Week 9: Sour Cream-Cranberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon salt (not kosher salt)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 scant cups fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-cup, fluted, nonstick Bundt pan with nonstick spray.

Combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well. Stir in the flour, wheat germ, salt and baking powder and mix until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in the cranberries.

In a separate bowl, combine the pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon and toss to mix well.

Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle on teh nut mixture. Cover with the remaining batter. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until firm and golden brown on top. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate to unmold.

My notes:
I chose this with the intention of taking it to a Sunday noon potluck. It didn't make it with me, and it wasn't worthy of any pictures. That aside, the taste was wonderful!

• I only had salted butter, so I used that and simply cut out the salt the recipe calls for.
• I know it's not cranberry season so I used dried cranberries instead. I found a source that said you can use 3/4 dried cranberries to 1 cup fresh cranberries. It is best to let the dried cranberries soak in warm water for 1/2 hour before using them, so that's what I did.

Really, I followed the recipe. The problem came when I turned it upside down. It didn't come out in this lovely Bundt pan shape. It fell out in about 3 huge pieces, and 15 smaller pieces. Your guess is as good as mine as to why - maybe I didn't spray enough non-stick spray, maybe the dried cranberries really weren't an acceptable substitute, anything. But it didn't matter. The girls loved this, especially warm from the oven. So I'd make it again, but maybe I'll wait until cranberry season to see if that was the problem.