Cornbread Coffee Cake with Fresh Figs and Walnut Streusel

Deep Run Roots

It's not fig season here, and not anywhere close to it. In fact, we're looking at the fourth weekend in a row of potential winter weather. But we realized, after checking the new search function I added to my website, that we had never posted this video...which we filmed in August of 2020. So I will just watch this and plan for what I will make (for mostly my husband to eat, stupid allergy) with the harvest later this summer.

This coffee cake turned out great! The corn meal makes it a little different, and, of course, the figs are an unusual addition. I am sure that you could use another sturdy fruit if you don't have easy access to figs, though. Strawberries could work well used almost exactly the same way, but with something more like blueberries I would probably just mix them all into the dough.

It works as either a breakfast cake or as a dessert, so you can make it for dessert and eat the leftovers for breakfast the next morning!

You can find the full recipe here: https://food52.com/recipes/61839-cornbread-coffee-cake-with-fresh-figs-and-walnut-streusel

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with heather today we are going to be
[00:09]: making um
[00:11]: some more stuff with our fresh figs that
[00:13]: we got from our neighbor uh so
[00:16]: we have a lot to use up so we've got to
[00:18]: use those up pretty fast or maybe freeze
[00:20]: some for later we'll see
[00:22]: but today we're going to be making
[00:24]: cornbread coffee cake with fresh figs
[00:28]: and walnut streusel from vivian howard's
[00:31]: deep brown roots cookbook
[00:33]: the first thing we do is to make the
[00:35]: streusel
[00:36]: so we've got
[00:38]: all of my ingredients prepped thanks to
[00:40]: all of my team aka my family
[00:44]: so everything's
[00:46]: all measured out
[00:47]: almost all
[00:49]: and we're ready so i've got some brown
[00:52]: sugar here
[00:55]: i've got
[00:56]: the walnuts obviously and there might be
[00:58]: a little bit of butter there because i
[01:00]: used the same knife that i used to cut
[01:02]: up my butter
[01:03]: um
[01:05]: have some rolled oats we had the old
[01:08]: fashioned rolled oats i'm sure it's fine
[01:11]: probably don't want to use quick oats
[01:13]: but
[01:14]: and you probably don't want to use steel
[01:15]: cut oats but any sort of rolled oats is
[01:18]: fine
[01:19]: i've got some cinnamon and some salt
[01:24]: and a little bit of whole wheat flour
[01:28]: so first we're going to i'm going to use
[01:30]: my hands for this because we're about to
[01:31]: use our hands a lot so i'm going to sort
[01:34]: of toss this together with my hands to
[01:36]: get it
[01:37]: well
[01:38]: mixed especially so there's not like a
[01:40]: whole big
[01:41]: clump of cinnamon or sugar in one spot
[01:47]: and you know that brown sugar tends to
[01:49]: clump up so
[01:52]: that that's i think that's pretty good
[01:54]: for that cinnamon smells delicious oh my
[01:56]: goodness
[01:57]: all right
[01:58]: and now i've got my butter that i just
[02:02]: cut up i don't know if i've shown you
[02:03]: how i do this i just use my big knife
[02:06]: cut it lengthwise both direct both sides
[02:09]: and then cut it into like tablespoon
[02:11]: type bits and that just helps you
[02:14]: start with and it's cold just so you
[02:16]: know cold and unsalted um it just helps
[02:18]: you sort of start with this
[02:21]: process um
[02:24]: with your butter already smaller than
[02:28]: uh
[02:30]: than the big like a whole tablespoon
[02:32]: right so now we're going to kind of
[02:33]: pinch it together
[02:35]: to get that butter a little bit smaller
[02:37]: and start to mix it in
[02:39]: with
[02:41]: the other ingredients so i'm gonna be
