Coffee cake and boiled eggs were common brunch foods for me growing up. Since I’ve gone grain-free, I’ve really missed it! While my family visited over the holidays, I decided to take my mom’s recipe and try to make it grain and refined sugar-free. My family approved of the end result so now I would like to share it with you! Enjoy!
Coffee Cake
Cake Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup honey (UPDATE: You can vary this depending on your tastes–I’ve been told 1/4 cup works just as well!)
1/4 cup butter, melted
4 eggs
1/2 cup almond milk
3/4 cup arrowroot or almond flour
3/4 cup sifted coconut flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Cake Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or butter an 8×8 baking pan.
2. Combine honey, butter, eggs and almond milk in a bowl until well combined.
3. Combine arrowroot or almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
4. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Stir well.
5. Pour HALF of the cake batter into the prepared cake pan and spread out evenly.
6. Prepare streusel.
Streusel Ingredients:
- 1 cup chopped pecans
2 Tbsp. honey
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. coconut flour
Streusel Directions:
1. Combine all the streusel ingredients in a bowl.
2. Distribute half of the streusel over the batter in the pan.
3. Pour the rest of the cake batter on streusel and top with remaining streusel.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 28-35 minutes. Remove from oven when a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
5. Serve as is or slather in butter!
Jennifer Maltby is a food blogger for The Unrefined Kitchen. She has been happily married to her husband for almost 6 years and they have one two-year old daughter. Jennifer loves being in the kitchen and especially loves baking. Due to multiple health issues, she changed her diet in April 2011 and saw significant, positive changes. Parting from the average American diet was a bit of a challenge, but Jennifer found that using some creativity could turn this diet into something that could be very tasty. She started the website The Unrefined Kitchen to be a tool and resource for others trying to change their diet in a similar way. The Unrefined Kitchen is grain-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free and dairy-free.
Latest posts by Jennifer (see all)
- Rhubarb Coffee Cake with Butter Cream Sauce - June 18, 2012
- Creamy Ham and Sweet Potato Soup - May 11, 2012
- Banana Muffins (w/Banana Chocolate Chip option!) - April 11, 2012
This looks so yummy!
One thing — baking powder and arrowroot are not allowed on the GAPS Diet.
Thanks Anne Marie, for pointing that out! I didn’t read through the ingredient list carefully enough. For those who are wondering, I don’t think it says that it in the post anywhere, I just said it was “GAPS friendly” on facebook.
baking powder, I’ve heard, is allowed in the newer version of GAPS?
I have consistent good results replacing baking powder with 1/2 baking soda and 1/2 apple cider vinegar
Cool! Thanks for the tip!
Ya….you aren’t really dairy free if you “slather” things in butter…which, by the way is probably more unhealthy than eating gluten or yogurt.
A little butter is ok but slathering things already baked with butter in more butter is awful. Coconut oil for baking is much healthier.
Um there is nothing wrong with butter. It is healthy and definitely not more unhealthy then eating gluten. Way more people have problems with gluten then they do with butter. I eat butter all the time and I’m one of the healthiest people I know!
When I cut out all margarine, canola oil, and other hydrogenated products from my diet, and replaced them with full fat items, especially butter, I lost another stubborn 3 pounds! I love butter and people are very uneducated on the benefits of healthy fats. I say slather away!!
Butter isn’t bad for you – just make sure you use butter from grass-fed cows. Kerry Gold is my favorite!
Educate yourself about butter. I recommend reading Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price.
The recipe looks great! I’m going to make some to take backpacking this weekend. Thanks!
This looks delicious! I just pinned it.
I hope you like it! Thanks for pinning it! 🙂
Why is baking powder “illegal” on GAPS… is it starchy?
The first edition of the GAPS book did not allow bicarbonate of soda but Dr Natasha has allowed it in the second edition with the proviso that it has to be pure bicarbonate of soda and not baking powder as well as being aluminium free. Those with low stomach acid (which is most GAPS clients) are advised to avoid it in the early stages of the diet as it lowers stomach acid however once you are eating sauerkraut regularly this will help regulate the production of stomach acid. Once you are at this stage you can then safely use it in baking, in the bath for alkalizing or in their toothpaste with olive oil. Most helpful is the Apple app designed by Hannah at Gapalicious as it lists all allowable foods in the context of all the stages of Intro as well as Full Gaps.
great info kitsa, thanks
This looks amazing!
