Have you been apple picking yet? This new peanut butter apple coffee cake is the best thing to happen this fall. Breakfast will never be the same. You now have an excuse to slow down and enjoy the crispy cool fall morning, with a hot cup of coffee and a slice of crumbly sweet apple coffee cake.
Growing up, coffee cake was “entertaining” food, always around when we had guests. It has always been a dessert, served with coffee after dinner and maybe that was the original intent of coffee cake, but I’m here to tell you that cake can also be breakfast. You can have cake whenever you want to have cake, rules are meant to be broken, I mean look at the donut.
The peanut butter apple coffee cake is perfection. It’s perfectly dense and airy at the same time. The cake crumb is soft and moist. The crunchy peanut butter frosting is not too sweet, it’s a match made in heaven with the soft sweet apples.
Peanut Butter Apple Coffee Cake
Choosing your apples. You can use anything you like. I only buy gala apples from the grocery store. I love the way they taste, they are sweet, mild and soft. They are usually smaller in size than the other options which makes them ideal for little kids to handle.
We just went apple picking and I plan on using those when I make this peanut butter apple coffee cake again this week, it’s a true obsession, I am lost without it, my coffee is lonely without it.
The only apple I would stay away from would the green granny smiths, they are tart and pucker-y and I don’t think that it will go well with the other flavors of the cake.
If you read nothing else in this blog post and skip right to the recipe, read this for a successful peanut butter apple coffee cake.
When I went to culinary school we made a few cakes and there was one technique that really stood out and I used it for this recipe to achieve the “coffee cake” texture. I promise you it’s easy.
In the recipe below you will have three bowls, in the first bowl will be your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, apple pie spice), the second bowl will have your wet ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, vanilla extract) and the third one will really be a measuring cup of 1/2 cup of milk at room temperature.
The goal is to fold the flour and milk into the wet ingredients. Folding is a technique that allows the ingredients to combine without over mixing, using a spatula, scoop up from the bottom rather than stirring around vigorously.
For this recipe you will need to divide your flour mixture into thirds, just eye ball it, it doesn’t have to be perfect and your milk into half. Alternate folding in your flour and milk, ending with flour. Into the wet ingredients, fold 1/3 of your flour, to avoid over mixing, you can add in 1/2 of your milk before it’s completely combined. Fold in another 1/3 of your flour. Fold in the remaining of your milk. Fold in the remaining of your flour. It should be thick. Then dump in your apples and fold one last time.
Like I said, if you read nothing else, this will help you with the recipe and it’s easy but a big deal for a successful irresistible peanut butter apple coffee cake.
Apple Pie Spice
This recipe calls for apple pie spice, which helps elevate the apple flavors and really make this peanut butter apple coffee cake shine. It smells like home.
You can buy this from the grocery store or amazon, you can also make it homemade, there are a lot of recipes online.
Peanut Butter Apple Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Apple Pie Spice see blog notes
- ½ cup Butter (at room temperature) (1 stick)
- ¼ cup Brown Sugar
- ½ cup Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Milk (at room temperature)
- 2 cups Apples - peeled and diced into mini cubes 3-4 small apples
Peanut Butter Frosting
- 1 cup Chunky Peanut Butter
- ½ cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 cup Milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray and dust your 9 inch cake pan with flour.
- Peel and dice your apples and set aside. In a bowl measure your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, apple pie spice) whisk to combine and set aside.
- Using a mixer, cream together your butter and sugars. Add in your egg and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Divide your flour mixture into thirds and the milk into half. You will want to alternate folding in your flour and milk into the butter and sugar mixture, ending with flour. See blog notes for more explanation if needed.
- It will be thick when you're done.
- Carefully fold in the diced apples, try not to over mix the batter.
- Pour into your prepared cake pan, spread around to be even.
- Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool on a rack.
Peanut Butter Frosting
- Once the cake is cool, make your frosting. Using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, combine your crunchy peanut butter, powdered sugar and ½ cup of milk. Keep adding milk a tbsp at a time until the frosting is smooth and the perfect consistency, it may take the full 1 cup of milk.
