Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake

Here’s what I did with the last of the Meyer lemons from our small tree: coffee cake, with a crumb topping. (See here, here and here for where the rest went. If I’m counting correctly, this brings our total number of lemons to 13; we still have two medium-sized green ones plus some new tiny green ones, but I have no idea if they’ll mature, given that the season is over. Que sera sera!) Note that 3 Meyer lemons were enough for me here, but one had been on the kitchen counter for a while and was very ripe, so it yielded a lot of juice and very little zest (the other two were fresh off the tree and were great for zest, but had less juice). If you buy them, you might want to get 4 or 5 if they aren’t too big, just to be on the safe side.

The original recipe calls for a 9-inch square pan. We’ve had an incredible lot of recipes that call for a Pyrex pan that size lately, what with the Engineer’s baking project, but we can’t find a 9-inch square Pyrex pan ANYWHERE. I think we might buy a stoneware one to round out our collection. As it was, the 8-inch square one was needed for dinner, so I used a 9-inch round springform pan instead, and I would recommend that format. Both the Engineer and I really enjoyed this cake, and it was a great way to end Meyer lemon season.

For the topping
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. Meyer lemon zest
pinch salt
1 Tbsp. fresh Meyer lemon juice
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

For the cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1/3 cup (5 heaping Tbsp.) butter at room temperature or cold margarine
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 Tbsp. Meyer lemon zest
½ cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
½ cup lactose-free milk (this should be buttermilk, but will become buttermilk substitute with the lemon juice already in the recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Lightly grease a 9-inch square pan (or a 9-inch springform pan).

Make the topping first. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, flour, lemon zest and salt. Add in lemon juice and melted butter and stir with a fork until mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and lemon zest.

Stir in one third of the flour mixture, followed by the lemon juice. Stir in another third of the flour mixture, followed by the lactose-free milk. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, mixing only until no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with the topping mixture that was set aside in the first step. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan before slicing.