SoCal Coffee Cake

Southern California:  Oranges. Avocados. Lemons. Strawberry fields...

The branches of citrus trees have been hanging heavy with fruit for months.  Oranges have been practically dripping off the trees.  It's a welcome sight here in San Diego county, what with the seemingly ever-expanding parade of strip malls.  I'm sure that any good orange-based citrus would work wonderfully in this simple and delicious coffee cake. 

Besides being surrounded by fresh oranges, I'm also lucky to work with a woman who has relatives that own a pecan farm in Texas.  She claims to have bags of pecans falling out of her freezer when she opens it, so she occasionally brings me a bag- which I happily bake into some treat to share.  Such a gift is just what inspired me to try this recipe- a fresh bag of pecans, and everything else I needed was languishing idly in the fridge or cabinet.

This recipe comes from "Jim Fobel's Old Fashioned Baking Book", which I wrote about in my last post, only this time I actually followed through and baked from it.  He introduces this recipe for Orange Coffee Cake as being frequently made when his family lived in Orange County and had ready access to fresh, seasonal citrus.  

The orange flavor is subtle, the cake is moist without being either too dense or too spongy.  The recipe, as it's written, yields a coffee cake with about equal parts cake and crumbly topping. Some might prefer a thicker cake, in which case I'd suggest making 1.5x as much batter.   I'm into the topping, so I won't change a thing.  And I'll definitely make this again.

Topping:
1/2 c. pecans (or walnuts)
1/4 c. AP flour
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbs butter, chilled
1 Tbs. grated orange zest
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Batter:
4 Tbs butter, melted
1 c. AP flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs grated orange zest
pinch salt
1/2 c. fresh OJ
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400 F
Grease the bottom of an 8" round pan.  

(Jim suggests a 8" square pan, which by my calculation has more SA than a circular pan, and I'm not sure I'd want these any thinner.)

First, make the topping.  I used a pastry blender to mash it all up, which did a nice job of bruising the zest and getting the orange oils in the peel well-distributed throughout the topping.  It also served to coarsely chop the pecans, which saved me that step.  If you don't have a pastry blender, you can chop the pecans and the zest together, then work everything into small balls with your fingers or a few knives.  

To make the cake, melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave or on the stovetop.  As it melts, mix together the dry ingredients and the orange zest.  Make a well in the center and add in the orange juice, egg, melted butter, and vanilla.  Stir the wet and dry ingredients just until moistened.  Pour the batter into your prepared pan, sprinkle the topping over the wet batter, and throw it into the oven for 20-30 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Let it cool a bit before you dig in.

A note:  

I used one orange for this, mostly because it's all I had.  Two would have measured up better according to what's called for.  I had to add some water to bring the volume of OJ up to 1/2 cup, and I'm not sure I got a full 2 Tbs zest into the cake.  Didn't matter, it still came out great. 

The most important thing for a good cake is to start with a good orange.   I wonder how a blood orange would work...