Food Processor and Mocha Pecan coffee cake

There is a new workhorse in the kitchen: a Cuisinart 9-cup Food Processor. New stuff is fun to try out and I set out to see what it could do. The Dutchess has been having some problems with her teeth lately so I thought this would be a good way to go in preparing her meals.

Out of the box, I liked the sleek look of the brushed stainless steel. The cup capacity was certainly larger than my old food processor of about 1/2 cup. But it was also scary looking too. Lots of very sharp attachments and a video to explain how to use it. Some might think that is a bonus, but my thought was this had the potential to be really complicated.

So after 'trying' to watch the video and having my computer stop and start a half dozen times I finally got the idea how to put it together and which way to twist off the work bowl. Sometimes a person just has to dig in and get through any qualms or risk having it end up taking up valuable real estate on the counter top. So I picked a recipe and gathered up some ingredients.

Normally I don't think I would choose to make a coffeecake using a food processor. I have a very nice mixer bought 24 years ago that is working as good today as the day I got it. Even though my goal was to use the equipment, I couldn't help but compare and contrast to my mixer.

The first step involved making the topping and putting dry ingredients into the work bowl. Chips, nuts, and brown sugar, and coffee granules. After 10 seconds it was coarsely chopped and something my mixer would not have done. Although my knives could have done the same thing, the food processor made short work of it.

Following that step, I added some sugar and butter to the work bowl and processed for 20 seconds. When I took a peek at it, I didn't think it had done as nicely as my mixer, even after scraping the bowl down and processing another 30 seconds or so.


If I were using my mixer, the sugar and butter would have had a creamier consistency, like whipped butter. Next I added an egg and some vanilla and continued to process for about 30 seconds. Following this was the addition of sour cream. I was actually quite happy to add sour cream to the mix as there was a half filled container in the refrigerator needing to be used up (I hate waste). Finally at the point to add in the premixed flour, baking soda, salt mixture to the creamed mix. A few quick pulses and finished.

Using an 8x8 greased pan I scraped in half the batter making sure to reach all the corners and the level of the batter was the same all throughout. To this I added 2/3rds of the pecan-mocha topping mix and then layered the rest of the dough on top.

I really like the type of spatula I am using here. The width of it is great for smoothing out batter. When you are adding the batter to the top layer the trick to get it to spread around without pulling up the topping below is to make sure you have little blobs of batter all over the pan and then you kinda 'connect the dots' to get the batter to smooth into the next glob of batter. Make sure again that the batter is equal thickness all over. Follow this with the remaining topping and then take a butter knife and drag some of the topping through the batter underneath.


I haven't tried it yet, but it looks and smells fantastic. The cake itself rose up nicely and I'll be better able to tell the texture when I cut into it.



Overall, I really do want to be able to utilize this tool. I will have to do some jobs with it for the Dutchess' food. Making a coffee cake using a food processor might not be my first choice, but I can appreciate how quickly it did certain jobs.

It certainly didn't make any more mess than using my mixer, nor were there any less pieces to wash. The work bowl can go in the dishwasher although I prefer to wash it by hand. One last thought on this particular experience. The blade is extremely sharp and precautions must always be taken. If I were to have used the mixer, I would have been able to scrape the batter off of the beater without risk of injury. Not so on the blade of the food processor.

Just look at that thing!!!

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Here are some lovely picies that my oldest daughter took today. It was one of those really nice spring days where the coloring and lighting was fantastic.

F-T