Christmas Morning Coffee Cake

Every year its tradition that Mom makes the Christmas Morning Coffee Cake. This year I had the privilege of trying my hand at it, it turned out quite nice if I do say so myself.

So here is the recipe with pictures.

5 to 6 cups Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tsp Salt

2 Pkg. Yeast

1 1/2 cups Milk

1/2 cup Butter

2 Eggs

Filling:

1/4 cup Butter

1 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Chopped Nuts

1 TBL. Cinnamon

Topping:

1 cup Powdered Sugar

2 to 3 TBL Milk

Candied Cherries.

Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup, level off. In a large bowl, combine two cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, salt and yeast. Blend well.

In a medium saucepan, heat 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup butter until very warm (120 to 130 f). Add warm liquid to flour mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened, beat three minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in 2 to 2 1/2 cups flour to form a stiff dough.

On floured surface knead in 1 to 1 1/2 cups flour until dough is smooth and elastic, 5 to 8 minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl and turn to grease all sides. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and a damp clean towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Generously grease two 15 x 10 x 1 inch pans. (I used cookie sheets.) Punch down dough several times to remove air bubbles. Divide dough into two parts.

On a lightly floured surface, roll one part into a triangle with two sixteen in sides and a twelve inch base. Brush with butter.

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, nuts and cinnamon; mix well.

Sprinkle 1/2 of mixture evenly over your dough triangle.
To shape tree, starting at top point of the triangle, fold sixteen inch sides to meet in the center, pressing all seams to the seal. Flip it over onto your baking pan.

With scissors or a sharp knife, make slits almost to the middle point of the tree. starting at the top and working to the bottom. Then, starting at the bottom twist each strip so cut side is up to show filing. Cover, and let rise until light and doubled in size. About 30 to 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Heat oven to 350. Uncover dough. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes, remove from pans. Cool completely.In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and enough milk for desired drizzling consistency, blend until smooth. Drizzle over coffee cakes. Garnish with candied cherries.

Makes two coffee cakes.

Recipe courtesy of Pillsbury.

And there you have it. It is'nt as hard as it seems and Mom has been making them for 19 years.

Enjoy!

-Abbe