Sweet Potato Pecan Coffee Cake with Pecan Streusel

An alluring aroma will waft through your home when you bake this flavor-forward coffee cake. That alone would be worth making this recipe, however, take one bite and you will find reasons to make it often. I originally created this recipe for the book Sharing the Table, A Northwest Chef Instructor’s Quest to Recreate Memorable Meals and for my husband, a Texas expat whose hometown grows fantastic pecans and where sweet potatoes are revered. Here I changed a loaf pan for the Bundt pan and put a German Streusel topping in place of an orange glaze.

ONWARD:

That, however, is not the only changes to this recipe. To lighten the glycemic load, making the cake healthier (even though it is sinfully delicious) I substituted coconut sugar and maple syrup for granulated and powdered sugar. Since white all-purpose flour is quickly digested by our bodies like sugar, creating a sugar-high followed by a blood-sugar crash I set about finding the right flours for this coffee cake. I was inspired by the book Gluten-Free Flavor Flours by Alice Medrich with Maya Klein. I chose the oat flour for the streusel because of its nutty flavor and crumbly texture. The combination of brown rice flour and almond flour in the coffee cake creates a pecan enhanced flavor and a texture able to structurally handle the rise yet remain moist. Finally, I used coconut oil in place of the butter to make it plant-based. This will now be my go-to coffee cake when entertaining. You might just find that it is yours too!

Scroll to the bottom for a printable recipe.

1 loaf (10 servings)

INGREDIENTS:

Pecan Streusel Topping

3 tablespoons oat flour

3 tablespoons sugar

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon salt

1 ½ tablespoons coconut oil, chilled cold

⅓ cup pecans, chopped

Coffee Cake

1 cup sweet potatoes (about 1 pound)

1 ¼ cups brown rice flour

¾ cup almond flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon sea salt

2 large eggs

½ cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

⅓ cup coconut oil, melted

¾ cup pecans, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly oil an eight by four-inch loaf pan. Line the pan with an eight-inch piece of parchment paper that hangs two-inches over the sides of the pan when pressed into the pan.

Wash the sweet potatoes and pierce with a knife tip. Place on a foil-lined baking pan. Bake until soft all the way through, about one hour depending on the size and thickness of the potatoes. Remove from the oven and turn the oven down to 350°F. Carefully peel, mash the potatoes, and cool. Measure exactly one cup of sweet potatoes.

For the topping: In a small bowl with a pastry cutter or two cold knives combine the oat flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, salt, and chilled coconut oil together. Fold in the one third-cup chopped pecans and reserve refrigerated.

For the coffee cake dry ingredients: In a large bowl whisk together the brown rice flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

In a bowl or mixer, whip the cooled sweet potatoes and eggs together. When well-mixed whip in the maple syrup, vanilla, and melted coconut oil until smooth.

Add the sweet potato mixture to the dry ingredients. Combine until just incorporated and no dry ingredients remain. Fold in three-fourth-cup of pecans.

Evenly spread the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top. Sprinkle on the pecan streusel topping evenly over the top and away from the sides of the pan by a half- inch.

Bake for fifty to sixty minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center deepest part comes out clean. Move to a cooling rack and leave in a pan for at least one hour. Gently loosen the ends of the loaf from the pan with a paring knife. Lift the loaf out using the overhanging parchment paper as handles. Cool completely before slicing.

Notes:

Brown rice flour and almond flour should be refrigerated in a sealed container because of their fat content which can go rancid quickly. They will keep for six months refrigerated and twelve months if frozen. White rice flour can be substituted for the brown rice flour.

Also, the sweet potatoes used here have an orange-colored flesh and are sometimes called yams. Canned sweet potatoes are too moist to be used in this recipe. If in a hurry to make the recipe, the sweet potatoes can be microwaved soft much faster than in the oven but are more difficult to thoroughly mash.

A better crumble is created by using chilled coconut oil and then chilling the crumble before topping the coffee cake.

Yield: 1 loaf (10 servings)Author: chefsharingthetable.com