Breakfast served all day long...

I love breakfast.

I usually exercise restraint, meaning that most mornings involve a plain ole bowl of cereal or oatmeal most mornings. Yep, those lovely Mother’s peanut butter bumpers, Kashi honey puffs, and Barbara’s shredded squares get dumped into a measuring cup, poured into a bowl, tossed together with a light touch of the fingers, and slathered with some skim milk. It’s delicious, nutritious, and satisfying. Well, satisfying on most mornings.

However, this post is not about most mornings. I have a wild side, you see. So, without further ado, let’s delve into my love, my passion, my need for sinful breakfasts. We’re talking beyond the eggs ‘n protein category, beyond those not-nearly-sweet enough bagels, and into the realm of sweet—almost too sweet to be called breakfast—treats. Chocolate usually gets major kudos in my sinful breakfast play bill. You see, as chocolate’s agent, I try my best to get chocolate into every starring role I can. Got some pancakes that need sprucing up? Add some chocolate chips. A sad waffle that needs a bit of pizzazz? You got it: chocolate chips! Muffins, French toast, oatmeal, crepes, doughnuts: they’re all great vehicles for chocolate! So, it won’t come as a surprise to you that I took the awesome coffee cake recipe from Baked and added a bit more chocolate to it!

This coffee cake is AMAZING. Almost gooey near the chocolate, cinnamon swirl, this sour cream cake produces a tender, light, and fluffy crumb. A melt-in-your-mouth crumb. Plus, there’s two layers of the chocolate cinnamon swirl running throughout the cake (although the layers kind of run together), which adds a whole new level of moisture and yumminess. And, as if that weren’t enough, the whole cake is topped with a chocolate crumb topping. Now, Baked’s recipe doesn’t call for all the chocolate chips I threw in, but if you’re a true chocolate lover, I think you’ll like my tweaks to this recipe. I also subbed shortening in the crumb topping—I would’ve used butter if I’d had it, but I ran out (I know! Who runs out of butter?). The crumb topping was more like a paste than a crumb, but I crumbled it none the less and it was FABULOUS. It melted together a bit and formed a crunchy, wonderfully flavorful topping for this awesome coffee cake.

It’s a good thing I like breakfast at all hours, though. This cake takes an hour to bake (it took mine about 1 hour 15 minutes), plus all the time for preparation. So, by the time it was cool enough to eat, it was more like lunch time. Oh well, this treat tastes great at any time. I imagine it would be wonderful with a scoop of ice cream for dessert!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Adapted from Baked

For the Crumb Topping:
¾ cup AP flour
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ tsp salt
¾ cup pecans, toasted
½ cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
6 TBS unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1-inch cubes (this is where I subbed shortening…I know, I know)

For the Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl:
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp dark unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips (Again, here I used semi-sweet)

For the Sour Cream Cake:
3 ½ cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 ¼ cups sugar
4 large eggs
16 oz sour cream
1 ½ tsp vanilla

Method:
(1) Make the crumb topping: put flour, sugar and salt in food processor and pulse until mixed. Add the toasted pecans and chocolate chips. Pulse until the ingredients are fully ground. Add the butter and pulse until combined. Your mixture will either look like coarse, wet sand or like a paste, depending on whether you used butter or shortening. Place the mixture in the refrigerator.

(2) Make the chocolate cinnamon swirl: whisk together sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon. Then, stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.

(3) Make the sour cream cake: preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9x13 baking pan (I dusted mine with cinnamon sugar for a nice crust on the outside). Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together. Set aside.

(4) Cream butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the sour cream and vanilla, beating until just incorporated. Then, add the dry ingredients in three batches, taking care not to overmix.

(5) Pour one-third of batter into the prepared pan. Using a spatula, spread it to the edges. Then sprinkle half of the cinnamon swirl mixture over the batter. Top with the second third of the batter and then sprinkle remaining mixture. Spread the last batch of batter. Then top with the crumble.

(6) Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.