What about baking powder that does not have cornstarch? Also, arrowroot and tapioca are not made from grains…does that count? This looks fabulous and I want to try it out, but we are trying to avoid eggs right now, I think my little guy reacts besides they are mucous forming. Has anyone ever tried to substitute 4 eggs with anything else??!
I’m not sure of the reasons that arrowroot and tapioca are out on GAPS, but I do know that there are a lot of things that are illegal other than grains. It’s not as simple as grain/most sweetener-free.
In the comments people talk about using chia gel and gelatin as egg replacers over at these links:
http://realfoodforager.com/videorecipe-grain-free-dairy-free-roll-out-cookie-dough/
http://realfoodforager.com/videorecipe-grain-free-dairy-free-roll-out-cookie-dough/
another egg replacer link:
http://raisingdieter.blogspot.com/2011/11/egg-replacer.html
Tightwad gazette has an egg replacement that worked well for me in the past
Is this recipe an exception to your blog’s recipes? This post said that your blog is dairy-free, but this recipe has butter in it. For those who have immunological allergies to dairy, butter doesn’t work. Do you not consider butter as dairy?
Hi Archer, thank you for your comment. I believe that coconut oil would work just as well as a replacement for the butter in this recipe. On my blog I say “dairy-free…almost” because we like butter and haven’t found that it bothers us. I am sorry for the confusion. I would suggest trying coconut oil. Since being pregnant, I haven’t been able to cook with coconut oil as much because it just doesn’t sound as good to me, hence why I’ve been using even more butter. Hope it works for you!
Hi Jennifer! After I left my comment, I went to your blog and saw your little thing on the right… that said the “dairy-free…almost”! Sorry I missed that. 🙂 This looks good though, butter or no butter!
Archer, I am on the Paleo Diet and we use butter (some don’t) because it is looked at more as an animal fat than dairy. Not sure what diet you are on, or if you are allergic to dairy (in which cause butter probably wouldn’t be good). But if you were just going dairy free like me as a choice butter could be an option to cook with. Of course I buy grass fed butter 🙂
I can’t have any dairy and we use Smart Balance lite, it’s vegan and tastes just like butter. I use it for everything. 🙂 Thank goodness, because this looks delicious! Now just to figure out the correct egg replacer! 🙂
Excellent recipe! Love it!
This looks really great Kimi – I’ve always wanted to do a good version of coffee cake but have never gotten around to it since I would have to edit so many things. This will help 🙂
i’m not grain free, but i love recipes like this because there is no souring/soaking time! i will put this in my repertoire for breakfast recipes. yum! thanks!
You’re welcome! Enjoy!
Will have to try this! I love coffee cake! Thank you for sharing :o)
You are welcome!
How sweet did this turn out to be? We are trying to cut back on sugary type stuff as much as possible. Can I reduce the amount of honey in the cake part without ruining it?
It is fairly sweet. I think it would be fine to reduce the honey and still have a good result. If you don’t mind tasting the batter before baking it, that would be a good test as far as flavor. If you try it, let me know what you reduced it to! I’d be interested to hear!
We reduced the honey to just over 1/4 cup. Instead of the streusel in the middle, we opted for frozen blueberries. The family loved it! It had just enough sweet without overpowering any other favors.
That is fantastic! Good to know! I often keep slightly reducing the sweetener to see how little I can put in and still enjoy it! Good idea with the blueberries–sounds yummy!
Can you suggest any substitutes for the arrowroot/almond flour? I avoid arrowroot to comply with GAPS and am currently avoiding almonds due to allergy. Would another nut work, or something else? The almond milk could be easily substituted with coconut milk, I would think; but I’m not sure what to try for the flour. Also, if decreasing the honey, should the milk be increased to compensate for the liquid? Thanks!
Hi Tara-
I haven’t used other nut flours, but if they are out there, one of them should work. You could do all coconut flour, but you would need to add another 3 eggs probably and if you are cooking with all coconut flour and less honey, you may need to increase the milk as well. I haven’t tried those variables so let me know if you do and how it turns out! The texture will be a bit different if using all coconut flour. Hope that is somewhat helpful.
Hi Jennifer, I was thinking of just turning nuts into flour – such as grinding up some pecans to make pecan flour. I suppose it would give a different taste, but I imagine it would still be tasty.
Let me know how it turns out!
I made this cake this afternoon. I used maple syrup instead of honey and it is delicous
Good to know! I am glad you liked it!
I was checking out the tightwad gazette thing; it seems to have something to do with soy flour, and I don’t do soy. Are the eggs used for binding, leavening and moisture? I am just wondering if trying to use two egg substitutes for binding and two for leavening if it works that way or not when substituting??? = ) ugh. I am going to try the coconut oil though. I go back and forth on butter; it does not bother me, but when I am on an absolutely NO DAIRY kick, I avoid it.
