Cocoa Streusel Coffee Cake
Makes 1 9″ cake
For the Streusel:
2/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tablespoons butter, melted and warm
For the Cake:
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or cinnamon
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons neutral oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature
Start off by preheating your oven to 350ºF and spraying a 9” springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.
To make the streusel In a medium sized bowl mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and salt. Sift in the cocoa powder and stir to roughly combine. Pour in the warm melted butter with a spatula as much as you can, then switch to your hands and make sure everything’s fully incorporated and clumps start to form. We’re using warm butter here to help sort of bloom the cocoa powder and make it that much stronger of a chocolate flavor, the world won’t end if the butter’s melted and cooled, but it might if your butter’s bubbling hot and you use your hand to mix so make sure it’s a good in between.
To make the cake, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, kosher sale, and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl. In another bowl whisk together the pumpkin, butter, and oil then add both the eggs and whisk to combine. Add to the dry and stir together with a silicone spatula just until combined. Add half the batter to the prepared springform pan and smooth it out with an offset spatula. Add half the streusel to the top in an even layer, I sort of throw it on there in the same way I do flour when flouring a board to roll out pastry.
Take the remaining batter and sort of plop it all over evenly (the batter is thicker so this gives us a head start with spreading it out without destroying the first streusel layer) then carefully spread it out with your offset spatula. Take the rest of the streusel and clump it up by squeezing handfuls of it then breaking it up and sprinkle that evenly over the top of the cake. Lightly press the crumbs into the cake then move the cake to the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out with no batter. There might be some chocolate from the middle streusel layer that’ll throw you off but if you’re not sure just go another 5 minutes in baking.
Let the cake cool completely before removing the outer ring from the springform and serving. Keep covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.
