Monday, December 17, 2012

Hall Family Christmas Coffee Cake

Hall Family Christmas Morning Coffee Cake
Christmas 1988...Stephen was only 20 months old Mark was 6 years old.  It wasn't Pinterest in those days, it was magazines like Family Circle that sparked the homemaker in young mothers.  Page 106 and 107                                                      
This is better than Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes!  Yep, it put me on the map of cool moms.  The boys are now 30 and 25.  Mark has little ones of his own and all of the conversation from my kiddos has been that we need to make more coffee cake this year. 
It really isn't that hard. 
The dough is called Buttery Rich Sweet Dough
2 packets of active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup very warm water (105-115 degrees)
Put that in a bowl, stir to dissolve yeast and let stand about 10 minutes to get bubbly. 
Meanwhile in my food processor with the blade in it,
4 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
turn processor on and put in slices of
1 cup of cold butter.
Processor til it has consistency of fine crumbs.  Then through chute of processor lid pour in
3/4 milk
4 egg yolks
yeast mixture from above. 
Keep processor going to doughball forms. 
Wrap your dough in plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. (you can keep it in fridge up to 2 days or freezer up to 3 weeks) 
On Christmas morning, pull your dough from fridge and punch it down.  Turn out onto a floured surface (hint!!!I use powdered sugar instead of flour)  Divide dough in thirds.  (You get 3 cakes out of 1 recipe of dough!) 
Filling:
SO-o-o I tore the pages out and made coffee cakes for friends and family every year since but I lost the page with the fillings.  So I had to fake my own recipes for fillings.
1/4 cup butter softened
1 cup pecans (walnuts or almonds)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Blend well in food processor.  Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips instead of cinnamon for a chocolate filling 
Below I scanned the yellowed pages for the Reindeer and Christmas Tree for you.
Don't think too hard.  Roll the dough out, spread with filling then fold the dough into the shape you want.  Follow eggwash instructions and how to bake.  And I love the idea of brushing with melted apple jelly.  Decorate after they come out of oven with icing and red hots and colored sugars/sprinkles. 
Important tip.  I bake these on parchment paper.  Makes it so easy to move from cookie sheet to platter.   Grandson, Christian, and Edith, Gary's mother watch me decorate the Christmas tree.  (Edith makes your Vanilla Butter Sauce every morning.  She gets Christmas morning off.)