JOAN'S COFFEE CAKE

Although I don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen these days, this time of year always brings back memories of big Thanksgiving meals and lots and lots of baking for the holidays. It's hard for me to resist buying fresh baking ingredients, but this year I managed to resist. I know they would go unused because I'm living at this keyboard until I get my first book published.

I figured there would be no harm in looking at recipes though - right? And I have plenty of them. When my son was very young, I quit work to be a stay at home mom. During those years I cooked and baked (from scratch) and collected an enormous amount of recipes. So during the month of December I am going to share some of them with you. 

The recipe below is one that I originally got from my mother, but over time changed it. In spite of all my baking from scratch, this is one recipe where I used canned apples rather than fresh. That's because I used to make it before 6 am and took it to work to share. With getting myself and a toddler ready to leave, there wasn't much time left for baking. When Comstock stopped putting out the canned apples (I never used the pie filling), I switched to canned peaches. Some day I'm going to try it with fresh. 

I used to use a large pizza pan to bake it in because I loved the browned edges. When flour no longer needed to be sifted, there was too much dough for the pan and it overflowed. So I switched to an oblong pan. This recipe freezes well so it can be made ahead for an occasion. One time I split the dough in half and used two smaller pans. I learned not to put the fruit on top of the second one until it was ready to be baked. I also used a pastry cutter to add the butter.

Use a 12x17 baking pan (or large pizza pan) - bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. You'll need:

3 Cups flour
1-1/2 Cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 Cups butter (or margarine)

1 Cup milk (whole or 2%)

3 Eggs

Canned apples or peaches (around 21 oz - you might have to experiment)

Cinnamon (to sprinkle on top after baking)

Using a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together - cut in butter or margarine  - add milk - beat in eggs (one at a time). Butter pan well and pour in dough. Lay fruit on top (you might want to cut the larger slices in half). Bake - After baking, sprinkle cinnamon on top (lightly). 

If you have any questions or comments - or want more recipes - come on over to my Facebook author page "Jake & Maggie Maguire". I'll be posting a recipe each day of December. Here's the link:  https://www.facebook.com/jakenmaggiemaguirebookseries. 

Hope you enjoy the recipe. Thanks for reading. See you in a few days.