[02:43]: doing this for a little while um
[02:47]: and i think
[02:48]: the goal is until it forms a wet crumb
[02:53]: so we don't want like big clumps of
[02:55]: butter
[02:56]: just like we didn't want big clumps of
[02:57]: sugar
[02:59]: we don't want a lot of dry
[03:01]: stuff in here
[03:03]: so i'm gonna just keep doing this for a
[03:04]: little while
[03:06]: so it's starting to sort of all come
[03:07]: together when i pinch it and i don't see
[03:10]: any
[03:11]: spots of really dry
[03:14]: mixture and anything that's sort of
[03:15]: clumpy i can break up when i
[03:17]: put it
[03:19]: on the cake so i think i think we're
[03:21]: pretty good pretty good now and that
[03:23]: took just a couple of minutes
[03:25]: and i'm going to wash my hands
[03:27]: and clean up a little bit and set up to
[03:29]: make the actual cake part i think i'm
[03:31]: going to stick this in the refrigerator
[03:33]: just so it doesn't
[03:34]: get all melty
[03:36]: until we're ready for it
[03:38]: all right
[03:39]: our next step is to
[03:40]: make the cake batter so
[03:43]: just like most cake batters we're
[03:44]: starting with butter and sugar we have
[03:47]: softened unsalted butter here
[03:51]: get it in my bowl
[03:52]: scrape as much off of this
[03:57]: wrapper as i can
[04:01]: and then got
[04:02]: some sugar just plain white sugar here
[04:07]: and then we're going to
[04:10]: cream this until it is light and fluffy
[04:13]: um she says about four minutes so we'll
[04:15]: see
[04:19]: she
[04:20]: doesn't say
[04:21]: what speed usually kind of about medium
[04:23]: but starts slower so
[04:27]: i'm just going to scrape it down a
[04:29]: little bit see how it's doing
[04:32]: um
[04:33]: what you're trying to get here is super
[04:36]: light and fluffy where the you can't
[04:37]: really tell there are sugar granules in
[04:40]: it anymore you introduce air and you get
[04:42]: them mixed together really well and
[04:44]: that's a good base
[04:46]: for
[04:48]: your cake
[04:50]: so
[04:51]: keep going
[04:53]: i think we're pretty much there i'm just
[04:58]: gonna give it one more scrape down um
[04:60]: she says after the next part to make
[05:02]: sure you scrape down the bowl
[05:04]: periodically which i always do and so
[05:06]: i'm just getting ahead of the game
[05:08]: and i'm gonna let it go like another
[05:10]: minute maybe but i think it's just about
[05:12]: there
[05:14]: i'm gonna call that done and now we're
[05:16]: gonna add eggs one at a time making sure
[05:19]: that each egg is really well
[05:21]: incorporated before we add the next one
[05:33]: i don't know if you could see but at
[05:34]: first when you put the egg in and it
[05:36]: starts mixing it looks kind of curdled
[05:38]: that's fine that is normal it happens
[05:41]: and then it will come together
[05:44]: [Music]
[05:54]: so
[06:00]: [Music]
[06:07]: now we have to mix a few other things
[06:09]: before we add them in here i'm gonna
[06:10]: wash my wash my hands
[06:12]: now she says to sift these ingredients
[06:14]: together
[06:15]: i don't like to sift i'm going to whisk
[06:18]: them
[06:19]: together accomplishes pretty much the
[06:21]: same thing so i've got some more whole
[06:23]: wheat flour here
[06:26]: got both baking powder and baking soda
[06:30]: here
[06:31]: so that will provide the leavening and
[06:33]: we've got a little bit of salt
[06:37]: so this is our
[06:39]: dry ingredients
[06:40]: other than the corn which is already in
[06:42]: there
[06:49]: that should be fine for this
[06:51]: i'm going to set that over here because
[06:53]: we also have to put together
[06:55]: other wet ingredients um the reason that
[06:58]: the corn can go in here is because it
[07:00]: doesn't have gluten so you don't have to
