Cozy chai-spiced coffee cake with chopped chocolate and cherries. “C” what I did there? # 448: Cherry Chocolate Coffee Cake

May means cherries to me. More specifically, cherry hand pies with a cinnamon all-butter crust. And while they are delicious, they use surprisingly little fruit, with only about two cherries fitting in each pastry. (It’s all about the crust amirite?) So what does one do with all the extra cherries from impromptu cherry picking? Make over-the-top coffee cake!

This recipe calls for brown butter ghee, which feels a little counterintuitive. You brown the butter, then strain out the toasted milk solids to get ghee. But then it calls for adding a few tablespoons of the milk solids back in for flavor. Sooo I sometimes skip those steps and simply use the full brown butter, no straining involved.

I have two go-to coffee cake recipes:

• One for when I’m feeling classic – cinnamon crumble butter cake that stays moist even on the fourth or fifth day (if it lasts that long) and holds up well to whim mix-ins like blueberries, currants and chocolate chips.
• One for when I’m feeling decadent – this one! So. Much. Butter. The edges get caramel-y and crispy and the crumb stays moist for a week. It doesn’t work particularly well with fruit mix-ins (not a ton of space for more liquid!) but I decided to throw caution to the wind this time with the cherries.

I love that calling it “coffee cake” makes it an acceptable breakfast food. It’s richer than most layer cakes, but pair it a hot drink and voila it’s now a meal.

Pay no attention to the amount of butter involved. To be fair, this is the full quantity for both the crumble and the cake, but STILL.

The yummiest sand.

Using 72% chocolate in a vain attempt to balance out the sweetness of the crumble. I have leftover caramelized white chocolate but I’m saving it for a bake that has a less-sweet baseline and less competing flavors.

Very cherry.

More parchment paper overhang next time! The excess paper works as handles for lifting the cooled cake out the pan without cracking.

This pic is inspiring me to maybe add bacon crumbles next time? Is that leaning too far into the brunch-y breakfast vibe? TBD.

Waiting for it to cool enough was torture.

Happy munching!

Recipe from: Bon Appetit