Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
(Low carb and gluten free)
Ingredients:
- 3 cups almond meal
- 1 ½ cups sugar substitute (liquid or powdered, see below)
- 3 eggs (real eggs-not the beaters 🙂
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup butter (4 Tablespoons), chilled and cut into small pieces
- ½ cup reduced fat sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon each vanilla and almond extracts
- 2 Tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 6 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
- Salt
- 1 cup fresh or frozen (but not thawed) blueberries or raspberries
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter or oil 9X9 inch pan.
Coffee cake is prepared in three layers. If you are using a standing mixer, you can use the same bowl if you make the layers in the order listed – just remove them to separate bowls until ready to assemble.
1)Streusel Topping: Mix 1 cup of the almond meal, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ cup sweetener, a pinch of salt and the 4 Tablespoons butter. I find that the whisk type attachment on my standing mixer works well – you want the mixture to stay crumbly. You can use a pastry blender, knives – whatever works. But if it all clumps together, don’t worry – just crumble it over the top when the time comes. This is one area where I used to use powdered sweetener, but I have found more recently that liquid sucralose (zero carbs; no aftertaste) works fine.
2) Cream Cheese Layer: Mix cream cheese, 1 egg, and ¼ cup sweetener.
3) Cake layer: Mix dry ingredients: 2 cups of almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, ¼ ½ teaspoon cinnamon, teaspoon salt, and ¾ cup sweetener if you are using a powder. Then add the sour cream, oil, extracts, liquid sweetener if that’s what you’re using sour cream, and 2 eggs and mix well. At this point, you might want to add 1-2 Tablespoons of water, depending on the consistency. You want the batter to be thick enough to support the rest of it, but not too gloppy – you should be able to spread it easily in the pan. I usually end up adding about a Tablespoon of water.
4) Assembly: Spread the cake layer in the pan, and spread the cream cheese on top (if it’s the larger amount of cream cheese, you won’t be able to spread it evenly, but that’s OK). Then sprinkle the blueberries on the cream cheese and the streusel on the top of that.
5) Bake for about half an hour, or until toothpick not inserted into a berry comes out clean. If you use a thermometer, it should be about 155° F. in the center.
6) Cool and slice. It is filling, so I usually cut it into 16 pieces.
REVIEW: This was a delicious recipe for dessert or for breakfast with coffee. Everyone who tried it has loved it. To cut down on the bitter taste that sometimes results when baking with artificial sweetners, I recommend mixing 2 different types such as splenda and stevia together instead of just using 1 type of sweetner. I also recommend using a full 8oz. packet of cream cheese-it just makes that layer a bit more creamy! You can substitute blueberries and use raspberries instead. I recommend using reduced fat dairy (not fat free and not full fat). One of the best local prices for almond flour is Trader Joes, about $5/lb. Remember-this is ALSO GLUTEN FREE since it uses almond flour-so for those who may require a gluten free treat-enjoy!
Approx. 16 servings= 6 net carbs/piece.
Recipe slightly modified and taken from: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/breads/r/lowcarbcoffcake.htm