Caramel Apple Coffee Cake
This caramel apple coffee cake consists of a sour cream cake batter topped with cinnamon sugar tossed apples and a sweet and crunchy pecan streusel topping and drizzled with salted caramel.
Equipment
Ingredients
Apple Coffee Cake:
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup sour cream, full fat, room temperature
- 2 cups apples, peeled and sliced (about 2-3 medium apples)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Streusel Topping:
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
- ⅔ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup pecans, chopped and toasted
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Salted Caramel Sauce:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature,
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
Make the salted caramel.
- In a medium sized saucepan, combine the sugar and the water. Whisk just until combined.
- Place the saucepan over medium heat. Let the sugar mixture cook, without stirring, until the sugar mixture turns a rich amber color. Take the mixture off the heat to stop the cooking process.
- Add the butter to the saucepan and whisk to combine. Be very careful as the mixture is incredibly hot and will bubble up and steam when the butter is added.
- Whisk in the heavy cream, followed by the vanilla and the salt until smooth.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a glass jar to cool completely.
Make the streusel.
- In the bowl of a food processor, place the flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Pulse to mix.
- Add the butter cubes and pulse until mixture begins to stick together and form small clumps.
- Remove the bowl from the food processor and remove the center blade. Stir in the pecans. If not using right away, store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Make the apple coffee cake.
- Heat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9" springform pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Place the butter and the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium speed, stopping to scrape the bowl every so often, until the mixture is light, fluffy and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture to the batter in three batches, alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer, and scrape down the the bowl and give it a stir to ensure the flour is fully incorporated.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared spring form pan and smooth with an offset spatula.
- Place the peeled and sliced apples into a medium sized bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, and stir to coat the apples.
- Layer the apples, slightly overlapping, onto the cake batter.
- Sprinkle the streusel topping on top of the apples.
- Bake the cake for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with few moist crumbs.
- Cool the cake in the pan on a wire cooling rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. When the cake has cooled a bit, but is still warm, drizzle the cake with caramel sauce, cut into wedges and serve.
Notes
Store caramel sauce in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!