Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I have a morning routine. It's pretty standard M-F. I wake up, brush my teeth (yes, before breakfast), go downstairs, pour cereal and milk in a cup and go sit in bed with my portable breakfast. If you're wondering, this whole process would be ruined by using a bowl. It's just not practical. At 22, I think I can only get away with this for a few more years. But whenever I try to change up that morning routine, I find myself craving cereal for the rest of the day. I think having this for breakfast is one of the very few exceptions.

First of all, what's not to love about coffee cake? My rule with coffee cakes is that they absolutely must be moist (does anyone actually like that word?). A dry coffee cake is no coffee cake at all in my book. This particular recipe passes all of my tests and more. It provides a good excuse for chocolate in the morning, is sweet enough for dessert and there is not a bad bite in the pan. I usually try to outside pieces first since those are my least favorite. If something is great even on those outside I'm a happy camper. I devoured this, outsides and all. My only piece of advice would be to avoid making this just as a casual thing to have around the house for breakfast. It's a 13x9--it stays around the house. If it stays around the house you'll eat all of it. The good news is that with this large of a serving you'll have enough to make everyone around you worship you for a day or two. Work, friends, significant other, family...happiness for everyone!

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Recipe from The Cherry on Top (Originally from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients

Cake

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups (16 ounces) sour cream
• 3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon table salt

Filling and Topping

• 2 cups or 12 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan. If not nonstick coated, cover the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper. Set pan aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together into a separate bowl. Alternately mix in sour cream and then dry ingredients into butter mixture until both are used up and the batter is smooth and very thick. In a medium bowl, beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter.
3. In a small dish, whisk together sugar and cinnamon for filling and topping.
4. Spread half the cake batter in the bottom of prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of cinnamon-sugar mixture and 1 cup of chocolate chips. Dollop remaining cake batter over filling in spoonfuls. Use a rubber or offset spatula to gently spread it over the filling and smooth the top. Sprinkle batter with remaining cinnamon-sugar and remaining chocolate chips. With the palm of your hand, ever-so-gently press the chocolate chips a bit into the batter. No need to submerge them, you just want to make sure they adhere bit.
5. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.