Amish Cinnamon Coffeecake
By Kevin Williams
Coffeecakes are a staple of Amish morning meals. Their popularity has roots in its accessibility and portability. To make a simple, tasty coffeecake, most Amish cooks already have the ingredients they need in their pantry. And it also travels well. Take it out of the oven, stick it in some sort of Tupperware container and load it onto the buggy. Easy. Coffeecakes, like doughnuts and other pastries, add a sweet balance to a savory morning meal usually loaded up with eggs, bacon, and sausage.
In the wider world, coffeecakes are popular Christmas morning menu items. My mother-in-law almost always makes a delicious coffeecake.
An Amish cook in Walhonding, Ohio (this is a very progressive Amish settlement) gave me this coffeecake recipe that is popular in their family. Longtime reader and friend Barbara in Missouri tested this for me and I want to thank her for doing such an outstanding job. Glad I did not test the recipe because I would have just eaten it and, yea, well, wouldn’t be great for the diet. Anyway, give this delicious recipe a try!
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 cake
- 1 cup butter or margarine, divided
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 5 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg, divided
- 3 cups flour, unsifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup dairy sour cream
- ½ cup milk
- GLAZE
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- couple tablespoons of milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- n a small saucepan melt ¼ cup butter.
- Stir in walnuts, brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon and ½ teaspoon nutmeg.
- Mix well -- reserve for later use. In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 3 teaspoons cinnamon and ½ teaspoon nutmeg.
- Set aside.
- In a large bowl cream together ¾ cup butter with sugar.
- Beat in eggs one at a time.
- Add vanilla.
- Alternately stir in flour mixture with sour cream and milk.
- Blend until smooth. Spoon half of batter into a greased tube pan.
- Spread half of nut mixture over batter
- Repeat once more.
- Bake until golden and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
- Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
- Remove from pan.
- Cool.
- Mix powdered sugar with water and drizzle over cake.
