Christmas Morning Coffee Cake (by justjasmine)

[BakerAunt]

Justjasmine posted this on the King Arthur Baking Circle on August 15, 2002 at 7:30 p.m. I discovered that I had printed it out, so I will transcribe it here, with a few changes to clarify the directions.

Christmas Morning Coffee Cake

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 Tbs. grated lemon peel
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. pure lemon extract
2 cups flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

[Filling]
1 cup chopped walnuts
4 Tbs. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. powdered sugar.

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 10-inch Bundt pan and set aside.

Stir together filling ingredients and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together, add lemon peel, lemon [extract], vanilla, eggs, sour cream; blend well.

[In separate bowl], combine flour, baking powder, and salt; gently fold into creamed mixture. Mix until just blended; do not overmix.

Spoon two-thirds of batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle nut mixture over top. Spread remaining batter over filling in pan. Tap pan to settle batter.

Bake for 55-60 minutes until tester comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes in pan, then unmold onto plate and cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar.

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[Mike Nolan]

My wife remembers her grandmother's Christmas coffee cake fondly, she even has the recipe for it (it was published in the Nebraska Centennial Cookbook, which her mother edited.)

However, we've made it several times and she says we never came close to the original. How much of that is just nostalgia from 60 years ago is unknown.

Personally, I think one of the factors was that her grandmother had dairy cows and when she used sour cream, it was probably fresh cream that had been allowed to go sour, not the cultured stuff you buy at the store these days. (BTW, how can they make a low fat sour cream??)

One of these days I'm going to try making that recipe either with some cream that I have let go sour or with creme fraiche. (I suspect the way milk and cream are heat-treated before they're packaged might be a factor as well, and while it is possible to buy raw milk in Nebraska direct from the farm, I'm not sure what I'd do with a 5 gallon can of it, which is how it is usually sold.)

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