Strawberries have just come back into season and that can only mean one thing: summer is on the way! I am so excited to start making (and experimenting with) some new summer recipes for you all! As the days have been warming up, I have been preparing for the shift in seasons by checking out local markets and doing some online research to see what is or will be coming into season in the next month or so as we roll into summer. Fresh peas, spinach, turnips, and garlic are all early signs of summer, however, I always know that when you start to see local strawberries at market that times are changing.
Now, there are about a million and a half ways to eat strawberries, but this Strawberry-Rhubarb Coffee Cake has to be one of the best. The combination of strawberry and rhubarb is a total classic as the sweet strawberries merry extraordinarily well with the tart and tangy rhubarb. When they are cooked together, they become juicy and jam like- and who wouldn’t want that on a coffee cake?
Good, high-quality, local strawberries and rhubarb only make up half of this dish. The other half is made up of a light and incredibly moist coffee cake. Surprisingly, unlike many coffee cakes, there is only half a cup of butter in this entire cake (yay!). The secret to getting a moist coffee cake is by adding a combination of Greek yogurt and milk to the batter. The Greek yogurt (I used 2%) stabilizes and provides a bit of density to the cake as it is quite heavy while the milk is lighter and lifts the cake while making it rich and moist. Additionally, baking the cake at a lower temperature (325 degrees F) for a longer amount of time (1 hour, 15 minutes) really ensures that the cake stays moist and light, but also cooks all the way through.
Once the Strawberry-Rhubarb Coffee Cake has baked and has cooled, I like to top it off with a simple glaze made of icing sugar and milk just for a bit of an added sweetness and a nice crunch when the icing hardens over the cake. I then garnish the cake with rhubarb curls and some fresh strawberries and slice it up! You will see that the coffee cake is nice and spongy and perfectly risen with this recipe.
So there you have it- a simple yet impressive summer dessert recipe made with seasonal ingredients. What produce are you excited to see come back to the markets? Let me know in the comments below 🙂
Get the recipe for this perfect summer dessert here!
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