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Home » Recipes » Cakes, Cupcakes & Cheesecakes

Published: Jul 25, 2013 · Updated: Dec 18, 2019 by Paula Montenegro
Income from ads and affiliate links30 Comments

Chocolate Pistachio Coffee Cake

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This is a twist on one of my favorite cakes ever, the coffee cake because it has chocolate in the batter not only as part of the filling. So you get fluffy cake, lots of chocolate flavor, cinnamon streusel and pistachios to top it off.

Table of Contents show
About coffee cakes
Brown sugar
Sour cream
Related recipes you might like:
Chocolate Pistachio Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Slice of chocolate pistachio cake on white plate with silver fork

Something interesting happened that led me to make this cake. If you google chocolate coffee cake, you hardly find any. I found one after searching a lot.

All coffee cakes have chocolate as an addition, usually in the filling, as chips or
a ripple, but there are none with a dark chocolate batter. So this chocolate
pistachio coffee cake was born.

White plate with square of chocolate cake on wooden table, 2 mugs in background

About coffee cakes

They are dense and rich cakes that include a streusel ripple in the middle, top or both.

They are sweet, perfect for brunch and can be adapted to most cake flavors, like the Pumpkin Coffee Cake that is so popular in this post.

This is a coffee cake, simple in spite of the excentric pistachios, with sour cream in the batter, a streusel on top and perfect with an infusion. Are you a tea or a coffee person? It is a tea cake too, don't worry.

Close up of cut chocolate cake with pistachios on a white plate

Brown sugar

It gives a slight caramel undertone to this cake and I find it essential. But you can make it with white sugar and you'll still have a fantastic cake.

It also adds moisture and who doesn't like a moist cake, right? And it goes great with pistachios.

Single square of Chocolate Pistachio Coffee Cake on white plate, a silver fork

Sour cream

This is a must when making this type of cakes and you'll see why when you take a bite that is rich, dense but not heavy and just plain amazing!

It adds a lot of moisture and structure, so it holds the streusel in place better.


Related recipes you might like:

  • Glazed Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake
  • Glazed Brown Butter Coffee Cake
  • Apple Crumble Coffee Cake
  • Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Let me know in the comments below if you made this recipe and loved it, and also if you had issues, so we can troubleshoot together. I love to hear what you think, always. Thanks for being here, it's much appreciated.
You might also consider subscribing to our FREE email series to Boost your Home Baking Skills! And our regular newsletter.
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Chocolate Pistachio Coffee cake

Chocolate Pistachio Coffee Cake

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
  • Author: Paula Montenegro
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x
  • Category: Cakes
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
Print Recipe
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Description

This is a twist on one of my favorite cakes ever, the coffee cake because it has chocolate in the batter not only as part of the filling. So you get fluffy cake, lots of chocolate flavor, cinnamon streusel and pistachios to top it off.


Ingredients

Scale

For the topping:

  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¾ cup (150g) firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter
  • 1 cup (100g) pistachios, shelled and coarsely chopped

For the cake:

  • 1 ¾ cups (245g) all purpose or cake flour
  • ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup (115g) unsalted butter
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
  • 3 eggs, at room temperature
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
  • ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

For the topping:

  1. In a bowl mix dry ingredients, add butter in pieces and mix with your fingers until clumpy.
  2. Add pistachios, mixing lightly. Reserve.

For the cake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF / 180ºC.
  2. Butter and dust with cocoa or flour a 13x9 inch (22x33cm) springform cake pan.
  3. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda and salt together in a bowl. Reserve.
  4. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add both sugars gradually while beating, until you have a light and creamy mixture, about 3 minutes.
  5. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla.
  6. Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, add them dry in three additions, alternating with the sour cream in two additions. Don't overbeat at this point or the cake will be tough.
  7. Add chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared cake pan and sprinkle the topping on top.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
  9. Let cool on wire rack, unmold, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
  10. It keeps, wrapped, for a few days.

Keywords: chocolate coffee cake

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @vintagekitchenblog on Instagram and hashtag it #vintagekitchenblog

Adapted from Cakes, by Maida Heatter

« Roasted Asparagus and Avocado Panzanella
Wild Mushroom Risotto »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Earl C Williams says

    July 21, 2020 at 9:51 pm

    An excellent, excellent cake. The topping with the roasted and salted pistachios makes this really pop. The hint of cinnamon was a wonderful surprise.
    Thank you Paula.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Paula Montenegro says

      July 22, 2020 at 6:37 am

      Glad you like it Earl! I think pistachios and chocolate are not used together enough, haha!

      Reply
  2. Melanie @ Just Some Salt and Pepper says

    August 22, 2013 at 2:44 am

    I had no clue food blog search existed! Also, I'm on a pistachio dessert kick and this sounds wonderful!

    Reply
  3. anna @ annamayeveryday says

    August 04, 2013 at 8:39 am

    Love chocolate, love pistachios and coffee - what a cake!

    Reply
  4. mividaenundulce says

    August 03, 2013 at 1:28 pm

    Looks delicious, and the best thing s that I can stop searching in the web for a recipe like this.

    Reply
  5. Dana @ Simply Romanesco says

    August 02, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    This cake looks so rich and decadent! Total perfection, and I love the pistachios in there; I usually use walnuts, but the pistachios look so pretty and I bet they work beautifully with chocolate 🙂

    Reply
  6. laurasmess.me says

    July 30, 2013 at 11:14 pm

    What a beautiful cake Paula... I love the dark, dark chocolatey sugar topping. You're right, it perfectly shows off the beautiful pistachios. I hope that you're plowing through the tax stuff and the other accumulated work. Argh, what a frustrating time of year. Thanks for this lovely recipe, I definitely need to try it soon! xx

    Reply
  7. Abbe@This is How I Cook says

    July 29, 2013 at 9:44 pm

    Taxes? I'm glad you had this cake to help you through! And It looks like a great one!

    Reply
  8. Nancy @ gottagetbaked says

    July 29, 2013 at 4:56 pm

    Oh Paula - this cake is a stunner! What a delicious flavour combination. I would love to bake this and have it lying around my apartment for whenever I need a bite of cake (which is pretty often, so this cake wouldn't last long!). And thank you thank you thank you for introducing me to the food blog search. It's way better than google at bringing up recipes from only food bloggers.

    Reply
  9. Karen @ Lemon Grove Cake Diaries says

    July 29, 2013 at 7:52 am

    What a great idea to use pistachios, what could be better than pistachios and chocolate a winning combination in my eyes!

    Reply
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A baker for more than 30 years and your designated recipe finder, sharing the best ones on this blog, with simple ingredients + easy-to-follow instructions.

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