This Medjool Date Coffee Cake made with a moist coffee cake base, a layer of sweet and fruity Medjool date and brown sugar filling and a crumbly streusel topping! It’s an extra special breakfast or dessert for any time of the year!

This post is generously sponsored by Natural Delights Medjool Dates and I was compensated for my time in creating this recipe. Thank you for supporting the brands that make The Recipe Rebel possible!

When I think back to all of the good times I’ve had in my life, one that stands out is the day I found out it was actually acceptable to eat dessert for breakfast. Cinnamon Buns Recipe, monkey bread, baked lemon blueberry donuts, cinnamon roll bites, and of course coffee cake!

Coffee cake is a sweet treat that’s designed to be served with coffee, which sounds to me like the perfect excuse to eat dessert first thing in the morning!

This Medjool Date Coffee Cake one of my favorite coffee cake recipes to date (no pun intended.) It’s moist, dense, sweet, and is layered with filling made with Natural Delights Medjool dates and brown sugar.

Now, if you’ve never experienced the magic of Medjool dates, then you are in for a real treat. Medjool dates are a fresh fruit and a superfood that can be used in both cooking and baking either as part of more savory recipes or in sweeter ones!

They are packed with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and natural sugars that gives them a super sweet, almost caramel-y flavor. They are also available all year round in the produce section of most grocery stores so don’t worry — you can eat this coffee cake any time of the year.

What is coffee cake?

Coffee cake is a moist single-layer cake that’s typically flavored with fruit or cinnamon and topped with a streusel or glaze topping. It’s typically enjoyed with a cup of coffee (or tea), hence the name coffee cake!

Ingredients for Medjool date coffee cake

There are three simple components to this coffee cake recipe!

Medjool Date filling:

• Natural Delights Medjool Dates: you’ll need about 28 Medjool dates for this recipe.
• Water: boiled with the dates to help soften them into the filling.
• Brown Sugar: gives the filling a touch of extra sweetness to accentuate the sweetness of the dates.
• Lemon Juice: cuts the sweetness with a bright, tangy flavor.
• Baking Soda: helps to soften the dates so they form a smooth filling

Coffee cake

• Greek Yogurt: a lot of coffee cake recipes use sour cream to add moisture. In this recipe, we’re using plain Greek yogurt instead. It still adds so much moisture and that delicious tangy flavor, but is a little bit of a lighter option.
• Brown Sugar: adds warm sweetness and results in an ultra moist cake.
• Canola Oil: I don’t recommend using a different type of oil. Canola oil has a neutral flavor that doesn’t over-take the flavor of the coffee cake and adds great moisture.
• Eggs: binds the ingredients together so the cake can hold its shape.
• Vanilla Extract: adds flavor depth and a bit of extra sweetness.
• All-Purpose Flour: provides the coffee cake its structure.
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda: gives the cake a little lift so it doesn’t get way too dense as it bakes.
• Salt: brings out the other flavors of the coffee cake.

Streusel:

• All-Purpose Flour and Brown Sugar: a sweet and fluffy base for the crumble topping
• Salted Butter: melted and mixed with the flour and sugar to give the topping its crumbly texture.

How to make Medjool date coffee cake

The magic of coffee cake is the topping is baked with it. Unlike other cakes, you don’t have to cool it fully to frost it. Once it’s done baking, you can just slice it and serve!

1. Make the filling: In a medium pot, combine all filling ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce to medium-low, and cook until tender. Mash with a potato masher, then set aside to cool.
2. Mix the cake batter: Whisk together yogurt, brown sugar, and oil. Add eggs and vanilla, then whisk in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Assemble the cake: Spread half of the cake batter into a greased and parchment paper-lined 9×13″ baking pan. Spread the cooled date filling over top, then layer on the rest of the batter.
4. Make the topping: In a medium bowl, stir together all streusel topping ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle the topping over the cake.
5. Bake the cake: Bake the assembled coffee cake at 350ºF for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Remove, cool for 15 minutes, then serve or store in the fridge.

Variations on this recipe

• Add nuts. Give the cake a bit of crunch with a handful of chopped walnuts or pecans.
• Frost it. Traditional coffee cake isn’t frosted, but if you want to give it even more sweetness feel free to top it off with a cream cheese glaze of your favorite frosting. If you’re doing this, make sure you cool the cake completely so the frosting doesn’t melt.
• Spice it up. This coffee cake is plenty flavorful but if you want to give it more of a spice cake flavor, feel free to sprinkle in some cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Remember, a little goes a long way!
• Make coffee cake muffins. You can use this same batter to make coffee cake muffins too! Fill a greased muffin pan about ½ full with batter, add a swirl of filling and top with more batter. Sprinkle with streusel, and bake for 20-25 minutes instead!