Joelle, have you tried using chia as an egg replacer? Chia is super healthy and you can get it at a health food store. http://www.realfoodallergyfree.com/2011/05/chia-egg-replacementsubstitute/
I went ahead and made this with egg-replacer and flax eggs. Although I would like to still do an alternative to the egg-replacer. My batter wasn’t really batter, but more of a really soft cookie dough so I kind of had to spread it; it was still pretty soft when I decided to be done cooking it. It was really tasty and tasted like coffee cake! Thank You!
I’ve never used an egg-replacer…sorry the texture was weird! I’m glad you liked the flavor though.
This was SO good. My family devoured it soon after it cooled. So much for leftovers! Thanks for this recipe.
You’re welcome!
Hi. I made this recipe today with a few changes. I used a mixture of all three of the flours listed, I added 1 small apple finely chopped, I used coco milk instead of almond milk, and used agave instead of honey. It was AWESOME!!!! Thanks for the recipe! The texture was the most wonderful aspect. Keep up the good work!! :):)
Yum! Sounds good!
This was delicious, however, much to sweet for my taste. I saw the above comments to reduce the honey to 1/4 cup and I will do that next time. So much honey as the recipe is that it didn’t leave my mouth for a couple hours after eating it. In every other way, a great recipe for a Sunday morning breakfast!
Hi! We’re on GAPS and these are the changes I made:
1/2 c homemade kefir instead of almond milk (although homemade almond milk is legal, just didn’t have any)
Used the almond flour instead of arrowroot
1/2 tsp baking soda instead of 2 tsp baking powder. It is cooling right now and smells heavenly! For those who asked why arrowroot and baking powder are illegal on GAPS, it has to do with the kinds of carbohydrates and the mechanism needed fit digestion. Most starches are not allowed. Commercial baking powder has either churn corn starch or potato starch plus cream of tartar, all three of those are illegal.
Man, sorry about all the typos! My smartphone isn’t very smart …
If I used brown rice flour, you think it’d need some xantham gum? Also wondered if a gf blend would be okay? I really like Namaste’s.
I don’t know what the ratios would be, but I am pretty sure the recipe would be different. I added extra eggs for the coconut flour and so amounts of everything would be different.
Oh sorry I was unclear, I plan to leave the coconut flour. I just want to sub the almond flour for something I already have. 🙂
Is there an acceptable substitute for the coconut flour? I am allergic to coconut but really would like to try this recipe. Thanks!
Hi Paige–
You can try to almond flour for the full amount of flour, but I would reduce the eggs to only 1 or 2 instead of 4. I haven’t tried this though, so no guarantees 🙂
I am confused. Almond flour and arrowroot flour are completely different. Have you used both? How did it turn out?
I typically have made it with the arrowroot, but it has been made with almond flour and turned out just fine 🙂 So pick your preferred ingredient!
I made this for my family recently and we really enjoyed it! I used 1/3 cup of honey and thought it was just the right amount of sweetness…and I also doubled the streusel ingredients and did a full recipe in the middle and a full one on top. I definitely recommend this! Next time I’m going to put blueberries in the center as well and see how that goes!
I am so excited to try this asap. Coffee cake is one or our family favorites.
Coffee cake with no coffee in it??
Coffee cake was traditionally served with coffee -hence the name. 🙂
In order to make it suitable for dairy-allergies but still wanting the buttery richness: you could use Ghee, clarified butter which can easily be made at home. After having removed the milk solids from the butter you are left with butter oil which is very nutritious. If its made from the right butter that is (grass-fed or even raw,)
And no…butter is not that bad for you at all! Coconut oil is yum but doesn’t have that rich flavour in baked goods. I usually do 50-50.
I just finished making this, followed recipe exactly, the batter did not pour. 1/2 the batter barely covered the bottom of my 8×8 pan. I’m very worried about it baking for so Lon seeing as it is a very thin layer of cake even with the streusel in it.
Hi–pour probably isn’t the right word. It is more like “spread with a spatula”. And no, there isn’t a lot of extra batter. It is just enough. Did you bake it? Did it turn out?
I wish you had put the comment about spreading instead of pouring in the original recipe. I was too worried I didn’t have enough liquid, so I added some more. Now I have a mess in the oven that won’t finish baking 🙁
I am sorry about the confusion. Often in recipes like this the word “pour” is used. Maybe if I had used “spread” it would have cleared up confusion. Sorry!
