Originally from Land ‘o Lakes, Caramel Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake is an easy, fluffy, soft coffee cake (coffee cake does not have coffee in it, btw!) with a chocolate streusel and a caramel drizzle. And it’s an easy caramel drizzle. To make it, you just melt caramels with a little half & half and drizzle over. So it’s simple!
This is a picture of how it looked the first time I made it. I’ll take a more polished one next time (with a better camera), but you get the idea.
The technique for this coffee cake is a little different. It does not use the reverse creaming method like some coffee cakes. Insead, you mix the dry ingredients ahead of time so that when it’s time to bake the cake, all you do is cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and dump them in. So mixing the streusel and the flour, etc. ahead saves a little time if you’re making this early in the morning and want to serve it when everyone gets up.
As you can imagine by the name, Caramel Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake is a very delicious cake. My only tip is to let the cake cool completely and allow the melted caramel to cool and thicken before drizzling. I poured the caramel on when it was too warm and the caramel not only spread, it melted the chocolate chips on top. I sprinkled more chocolate chips on top when I thought the caramel was cool, but it wasn’t and they melted too. So don’t be like me, be patient. It’s a good cake if you follow directions.
Caramel Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Streusel Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup mini or 2/3 cup regular size semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans toasted and cooled
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter – melted and cooled
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cake Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup light sour cream
Dry Mixture
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Caramel Drizzle
- 14 caramels – unwrapped
- 2 tablespoons half & half or milk
Instructions
Mix Streusel and Dry Ingredients First
- Combine all streusel ingredients in small bowl; set aside or put in the refrigerator if making the night before.
- Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Put in a bag or in a covered bowl and leave at room temperature until ready to bake.
Make the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 inch round springform pan with baking spray. If making the cake gluten-free, just grease with butter or shortening.
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs; continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Beat in vanilla extract.
- Beat in dry ingredients by hand or using low speed of mixer.
- Spoon half of the batter into the pan. Sprinkle half of streusel mixture over batter in pan. Spoon remaining batter over streusel; top with remaining streusel. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife along sides of pan to loosen edge. Remove side of pan. Cool at least 30 minutes. (Anna’s Note: Cool completely if you have the time).
- Just before serving, combine caramels and half & half (or milk) in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until caramels are completely melted (5 to 8 minutes). Cool until thick enough to drizzle nicely; drizzle warm (not hot!) caramel over cake.
Notes
For the melted caramel, I melted 3/4 cup caramel bits with 2 tablespoons of milk for 2 minutes on high and stirred every 30 seconds. Let cool and thicken before drizzling.
I also “micro-toasted” the pecans. Lay pecans on a sheet of paper towel and microwave on high for 2 ½ minutes. Let cool completely, then chop
Regular size chocolate chips work just fine.
Judy
I made this coffee cake this morning, but in muffin form. I didn’t change any of the ingredients or measurements, just put it together like a muffin: melted the butter and whisked with liquids and added to dry ingredients. I used regular size chocolate chips, a mixture of semisweet and milk. Had no trouble with the caramel topping. Only microwaved for about 45 seconds, till it bubbled up once, then stirred til it was smooth and drizzled over the cooled muffins. These are absolutely the best muffins I have ever tasted! The texture is so delicate and light and the flavors blend perfectly. They are dangerous. And I love the caramel bits. Thanks so much for the recipe and the tips. Will post the muffin recipe to my blog tomorrow. I need to do something else now.
Katie
That looks delicious
Anna
Carla, once you own you very own bag of caramel bits, you’ll understand. I have a coupon, but I didn’t use it.
Amy, that’s a good question. I always thought it had something to do with buffering the chemical leavening. That is, if the leavening is buried in flour, maybe the chemical reactions wouldn’t occur so quickly when it hit moisture. Or maybe it just has to do with clumping. In some recipes, sifting the leavening in with the flour might help dispurse it better when mixed in with the batter. However, a lot of the King Arthur Flour recipes just say to dump it in too. So maybe it just depends on the individual recipe.
Judy, I like your idea. Personally, I’d love to just do a small bake sale. However, the neighbors would think I’d lost my mind UNLESS I combined the bake sale with an actual garage sale which is more socially acceptable in my area.
Judy
Anna you reminded me of the time I made rocky road brownies and poured the chocolate frosting over the hot marshmallows only to see it all sink. BTW, here’s an idea for your baked goods: have a garage/bake sale. I just did and it emptied out my freezer so I can bake again! And you can bet I will be making this coffee cake. It looks delicious! I just have to find those caramel bits. I will try Target. But I have to make the Jr.’s cheesecake first — you’re finding too many good recipes!
Amy
I never pre mix dry ingredients and always get great baking results. What is the purpose of pre-mixing? Should I do this?
Carla
You are all about the caramel this week and you are tempting me to buy a bag and go nuts. Maybe if I see a bag on sale or if I magically obtain a coupon lol For now, I am bookmarking this and the machiato cookies for the future.
Anna
Well, it’s an issue. I wish I had a good venue for all the stuff I bake, but I don’t. I’m always looking for takers.
For this cake, I cut off a piece for myself then placed the cake on Release foil, froze it until the caramel was hard, then wrapped it tightly in the foil. So now I have a frozen cake for when unexpected company pops in (which is never).
Jill - GlossyVeneer
Seriously Anna… what do you do with everything you make when you bake every day! Are there always people lining up to help you taste-test? 🙂