Wednesday Baking | Apricot Coffee Cake
This is a favorite recipe at my house...my kids love to eat it, and I love that it can be made ahead of time. It's from a really old Fleischmann's yeast recipe cookbook that I used to bake from when I was a teenager. This particular recipe is from the freezer section of the book, which contains recipes that allow you to do all the prep up to the baking stage and then freeze the bread/rolls/coffeecake. When you're ready to do the baking, you just take the frozen product out of the freezer, let it thaw and rise, and then bake it.
This is not particularly handy if you are wanting fresh baked bread for breakfast, as it requires you to take the bread out of the freezer at something like 3:30 in the morning (if you want to eat at 7:30 am, that is. When I was a teenager, I used to set the alarm for 3:30, run out to the cold garage, take the coffeecake out of the freezer and into the kitchen, and then hop back in bed. Yes, I was a weird teenager.).
Anyways. I keep meaning to experiment with a refrigerator version of this coffeecake (similar to the Cinnamon Twists method), and when I do, I'll let you know how it worked out. At the moment, though, I usually just bake my coffeecakes in the afternoon and we eat them for breakfast (some of my kids reheat theirs in the microwave). They are still more than edible after sitting overnight on the counter, trust me.
Ok! So, to make a freezer coffecake, here's what you do. Because the dough doesn't rise at all before shaping, you'll want to make the streusel topping and apricot filling straight away.
To make the apricot topping, you just cook dried apricots and water for about 20 minutes, or until the water is absorbed.
The recipe book then says to "sieve the apricots", because food processors hadn't been invented yet. Happily, I live in the era of food processors, so that's what I use to blend up the apricots (I usually mix in the brown sugar by hand, so as not to whip the apricots too much).
To make the streusel, just combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix in the butter with a pastry blender.
Now, to make the dough, combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a mixer bowl.
Add melted butter and warm water, and beat for two minutes.
Add eggs, and beat for another two minutes. The dough will be significantly closer to being a batter at this point.
Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft, but kneadable dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic (this picture is obviously before I kneaded the dough).
Now you have streusel, filling, and dough, which means it's time for assembly.
Divide the dough into three equal pieces. Roll to a 12x7 inch rectangle and transfer to a greased baking sheet. Do not, I repeat, do not leave it on the counter. It will be nigh onto impossible to transfer it to a sheet once it is filled. Ask me how I know.
Also, do yourself a favor, and do NOT skip greasing the baking sheet. I tried that out, and it doesn't work too well. 😉
Spread ⅓ of the apricot filling down the middle of each rectangle.
Using a pizza cutter or a knife, cut one-inch wide strips along the edge of the apricot filling.
Fold the strips in towards the middle of the rectangle, overlapping as much as possible. Don't worry if it's not perfectly neat...it's all getting covered with streusel.
If you want to be fancier, you can twist the strips as you fold them in.
Sprinkle the streusel topping over the three coffeecakes.
At this point, you can either let them rise and then bake them, or you can freeze them. To freeze, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for several hours, or until the coffeecake is frozen solid. Then you can remove it from the baking sheet (because you're not going to want to have your cookie sheet in the freezer for weeks!), rewrap it in the plastic wrap and freeze it for up to 4 weeks.
When you're ready to bake your coffeecake(s), remove them from the freezer, unwrap them, place them on a greased baking sheet, cover them loosely with the plastic wrap, and let them thaw/rise for about 3 to 3.5 hours, at which point they should look somewhat soft and puffy.
How long you let them rise is sort of up to you. A longer rise will make for an airier result.
And a shorter rise will make for a more dense end product.
It's tasty either way! Whenever your dough has risen to your taste, bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack before serving, because the apricot filling will be HOT. (dare I say "ask me how I know." again??)
When it's cooled off sufficiently, cut into slices and serve.
Apricot Coffeecake-makes three coffeecakes
Dough
5 ½ to 6 ½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 pkg. yeast (6 ¾ teaspoons)
½ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup very warm tap water (120 degrees)
3 eggs
Apricot Filling
11 ounces dried apricots
1 ½ cups water
½ cup brown sugar
Streusel
⅓ cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
To make filling, combine apricots and water in saucepan; cook 20 minutes. Process in a food processor or blender until smooth; add brown sugar.
