Guest Lyndee Henderson with Hungarian Coffee Cake!

Welcome to our friend, Lyndee Henderson! She's sharing an amazing recipe (and some equally cute doggie and child photos!). Thanks, Lyndee, for being with us!

Hungarian Coffee Cake

With Lyndee Henderson

Betty Crocker calls it ‘high, light and handsome.’  I call that description just perfect for a man from New York’s Allegheny County. (Get it, Ruthy?).

First, yuns make the dough.

Begin this recipe by making a Traditional Sweet Roll Dough.

2 packages active dry yeast

½ C warm water (105 to 115 degrees)

½ C lukewarm milk (scalded, then cooled)

½ C sugar

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

½ C shortening

4 ½ to 5 C all-purpose flour

Scald milk, then cool.

Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Stir in milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 ½ C flour.

Beat until smooth.  Mix in just enough of the remaining flour to make it easy to handle.  Turn dough onto lightly floured board; knead until smooth and elastic, 3 - 5 minutes.  Don’t overwork.  Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up.  Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 1 ½ hours.

While the dough is rising, go eat snow.

Dough is ready if impression remains when touched.

As the dough is rising, prepare the following:

½ C butter, melted

1 C sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

½ C optional chopped nuts

Punch down dough.  Divide into 48 pieces and shape into 1 ½ inch balls.

Dip into butter, then into the mixture of sugar, cinnamon and, if desired, nuts.  Place a single layer of balls into well-greased 10-inch tube pan so they just touch. If the pan has removable bottom, line with aluminum foil.  Top with a second layer of balls.

Cover and let rise until double, about 30 - 45 minutes.

While waiting, sit on the chair and watch your people.

Bake 35 minutes at 375 degrees.

Loosen from pan. Invert pan onto serving plate so butter-sugar mixture can drizzle down over cake.

Voila!!

(We speak a lot of French on the Illinois prairie.)

To serve, break coffee cake apart with forks.

Lyndee Jobe Henderson has been digging up history, literally, ever since she was little girl accompanying her Daddy on archeological digs.  It’s no wonder that she’s author of three history-related non-fiction books: Johnstown, More than Petticoats: Remarkable Illinois Women, and Off the Beaten Path Illinois.  Wife of thirty-four years, Grammy of four, and Alpha to three Pomeranians, Lyndee also weaves Inspirational Historical Romances rooted in places that hold her heart – the Illinois prairie and Western Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains.