Los Angeles City Schools Coffee Cake

Well, my blog is one year old today!  To celebrate, I am going back to the beginning.  My inaugural post was about the Sweet Rolls that were sold at Nutrition at Paul Revere Junior High and Palisades High Schools.  Those cinnamon brown sugar delights were my preferred “Nutrition” time treat.  There was another choice, however, and kids were of one stripe or the other.  It was either Sweet Rolls or Coffee Cake.  Not both and no switching.  Me, I had to have that sweet yeasty risen dough filled with cinnamon and brown sugar and perfumed with nutmeg.  No quick bread for me.  And not for my friends Ami and Jackie either.  We were Sweet Roll students all the way.  Not that there is anything wrong with the Coffee Cake.  Not at all.  On the east coast it is known as Crumb Cake, and for easterners it is a very big deal. But for us west coast babies, it was yeast risen Sweet Rolls every day, all the way.

Over the years I have come across several versions of the Los Angeles City Schools recipe.  Of the two I have seen most frequently, one was published in The Los Angeles Times, and other comes with the imprimatur of the Los Angeles Unified School District Food Services Branch, Food Service Handbook.  While the finished L.A. Times Coffee Cake is remarkably close to the Food Service Handbook version, the Times’ use of butter and sour cream call its authenticity into question.  A school recipe has to use food service proportions, ingredients suited to a school district budget and must take into account storage and ease of use for cafeteria workers.  The Food Service Handbook recipe calls for oil rather than butter, and instead of sour cream, a mixture of vinegar and non-fat dry milk.  Sounds like school to me.

When I posted my LAUSD Sweet Roll recipe a year ago, my niece Bree of Pizza y Paella commented that she remembered a Coffee Cake from the Culver City Schools Wednesday Early Bird Breakfast “…They served a nice warm, fluffy cake with a half inch thick topping of brown sugar.”  So I guess the students of the Los Angeles City School District were not the only ones to enjoy Coffee Cake.

I have a couple of notes about this Coffee Cake.

#1  The classic recipe for a Coffee Cake like this calls for either sour cream or buttermilk.  Don’t be put off by the non-fat dry milk, water and vinegar in this recipe.  Combine those ingredients, and you’ve made you own buttermilk substitute.  Honest.  Again, sounds like the thrifty Cafeteria workers to me.

#2 DON’T SKIMP ON THE NUTMEG.  NOT HERE.  NOT EVER.  Don’t buy the pre-ground stuff.  There is just no comparison to fresh ground nutmeg.  Grate it fresh as you need it.  Go out and buy a nutmeg grater.  No need to get a fancy battery powered job.  MicroPlane makes a nice one.  And the old-fashioned tin ones are as good now as when they were first invented.  You can hang them inside your spice cabinet and they have a little storage compartment for the piece of nutmeg you are using.  Whole nutmeg is easy to find these days, and specialty spice purveyors such as Penzeys Spices and Savory Spice Shop sell wonderful nutmeg.

#3 This streusel recipe, being of food service provenance, calls for oil.  But I couldn’t do it.  I could not help myself.  I substituted unsalted butter for a fluffier, more tasty streusel.  Oh, one more thing.  I doubled the amount of streusel.  Yes, I did.  So if you, like me, are a butter streusel loving Pali High Grad, follow the variation at the end of the recipe.

I hope you enjoy this Coffee Cake.  And when you make it, email me a photo of you and your Coffee Cake.  I’d love to display it in my Readers’ Gallery.  Dig out your High School yearbook, make this Coffee Cake, call an old friend and take a stroll down Memory Lane.

1970 Pali High Cafeteria Staff

LAUSD Coffee Cake

As printed in the Los Angeles Unified School District Food Services Branch, Food Service Handbook

makes 18 servings

For the Batter
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. non-fat dry milk
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
2 tbsp. vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. salad oil
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs

For the Topping
3/4 cup plus 3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
dash salt
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

To make the Batter
In a bowl, combine flour, dry milk, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. Set Aside. Combine vinegar and water in a measuring cup. Set Aside.

In mixer bowl, blend together the oil, brown sugar and granulated sugar on low speed for 1 minute. Add eggs and continue to blend on low speed for 1 minute. While mixer is on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the water and vinegar to oil-sugar mixture. Scrape down bowl, then blend on medium speed for 1 additional minute. Evenly divide batter between two greased 9×9-inch pans. Sprinkle 3/4 cup topping evenly over batter in each pan.

To make the Topping
In mixer bowl, combine all ingredients except oil. Blend on low speed for 1 minute. Add oil gradually and continue to blend until topping is crumbly.

Bake until tooth pick comes out clean when inserted in the center of cake.
Conventional Oven: 375F for 35-55 minutes.
Convection Oven: 325 F for 35-40 minutes.

My streusel variation
Double the streusel recipe for a thick topping.  To substitute butter for oil, use 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, total.  Cut it into chunks and proceed with streusel directions.

Baking Notes
#1 Decrease oven temperature to 350 if you are using black or glass pans.
#2 For ease of removal, butter your pans, and line with parchment.  Butter the parchment.
#3 I used Williams-Sonoma Gold Touch Bakeware, and my Coffee Cake was done at 35 minutes.

I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.

Note: You can click on any picture to see a slide show!