How to store

Leftover coffee cake will last at room temperature for 1-2 days, in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for 2-3 months. To enjoy again, thaw in the fridge or at room temperature if frozen, then serve at room temperature or warm in the microwave or oven until heated through.

More coffee cake recipes you’ll love

• Blueberry Coffee Cake
• Apple Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping
• Lemon Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Pin this recipe to save for later

Pin this recipe to your favorite board

Print

Medjool Date Coffee Cake

This Medjool Date Coffee Cake is my favorite excuse to eat dessert for breakfast! It's moist, dense, and perfectly sweet with a Medjool date and brown sugar filling and a crumbly streusel topping!

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine American, canadian

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 12 servings

Calories 571cal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

Medjool Date Filling

• 3 cups Medjool Dates (pitted and chopped) about 375 grams or 28 dates
• 1 ¼ cups water
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda

Coffee Cake

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour (fluffed and spooned into the cup – 260 grams)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

Streusel

• 1¼ cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup brown sugar (packed)
• ½ cup melted salted butter

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Medjool Date Filling

• Combine dates, water, brown sugar, lemon juice and baking soda in a medium pot.
• Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium-low and cook on a low boil until tender. Mash with a potato masher and set aside to cool slightly.

Coffee Cake

• Lightly grease a 9×13" pan (line with parchment paper if desired — this just ensures it can be removed easily). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, brown sugar and oil.
• Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
• Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk just until combined.
• Spread half of coffee cake batter into prepared pan.
• Spread cooled date filling over the batter and top with remaining batter. Leave a little space at the edge to prevent the filling from running out and try to seal the filling between the bottom and top layers of batter. The batter is thick and can be a little tricky to spread evenly, but do your best! Even if it's not perfect it will still be delicious.

Streusel

• In a medium bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar and melted butter until crumbly (it will become more crumbly as the butter cools).
• Sprinkle evenly over cake.
• Bake for about 60 minutes (you may need a few minutes more or less depending on the temperature of your oven, size and type of pan), until the center is completely set and a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Cover with foil for the last 20 minutes if the top browns too quickly.
• Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. For clean slices, letting set for a day in the fridge is best.

Notes

Storage:

Leftover coffee cake will last at room temperature for 1-2 days, in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for 2-3 months. To enjoy again, thaw in the fridge or at room temperature if frozen, then serve at room temperature or warm in the microwave or oven until heated through.

Nutrition

Calories: 571cal | Carbohydrates: 100g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 48mg | Sodium: 331mg | Potassium: 534mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 69g | Vitamin A: 350IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 122mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Medjool Date Coffee Cake appeared first on The Recipe Rebel.

So I was asked to bring a dessert to my in-laws for Thanksgiving.

That’s pretty normal, except for the one time my mother-in-law accidentally asked me to bring a salad. I was a little confused, but I wasn’t going to ask her what she was thinking, so I made a salad. I’m sure I used a recipe and everything.

She’s never asked me to bring another salad.

Not that it was a bad salad, but I think when she said “salad” she meant “dessert”, and she’s never made the same mistake again.

So my husband asked me what I was thinking of bringing, some new idea I was going to try out?

I said, “No, something I’ve made before –“

“What?! You don’t make things twice.”

“Actually, I’ve made this recipe two times, but not for quite a while. You probably won’t even remember it. It’s a date coconut cake, I know it sounds kind of lame –“

“No! It doesn’t sound lame. I remember that cake! It’s like all warm, and gooey….”

“Yeah! It’s more like a pudding-y cake, and we ate it with ice cream..”

For real. These are the things we talk about.

Cake.

I didn’t even make up that conversation just to have something somewhat interesting to say to you before I hand over the recipe. I wish you could have seen his eyes light up when I told him what I was going to make.

We both get pretty excited about our dessert.

And just food in general.

If you’ve never baked with dates before, there’s no reason to be afraid or weirded out. The dates don’t have a really strong flavour, they add such incredible moisture and a mild, fruity flavour to the cake. Just make sure you pick up pitted dates, and all you have to do is chop them up and soften them in some water. They will be pretty dense and chewy before you soak them — that is nothing to worry about!

The cake is so rich and moist, and then it’s topped with a coconut and brown sugar topping that is out of this world. Can you even believe this is light? You could eat it plain, and it would be totally amazing.

