Pumpkin Coffee Cake

I was in search of a coffee cake recipe for brunch with friends, and I really didn't want to go to the store for any ingredients. A scan of the pantry turned up the usual suspects - pumpkin, dried cranberries, nuts. I also wanted a chance to incorporate some different grains. I got a copy of Good to the Grain (Kim Boyce) for Christmas, and am inspired to branch out into some lesser known grains. I found a pumpkin coffee cake recipe at Epicurean.com, which looked like it would be easy and tasty. I switched it up a bit, adding amaranth and whole wheat flour.
The resulting coffee cake was moist, spicy and had the grassy, sort of hay-like flavor from the amaranth that I've become quite smitten with. The cake played to rave reviews, and the amaranth provided a nice suprise taste. Not to worry if you don't have obscure grains hanging around. Use the cornmeal amount from the recipe below, and use all-purpose flour in place of the rest of flours amount.
Enjoy!




Ingredients:
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup amaranth flour
1/3 cup white or yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil (or applesauce)
1/4 cup nf plain Greek yogurt
1 cup pumpkin or winter squash purée, canned or homemade
1 cup fresh or dried cranberries
3 tablespoons demerara or raw sugar

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch square baking pan.
Spread the walnuts in a small baking pan and bake until lightly toasted, 8 to 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, cornmeal, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil (applesauce), yogurt, and pumpkin and beat with a large whisk or an electric beater until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix just until incorporated. Stir in the cranberries and 2/3 cup of the nuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Scatter the remaining 1/3 cup nuts on top and sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan to room temperature.
To avoid unnecessary temptation, I wrapped up the extra in plastic wrap and froze - the original recipe indicated this cake freezes well.