Do you know how many calories per slice? I cut it in 8 pieces.
My 16 year old daughter just made this for my birthday this morning. It was a wonderful treat! She said she only used 1/4 tsp. stevia (I don’t know if different brands of stevia have different strenghts, but ours seems quite strong). I slathered it with butter ~ awesome! Thank you!
Just made this recipe this morning…YUM. Make a few alterations. Used coconut oil instead of butter. Added 1 T cinnamon and 1 t cloves to the batter b/c I like spices. Used 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup maple infused agave in place of the 2/3 C honey. Sprinkled some ground flaxseed on top. I had to use almost a cup of almond milk b/c it was really dry (my current almond flour is pretty thick so that might have been why). lastly, I did use a little butter (like a pad) on top. I melted a pad of butter with honey and cinnamon and then brushed it on top b/c I was afraid of it burning (my oven is propane and runs hot). Thanks for the recipe! I’m new to G. Free cooking and I was excited to find it!
Made it this morning with 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup maple syrup. Really good! We like cinnamon so I may increase the streusel next time. Thanks for the recipe! Will definitely make again!
I just made this and it was very dry. I could not pour it. Is there suppose to be more milk than 1/2 cup?
I just made this and it was very dry. I could not pour it. Is there suppose to be more milk than 1/2 cup?
Excited to try out this recipe! Looks so yummy, thanks for sharing 🙂
I made this as our “sweet” for our Father’s Day brunch! It passed the kids’ taste test! Very good!
Thank you so much for this recipe. My entire picky family LOVE it (including my husband, who has not yet come over from the processed food dark side lol). We make it a few times a month, and its so nice to have a grain free baked good that doesn’t have a weird texture! One thing I was wondering, now that pumpkin season is here… do you think this could be made somehow into a pumpkin coffee cake?! That sounds so great, but I don’t think you can just add pumpkin without taking some liquid out or something? And ideas?
Does gaps consider gmo corn , soy, canola, wheat okay. Can’t imagine cornstarch okay in anything! Gmo is far worse ,with pesticides in , than anything you could eat. Genetically modified anything has been created with pesticides in so if anything tries to eat in fields the insect dies! Corn soybeans wheat and canola are the predominant foods in our country today. Most European countries and many other countries have banned them. China just refused a large ship full of corn from entering their country! No gmo’s!
I’m eating this, fresh and warm from the oven, and I just had to say THANK YOU!!! Thank you for giving me back my beloved coffee cake.
Just made this today without the streusel topping, it was delicious, moist, and a big hit for moms and toddlers alike. Going to pin and save this one for sure!
I made this for breakfast yesterday and was a bit disappointed. The texture was off, the taste wasn’t sweet enough…overall, it was just OK. BUT!! I reheated a piece for breakfast this morning and was pleasantly surprised! By letting this sit out overnight and then reheating the next morning, the texture significantly improved, as well as the flavor. I do think it would stand up next to any grain-based coffee cake. This recipe just got moved to my Favorites Board! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Shellie! I haven’t tried this recipe as we no longer can have eggs, but I definitely have noted that some gluten-free/grain free recipes taste better, and the texture is better once cool.
Great recipe! Thank you so much! I enjoyed a piece with my butter coffee, saved a couple pieces, then put remainin pieces in freezer. I’m eating grain free (not paleo since I still incorporate dairy into my diet) so having more baking recipes in my back pocket is crucial! I usually have one “bake day” every couple of weeks where I freeze the majority of whatever I’m making so I can easily grab a piece out of the freezer to enjoy on demand-key when trying to stick to being grain free. Instead of 3/4C arrowroot, I did 1/2C arrowroot and 1/4C almond flour and thought it was great! I also made a small bowl of melted grassfed butter and tons of cinnamon to drizzle on top.
Hi there, I am from Wales in the UK. So do not really understand where the coffee is in this recipe. I love coffee cake and I am looking for alternatives to grain. However where does the coffee flavour come from, or am I missing something? Thank you.
Coffee cake is called such because it is traditionally served WITH coffee; it has no coffee flavor. Think “teacake”.
I’ve just made this and got it in the oven- let’s see how it turns out!
Can I suggest you adjust the word ‘pour’ to spread- When my batter was un-pourable I thought I’d gone all wrong and added lots more stuff it probably didn’t need! Then saw a couple of comments saying the same and thought phew haha.
I also thought this was a coffee flavour cake, so I just added some coffee and granules to give it that flavour 🙂