty.

Oh, and it was. It’s just that the final product wasn’t exactly cake like. It was absolutely delicious, completely gluten free, and a delightful breakfast treat. But coffee cake? Not so sure about that. In any case, perhaps you have a friend who maintains a gluten-free diet and you’d like to have them over for brunch. Well then, do I have the recipe for you.

Gluten-Free Sour Cream "Coffee Cake" with Chocolate Steusel

For the streusel:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup almond flour*

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 ounces finely chopped bittersweet chocolate

For the cake:

1 cup almond flour*

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon table salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup sour cream

*Almond flour can be expensive, but can be made by simply running blanched almonds through a food processor.

To make the streusel:

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, almond flour and cinnamon. Mix with melted butter and chocolate.

To make the cake:

Combine the almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed until well blended; add the egg. Add about half of the almond flour mixture and mix on low speed just until blended. Add the sour cream, then fold in the remaining almond flour mixture.

Scrape half of the batter into a greased 8”x4” loaf pan and spread evenly. Evenly scatter half of the streusel mixture over the batter. Spoon the remaining batter evenly over the streusel and spread evenly. Scatter the remaining streusel evenly over the top.

Bake at 350° F for about 50 minutes. Cool before slicing (ha. right).

So it doesn’t look very pretty or cake-like. And the streusel didn’t separate well. But it was delicious. Dense, gooey, and dressed up with a touch of chocolate.

And really, maybe I screwed up Abby’s recipe. For that, I am sorry. But I will not apologize for combining butter, almonds, sugar, and chocolate and calling it breakfast food.

Have you ever tried to make gluten-free cake? Did it look better than this?

*This alone should caution you against running 21 miles straight, because it will result in many things seeming like good ideas when they, in fact, are not. Such as attempting gluten-free coffee cake on the fly. Or deciding to go ahead and tack on an extra 5.2 miles three weeks later.