Quick Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

 I am kind of embarrassed by how long it took me to post this. I made this ... a while ago. It may have sat in my photos for a month. Maybe. Definitely.

A couple of months ago Dylan and I had bought some apple cinnamon flavored almonds. They were not good but I didn't want to just toss them out so the recipe search began. I added them to some muffins. Not too bad but I wanted to try something from scratch. I had apples that needed to be used and I love a good coffee cake. The quick apple streusel coffee cake from The Modern Family Cook Book, 1953 edition, by Meta Given fit the bill! And I love a good streusel topping!!

No special ingredients needed. I ended up using the apples I had on hand, 1 gala and 1 granny smith. 

Everything looks nice an normal. I decided to chop the fairly large. I wanted to make sure I could taste the apple and not just a hint of it.

Getting everything all mixed together. Melted shortening is gross looking. Just sayin.

Trying to work quickly before my apples start to brown...

All ready for the topping! I am always amazed how beautifully streusel topping comes together. It never looks like it is going to work and then you get a crisp, sweet topping. Wow!

I chopped up the apple cinnamon almonds and sprinkled over half of the coffee cake. Just in case it tasted like crap I would still have half a cake to enjoy. 

So, I totally forgot to take a picture of the baked goodies. I was a little busy. Probably. :) My kitchen smelled like autumn! Apples! Cinnamon! Cake!

This turned out to be a delicious and moist cake. Easy to make and easy to eat! The streusel topping added a nice sweet crunch to the top and even the side with the yucky almonds tasted great. The sugar coating from the almonds probably mixed with the streusel topping while it baked and lost a lot of the candy taste. The almonds added a nice extra flavor. I miss the swirl of cinnamon inside the cake but loved the chunks of apple. Also I thought that it made the perfect amount. Enough for dessert and breakfast the next day and a bit of sharing (if you want) but we didn't end up eating for a week straight. 

My Rating: Easy and tasty. Definitely a keeper!

Dylan's Rating: Great! Could use more cinnamon.

Pineapple Coffee Cake

Lately for some odd reason, I haven't a clue why, I have been craving pineapple. Bright and refreshing! I think I am missing summer big time. Everyone is sick and tired of the rain but as soon as it stops the pollen jumps out at you. Fun! I don't have allergies but there is enough pollen in the air to give me a constant itchy nose. Thank good ness for flowers, specifically cherry blossoms, because I could easily skip Spring if not for them. Anyways, I quick search gave me either muffins or coffee cake. I went with Pineapple Coffee Cake from the 1950's 250 Breads, Biscuits, and Rolls. (Muffins may come later.)

Not a lot to this. Had to get buy a can of pineapple. (Now I have a nice bowl of pineapple juice for cocktails!) It does not call for much sugar, definitley not as much I was expecting. Kinda concerned.

Sadly I do not have a ring mold so no party airs will be had.

 A little bit of this...little bit of that..

 I decided to try this cake by hand. No standing mixer this time.

 Mixed nicely together but it does take more time to cut in the shortening with only forks.

No party airs but I tried to get a little bit fancy. I pretty certain I used more than 1 1/2 cups of pineapple.

 It was difficult to try to spread the topping without ruining my beautiful design. Clumps work.

My apartment smells heavenly! Like a summer morning...I just need some coffee.

 It looks so bright and cheerful!

Sometimes I just don't want to wait to taste my experiments but I have learned better. Almost everything I've baked tasted better after it has cooled.

The topping was soft and juicy and the cake layer was dense and a tad dry. I was disappointed at first but then I remembered that it is coffee cake. The cake is suppose to be dry! I just needed the coffee. This was a nice twist on a coffee cake and a welcome change. The pineapple adds just enough sweetness. The best bite has a both the pineapple and the cake.

My Rating: Keeper! Great for a brunch.

Friends and Family Rating: "Oh, this is really good." "Did I like it? I ate a huge piece. It was great!"

Spicy Apple Coffee Cake

Sometimes I just have to move away from cookies. My coworkers don't always agree but I think they secretly like the variety. Flipping through the 1952 pamphlet 250 Breads, Biscuits and Rolls I found this interesting recipe: an apple coffee cake made with cheese... The idea of mixing cheese with apples does not appeal to me even though I know a lot of people who love to add a slice of sharp cheddar cheese to their apple pie. So I gave it a try.

 Short recipe. Looks easy! I just had to get 'nippy' cheese. Somehow I had zero extra sharp cheddar in my house! I am so embarrassed...

I decided to go with the round cake version.

It qualifies as healthy since it has apples in it.

The dough came together very easily. None of the cinnamon was used in the dough so I'm guessing the 'spicy' part of the title has to do with the cheese. I love the bits of cheese peaking through!

 Looking good so far!

I don't know how I made this look so pretty! I'm not known for 'pretty' food, delicious but not always nice to look at. I don't know what happened here bit I'll take it!

And it baked up even prettier! Yeah!

 It looks good and the cake is nice and moist...

....but all in all a bland cake. Even though I used extra sharp cheddar you could barely taste the cheese and all the spice was added to the topping. Traditionally coffee cake is not a very sweet cake but even eating this with coffee could not save it. This might work better as a sheet cake since there would be less cake and more apples.

My Rating: Boring. Probably will not make again.

Friends & Family Rating: I don't know. No one gave me their opinion.

Blueberry Butter Pastry Squares

I realized I hadn't done a blueberry recipe yet and I have bags of blueberries from my folk's garden in my freezer (right next to my collection of frozen bananas). This simple recipe comes from the 1961 version of The New Antoinette Pope School Cookbook.

This is a 2 pager. Sorry for the weird picture colors. I thought they matched....

 There is not a lot of variety in baking ingredients. On the good side, once you purchase everything for one recipe you pretty much have everything for several more.

 There does not appear to be enough blueberries here...

 That was an easy pastry to throw together. I read the directions and I know what size pan to use but it still looks small.

 Looks so lovely! And my kitchen smells amazing.

 The recipe recommended a couple of different ways to serve the cake. I thought I would try the plain cake with a dusting of powdered sugar.

 Then I added the Orange Icing listed right under the pastry recipe.

Yum! This had the consistency of a pound cake with a light burst of blueberry. It is a dense cake. The cake bakes up with a nice light and crisp top that was delicious with just the powdered sugar! The icing moves it from a coffee cake-like breakfast cake to an after dinner cake. I would add more blueberries next time and flour them so they don't all sink to the bottom. My personal preference is the powdered sugar version but if I were making the icing, I would add orange zest. The icing was not very orange-y.

My Rating: Keeper! with a few adjustments.

Friends and Family Rating: "Amazing." "Could use more fruit."