To make streusel, combine dry streusel ingredients and cut in butter using a pastry blender.
To make dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1 ¼ cups flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Add cooled butter and water; beat for 2 minutes. Add eggs; beat for two minutes. Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough; turn out onto floured surface and knead 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.
Divide dough into thirds; roll each into a 12x7 inch rectangle. Place each on a greased baking sheet. Spread ⅓ of the apricot filling down the center of each rectangle. Cut one inch strips along the edge of the filling out to the edge of the dough. Fold strips to the center of the dough, overlapping if possible. Sprinkled ⅓ of the streusel over each coffeecake.
To freeze, cover each coffecake with plastic wrap. Place in freezer until firm, then remove each coffecake from baking sheet, rewrap and freeze for up to 4 weeks. When ready to bake, remove from freezer, loosen plastic wrap, and let thaw and rise in warm place for 3 to 3.5 hours. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.
To bake right away, cover coffee cakes loosely with plastic wrap or a lightweight, damp tea towel, and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.
This looks fantastic! I need to try this sometime this week.
Have you ever tried making it with different fillings? A coworker just gave me a homemade fig and walnut jam and a strawberry jam so I'm wondering if those would work as fillings.
This looks great! I have canned apricots and I think I will try it with them. I will just omit the water and adjust the brown sugar.
Allison, yes, I think other fillings would work too. The apricot filling is the consistency of a soft, spreadable jam (kind of like apple butter), so any other filling along those lines would be fine. I just adore apricots so I haven't felt inspired to try anything else!
Linda, that's a good idea. I'd drain them really well, and if the filling still seems a bit runny, you could cook it over low heat until some of the water evaporates.
Kristen, this looks fantastic! I especially love that you can make 3 of them and freeze them for later - so much more logical for smaller families (and people who like to bake but don't have enough people to eat the baked goods...). Have you ever considered teaching a baking class, at a community college or something? I think you would be a great in-class teacher, as all of your recipes are so easy to follow and you make it seem do-able! Or maybe at a local regional highschool? Might be a good source of a little extra income and would be fun too!
A question about the streusel - is there a way to make it "stick" to the final product? I loved the pumpkin apple streusel muffins, but I had to be very careful to eat them completely upright or I ended up covered in cinnamon sugar. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
I look forward to trying this over the weekend. So many of your recipes have become regular items in our house. Very much enjoy reading your editorial comments, too!
Erika, it's so odd...I have about a bazillion ideas for jobs I could do if I had the time . I could sell bread, I could teach about baking, I could be a professional organizer, and I could play the piano more often for weddings and parties and such. I could also spend more time doing photography, writing, and piano teaching. lol
The problem is, I'm very short on time to do stuff like that...my kids, husband, and home are a high priority for me, and I'd have to neglect them in order to pursue more side jobs. Someday when my children are older/grown, I'll have more time to pursue stuff like that.
Happily, my blog gives me a way to teach people about baking and it allows me to do that while I stay home with my kids. Yay for blogging!
Thanks for this recipe! I make most all of our own baked goods, but I have not yet tried coffee cake. I have a child with a severe nut and peanut allergy, and sore bought bakery items are dangerous for us. She will be thrilled to learn to make coffee cake and add this treat into her diet. ( She's 10 and this tutorial looks like something she could manage with some assistance.)
This looks delicious! I got a stand mixer for my birthday last week (yay!!) so I've been busy putting it to good use baking bread and Christmas cookies. This sounds like something excellent to have on hand during the holidays for a quick, but tasty, breakfast. I'm not a huge fan of apricots, so I think that I will try another filling. Either a preserve or a jam that I've softened a little or another dried fruit so that I can follow the same process. Looking forward to trying it! Thanks for the recipe and, as always, your excellent baking advice!
Erika, I forgot to answer your question about the streusel. When you're making muffins, you can kind of press it into the muffin batter a bit before baking. Or you can use less streusel. You could also try using a little less flour in the streusel mixture.
