Fall is here! This Pumpkin coffee cake has a swirl of chai and crunchy toasty semolina-walnut streusel on top. Great for breakfast or dessert!

Our road trip has officially begun! First stop: Utah.

I know y’all hate it when bloggers ramble on about stuff unrelated to the recipe, so I won’t take up too much of your time—mostly because I haven’t had a second yet to really think and reflect on the past few weeks. I only cried once, which is very unusual for me, so something tells me that I’m bottling up a lot of thoughts and at some point, they all gonna come out (great ready Orlando, lol).

One thing I have been experiencing to its fullest right now is FALL. It’s a real ass season! It’s dumb to revel in that because obviously the rest of the country knows this, but yo, in California, where I’ve lived for 99% of my life, we don’t get seasons. And now I’m actually living in fall for the first time and it’s NICE. When I’m not wheezing while trying to run at 10k feet elevation (truly, how does anyone run up here), I’m taking photos of every GD yellow and orange tree I can find. It’s pretty magical.

I’ve managed to sneak in a few pastry tools for our 4-month road trip, so I made this pumpkin chai coffee cake as my inaugural dessert after leaving SF. I’m way out of my comfort zone—only a handful of my tools, foreign oven, and we’re at altitude which changes baking composition. But this coffee cake turned out great! Look at me, baking things without being snobby about needing all my tools!?! (Ok, real talk I still need them, but I’m doing my best!)

There are million things you can research about baking at altitude, but the main one is this: things take longer to cook, and baked goods can lose their structure by staying in the oven so long. I countered that by using some semolina flour in this cake. Semolina is a very sturdy flour, high in protein and gluten (yum). A small amount adds body to the cake, and an all-semolina streusel adds extra crunch to contrast with the soft and fluffy cake. The recipe below is written for non-altitude bakers, which I know is most of you!

And y’all KNOW I brought that chai with me on our road trip. I’m obsessed with ClevrBlends, wihich makes a chai “super latte” that’s the best instant chai I’ve ever had. You can always make your own chai spice mix too; hint: it uses cardamom.

TLDR: Fall is fun. Pumpkin is yum. Will cry soon.

Pumpkin Chai Coffee Cake with Semolina-Walnut Streusel

Created by Shikha on October 8, 2020

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Prep Time: 20m
Cook Time: 25m
Total Time: 45m

Yield: 1 9" cake

Ingredients

For the coffee cake:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
150 grams (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
213 grams (1 cup) pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
120 grams (1 cup) AP flour
60 grams (1/2 cup) semolina flour
3 tablespoons instant chai powder OR 1 Tbsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp cardamom, 2 Tbsp brown sugar
60 grams (1/2 cup) semolina flour
50 grams (1/4 cup) brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the filling:

For the streusel:

Instructions

For the coffee cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9" cake pan and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and add in eggs, mixing well after each addition.
Mix in the pumpkin puree.
Add in the rest of the dry ingredients and continue to mix on low until just combined, scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well mixed.

For filling:

If you don't have instant chai powder, mix together the individual spices and sugar in a small bowl.
Pour about half the batter into your prepared pan. Sprinkle the chai powder (or mixed spices) evenly over the cake. Then carefully spread the rest of the cake batter on top.

For streusel:

In a small bowl, combine all the streusel ingredients. Use your hands to smush the butter into everything else. You want everything to be evenly dispersed and the butter to be in pea-sized pieces.
Once mixed, sprinkle streusel over the cake.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.