Glazed Brown Butter Coffee Cake

A fantastic coffee cake recipe, it comes together fairly quickly, is dense and delicious and has a crunchy topping and glaze. Besides, it contains the magic words brown butter, so it really is a cake you should make now and keep on making whenever you need a hug.

At a time when the world is adjusting and we're wondering how much it will change and how quickly, this coffee cake will make your sunny day even better or your cloudy day brighter. A win-win situation if you ask me. The recipe hails from Tessa's blog, Handle the Heat, and it's what she chose for this month's baking challenge.

I don't know about you, but coffee cakes in general, and brown butter, in particular, make me think of happy moments, very cheesy but so true. So yes, I associate the smell of brown butter with cozy hugs. Whatever.

Let's get into the recipe details.

Ingredients

It's a simple cake, with everyday ingredients, and the list seems long but you probably have most (if not all) of them already.

• Butter: use unsalted and the best one you can afford. It's a major component in this recipe.
• Sugars: both white and brown sugars are used, giving it sweetness as well as a caramel undertone that is fantastic with the brown butter.
• Cinnamon: again, the best quality you can buy is the way to go.
• Sour cream: it adds a lot of moisture to this cake and an unmistakable dense crumb that is so particular with coffee cakes.

What is brown butter?

Brown butter, or beurre noisette in French, literally translates to hazelnut butter, and is regular butter that has been cooked for a few minutes and stripped out of some of its water. Yeah, butter has water, sometimes a lot.

As this happens, the solids in the butter begin to brown and that amazing nutty smell begins to appear; hence the word hazelnut mentioned above. It gives regular baked goods (especially vanilla based) a deep, nutty flavor, almost sweetly smoked, that is so amazing you can only understand it if you try it.

It's like smoked vanilla x ten. Or so I think. Truly remarkable.

Making brown butter

Simple really. And there's a step-by-step brown butter post here in case you need it. It is worth the extra step. Trust me on this one.

Just heat butter until it starts to foam, then sputter with large bubbles while chirping like a parrot (really, it chirps, you'll understand when you make it, especially if it's butter with high water content), until finally the noise and bubbles subside, the foam goes up again and beneath it, all the butter is browning and starting to smell beyond amazing.

I usually make a large batch, like say, half a pound of brown butter, keep it in the fridge for a few days, and use it for whatever baked cakes or cookies I'm making.

Glazes

Coffee cakes are traditionally sweet cakes - usually vanilla flavored - with cinnamon and maybe add-ons like crumble, nuts and cinnamon sugar.

Time has produced a million recipes and variations, but I think the most common ones involve sour cream (instead of milk) and cinnamon streusel in the batter and on top of it. Paradise with a cup of coffee or tea. Golden or matcha latte maybe if you're into trends. Who knows, I'm generation X, haha.

It is usually glazed with that wonderful combination of confectioners' sugar and liquid (milk, cream, lemon juice, or dark coffee which is my personal favorite and I use for the popular Brown Butter Bundt Cake) and it is the finishing touch that brings it all together. A slice of warm glazed coffee cake is truly a thing you remember.

My top tips

• Ingredients: use the best quality you can afford. This cake relies on simple ones, such as butter, for flavor, so the best ones will render the best results.
• Serving: a glazed coffee cake is always my first choice, but this one can be served plain.
• Storing: it keeps well for a few days at room temperature and it can be frozen for a month, well wrapped.
• Flavorings: feel free to add other flavorings that complement the cinnamon, such as orange zest. Or try a new one, like ground cardamom.

This one checks all the boxes, the brown butter takes it up a notch, and - and this is a big and - the recipe uses melted butter, so no creaming. How's that for easiness? Worth every calorie and minute you spend making it.

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Recipe from Handle the Heat for her monthly challenge.