Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

I woke up this morning and didn't want eggs for breakfast. Cereal sounded good, but I was a bit disappointed to find the empty milk gallon sitting forlornly on the table - Jeff and the kids finished off the milk last night. So no cereal.

So I pulled out this old recipe that I've made several times, a recipe for a cornbread-like coffee cake. I haven't made it in quite a while (not since last March!), so I feel like we were due to have it again. Last time I made it with coconut in the topping, but this time I added chocolate chips instead for a special treat.


Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake
Topping:
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Batter:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk (1/3 cup dry milk and 1 cup water)
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted shortening
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

For topping, combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter; set aside.

For batter, sift together corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt (I didn't sift, I just stirred it with a fork). Add milk, oil, and egg; stir only until dry ingredients are moistened.

Pour 1/2 of the batter into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 of cinnamon topping. Sprinkle chocolate chips over topping. Top with remaining batter and sprinkle with remaining topping.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Let sit for about five minutes. Serve warm.


This time, both layers of topping ended up sinking down to the bottom. I think that not using coconut made the topping more clumpy and less crumbly, so it didn't sit on top of the dough like it usually does. So maybe it would be a good idea to use only 2 tablespoons of butter instead of 3, if making this without the coconut.

By the way, to make this with coconut - add 2/3 cup coconut to the cinnamon topping. Or you can use 2/3 cup raisins, or 2/3 cup chopped nuts. We usually do it with coconut because we really like it, but didn't have coconut today.