This gluten-free cinnamon pecan coffee cake is moist, flavorful, and lightly sweet. It happens to be grain free, but you don’t have to be grain free to enjoy it, just like you don’t have to be gluten free to enjoy gluten-free food.
It’s a tradition in our family to have a nice breakfast Christmas morning, and the highlight of that breakfast is always cinnamon rolls. My gluten-free cinnamon rolls are sooo good, and we all love them. But this year I’m grain free.
I have thought about eating grains just for the holidays, but when I recently had a little accidentally, my digestive system didn’t seem to like it. I really don’t want to end up feeling sick or stuck in the bathroom. So instead I came up with this coffee cake.
My family really liked it, but not as much as cinnamon rolls. I think I’ll still be making the rolls for them. Maybe I’ll go back to my gluten-free cinnamon rolls that were not dairy free.
But I think I’ll make this coffee cake for myself and anyone else who wants it for a snack later in the day. The nice thing is that unlike some gluten-free baked goods, it doesn’t get dry or hard after it’s cold. It stays nice and moist. In fact, I will probably make it the day before.
This recipe uses both almond flour and coconut flour. I like the combination of the two, and for this recipe to work you need to use both flours. You can’t just substitute and use all almond flour or all coconut flour.
Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 cup almond flour
- 3/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
For the Topping
- 1 cup pecan halves, toasted and chopped
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 2 Tablespoons honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line the bottom of a 9 inch round cake pan with parchment paper. Lightly grease the paper and sides of the pan with coconut oil.
- Combine the topping ingredients and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a small bowl, use a fork to beat together the eggs and milk.
- Add the egg/milk mixture, coconut oil, honey, and vanilla to the mixing bow. Beat with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes until ingredients are well combined.
- Spoon into the cake pan and spread out evenly. Spoon the topping evenly over the entire cake. (I use my fingers to sprinkle the nuts around evenly.)
- Bake for about 35 minutes or until it is set in the middle and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan about 5 minutes. Invert onto a plate or rack, remove the parchment paper if stuck to the cake, and invert again onto a serving plate.
O. MY. GOODNESS! This looks delicious, I have such a long list of your recipe to make! I love that you used almond and coconut flour, I’m in a habit of using almond and arrowroot but would like to use almond and coconut to reduce the starch. Thanks for this, it looks amazing 🙂
-Cassidy
This looks great. Thought anything this good looking would be full of sugar, but NO. Thank you so much. Can’t wait to try it. Horay! What a treat it will be.
is there supposed to be coffee listed in the ingredients? just wondered where the ‘coffee cake’ flavour will come from ?
Hi Helen. This confuses a lot of people. Coffee cake is often not coffee flavored but is eaten with coffee.
I think my confusion may be a UK thing. What we refer to coffee cake here in the UK is usually flavoured with coffee.
That cake looks amazing, Linda! I really love almond flour and coconut flour together. I think they’re the perfect combo and use them in lots of recipes. There are some amazing grain-free Cinnamon Roll recipes, but I know you’d prefer creating your own recipe and it’s a little late for that now. 😉
Merry Christmas Eve Eve!
Shirley
What would work other than coconut flour? My daughter is allergic.
There is no easy substitute for coconut flour. Sorry.
Linda, that coffee cake looks so delicious!
Linda, this recipe sounds great! I love that it has very little sweetener. I need to go back through a lot of my recipes and convert the sugar to make the recipes healthier.
Happy Holidays!
@Andrea – Before you start your conversions, you may want to check our Just Like Sugar, a product that sweetens like table sugar but completely circumvents all of sucrose’s (not to mention honey’s, maple syrup’s, molasses’ and especially stevia’s) downsides and ill effects. In fact, Just Like Sugar is actually healthy for us. Nice, eh? You can check it out thoroughly at http://www.justlikesugar.com/. Bon appétit!
This looks delicious and I bet it would be good with pineapple and pecans on the bottom and then flip it up when done. This recipe would be a god base for many different variations! I have been using coconut flour and almond flour for portions of the GF flour in breakfast muffins and banana bread and it is great. I use the Bob’s Red Mill with the bean flour figuring I will get some protein, but with 1/2 of it substituted with coconut and almond flours, everything baked is much better. I also add in some yogurt and it makes baked goods more moist. I do not follow recipes closely tho – I just dump things in. I make muffins or banana bread for breakfasts for a week at a time and keep in frig., as there is no time to be cooking eggs or other foods in the mornings before work. I am going to try this coffee cake recipe soon!
Could you substitute a yellow gluten-free cake mix somehow. I hate the taste of coconut flour in baked goods.
We cant have almond or coconut flour. Can I substitite a GF all purpose flour?
No, I don’t think that would work well. Try one of these: http://glutenfreehomemaker.com/cranberry-orange-coffee-cake/ or http://glutenfreehomemaker.com/orange-coffee-cake/
Made this today, and it was great. I only made one change, used coconut milk instead of almond milk (that is what I had on hand). Will definitely make it again. Thanks.
I would like to know if maybe pecan flour can be use in place of the coconut flour?
No, I really don’t think so. Coconut flour requires more liquid and eggs, so substituting it for something else would require more modifications to the recipe. You’d really have to experiment.
So far the best paleo coffee cake! Very good, thank you!
There weren’t many comments from those who made this, so I wanted to share that this is really delicious! We aren’t dairy-free, so I used milk and butter in lieu of almond milk and coconut oil, but I’m sure it’s great either way.
