Freekeh has been on my radar for a while now but impossible to get in South Africa. So when I was approached by The Really Interesting Food Company to create a recipe with Greenwheat Freekeh there was no way I was going to refuse. And that is how this Freekeh Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Walnut Streusel came into being.
Since I am up against 9 other foodies to create a recipe, I decided that I had to go sweet as most would probably do something savoury. I got inspiration from this recipe for a Freekeh Pumpkin Cake and decided to grind my own flour from the packet of cracked grain freekeh. I made the recipe up as I went along, not having any idea how the freekeh “flour” would bake but I have to say I am pretty impressed with the end result.
Freekeh is “Roasted Green Grains”, produced from green durum wheat. Low GI, high in fibre and protein content and quality, it tastes infinitely better than quinoa. I roasted the pumpkin to eliminate as much moisture as possible so the weight in the recipe is for the pumpkin after it has been roasted. I would always be dissapointed when reading a recipe for a pumpkin coffee cake that there is no coffee added to the batter, so I have added coffee to this batter to appease myself. The cake is packed with spices, is deliciously moist and the streusel adds a sweet nutty texture.
Freekeh is truly a tasty grain and I do recommend you get your hands on a packet and try it out.

Freekeh Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Walnut Streusel
Ingredients
- 200 g Freekeh flour ground from 200g cracked freekeh
- 200 g light brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarb of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 2 eggs
- 250 g roasted pumpkin weight after roasted, mashed with a fork
- 250 ml full fat plain yoghurt
- 80 ml vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Streusel topping:
- 50 g walnuts roughly chopped
- 25 g light brown sugar
- 25 g butter
- 25 g flour
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
- Make the streusel by mixing all the ingredient with your hands until it resembles course crumbs and set aside
- Grease and line a 22cm springform cake tin
- Mix together the freekeh flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb, spices, espresso powder and salt in a large mixing bowl
- In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, yoghurt, oil and vanilla
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat until well mixed and smooth
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and sprinkle the streusel over the batter
- Bake the cake for 50 – 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean
- Cool on a wire rack, remove from the tin and serve
We’ve had a number of enquiries for the next Food Photography Workshop and I am pleased to confirm the 15th of May 2016 for the next one. Let me know if you would like to attend. More details here.
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Thalia @ butter and brioche
Apr 19, 2016
I have some freekeh on hand but have only ever used it savoury and tossed through salads. Definitely have to try it in something sweet! Thanks!
heinstirred
Apr 19, 2016
Let me know what you’ve made Thalia
Keith @ How's it Lookin?
Apr 19, 2016
Looks so good. I never had a coffee cake like this, thanks for sharing
heinstirred
Apr 19, 2016
Pleasure Keith. Hope you enjoy.