Yogurt Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

I often eat plain Greek yogurt for breakfast in the morning, mixed with almonds or granola and a healthy drizzle of honey to soften the yogurt’s slightly sour taste. I was really into Trader Joe’s Greek yogurt for awhile because it was about $3 cheaper than the brand I often bought. But a couple of months ago I noticed that the packaging on TJ’s yogurt looked different. A little spiffier in design with a fancier clear lid. The taste had changed too—not to my liking, might I add. It’s too sour now, and no amount of honey can mask it. (Note to Trader Joe’s: go back to the old formula. It was much better!) But my reason for telling this story is not to appeal to the Trader Joe’s employees who decided to change the taste of their yogurt. No, it is the back story behind today’s recipe. You see, I had an unopened 32 ounce container of non-fat Greek yogurt in my fridge, whose sell by date is today. And I didn’t want to waste it. So I decided to bake with it and I wanted to make a coffee cake, preferably one with chocolate chips. And then I saw this recipe from the blog Emilie’s Enjoyables and it was exactly what I was looking for—and a good way to use up some of that yogurt.

OK so there’s not much not to like about coffee cake, but this one is particularly enjoyable, as the aptly titled blog that it came from predicted. Light, moist, and bursting with chocolate. (I used bittersweet cacao chips rather than semi-sweet mini chips, which may account for the extra chocolately goodness.) This is, without a doubt, going into my baking rotation. If you invite me over for brunch, I will be bringing you this cake. (Liz Wade, if you’re reading this, guess what we’re having tomorrow when you visit?) It is that good. If you do make this cake—and you should—don’t worry if you run out of batter to coat the entire top of the cake, as I did. Once you spread the streusel topping on, it all kind of melds together when it bakes and rises into a truly fabulous confection. I tried to get a photo of an actual slice of the cake, but a certain little person kept putting his hand in the shot. (At 17 months, my son already knows a quality baked good when he sees one.) But take my word for it—this is worth the calories. I am fighting the urge to go downstairs and cut myself another piece.

Yogurt Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake (adapted from Emilie’s Enjoyables)

For the cake:

1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 stick of butter at room temperature

2 large eggs

1 cup of 0% plain Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
For the topping:

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease an 8×8 baking dish. In a bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, combine streusel ingredients and stir until combined. In a mixing bowl combine butter and sugar and cream until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract, combining until creamy and smooth. This should take about 5 minutes. Slowly add in the flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Do not over mix. Take half of the batter and spread it into the bottom of the pan. Then sprinkle with half of the streusel mixture. Place the rest of the batter in large spoonfuls on top and use a rubber spatula to gently smooth it out so that the streusel layer is covered. Sprinkle the other half of the streusel mixture on top. Bake for about 38 minutes. Let cool before cutting into squares.