Strawberry Almond Cream Cheese Coffeecake

Basically, I bought a pint of really ripe strawberries from the downtown farmer’s market, and by the time I got home, they were enough of a smushy mess for me to be considering making something with ‘smush’ as opposed to whole berries.

I was also inspired by both a strawberry coffeecake test recipe for lolo’s upcoming cookbook, but didn’t have everything to make it – so I altered the PPK/VWAV recipe, keeping my recent strawberry pancakes in mind and adding almonds and almonds extract.

I halved it, used strawberries, and added cream cheese, basically. It's still too much 'cake' for me, so I'd even quarter it in the future. I'd also like to incorporate berries into the batter as well as on top, and if I a brunch to bake for - a strawberry cream cheese swirl, maybe a nut layer on the bottom...

Equipment:
A couple of large bowls, 8x8 baking pan.

Ingredients
For the cake:
1.5 cups unbleached white flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 ounces of soy yogurt (I used raspberry)
½ maple syrup
¾ cup nondairy milk
½ teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1 cup of smushed strawberries, cut into halves as best as you can

For the topping
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinamon
1 tablespoon canola oil
½ cup chopped and whole almonds

¼ cup of non-hydrogenated cream cheese

Pre-baked

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease or spray a 8x8 baking pan with non stick cooking spray.

Make the topping
Sift together flour, sugar and cinnamon. Drizzle the oil in a little at a time and mix with your finger tips until crumbs form. Add the almonds and mix.
~
Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, vigorously wisk together the wet ingredients until well combined. Add the wet to the dry and combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spread the strawberries evenly over the batter, mix some in if you like. Distribe ½ to 1 inch slices of cream cheese on top. Sprinkle the topping over everything.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until a toothpick or butter knife comes out clean.

Cooling on the kitchen table:

I really only wanted that first slice, so help yourself...

And speaking of the lovely lolo, check out my recent interview with her in the June online edition of Herbivore Magazine (yup, subscriber only). I'm also one of her many recipe testers, so expect to see her creations here soon.

sneak peak of her Sugar & Spice snap peas, along with white wine, tamari, sunflower oil and garlic roasted shiitakes and zucchini, fresh chard and jasmine rice.