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Fresh Apple Coffee Cake

The cake is so easy to make and rises up nicely. It is sweet and moist from the apples and the crumble topping is wonderful. Perfect for an afternoon coffee break and delightful for breakfast.

Yield 1 coffee cake

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Reviews

Ingredients

2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, divided
1 (0.25oz) package (7g) or 2 1/4 teaspoons Red Star Active Dry Yeast
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup water (120-130°F)
2 tablespoon shortening or butter, softened
1 large egg
1 cup apples (peeled, chopped or shredded)
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)

Topping

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter (softened)

Instructions

In a stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, yeast, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon; mix well. Add warm water and shortening to flour mixture. Add egg. Blend at low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. Gradually stir in apples, walnuts, and enough of the remaining flour to make a soft batter. Spread batter in greased tube pan or 9-inch square cake pan.
Prepare Topping: Combine brown sugar, flour, and spices. Mix butter in until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle topping over dough.
Cover; let rise in warm place about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375ºF while rising. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm or cold.

Notes

Photo by Savoring Italy.

Review & Comments

AB | 9/1/2024 Reply

Can I use gluten free flour for this?

Red Star Yeast | 9/12/2024 Reply

Hi AB,

For recipes developed with yeast and regular flour we do not suggest making a substitution as they were developed for flour with gluten.

Happy Baking!

Carrie | 3/18/2024 Reply

I made this bread last night…and will continue making it. Omg it’s so good. It’s literally apple bread. Not fritter or anything like that. Next time I will add more apples and sugar to the batter. Also more cinnamon topping. Overall it was excellent!

Jane | 2/15/2024 Reply

Can an instant dry yeast (rapid rise) be used for the yeast?

Red Star Yeast | 2/15/2024 Reply

Hi Jane,

Yes you can substitute 1:1.

Happy Baking!

Donna | 10/3/2018 Reply

I love this cake! I am going to make another using fresh apple pears. My only problem was that I had to add more flour to the topping for it to crumble. A minor problem for such a delicious cake.

Kiss me Kate | 7/2/2018 Reply

As a cook who bakes frequently with yeast, I am curious to know why you use all- purpose flour rather than high protein bread flour. The all-purpose flour where I live
is not very good quality, so do you suggest high protein instead?

Red Star Yeast | 7/2/2018 Reply

Hi Kate,
All-purpose flour is used in this cake to give a more tender consistency. You may use bread flour – the amount of water may need to be adjusted, but it will work fine in this recipe.
Happy baking!
Carol

Kiss me Kate | 7/4/2018 Reply

I made this cake today using mostly all-purpose flour (added 1/2 cup bread flour because of the low quality of the all-purpose flour here). The result was an excellent and moist cake.

Red Star Yeast | 7/5/2018

Great to hear, Kate!

Theresa | 4/2/2018 Reply

I love the texture of this cake,it came out very moist. It was missing something and I can’t figure it out. It seemed to need more sugar or vanilla extract. Did anyone have the same thoughts.

P. King | 3/14/2017 Reply

The Nutrition Information indicates the serving size is “1”, but the recipe doesn’t indicate the number of servings yielded. I know it isn’t “1”. (In my dreams!)

Red Star Yeast | 3/17/2017 Reply

Wouldn’t that be nice!! 🙂 It’s corrected now — serving size is 1 slice, 12 slices per cake.

Happy baking!
Carol

Sarah | 9/29/2016 Reply

I think I may have made an error while making this. The texture of the coffee cake is more like a bread pudding than a cake. I think the step where you add flour and stir to get a batter texture was where I went wrong? I slowly added the flour but the texture was more dough than batter. Should I only add enough flour to get the batter texture? Up to 1 1/4 cups? If so, I probably wouldn’t have added any more flour at all, the texture looked quite like a batter after mixing. Delicious despite my error.

Red Star Yeast | 10/17/2016 Reply

Hi Sarah,
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the cake. Because it is a yeast-raised cake, it will have a texture more like a bread than a cake. Add in just enough of the additional flour to make a batter – you want the texture to be more like batter than dough. Let us know if you try the recipe again.
Happy baking!
Carol

Anna | 12/23/2017 Reply

I think the directions should say add “enough of the remaining flour…” to get a batter… Otherwise it seems like all 1 1/4 cups should be added which I did and got a tough, chewy result. I should have read the comments 🙂

Red Star Yeast | 1/2/2018

Hi Anna,
Thank you for your suggestion. The recipe has been edited. I hope you will try the recipe again!
Happy baking!
Carol

Jim Strong | 8/20/2016 Reply

Weird description – ” Coffee cake” as it has NO coffee in it?
I was looking for a sweet roll coffee flavoured with apple recipe, thanks anyway.
This does look yummy though.

Red Star Yeast | 8/23/2016 Reply

Hi Jim,
I can certainly see where that can be misleading. Coffee Cake (or coffeecake) can be used to describe a cake that is eaten with coffee (or tea). You could try adding a coffee glaze to this recipe for a new tasty twist! The glaze recipe can be found here >> https://redstaryeast.com/easy-cinnamon-rolls/

Happy baking!
Carol

Kate M. | 2/18/2015 Reply

Delicious and not too sweet. Almost a sweet bread as opposed to a coffee cake, but maybe that is due to over/under mixing on my part. I used thinly sliced Granny Smith apples for more apple flavor. The topping gets crunchy and is delicious! This was a pot luck hit! Thank you Red Star!

Cindy Stpierre | 9/29/2013 Reply

This comment coming from a person that has a lot of difficulty making any kind of bread using yeast. This is a Great Recipe. I used the rapid rise yeast, and i didn’t think it had risen enough, but cooked it in the oven anyway. My husband loves it. He tried it as it was still warm, didn’t seem to have a lot of apple flavor. Waited till the morning to have with coffee and it seemed like the flavors had settled and it was Great. I will be keeping the recipe for a long time. Thank you!! 🙂