Wednesday, October 1, 2008

What's Cooking Wednesday: Cinnamon-Apple Coffeecake



Please go to Shan's place for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

There's nothing like apple season.

Okay, so there's nothing like fall. Fall is my favorite season - chilly air, beautiful leaves crunching under foot, tantalizing smells of cider and fresh donuts.

Except the donut thing can really get to you. So can the cider. Both are delicious, but if you're trying to be health conscious, both can add up pretty quickly.

We managed to get some fabulous apples at our farmers market, and I wanted to make something delicious but not too sinful. I wanted a good, moist, apple-filled coffee cake. I wanted it lowfat and lower calorie, but not to taste low fat or lower calorie. I *think* I succeeded. This is what I came up with:

Jen's Cinnamon-Apple (lowfat) Coffeecake



Ingredients

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBS canola oil
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
4 medium apples, peeled, cored and diced

For topping:
3 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 TBS butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 7X11 baking pan or equivalent.
2. Cream eggs, sugar, vanilla and buttermilk until well blended.
3. Mix dry ingredients, except for apples and topping ingredients, in a bowl.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and blend well.
5. Beat with a mixture on high for 2 minutes.
6. Stir in apples by hand. Pour batter into baking dish.
7. In a food processor, blend the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and butter for the topping. Process until mixture is crumbly.
8. Sprinkle the topping over the batter.
9. Bake for 45 minutes.

Cut into 18 pieces.

Number of Servings: 18


Nutritional Info (per serving):

Fat: 2.8g
Carbohydrates: 34.3g
Calories:166.8
Protein: 3.0g

Nutrition information provided by sparkrecipes.com

29 comments:

Karen said...

Mmmm, sounds great. I don't have any cake and pastry flour right now. What do you think the result would be if I used wh wheat all purpose?

Korie said...

Oops, you made me drool again. That looks so good. Maybe I 'll make it for Thanksgiving in Belgium.

Jen said...

Karen, regular whole wheat would be just fine - it would just be a heavier cake. One thing you might do is use half whole wheat and half all purpose. Just make sure to do all that blending and beating, because that will make everything lighter.

Lilac, this would make a great Thanksgiving dish! I made a Thanksgiving dinner when I was living in the Soviet Union and made apple pie because, of course, pumpkins were in short supply.

Goofball said...

I think I should move to the USA in the fall. Every single blogging American has fall as its favourite season, so it must be great there right now. here fallen leaves don't crisp as they are wet from the rain.

Anyway, cinnamon - apple cake can be a consolation! Even when you keep on using buttermilk ;)

good to see you back online. How's the skype installation going?? I'm online on facebook :)

Anonymous said...

OMG. YUM.

Mae Travels said...

There is just one problem with the calorie count: that cake is probably too good to eat just one of the 18 pieces. I bet I could eat 4. Or 5.

anno said...

I agree with Mae... that picture looks so good, I can practically smell the apples and cinnamon! Yum!

Jen said...

Goofball, I guess parts of the U.S. do have a good fall. Skype is not happening for a variety of reasons and online chats won't be possible for awhile due to job issues - I really can't chat prior to 7 pm or so my time. Maybe weekends?

Amy, Mae and Anno - thanks for the kind words! Mae and Anno - these really are quite large pieces - and they're satisfying. This is pretty sweet, I might cut back on the sugar a bit for my own tastes, but it's sort of the perfect cake to go with coffee. Mae - it's reminiscent of Eastern European cakes that you were highlighting a couple of months ago.

Unknown said...

Okay...cinnamon-apple coffeecake is one of my favorites, and better by far than what I just had for breakfast. But wait....I'm supposed to be watching my diet/my waistline. Damn difficult to do when such tasty treats are dangled in front of me!

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

cinnamon+apples = a very happy ragazza.

Jen said...

Greg, me, too - but this one isn't bad. I do better if I don't cut out everything, but make my treats few and healthy.

NYC - enjoy! I love that combination, too.

NĂºria said...

Could you save a slice for me? MMmm sounds delicious Jen! I would have loved to be in your kitchen while baking it!!!!!
I LOVE fall t♥♥!

Jen said...

Nuria, wouldn't it be fun if we could cook together? Oh, I'd love that!

Virtualsprite said...

Looks absolutely delicious! I've been picking 3 gallon buckets of apples off our trees every week and I can't wait to try this.

glamah16 said...

Yes indeed, there is nothing like apple season. I want a slice.

Mommy Project said...

mmmm....cake...
mmmm....coffee....
oh....
it all sounds so darn good.

Jen said...

Hey Ben, it is delicious, and a good mix of sinful and not too sinful. ;-)

Virtual - WOW, that's a lot of apples! What else are you doing with them?

Glamah - wish you could come on over and join me.

Norma Ann - it's an easy one. ;-)

Proud Italian Cook said...

I can eat this and not feel guilty! It looks so moist and only 1 tbl of oil. Love it! printing it out!

Anonymous said...

Here they make apple cider doughnuts in the Fall! SO good!
Nice coffee cake ;)

Alex Elliot said...

Yum! We're actually going apple picking tomorrow with my son's preschool class.

Peter M said...

Deep, dark, rich and moist...a big slab like in the pic, please.

Shan said...

Mmmm looks incredible!

Unknown said...

Mmmm! Although, I think I'll try doing this with peaches or pears...not a big apple fan. (Oh, the humanity, they cry! I guess I might as well out myself now: I also don't like bananas and watermelon.)

Momisodes said...

Hmmm, this sounds lovely. I LOVE the smells of Fall. too. I may have to try this. We may go apple picking here this week!

w said...

Oh my goodness! I got to try this one for sure :) I just love cinnamon :)

What would be a good substitute for canola oil and buttermilk? I don't think I will find that here...I mean, I haven't seen them around :(

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I love all of the apple dishes in the fall. This one is no exception:D

Thistlemoon said...

That looks delicious Jen! So perfect for the fall!

Momisodes said...

This is perfect! We just went apple picking, and I have a TON of apples to eat and bake with :)

I can already imagine how divine my house will smell making this ;)

Anonymous said...

Great choice for a light cake :). It's great for fall, and I love how you used the apples. I would like to feature your recipe on our Demy, the first and only digital recipe reader. Please email sophiekiblogger@gmail.com if you're interested. Thanks!