Sunday, December 28, 2008

Cranberry Vanilla Coffeecake

A warm oven, vanilla scented sugar, and bright juicy cranberries joined the start of our Christmas morning. This cranberry vanilla coffeecake appeared in the December issue of Gourmet. While the flavors were perfect, I couldn’t resist making a couple of changes to the preparation. I really like cranberries, so I chose to leave them whole instead of chopping them in a food processor. Since I passed on the use of a food processor for that step, I didn’t pulse the vanilla with the sugar either. I just stirred the seeds into the sugar and broke apart clumps with my fingertips. I tossed some vanilla sugar with the whole cranberries, and I used a bit less sugar than recommended.

The next change to the recipe was accidental. Maybe I still had sugar plum fairies dancing in my head because I misread the ingredient list and used a whole vanilla bean rather than half. No worries, though, the extra seeds did no damage. One last adjustment was the use of a tube pan in place of a round cake pan. The coffeecake was more festive baked in the tube pan shape. Batter was layered in the bottom, followed by the cranberries, then more batter was added before the vanilla sugar crumb topping.

The vanilla, of course, smelled fantastic as the cake baked. The cranberries were tart and juicy and made a pretty filling. The crunchy, crumbly top with the tender center made this coffeecake a winner. I have a feeling the leftovers won’t last long enough.


12 comments:

  1. Coffee cakes are my personal favorites, and I am loving the VIXEN plate!
    Happy New Year Lisa!

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  2. Looks sooo delicious! I love your changes too...can't get too much vanilla! The tub pan looks great!

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  3. I love cranberries and coffee cake. Great combination!

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  4. I want a VIXEN plate!! Your coffee cake sounds and LOOKS so good. I am going to give it a try for brunch on the first day of the New Year. Thanks so much for posting, because I love cranberries.

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  5. This looks delicious, lovely photos. I love cranberries, and your changes sound great. I will definitely put this on my list to try.

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  6. Thanks everyone. Vixen is my favorite reindeer--especially the way she's portrayed by the pottery barn!

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  7. What a beautiful top... Crumbly sugary and moist.

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  8. Your coffee cake turned out beautiful! Terrific photos!

    Happy 2009! Hope your Christmas was a wonderful one!
    ~ingrid

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  9. What a nice looking cranberry coffeecake!

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  10. Still using up the holiday cranberries we see. We should probably call the food police because this is a danger to society! It looks like sweet, crumbly love.

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  11. I am also still using holiday cranberries that got bought, but were still laying in fridge...

    In the newest blog you mention catching upon reading, and then I see you get ideas from them...I have three Bon Appetit laying around I need to take the plastic off of...

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  12. I am experiencing painful salivation just looking at the photos. A definite bookmark/save for this recipe!

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