Of course, streusel is totally optional in most recipes, so if the mess while eating drives you nuts, you could always just leave it off. A confectioner's sugar drizzle would look just as nice and wouldn't fall off into your lap.
Kristen, this looks amazing. Maybe I'll give it a try this weekend. I don't think I have enough room in my freezer for the cookie sheets, though... I'll have to figure that out 🙂
The recipe reminds me of some traditional cookies we make for the Jewish holiday of Purim called Hamentaschen. The cookies are basically a sweet cookie dough shaped in triangles with a filling, traditionally prune or poppy seed or (you guessed it!) apricot. Every family has a different recipe for the dough, the filling, etc., but they are all yummy. Apricot is my family's favorite, so I think they will love this coffeecake recipe.
I made these again today (I make them once in a while thanks to this lovely post from all those years ago). Just as good as ever! I love having one in the freezer for times when I want to bring something homemade but don't have the time to make it.
Yay! I'm so glad.
This looks absolutely beautiful! It aso looks like something I could manage, so extra bonus points. I hope to try this soon.
I have a random question about baking that doesn't really go with this post, but I'll ask it anyway. Is there some kind of general muffin formula you follow to make all different kinds of muffins? I was just reading an older post where you made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins to use up some left-over pumpkin. I can't imagine you have a recipe for each and every muffin mix you make (or maybe you do!). It would be great to be able to make muffins on the fly with whatever random ingredients I have laying around or need to use up!
I imagine spreading a little glaze on the dough before sprinkling on the streudel topping would help it stick. Egg beaten with water, sugar water or - of course! - thinned out apricot jam or the liquid from canned apricots.
WilliamB, who usually finds it much easier to solve other people's cooking problems.
Can't wait to try this. Over the summer, I dehydrated 15 pounds of cherries. Lots of work for very little end results. The cherries dried to a fraction of their size so what little I have has been saved for something special. Thanks!! I'm pretty sure I've found that "something special". I just recently found your site and absolutely love it. Thanks again.
My only question is how you are able to eat stuff like this and still look like you do...you have no weight on you and I just gained 10 lbs. looking at your pictures 🙂
I'm sorry I misspelled your name on my blog post by the way. I hate it when people misspell mine, because there's gotta be a million variations, but I just assume they're all like mine. Thanks so much for all you put into your blog and the ideas. I may just have to try some of them during the coming year so that come Christmas they might be worth giving!
Laurie, dried cherries would probably be fabulous!
Kristin, no worries on the misspelling. lol And to answer your question, I actually don't eat stuff this indulgent all that often. I do bake bread all the time, but it's often whole wheat sandwich bread or hamburger buns and stuff of that sort. And it's not like I eat just homemade bread....I also eat yogurt and cheese and fruits and vegetables and nuts and chicken and oatmeal and so on.
Since I always have homemade yeast breads around the house, it's not that tempting to overindulge because there's always more bread the next day, you know? So there's that, and then too I don't spend a lot of time sitting still either. I'm busy almost all day long and I figure I probably burn a fair number of calories that way. Plus, I'm kind of tall (5 feet, 8.5 inches), and I think my body is somewhat inclined to be lightweight (I have a pretty light bone structure).
I'm so glad you find my blog to be helpful...thanks for the encouragement!
Oh Yum! I'm going to try this this week. It looks so pretty!!! I think I will try using some peach jam I made this summer as the filling. (It didn't set up well so it should be the right consistency.
This is why I love your blog!!!!
I made this treat a few weeks ago and once again, thanks! it was actually extremely simple and so yummy. i have to perfect my skills to make my streussel look as pretty and neat as yours but for my first time, i think i did a pretty bang up job. Keep the good recipes coming.
This looks like a great recipe. I love apricots but don't eat them very often. I love that you can freeze these. I'm thinking that a frozen one of these would make an excellent gift for my in-laws!
wow ---- i still have that same little recipe book - i started making that recipes in 1974 .. this coffee cake is our traditional christmas morning breakfast