butter pecan coffee cake

Gina Gibson’s selected butter-pecan coffee cake is a loaf with toasted pecans, cinnamon streusel and a brown-butter maple glaze. This version includes her homemade pecan toffee in the streusel for a buttery, candy-like crunch.

Unsalted butter is browned until its milk solids are golden, with a portion reserved for the glaze. The selected homemade toffee cooks a separate portion of unsalted butter and brown sugar with chopped pecans and salt, then cools on parchment before being broken into small pieces.

For the streusel, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt mix with cold cubed unsalted butter and the optional toffee pieces. The loaf batter whisks brown butter, neutral oil, granulated sugar, two eggs, plain Greek yogurt, milk and vanilla before the flour mixture and toasted pecans are folded in.

Half the batter goes into a lined, greased loaf pan with about one-third of the streusel between the batter portions. The cake begins baking uncovered before the rest of the streusel goes on top and baking continues at a lower temperature.

The loaf cools in its pan and then on a rack. Reserved brown butter, icing sugar, milk, pure maple syrup and salt make a thin glaze for its warm surface; Gibson describes the finished loaf as best served warm.