I'm a huge fan of coffee cake. Everything about it screams delicious. The moist texture of the cake, the crumb topping, the sweetness, and the fact that a coffee cake is MEANT to be eaten with coffee is exactly why I love it so much. We've spruced up a classic coffee cake and added in pumpkin, perfect for the season we're in. This pumpkin coffee cake is moist, flavorful, and of course, goes really well with a hot cuppa joe.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

These pumpkin coffee cake bars are moist, flavorful, topped with a generous amount of homemade streusel, and are so easy to make any day of the week. This recipe takes a little work at the beginning to prep and chill the streusel, make the coffee cake batter, top with the streusel and bake for half an hour, let rest and you're all set to serve.

Why do we call it coffee cake?

The term "coffee cake" simply means to be enjoyed with coffee, because there is no coffee added to the batter whatsoever. Coffee cake likely originated in Germany, when sweet cake and breads were served with coffee to enjoy at breakfast, but it's really unknown where the original version was created. Coffee cake can come in a variety of different forms such as muffins, rolls, breads, and loves.

Ingredients:

Making this pumpkin coffee cake is incredibly easy and doesn't require any ingredients that will stump you. You can easily find these ingredients in any grocery store. BUT be sure to buy pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling!!

• Pumpkin puree: this is what gives the texture, color, and added flavor to these bars
• Flour, butter, sugar: the trifecta for all cakes!
• Eggs: eggs are always a staple in baked goods, and give the end result a beautiful texture and rise.
• Cinnamon: this goes into the coffee cake mixture as well as the streusel topping.
• Cane and light brown sugar: a combination of these sugars help add to the overall structure and taste of these coffee cake bars.
• Sour cream: adding sour cream to ANY recipe adds additional fat, aka making it moist and adds lots of flavor.
• Oil: a little oil goes a long way. More fat = more delicious crumb and mouthfeel

Directions:

There's a little bit of prep at the very beginning to make the crumb topping, but as the crumb topping hardens in the fridge, you're already making the batter for the cake!

For the crumb topping:

1. Mix together the ingredients for crumb topping and set in the fridge for 15 minutes.

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350º and line a square cake pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment.
2. Mix together the wet ingredients (eggs, pumpkin, sour cream, oil, vanilla, and both sugars). Set aside. 
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and pinch of salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until the batter just comes together.
4. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle the top of the cake with a generous amount of crumb topping.
5. Bake at 350º for 35m. Let cool 20 minutes before slicing and serving

Tips:

1. Make the streusel ahead of time and let chill. You're adding melted butter to flour and sugar, so you want to allow the butter to stiffen again, and form crumbles. When you take out the streusel mixture to add on top of the batter, it'll crumble perfectly, and trust me, you'll use ALL of the crumbles.
2. You are free to swap out the pumpkin if you'd like. Remember though, the pumpkin gives flavor and texture, so add a touch more oil and sour cream if your choice is to take the pumpkin out.
3. Be gentle when making the batter. I've tested my coffee cake recipe several times, and had to discard or retry a few of those tests because I severely over-mixed the batter. Over-mixing works the gluten too much causing a gummy texture and loss of flavor.

You virtually can't go wrong with this recipe. Whether it's a snack, breakfast, dessert, or all of the above, you'll love having a batch handy. I cannot wait to make these again, as I still have a can of pumpkin open in the fridge, and several more in the pantry. If you love the feeling of reminiscing with childhood favorite treats, you are going to adore this recipe and make it over and over again.

Hungry for more?

Check out these just as delicious recipes for breakfast!

• Coffee Cake Muffins
• Honey Chocolate Banana Bread
• Pear and Brown Sugar French Toast Casserole