WHOLE GRAIN APPLE COFFEE CAKE WITH WALNUT STREUSEL

Remember my banana coffee cake with pecan brown sugar streusel?

If you don’t, I’ll just let you know that it was incredibly good.  I ate for afternoon snacks, I crumbled it over yogurt and ate it for breakfast, I ate it over ice cream with a scoop of peanut butter for dessert…

Needless to say it didn’t last very long.

Anyway, that’s just a really long way of telling you that when I made that, it got me SO excited to make a version of it with apples for Fall!

And because Sunday was the Autumnal Equinox (or as commoners such as myself like to call it, ‘the first day of Fall’) – I decided there was no better way to celebrate than to sit down at my table with my peeler, a few apples and a Friends DVD on in the background and bake up this coffee cake!

It was a pretty perfect kick off to Autumn if I do say so myself.

{whole grain apple coffee cake with walnut streusel} – adapted from Food Network

serves: 9

ingredients:

for the coffee cake:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat or white whole wheat flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup soymilk (regular or other non-dairy alternatives would work here too)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped apples, peeled (2 to 3 small apples)

for the streusel topping:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup whole wheat or white whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons earth balance
• 1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Grease an 8-inch square pan.
3. Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl.
4. Beat egg then add soymilk and canola oil.  Mix together.
5. Add wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined.
6. Gently fold in apples.
7. Using a spatula, transfer the dough to a baking pan and spread evenly throughout.
8. Combine ingredients for the streusel topping and sprinkle evenly over the cake.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Note: With the streusel this recipe is pretty high in sugar.  While I strongly believe that everything can be enjoyed in moderation, if you want to cut down on it a bit you can either cut the streusel ingredients in half or omit it all together!

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