This fabulous fall coffee cake will satisfy your seasonal cravings, with a tender, moist crumb packed with pumpkin flavor and fragrant fall spices, with crunchy pecans and a crispy cinnamon sugar crust on top.
The wonderfully moist texture comes from the butter and sour cream base (sour cream being the key to the most tender, decadent coffee cakes ever, thank my Grandma for that secret ingredient!) with a crispy sugar crust on top and a cinnamon sugar swirl in the middle for extra cinnamon flavor!
This recipe is based on my grandma’s sour cream coffee cake recipe, which is, quite simply, the most perfect coffee cake ever. So despite being a chronic recipe tinkerer, I’ve felt no need to reinvent the wheel by changing it, rather simply adapting the same butter-and-sour-cream base to whatever flavor profile happens to be on my mind at the time (so far I’ve done blueberry cream cheese, chocolate chip, honeycrisp apple, and espresso, and also a version with Greek yogurt, and one that’s muffin-sized!)
In the case of this particular autumnal variation, I added pumpkin puree and fragrant fall spices for the perfect seasonal coffee cake to satisfy any pumpkin spice fanatic.
Why is this recipe so perfect? Well, the sour cream is the key to getting a super moist, tender crumb that’s not dry, dense, or oily. Paired with a creamed butter base (again, most coffee cakes use oil), the result is flavorful and moist and also surprisingly light and fluffy, with the perfect balance of sweetness, pumpkin flavor, and comforting spices.
Not to mention your kitchen will smell absolutely divine, like crisp leaves and cozy sweaters and a warm, pumpkin-spiced hug has enveloped your entire house (even if it still happens to be 82 degrees outside).
