Apricot Buttermilk Coffee Cake With Streusel Topping Recipe

Apricots are such a delightful summer fruit, similar to peaches but smaller and slightly tarter. Sadly, fresh apricots are in the stores for all too short a time as their season starts in May and ends in July. Dried apricots, however, are available year-round, so those are the kind developer Jessica Morone has chosen to use for her apricot buttermilk coffee cake. She uses a special method to transform dried apricots so that they're every bit as full of tart-sweet flavor and juiciness as the ripe version. As she tells us, "You can rehydrate dried apricots like I do in this recipe and make really delicious creations with them."

This coffee cake consists of two tender buttermilk cake layers separated by cinnamon-brown sugar streusel, then topped with sweetened, pureed apricots and finished off with another layer of buttery streusel. It's the perfect balance of moist cake and tangy fruit with just the right cinnamony streusel crunch. If you bought a big bag of dried apricots, however, you might want to make some extra compote. It would taste terrific on toast, and could also replace the store-bought preserves in our sweet and spicy apricot-glazed pork chops. You could even experiment with using it in a fruity jam jar cocktail –- try stirring a spoonful into a whiskey sour in place of simple syrup.

The cake batter is made with flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, and vegetable oil, while the streusel includes brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. The only other thing you'll need is dried apricots to make the fruity layer.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Grease an 8-inch square baking pan, line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, and grease the parchment for easier removal of the cake from the pan.

Combine the dried apricots, water, and sugar in a medium saucepan.

Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.

While the apricots cook, in a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate large bowl whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, sugar, and oil until smooth.

Add the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Set aside.

Add the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture becomes pea-sized crumbs. Set aside.

Use a blender or an immersion blender to blend the apricot mixture until smooth.

Spread half the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

Top with half of the crumble topping.

Spoon the remaining half of the cake batter over the crumble topping and gently spread it over the topping.

Spoon the apricot filling over the batter and gently spread it evenly to cover the batter.

Sprinkle the remaining crumb topping evenly over the apricot filling.

Bake in the preheated oven until the topping is golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40-50 minutes.

Let the cake cool completely, then serve.

If you're making this coffee cake in spring or summer and you do have fresh apricots on hand, you can absolutely use them in place of the dried ones, but you'll need to act quickly because apricots, even when stored in the refrigerator, won't last more than a week. Of course, you can always store your apricots in the freezer, since frozen fruit can work in this recipe, too (as can canned ones). If you choose any of these options, you won't need to simmer the fruit in water, but can instead just puree it in the blender (add a little sugar or honey, if desired). You could also substitute apricot preserves, although these will be thicker than the dried apricot mixture so you'll need to be careful when you spread them over the cake batter.

You could also use a different kind of fruit in this cake. If it's a dried fruit such as prunes or craisins, you can rehydrate and sweeten it the same way you would the dried apricots. If you're going with frozen or canned fruit, you'll simply puree and sweeten it to taste, which will also work for fresh berries or ripe stone fruits like peaches, plums, and nectarines. If you've chosen a firm fresh fruit such as apples, though, you may need to simmer them to make them soft enough for blending. 

As this is a coffee cake, the name gives you a not-so-subtle hint as to the perfect pairing: Coffee cakes aren't made with coffee, but are meant to be served alongside this beverage as a breakfast, snack, or dessert. Non-coffee drinkers needn't miss out, though, as this cake would go equally well with tea. If you're thinking of serving it at a tea party, you could even look for an apricot-flavored tea to complement its flavor. The cake can be topped with whipped cream if you wish, or you can accompany it with fresh berries or a simple fruit salad.

Any leftover cake will stay fresh in the fridge for three days, but if you're unlikely to eat it all within that time frame, you can always freeze it. If the cake does dry out, though, you can salvage it by repurposing it in a bread pudding. Another idea is to chop the dry cake into chunks, then layer these with vanilla pudding, whipped cream, and additional apricot compote to make apricot trifles or parfaits.