Me? Mine looks a little more like this.

But it’s less than 300 calories a piece, so I can top it with whatever I want, right??

*This post was originally written in November 2014 and the photos and recipe have been updated. My apologies for all that stuff about my life

Pin this recipe to save for later

Pin this recipe to your favorite board

Print

Coconut Date Pudding Cake

This Coconut Date Pudding Cake has an incredibly moist date cake layer topped with caramelized coconut topping — be sure to serve it with a scoop of ice cream!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 290cal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup chopped pitted dates
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp butter
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour I do about 50% whole wheat
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 large egg

Topping:

• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup flaked sweetened coconut
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9″ springform pan (you can use a regular 9″ pan as well).
• In a small pot, combine dates, water, baking soda, butter and salt and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Set aside for 10 minutes for dates to soften.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, vanilla and egg. Pour in date mixture and whisk until combined. (I like to mash my dates a little with the whisk as I go).
• Spread into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, prepare your topping. Combine brown sugar, coconut, butter and milk in a small pot (I use the same one from the dates, and just wipe it out a little). Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 1 minute.
• Pour brown sugar mixture over cake and bake another 10-12 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool 5 minutes before running a knife around the edge and loosening the sides of the pan. Serve warm or cool completely before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 290cal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 279mg | Potassium: 181mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 39g | Vitamin A: 195IU | Calcium: 41mg | Iron: 1.1mg

The post Coconut Date Pudding Cake appeared first on The Recipe Rebel.

PIN THIS RECIPE FOR LATER

I think one of the worst parts of being a food blogger is having to think about back to school in the middle of summer.

And because I’m a little obsessive and like to work ahead (you know, so I can enjoy my summer), I actually start thinking about back to school in Spring!

Since these Lemon Blueberry Energy Bites are the only energy bites recipe on The Recipe Rebel, I decided I needed another! And I know that people are often looking for ways to swap out peanut butter in school snacks for other types of nuts (if they are allowed), so I wanted to come up with a recipe that doesn’t use it as a base.

As much as we all love peanut butter here, my daughter is going into a nut-free Kindergarten room this fall (my first in school!) so I’m going to be thinking a little more about nut-free snacks. These do use hazelnuts, but I know that in a lot of cases it’s strictly peanuts that aren’t allowed, and because they’re so darn delicious, I wanted to share them anyway. We’ll continue to enjoy these at home and throughout the rest of the summer as an on-the-go snack!

Tips and Tricks for this Energy Bites Recipe:

• The hazelnuts I bought didn’t come peeled, so I peeled them using this method by Jamie of My Baking Addiction and it worked perfectly! But please, please — use a really big pot.
• You can definitely swap out the hazelnuts for another nut you have on hand (or one that doesn’t require peeling), but I was going for that “Nutella” vibe, so that’s why I chose hazelnuts.
• Which brings me to my 3rd point — these do not taste like Nutella. Eating one of these is not like eating a big old scoop straight out of the Nutella jar — I wanted them to be a healthy snack, reminiscent of those Nutella flavors
• Feel free to add in extra nuts, dried fruit, mini chocolate chips or a scoop of protein powder for some extra pizzazz!
• These balls also have 5% of your daily iron, in just one! This is great for someone like me who always tends to be low in iron.

Pin this recipe to save for later

Pin this recipe to your favorite board

Print

No Bake Chocolate Hazelnut Energy Bites Recipe + VIDEO

This No Bake Chocolate Hazelnut Energy Bites Recipe is made with oats, hazelnuts, cocoa and sweetened with dates — they are the perfect healthy snack for lunches or school or work! They are so easy to make — includes a step by step recipe video.

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 24 bites

Calories 99cal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups hazelnuts peeled, divided
• 1 cup pitted dates 26-27 dates
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons liquid honey
• 1 1/2 cups large rolled oats divided

Instructions

• In a food processor, add 1 cup hazelnuts, dates, cocoa powder, honey, and 1 cup oats. Process until a smooth, pliable ball forms.
• Remove ball to a bowl. Chop and stir in remaining ½ cup hazelnuts and ½ cup oats.
• Roll into 1″ balls (I got about 24). Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days, in the fridge for 7 days, or freeze for 3-4 months.

Video

Notes

*Nutrition information is estimated and will vary depending on exact serving size, types and brands of products used.

Nutrition

Calories: 99cal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 7g

The post No Bake Chocolate Hazelnut Energy Bites Recipe + VIDEO appeared first on The Recipe Rebel.