Strawberry Coffee Cake

Yum. Yum. Yum. This treat helps chase away the winter blues. Although this is a "coffee" cake and goes great with a hot drink for breakfast or a mid-morning break, it is also delicious served as dessert, warm with vanilla ice cream.

This recipe calls for a 10 oz package of frozen, sweetened stawberries. Instead, I used whole frozen strawberries (they come in a large bag from Costco!) and made my own sweetened version.

Combine the strawberries, sugar, water and cornstarch



in a medium saucepan. (If you're using frozen sweetened strawberries, you won't add the water or sugar.) Bring this to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes until the mixture is thickened.



Remove from the heat and stir in the cinnamon



and the almond extract.

For the cake, combine the flour, sugar



and butter



and cut in until crumbly. I use my food processor for this. Reserve 1/2 cup of this for the topping. To the remaining flour mixture, add the baking soda, baking powder and salt, then stir in the beaten egg



and the buttermilk just until moistened.



Spread 1 1/2 cups of the batter into a greased 8" dish.



Spread the strawberry mixture over the dough



then drop the remaining batter in spoonfuls over the strawberries.



Sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture



then bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown.



Find more great ideas at Full Plate Thursday, Recipe Swap Thursday, It's a Keeper Thursday, Cooking Thursday, Foodie Friday, Food on Fridays, Friday Food, Sweet Tooth Friday, What's Cookin' in the Kitchen, Fun with Food Friday and Sweets for a Saturday, Let's Do Brunch, Ingredient Spotlight: Strawberries.

Strawberry Coffee Cake

1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 - 10 oz. pkg. frozen sweetened sliced strawberries, thawed
(OR, use 10 oz. of whole strawberries, sliced, 1/4 cup water and 1/3 cup sugar)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. almond extract
2 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into chunks
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten

In a large saucepan, combine cornstarch and strawberries (and water and sugar if using). Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 2 more minutes until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in cinnamon and almond extract. Set aside.

In a large bowl or food processor, combine the flour and sugar. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Remove 1/2 cup and reserve for topping. To the rest of the flour mixture, add the baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in buttermilk and egg just until moistened.

Spread 1 1/2 cups of batter into a greased 8" baking dish. Carefully top with the strawberry mixture. Drop remaining batter by tablespoonfuls onto the strawberries; sprinkle with reserved crumbs.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack. Serves 9.