[07:02]: worry as much about over mixing and
[07:04]: developing the gluten and having a
[07:06]: tougher cake
[07:07]: so
[07:08]: let me get the wet ingredients
[07:11]: okay so now we're supposed to
[07:13]: whisk this in
[07:15]: another small bowl since i've already
[07:18]: measured out one of the ingredients in
[07:20]: here and it will all fit and it doesn't
[07:22]: have eggs in it so i don't have to whisk
[07:23]: it too hard i'm just going to put it in
[07:25]: the measuring cup
[07:27]: so we've got buttermilk here
[07:28]: almost the last of our buttermilk
[07:30]: thankfully
[07:31]: um and before it went off
[07:34]: i've got some apple juice here it calls
[07:36]: for apple cider
[07:38]: but i happen to have apple juice on hand
[07:40]: and not apple cider so i'm using it
[07:41]: it'll be fine
[07:43]: and some vanilla
[07:52]: so i'm just going to use the same whisk
[07:54]: i used for the dry ingredients
[07:56]: and i did the dry ingredients first so i
[07:58]: didn't have to worry about
[07:60]: using a different one
[08:02]: just get this
[08:05]: mixed up
[08:08]: there we go
[08:10]: vanilla
[08:11]: all right so now
[08:13]: we're going to alternate adding
[08:17]: our wet and dry ingredients in here in
[08:20]: about three batches of each
[08:22]: um
[08:24]: starting with the the liquid
[08:26]: and ending with dry so
[08:30]: here we go
[08:31]: just
[08:37]: okay
[08:42]: she does say to do this on low
[08:47]: and again it's because you don't want to
[08:49]: develop the gluten too much and you want
[08:50]: to get it all mixed
[08:53]: [Music]
[09:07]: all right so we're on our last um
[09:09]: bit of dry ingredients so i'm just going
[09:11]: to pour that in
[09:14]: so now i just have to fold in a couple
[09:17]: other ingredients i have
[09:19]: part of the figs it's about a third of
[09:21]: what's in the recipe that have been
[09:23]: stemmed and cut into eighths
[09:29]: these are really ripe
[09:31]: and then this is supposed to be sour
[09:32]: cream we had some creme fraiche
[09:34]: countertop creme fresh that we made um
[09:38]: we've gotten we've got a video for that
[09:40]: uh here
[09:42]: and i will hopefully link it up there
[09:44]: too
[09:45]: um
[09:47]: but i'm just gonna use that because it's
[09:48]: pretty much the same thing
[09:49]: and i want to you know not waste it so
[09:52]: use it up
[09:53]: we just
[09:55]: fold this in with our spatula
[10:04]: i think we're done with that part and
[10:05]: we're ready to put it in the pan
[10:08]: so we have our 12 inch cast iron skillet
[10:11]: here that we're gonna bake it in it is
[10:13]: obviously not hot but it has been coated
[10:16]: with some unsalted butter so hopefully
[10:18]: this won't stick and we're gonna put
[10:20]: half of this mixture in the bottom here
[10:28]: all right and now we're going to put our
[10:30]: streusel evenly over the top here
[10:34]: use all of it
[10:44]: all right now we put the rest of the
[10:45]: cake batter on here
[10:49]: [Music]
[10:58]: here we go wash my hands again
[11:02]: so now we have the rest of the figs in
[11:04]: the recipe that have also been stemmed
[11:07]: so you cut the stem off and then cut
[11:08]: them in half lengthwise and we're going
[11:11]: to just
[11:12]: put them um
[11:13]: on top
[11:15]: sort of spread them around the whole
[11:17]: thing and hopefully it will be enough
[11:19]: and it will be beautiful and the cake
[11:21]: will sort of come up around them so you
[11:22]: don't have to worry too much about
[11:23]: pressing them in but i just wanna
[11:26]: make sure they stay where i put them
[11:32]: i chose the uh sort of
[11:34]: slightly firmer ones for this
[11:37]: of the ones that we had
[11:40]: so that they would stay together some of
[11:43]: the other ones if you have
[11:44]: um
