Healthy (ish) Rhubarb Coffee Cake

It’s finally farmer’s market season here in Minneapolis and that means all the veggies on Sundays. The farmer’s market is my favorite summer activity (besides biking) for a few reasons. My love of farmer’s markets started my freshman year of college where I was fortunate enough to frequent the Dane County Farmer’s Market on Saturdays with my sister, her roommate and also one of my best friends, Hannah. If you have ever been to the Madison Farmer’s Market then you know all about Stella’s Cheese Bread and have also likely felt the joy and stomach pains of buying a fresh loaf and eating your entire week’s worth of delicious cheesy bread in one day. No judgment, though. 

The farmer’s market means coffee, a week’s worth of veggies for $20, and lapping the square for the best looking rhubarb. Two for $5 rhubarb takes the cake in this week’s recipe (literally). Sorry for the terrible pun.

This cake is vegan, made with whole wheat flour, and (minus the crumb topping) free of refined sugars. Show me a crumb topping without sugar and I will give you a gold star but don’t touch my crumb topping in the meantime. The rhubarb makes this coffee cake sweet but tangy, which is partially why I love rhubarb so much. I also froze a bunch so I can enjoy rhubarb a couple more times later this fall. I decided to try to not eat sweets in the month of June – so while I was really excited to make all the rhubarb things like pie, crisp, ice cream, etc I am focusing on more savory recipes for this month’s recipe testing.

Other life things and rambles:

Still dealing with plantar fasciitis, which is keeping me from doing a lot of the things I enjoy. I can’t walk super far without pain so it’s been a struggle balancing exercise and not making it worse.

Finally done with work travel for a while! Yay. It’s been super nice to have unpacked my suitcase and not have to think about the next time I need to pull it out for a work trip.

My cousin graduated from college a few weeks ago. I am super proud of her and had such an awesome time visiting my family for the weekend in Colorado. Also got burned to shit after sitting outside for an hour so thanks, Colorado sun.

Kombucha. I’ve been brewing my own at home and it’s a hugggge money saver for me. I didn’t buy kombucha a ton before, but now I get to reap all the benefits of drinking it daily for a much more reasonable price.

Salads. I’ve been trying to eat more of them but I’m just not really that into lettuce these days. I would love any recommendations you guys have.

Also I finally bought some jeans that fit properly and OH MY GOSH what a difference it makes when you don’t just buy the clearance jeans at Target. I have a particularly hard time finding jeans because I have pretty big legs from cycling. I’m still learning to embrace #quadcity.

Here’s tha cake!

 

Healthy (ish) Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Author: Dana Zychowski

Active Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Servings: 16-20 pieces

Recipe Type: breakfast, sweet

 

Ingredients:

for the cake:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup non dairy yogurt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 cup maple syrup or agave
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups chopped rhubarb

for the crumble topping:

• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Line a 9″x13″ baking pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with coconut oil spray or olive oil and set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium sized bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine coconut oil, applesauce, maple syrup, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture and whisk to combine. The batter will be a little wet and pretty thick and this point. Add chopped rhubarb and fold into the batter using a spatula. Pour batter into the baking pan and use your spatula to smooth out the mixture.

Combine ingredients for the crumble topping in a small bowl and whisk together. You may have to break up the coconut oil a bit but you want it to be clumpy. Spread mixture evenly over the batter. Bake at 350 deg F for 35-40 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly before cutting into slices. This recipe can also be made in a 9″ springform pan by cutting all ingredients by half.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days.