Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

I just snowshoed up a mountain with my brand-new adventure dog! Thank God I have some homemade gluten-free Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake packed in my backpack! Snowshoeing is always so much harder than just regular hiking, throw in two to four feet of snow, breaking trail and struggling to the top of a mountain peak, and yeah, it is definitely not an easy workout! Experts say you can burn a thousand calories in an hour of snowshoeing and if you have ever broken trail in two feet of snow uphill, you can see why! Snowshoeing is not always easy unless you are a young pup who was just rescued by our family from a life of seaside (Homeless puppy) adventures on the sunny streets of Ensenada in Baja California.

My name is Luna. I’m between four months and four years old. My favorite things to chew on are pine cones and work gloves. I love to play with cats that hate me. I also love Carly to harass Carly, my sister aka Grandma.

Luna may be perfectly happy to skip across miles of snowy fields every morning I have off work but I don’t always have the energy of a year-old puppy. On snowy winter mornings like these, I need the thought of a gluten-free confection to shove at my face when I get to the top of this mountain peak. Butler’s Peak is one of the tallest pinnacles in Big Bear Lake and it’s never an easy trek. Add three feet of snow to the old fire road trail and this snowshoe adventure to the peak at over 8,500 feet is never easy. Least of all for someone like me who loves to hike, the great outdoors and everything snowy Big Bear has to offer. But I have also had nothing but injuries in the last six months and I am not in shape like I was last winter.

Is it Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake time yet?

Now, you may be asking, what is the secret to baking the most perfectly moist gluten-free Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake? Sour cream, absolutely for sure. You could also substitute Greek yogurt but I think the sour cream just makes this Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake so damn moist.

When I was in my twenties, I used to visit a bakery in Orange County California that had the most scrumptious chocolate chip coffee cake. This was fifteen years before I discovered the magic of gluten-free baking! I swear this gluten-free Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake is just as tasty!  So what is my gluten-free magical baker’s secret, you may ask? Almond flour and coconut flour are the magical exacta of unique gluten-free “flours” to make your gluten-free baked good the most delicious. Seriously this sweet breakfast cake is so delicious, you will not even miss the gluten!

Here in California in our mountain town, we are currently under a blizzard warning. Yes, I said, California and blizzard warning. Pretty nuts right? Our fridge is stocked with pork loin for Jalfreezi with tamarind paste, the cupboards are stocked with dal and curry leaves and of course, I have my favorite gluten-free baked goods on hand. Yes, that means I stocked up at the health food store on almond flour, coconut flour and lower-carb potato starch for all our keto deep-fried weekend plans. Because if you are going to be shoveling snow for seven days straight you should also plan on baking or possibly deep frying some eggplant.

I have always loved snowy winter weather my whole life. After hours spent snow shoveling, yes of course I want to bake something delicious for dessert or a breakfast coffee cake to take on my hike tomorrow morning. Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake; It is what’s for breakfast!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

1/2 cup of sour cream

2 tablespoons of room-temperature coconut oil

3/4 cup of almond flour

1/4 cup of coconut flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1/2 cup white organic sugar

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1/2 cup tiny chocolate chips

Cinamon cookie crumble

1/2 cup of almond flour

1/4 cups of coconut flour

1/4 cups of brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons of salted organic butter, cold, cut into cubes

For the coffee cake, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and sour cream. Mix in the dry ingredients than the chocolate chips. Pour into muffin tins. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes at 375. After the first 25 minutes add the cookie crumble to the top and bake an additional 15 minutes.

To assemble the cinnamon Cookie Crumble, in a food processor cut the butter with the flours and sugar until just barely mixed. Add in the vanilla and cinnamon.

You can also do this in a loaf pan. I just find it easier to serve to my guests when I have these in muffin tins.