BSI: Nature’s Crack

I’ve been wanting to make coffee cake for awhile, and the date challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity Before I became vegan I used a Mark Bittman recipe for coffee cake with a layer of pecan streusel, but this time I surveyed a few vegan recipes online and improvised a health(ier) recipe using nature’s crack (a.k.a. medjool dates). Seriously, how can something that grows naturally be SO sweet and delicious??

Whole-Wheat Coffee Cake Muffins with Date-Nut Streusel

(the date stamp KILLS me . . . I’m sorry!!!  But I promise it’s gone now, thanks to a little help…)

Coffee Cake Ingredients

4 c. whole-wheat pastry flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tbsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 c. soy yogurt

3/4 c. demerara sugar

1 1/2 c. soymilk

Streusel Ingredients

1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 c. demerara sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. Earth Balance spread

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

4 large medjool dates, pitted and chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Thoroughly mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, soy yogurt, sugar, and soymilk.

4. Before mixing dry + wet, prepare streusel: using a fork, mix sugar, cinnamon, flour, and Earth Balance (use downward motion with the fork to smush everything into the Earth Balance). Once thoroughly integrated, add chopped dates and smush everything together

5. Once the streusel is ready, pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until JUST combined. Do NOT overmix!!

6. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan (I used cooking spray). Fill each cup halfway with batter. Sprinkle a few teaspoons of streusel into each muffin cup. Top with the remaining batter, and finish with the remaining streusel.

7. Bake for 18 minutes, or until the muffins pass the toothpick test.

fresh out of the oven

The dates melt in the heat of the oven—it’s heaven in a bite! The cake itself is lighter than I expected (especially for whole-wheat flour), but very filling. Perfect with breakfast or an afternoon snack with tea or coffee

Oh, and for the record . . .

While cooking I snacked on the last 2 oz. of this soy yogurt (I used the rest in the recipe) with pumpkin, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and a little unbaked streusel mixed in (!!!!!)

Blogging at an odd angle so I can put up my feet while sitting on the isometric exercise ball seat . . .