Clearly, it’s the season for pumpkin, so if you’ haven’t already had your fill, I wanted to share this recipe for a coffee cake I’ve been baking in the fall over the past several years. It’s started out trying to be all fancy (cream cheese ripples through the batter, a spiced pecan streusel on top). I loved the taste of those original versions, but as I experimented with the recipe over the years, the frills fell away in favor of a simpler (easier!), no-fuss reliable pumpkin cake that can hold its own after dinner or as an on-the-sweet-side snack for mid-morning or afternoon.
Here’s how it works: I use a whole 15-oz can of pumpkin, which boosts flavor (it’s a pumpkin coffee cake, not a PSL coffee cake), yet the cake is well spiced. Because we use the whole can, the coffee cake has a denser crumb; if you’re all about the fluffy and airy coffee cakes, scale back to 1 cup of pumpkin and be sure not to over-beat the batter. I’ve also made versions with just 1 cup of pumpkin, so I know it works, but I also never found a satisfying use for the remaining canned pumpkin left behind.
Having the cream cheese at room temperature helps it blend into the batter much more easily and evenly. If you have too-cold cream cheese, you’ll likely wind up with small little bits of it visible throughout… which isn’t the worst thing in the world. There have been so many baking projects I’ve delayed due to this kind of room-temperature requirement in the directions and then wound up never getting to it (and worst-case scenario, having the ingredient I was bringing to room temperature go bad). So if it’s between bits of cream cheese in the batter and no pumpkin loaf at all, my vote would be to just make the thing.
Also, speaking of PSL: this and a throwback to this.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 Tablespoons butter
15-oz can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, spices, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a larger bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until creamy and smooth. Add the butter and beat again until it is well incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Add the eggs, then beat again. Next, add the sugar and pumpkin and beat again until well incorporated.
4. Gently stir in the flour mixture, using a spatula or spoon (not beaters or electric mixers) to mix the batter. Stir until the flour is just incorporated — over-mixing here will lead to a denser cake.
4. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
