Grandma Hazel's Jewish Coffee Cake

I'm finally back from my extended vacation that took me to the far corners of the US (Maine and Southern California) and ready to share my latest exploits in the kitchen!

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My Grandma Hazel was Catholic, not Jewish, so I have no idea why she would have had a recipe for a Jewish coffee cake.  But she did, and I found it by chance while going through my mom's recipe book on our visit home.  And of course, I had to make it!

I really loved how this came out.  It was full of fruits and nuts and made a great snack.  It didn't last long, either.  My stepdad ate about half of the cake by himself.  Plus, I got warm fuzzies when I was making it, as I do any time I make one of my Grandma's recipes.

Jewish Coffee Cake
(recipe courtesy of my Grandma Hazel)

1 cup sugar

Baking in my mom's kitchen :)

2 eggs

½ cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped dates

1 small bottle maraschino cherries

½ cup walnuts

 1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Cream together the sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  

Pour ½ of the batter into a greased angel food pan.  Cover batter with the fruit mixture- raisins, chopped dates, cherries and ½ of the walnuts. Sprinkle ½ of the sugar and cinnamon over the fruit.  Pour the rest of the batter over the fruit and sprinkle the remainder of the sugar, cinnamon and nuts over the top.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.

The angel food pan makes it easy to remove from the pan.  It tastes great served warm, with a cup of tea. I don't know how Jewish this coffee cake it, but it is definitely yummy!

I'm glad that Fall is on the way, I just wish we had the cool Fall temperatures that I am used to.  The forecast here in the Bay Area is in the 90's for the rest of the week.  But even with the HOT temperatures, I am looking forward to cooking with apples and pumpkins!

On Vacation!

I'm currently on vacation in Maine, so I'm not spending a whole lot of time in the kitchen.  I have made a few things at my Mom's house, though.  I'll be sure to share once I am back home!

Summertime Dessert Series: Lemon Chess Pie

Remember the movie Fried Green Tomatoes?  I loved that movie and all that southern food always looked so good.  I'm a northern girl, so I don't have much experience with southern cooking.  But somehow, I ended up with a copy of the Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook in my possession.  And while looking for something summery for dessert the other night, I cracked it open and stumbled on a recipe for Lemon Chess Pie.

I'd heard of Chess Pie before, but had no real idea of what it is.  Apparently, it's a southern thing.  Something about the the cornmeal in the filling.  It sounded good, so I gave it a try.

I started with basic pie dough from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, made in my food processor.  This recipe is for a 9 inch, one crust pie.

 Basic Pie Dough
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3-4 Tbsp cold water

Combine flour, salt and shortening in food processor.  Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add water, one tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition.  The dough should hold together, but not be sticky.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface, to about 1/8 inch thickness.  I've found that flouring the rolling pin, instead of the dough, works best.

Transfer the dough to the pie pan and crimp the edges as desired.  For this pie, I trimmed the excess and then tucked and used my thumb for a fluted edge.

I'll admit, I have a hard time with pie crusts.  Very often, they crack on me and I end up with a pieced together pie crust in my pie plate.  That didn't happen with this pie, to my great delight, and surprise.  It transferred easily and had no rips or tears.

 Lemon Chess Pie
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
1/4 cups whipping cream
1 Tbsp cornmeal
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest




 Preheat oven to 350F.  With an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar at high speed until thick an lemon colored.  Add melted butter and dream gradually, beating for about 1 minute.  Add in cornmeal, flour, lemon juice and lemon zest.  Pour filling into prepared pie shell and bake 40-45 minutes, until filling is set.  Cool before cutting and serve with fresh whipped cream.