One note, though – and it may have been my oven – but I took mine out after 32 minutes and the edges were more done than I would have liked. Next time I’ll take it out around 28-30 minutes. It would be a shame to burn because it tastes great. The time spent toasting the pecans really paid off.
Really delicious, thanks for the recipe!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing that the milk and butter worked well as well as your baking time adjustment. I agree, I always think that toasting nuts is worth while.
I have made this cake twice now and it is absolutely delicious. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe, Linda. I did substitute Rice Malt syrup for the honey…served with strawberries and Whipped cream…. Highly recommend this recipe.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Deb. Thanks for letting me know!
I made this and served it to my chidren and my in-laws. My picky father in law (who swears he doesn’t like nuts) said it made his list of top three all time favorite desserts. That’s pretty impressive. I did substitute white sugar and molasses for the honey because I was out, and I added a little lemon juice to help the baking soda react. This is a new favorite for us!
Jennifer, thanks for the great report. I’m so glad to hear that it won your father in law over!
This sounds delicious! Is there a sub for almond flour? Maybe another nut flour? My son can’t have almonds. If not, then I guess I will just have to eat it all myself 🙂
Any suggestions for egg substitution?
This recipe sounds really nice any suggestions how I could make it nut free for my child care centre. I am new to gluten free cooking and am sick of reading and tasting how hard and cardboard like a lot of recipes turn out.
Enjoy it
I just finished a slice with my cup of coffee, this cake is awesome! I made it exactly as written and none of my 3 kids are complaining.
I’ll be making this again, I might try adding one diced apple to the batter next time!
Thanks for sharing.
this looks amazing and easy to make..
One question, where does the coffe comes in on the recipe?
Coffee cake is not made with coffee, it’s eaten with coffee. 🙂
why is it called coffee cake when there is no coffee in it?
It’s eaten with coffee not made with coffee. 🙂
Is there a way to pin this.
cant wait to try this
wow that recipe looks great
Do you think it’s possible to substitute the eggs with something else and have it still come out good? Perhaps some ground flax seeds/vinegar/and a little tahini or almond butter?
I don’t use egg substitutes, so I can’t help you there.
FANTASTIC recipe! Made without adaption … I can’t wait to share this with family members who don’t believe that GF baking can be fantastic!
Thank you!
I made this cake and I love it. I substituted Coconut flour with normal self raising flour as I didn’t find coconut flour. I also made the almond flour myself.
There arent a to of comments from people who made this, so id just like to say that this cake tastes as good as it looks! I only had walnuts on hand so i toasted those for the topping, and my family scarfed this down soo quickly. My brothers are picky and my mom is a complete health nut who avoids super sweet things, and this hit the spot for all of them. Will definitely make again.
Hi Linda,I getting ready to make this cake now, every time I saw almond, or coconut flour, on sale, at my local market, I would stock up, now I have so much,( I better get a baking) My grown son, and I just wanted to stop eating gluten, and cut back on the carbs, didn’t realize how much fun it could be with recipes like yours. Thanks so much!
Thank you for a lovely looking recipe. I will try it this weekend! Just wondering how much butter I would need if I used this instead of coconut oil? Thanks again!
Hi Linda! Can I substitute almond flour with almond meal?
Yes, that should work though it might be a little noticeable in the texture.
I made this today, and the batter was not at all like cake… the “batter” was rather thick and not runny at all. I had to push it into the pan with a spatula, although it was very moist! Is that typical? It is still in the oven so I won’t know the texture or how heavy it is until later. I did add extra almond milk since it was so thick but this did not seem to make a difference. I double checked the ingredients to make sure I did not add extra flour by accident, and did not. Help 🙂
That is normal when using coconut flour because it absorbs a lot of liquid. However, it can vary by brand of coconut flour so you may need slightly less than the recipe calls for. The batter should be thick but not dry and stiff.
This was fantastic! Served to a work party today and everyone loved it. Super easy to make, followed instructions exactly and it was wonderful. Thank you!
Mine came out dry and and crumbling. I would not make this again I wasted all my pecans on a recipe that tasted awful.
I’m sorry to hear that Katrina because this recipe should turn out very moist. I suspect it had to do with your coconut flour, which absorbs a lot of liquid. It can vary from brand to brand. You may only need 1/2 cup.
Hi Linda, Looks delicious. Does the cake freeze well? I love baking cakes but there is only and me and my fiancee in this house so a whole cake can be a bit much 🙂
Hi Annita. I haven’t tried freezing it, but I think it would work well.
Just made this coffee cake this morning for my husband for Father’s Day, and we all loved it! Turned out so yummy. Thanks for the recipe!
This is delicious! Just made my first one and it won’t be my last! I’m new to cooking with almond flour and I like the results. Thanks for the recipe.
I made this for a work breakfast and it was really delicious! I did make some changes so here goes…I doubled the recipe and used a 9×13 glass pan that I sprayed well with spray coconut oil. I subbed grass fed butter for the coconut oil in both the cake and the recipe. I ran out of honey at 3/4 cup so finished the rest with maple syrup. I did not toast the pecans first as I was afraid they would then burn in the oven (since they’ll be toasted as the topping while baking anyway), and I used coconut sugar in the topping instead of honey. Obviously I had to bake a bit longer because of the increased size. It turned out very moist and held together extremely well when I cut it into squares. The flavor was delicate, the topping stayed on and was tasty, and I got lots of compliments on it. Thank you for the great recipe!!
I forgot to add I made the entire thing in my food processor because I’m lazy! Because I doubled it it was a tight fit but worked out really well for me.
This is a great recipe. I’ve made it several times and it always turns out. I’ve also grated apple and mixed it with the pecans. Delicious again!