Recipe: Peach Coffee Cake with Nut Topping

PEACH COFFEE CAKE WITH NUT TOPPING

FOR THE NUT TOPPING:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
FOR THE CAKE:
4 large peaches
2 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for preparing pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened, plus more for greasing
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2/3 cup milk, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13x9-inch cake pan.

TO MAKE THE NUT TOPPING:
Combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Rub in butter to make mixture crumbly, then stir in nuts. Set aside.

TO MAKE THE CAKE:
Peel peaches using vegetable peeler or blanch in hot water 15 seconds and remove peel. Cut in half, remove pits and cut into 1/2-inch slices.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

Combine butter, shortening and sugar in large bowl; beat with handheld electric mixer or wooden spoon until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then zest. Beat in flour mixture alternately with milk and vanilla, about one-fourth at a time, beginning and ending with flour. Batter will be thick and fluffy.

Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Spread half batter evenly in thin layer in prepared cake pan. Arrange all of peach slices over batter and sprinkle with brown sugar mixture. Carefully spread remaining batter evenly over peaches. Crumble reserved topping over batter.

Bake at 350 degrees in center of oven until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean and edges of cake barely begin to pull away from sides of pan, about 40 minutes.

Cool in pan on rack. Cut into squares and serve warm or at room temperature, directly from pan.

Makes 12 servings
Source: The Greenmarket Cookbook by Joel Patraker and Joan Schwartz