Baking my way to November
“I don’t know how it will be in the years to come. There are monstrous changes taking place in the world, forces shaping the future whose face we do not know.”
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Inspiration
Yes, I made another dessert with fresh fruit. Yes, I’m still baking my way to November. And yes, making dessert with fruit at peak harvest time is a personal obsession. Figs are one of those odd fruits, either one is passionate about them or ignores them completely. I adore them. My favorite way to enjoy figs is to eat them fresh and without anything fancy added. But a Fig Coffee Cake loaded with sweet, juicy figs and a layer of buttery streusel is really, really good too.
Essentials
I planned to make Cornbread Coffee Cake with Fresh Figs and Walnut Streusel from the 2016 summer issue of Saver. The description Vivian Howard gives her recipe is too scrumptious to ignore. “But when I first made it, my kids named it candy-corn cake and called for it after supper.” Candy corn figs, I’m in! As I dug into the recipe, I just couldn’t do it. I gathered all the ingredients and then got sidetracked. I really didn’t want a cornmeal textured cake and used semolina flour instead, and white whole flour instead of regular whole wheat flour. I changed the streusel too, less butter plus more dry ingredients. I like my walnuts toasted, on top of the cake. I added nutmeg too. I made so many changes, this is my version of Vivian Howard’s recipe for Fig Coffee Cake. If you made her recipe with all that cornmeal and butter I want to hear about every single slice!
| Streusel Filling | |
| 2/3C | light brown sugar |
| 3/4C | rolled oats |
| 1/2C | white, whole wheat flour |
| 1T | cinnamon |
| 1/2t | nutmeg |
| 1/8t | fine ground sea salt |
| 6T | unsalted butter |
| Fig Coffee Cake | |
| 2/3C | walnuts |
| 3C | whole figs |
| 1C | white, whole wheat flour |
| 2t | baking powder |
| 1/2t | baking soda |
| 1/2t | fine grain sea salt |
| 1-1/2C | buttermilk |
| 1/2C | full fat sour cream |
| 1t | vanilla extract |
| 1/2C | unsalted butter, softened |
| 2/3C | sugar |
| 2 | large eggs |
| 1-1/2C | semolina flour |
- Heat the oven to 375°. Line a 9”x13” baking pan with parchment, this will make for easy removal of the entire cake for uniform slicing. (The original recipe is made in a well buttered 12” cast iron skillet.)
- To make the streusel mix the sugar, oats, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in a medium sized bowl. Cube the butter and add to the bowl. Work the butter into the dry ingredients. Dip down to the bottom of the bowl to include all the flour. Massage the ingredients together until the butter is mostly the size of large peas and the mixture begins to clump together.
- Spread the walnuts across the entire surface of a sheet pan. Toast in the heated oven for 8-10 minutes, just until the walnuts are fragrant and begin to turn brown. Remove from the oven, cool and then chop.
- Remove the stems from the figs and cut half of them into eights. These will be folded into the cake batter. Cut the rest of the figs in half, lengthwise, for the top of the cake.
- Into a medium sized bowl, sift or shake though a large sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar and mix together until light, creamy and pale yellow in color, 4-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after adding each one. Stop to scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixer bowl. Add the semolina flour and mix just until incorporated. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour and buttermilk mixtures in three additions, ending with the flour. Do not over mix. Remove the paddle attachment and bowl from the stand mixer. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixer bowl and then fold in the cut-in-eights figs. Do not over mix. Scoop half on the batter in the prepared pan and spread evenly across the surface of the pan. Pour the streusel onto the batter and spread evenly across the surface of the cake. Add the rest of the batter spreading it evenly on top of the streusel. Arrange the cut-in-half figs, cut side up, across the surface of the batter. Sprinkle the walnuts between the figs.
- Bake the coffee cake until a tester comes out cleanly, 45-50 minutes. Let cool in the pan for thirty minutes before using the parchment as handles to lift the cake from the baking pan. Cut into slices and serve, warm or at room temperature.
I recently made a batch of fig jam and have been devouring it with homemade yogurt. This cake would go great with my afternoon cup of tea. Adore the topping and so very flavourful.
Thank you for the fig love Jacquee!
YUM!!! Figs are such an underrated fruit and so delicious! Add them to a coffee cake is such a great idea! I’d love a piece right now to go with my tea. Pinning this to make!
Thank you for the delicious comment MJ!
I’ve never met a coffee cake I didn’t love and this one is a real beauty! Love the fig topping!
Thank you Laura! There are more figs in the cake too!
I fell in love with figs all over again in Italy. Did you know that they’re not really fruits? I learned there that they’re actually blossoms! Anyway, they are by far my favorite blossom AND fruit. Definitely saving this one, thanks Deb!
A blossom! Well yes, they are certainly full of little, tiny seeds!Thank you for the fig love Ala!
I clocked that recipe too, Deb and I really like your own tweaks. A lovely figgy cake that will see us through until the season sadly comes to an end. I made a Fig, Clementine and Walnut Cake for a wedding recently and it went down well. A lot of us black fig lovers here in Scotland! Pinned, Yummed and Flipped!
Thank you Kellie! A short season encourages a fondness for juicy, ripe figs. So much so that I made a small batch of fig jam this year. Otherwise how will I be able to enjoy figs in winter?
I also adore figs and your cake looks divine. I like semolina flour , in Germany it is used to make dumplings and different cakes.
Thank you Gerlinde! I like to sub semolina for cornmeal when I want the sunny yellow color without the gritty texture of cornmeal.
Love figs! My favorite way to eat them is fresh and unadorned too, but they do work well in baked goods, don’t they? This looks wonderful — thanks.
Thank you John. The coffee cake is a fig lover’s dream come true.
Ooh Deb, this cake would made my daughter very happy! She is a ‘fig fanatic’!!! Since she is a great baker in her own right, I think I’ll have her make this for me ;), and maybe I’ll share a piece (or two) with her.
Thank you Mary! Your daughter sounds delightful, figs are a huge end of summer bonus!
I love all of your upgrades — gorgeous cake!
Thank you Carol! Fig season is so very short, let’s make the best cake we can find!
For some reason, I keep thinking about baking with figs but not doing enough baking with figs! This looks wonderful especially with the walnuts on top.
Thank you Lisa! If you enjoy fresh figs this is a most scrumptious recipe.
Oh wow, this looks absolutely delicious! I have never used figs at all, as they are hard to come by here. Do you have your own fig tree?
Thank you Cathy! I don’t have a fig, but every September we can find fresh figs at the local markets.
How simple yet delicious. It is Fall in a platter!!
Thank you for the fig love Denise!