Tea Bread Tuesday: Sour Cream Coffeecake

I took the advice of my fellow blogger, Nicki, and served this week's treat with a cup of Java. I also decided to give our taste buds a break by baking an old tried and true recipe. This one also comes from “The Silver Palate Cookbook” and I've made it many, many times. For a while, this coffeecake was so popular at work that I had to make it every time we had a potluck - heaven help me if I made something else!

It doesn't look like much on the outside . . .

But on the inside . . . Ah . . . ! Pure bliss! The swirls of cinnamon and pecans add a wonderful crunchiness to an incredibly moist cake!

Here's the recipe:

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) sweet butter

2¾ cups granulated sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup dairy sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups shelled pecans, chopped

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 10-inch bundt pan and lightly dust the inside with flour.
2. Cream together the butter and 2 cups of the sugar. Add eggs, blending well, then the sour cream and vanilla.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, and beat until just blended. Do not overbeat.
5. In a separate bowl, mix remaining ¾ cup sugar with pecans and cinnamon.
6. Pour half of the batter into the bundt pan. Sprinkle with half of the pecan and sugar mixture. Add remaining batter and top with the rest of the pecan mixture.
7. Set on the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm.

10 portions
It may have "Coffeecake" in its title, but the recipe calls for baking powder in the batter as a leavening agent, not yeast, so it still qualifies as a tea bread. Just in case we want to get technical about it . . .