A soft, plush sour-cream coffee cake layered with cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips — enormous, flaky-topped, and dangerously good.
Today was my unofficial return to cubicle-land and it was great! No really! Little did I know all I had to do was fall down a flight of stairs to be overjoyed with the normalcy of showing up to work on a Monday morning. I kid, of course, they’re really very nice to me even when I don’t show up bruised, achy and slinged, regaling them with the now-familiar saga of my drunken bar scrap. But, it was an especially delightfully un-manic Monday as the sharp pain in my right rib cage has finally subsided leaving me with a shoulder that really doesn’t hurt much at all, and also, I’ve gotten this two-hand typing thing mastered so let’s celebrate! Let us eat some cake.
Of course, there’s not a whole lot to say about my family’s sour cream cinnamon chocolate chip coffee cake except that a) It’s absolutely perfect in every possible way — soft, plushy bites of uber-moist goodness broken up by cinnamon-sugar crusted chocolate chips. b) Be careful biting into it as it might make you feel unintentionally wronged by every coffee cake that has crossed your palate before it. c) He hasn’t said it in so many words (except, notably, “If your mom isn’t making that coffee cake I’m not coming over for Yom Kippur.”) but I think it may be the real reason Alex married me.
Heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Alternately add the sour cream and the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until both are used and the batter is smooth and very thick. In a medium bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold them gently into the batter.
In a small dish, combine the cinnamon and the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar for the filling and topping.
Spread half the cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth it. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and 1 cup of chocolate chips over the layer. Dollop the remaining cake batter over the filling in spoonfuls. Use a rubber or offset spatula to gently spread it over the filling and smooth the top. Sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and the remaining chocolate chips.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan.
Do ahead: The author does not cover the cake when storing it at room temperature because she does not want to lose the crackly top.
Tip |
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Whip egg whites first and fold them in at the end for lift and a plush crumb. |
Butter the pan and line the bottom with parchment to ease removal. |
Combine cinnamon + sugar for the filling and topping for even distribution. |
Rotate the pan halfway through baking to ensure even browning. |
Do not cover the cake when storing at room temperature — it preserves the crackly top. |
To save on dishes, you can beat baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the butter-sugar mixture early, then add flour later (author’s shortcut). |
