Honey Nut Swirl Coffee Cake is melt-in-your-mouth mouth morning deliciousness. The cake is a perfect breakfast cake, not overpoweringly sweet while possessing a nutty protein to help fuel your day.
🏴 An Amish Coffee Cake From Big Sky Country
Whenever I open my Montana Amish country cookbook I get nostalgic for my visit to Rexford Montana around 2010. It is a very charming community, out in the middle of nowhere near the Canadian border. I do love the Amish of Montana.Rexford is very unusual compared to other Amish communities, in the sense that there is a real remoteness and that breeds real self-sufficiency (where else do you see Amish hunters coming back with bear and salmon?).You also find a lot of recipes like this Big Sky Honey Nut Swirl Coffeecake, self-sufficient snacks and breads that you can basically whip out of nothing.
The people were very friendly and they just have an amazing tradition of scratch-made recipes that can be made out of very basic ingredients. This coffee cake is one of them, and I made this coffeecake several times because it is so good. I remember making this with my daughter, Beatrice, when she was four and we had a good time doing it.
📋 Some Tips On Big Sky Honey-Nut Swirl Coffee Cake
The instructions with the recipe, as is typical for Amish recipes,are pretty sparse… I can see how if you have been making these sorts of things your whole life how you could get by with less instructions… But it says “the milk"… What does that mean? Exactly. How warm of water do you dissolve the yeast in… These are all things that you would get a feel for if you made these frequently but you might not if you’re new. Beatrice and I improvised our way through it. Some tips:
Scald milk: It says "scald milk"....everything I have read says heat the milk to about 180, but I couldn't find a thermometer, so I just put it on medium heat and stirred for four minutes (because I read that that would work) and it seemed to do the trick. I just set my stopwatch so that I'd stick to the time.
Yeast rising: "Let yeast rise in warm place." Well what the heck does that mean? Like furnace hot? Or just pleasantly mild?
Well, it is a chilly day here in Ohio, but I noticed the bright sun shining into my car. Figured that would be a warm, but not too warm place. So I slipped outside with a covered bowl, hoping my neighbors wouldn't see me putting dough on the dash. It worked fine, but I'm not sure you have to get that crazy. You could just find a shaft of sunlight on your windowsill and do that.
📜 Step-By-Step Honey Nut Swirl Coffeecake
Let's look at some photos.
I used 2 percent milk but, really, to replicate the Amish recipe perfectly, I'd use whole milk or even buttermilk.
Stir the milk for about 3 - 4 minutes on medium to "scald" it, or use a thermometer to make sure it hits 180, but you don't want to boil it. You can use or large spoon or whisk to stir the milk as it heats up. You can add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the milk for extra flavor.
Dough on the dash. Kind of silly, but it worked. Just find a warm place. Use a large mixing bowl for the dough.
My "helper", Beatrice, rolls out the dough into a rectangle. We used bread flour, but I think you could use all-purpose flour and it'd work fine.
Now she is spreading on the filling. We stuck with the recipe of two teaspoons of cinnamon, but I LOVE cinnamon so when I have made it again, I have used two tablespoons. I mean, do what you want. But I love cinnamon so if you do too, use more cinnamon, it'll be fine and you'll like it more and get a cinnamon roll-type taste.
Another possible addition to the filling is brown sugar. A couple of tablespoons of brown sugar is really, really super. Again, this all depends on how sweet you like your coffee cake. For me, I love sweet. Some people -inexplicably - don't.
We rolled them up like a jelly roil, but the instructions say to roll-up, and roll into a coil, I assume this is a "coil."We rolled up the dough and sort of pinched it shut and it looked like two doughy logs ready to go in the oven. We used walnuts, but you could use pecans if you like those better. Depends on the flavors you desire. You could even dust coffee cake with powdered sugar or drizzle a glaze over it.
I really like this Big Sky Honey Nut Swirl Coffee Cake recipe. If you want a muted sweetness, follow the recipe just as it is below. But if you want something sweeter than use some of the suggestions I've given you. Also, you can add some confectioners sugar to make the filling thicker. I love the texture of this coffee cake. And if you have any leftovers they can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature for several days.
This is a perfect brunch treat or just enjoy a slice with a cup of coffee.
🥮 More Amish Coffee Cakes
Sour Cream Pumpkin Coffee Cake
🖨️ Full Recipe Coffee Cake
Big Sky Honey Nut Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup shortening
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 packages dry yeast
- 6 flour
Filling
- 1 /2 cup honey
- ¼ cup butter
- 3 walnuts chopped
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Scald milk.
- Stir in shortening, sugar, and salt. Cool to lukewarm.
- Dissolve yeast in water.
- Add yeast, eggs, and 2 cups of flour to milk mixture. Beat until smooth.
- Gradually add enough flour to make a soft dough.
- Turn out on floured surface. Let rise 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise in warm place until doubled.
- Punch down and let rise again. Divide in half, roll each in an 18 X 12 rectangle. Spread with honey-nut filling, roll-up, and roll into a coil, and let rise and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Dorie
In the first recipe above the one that can be printed., it has 2 eggs in the filling. I think you might want to check that one out. The one below is how I make my sweet roll dough. Never made filling with honey. Sounds wonderful.
Live near Amish in western NY. Pretty country! Thanks for all your recipes!
Heather
A "warm place" is inside - this should have been easy peasy -- an oven closed, with the light on! If you keep your home on the cool side in winter, and the inside of the oven is colder than 80 degrees, heat it up to about 150 degrees, once it's to that temp, then turn off. Open the door for a minute or two and then put in your dough, close the door and leave the light on. Voila, a warm place and no need to endanger the dash if the dough overflows (yes sometimes with smaller bowls it will do that, especially in a super-warm place like your car in the sun-especially a black or dark coloured car!)
Kevin Williams
Good advice, Heather, thank you!!