[11:45]: softer ones definitely put them in the
[11:49]: batter
[11:50]: in that portion
[11:52]: [Music]
[12:02]: there we go so i've got my oven
[12:04]: preheated to 375 degrees and we're just
[12:07]: gonna put this in the middle
[12:10]: and bake it for 40 to 45 minutes um so
[12:14]: it should be golden brown and puffy and
[12:16]: beautiful and
[12:17]: she also says to let it cool a little
[12:19]: before you try it probably so it will
[12:20]: stay together and she likes it better
[12:22]: the next day so we'll let you know what
[12:24]: it looks like when it's all done and
[12:26]: what we think about it in just a minute
[12:30]: [Music]
[12:38]: on this episode of cooking the books
[12:40]: with heather you watched me make
[12:42]: cornbread coffee cake with fresh figs
[12:44]: and walnut streusel
[12:47]: so this is a
[12:49]: great recipe for either breakfast or
[12:51]: dessert it was not that difficult it
[12:53]: didn't require any sort of special
[12:56]: equipment beyond um i mean we used a
[12:59]: mixer
[13:00]: to make the
[13:02]: cake batter
[13:04]: probably don't really have to do that
[13:07]: and we did
[13:08]: use a cast iron skillet to bake it in as
[13:11]: she suggests i'm sure you could bake it
[13:14]: in a you know in a regular pan
[13:17]: whatever you have that will hold that
[13:19]: amount of ingredients would be fine you
[13:22]: just might get a slightly different
[13:23]: texture on the outside because
[13:25]: skillet you know tends to sort of make a
[13:28]: little bit of a crispier texture on the
[13:30]: outside than sort of a baking dish
[13:33]: whatever it would still taste delicious
[13:35]: um
[13:37]: we enjoyed it we shared it with some
[13:39]: friends and they really enjoyed it
[13:40]: um
[13:42]: it did make my mouth feel funny with my
[13:45]: fig allergy even though
[13:47]: i think even though the figs
[13:49]: inside
[13:51]: were you know cooked a little bit more i
[13:54]: think maybe the figs on top didn't
[13:56]: maybe whatever
[13:58]: cooking does to that there wasn't enough
[14:01]: of it to
[14:03]: uh
[14:04]: break down the latex whatever i haven't
[14:06]: looked it up recently but like
[14:08]: cooked figs are usually not a problem
[14:09]: for me
[14:10]: this still made my mouth feel funny so
[14:13]: i didn't eat much
[14:15]: of it but it was really good and it was
[14:18]: um
[14:19]: really easy and if you want to keep it
[14:22]: she says she prefers it more the next
[14:23]: day
[14:24]: if you want to eat it after that
[14:26]: if you you know if you don't have that
[14:28]: many people eating it and you know it's
[14:30]: going to last you a while i would
[14:32]: definitely store it in the refrigerator
[14:33]: because you have those sort of
[14:35]: um
[14:36]: moist figs especially on the top which
[14:38]: will be more likely to mold
[14:41]: which i think happened a little bit to
[14:42]: our last piece that sat here for a while
[14:44]: not in the refrigerator
[14:47]: so
[14:48]: if you're going to keep it for a while
[14:49]: definitely refrigerate it
[14:51]: and i'm sure this would actually reheat
[14:53]: or or
[14:55]: thaw would freeze and thaw pretty well
[14:58]: and you could probably you know
[14:59]: microwave it for a little bit just to
[15:01]: warm it up and it would be delicious so
[15:05]: all in all if you have the fresh figs
[15:08]: we would certainly um
[15:10]: encourage you to make this
[15:13]: because it was just it was really good
[15:15]: especially if you don't have a fig
[15:16]: allergy
[15:18]: so
[15:19]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[15:20]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[15:22]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[15:24]: me make something else next week
[15:27]: [Music]