Cake

1 pkg. yeast                                                       about 1-2 cups lukewarm milk

¼ cup lukewarm water                                     1 stick butter

¾   cup sugar and a little salt                              4 cups flour

3-4 eggs

Mix yeast with the lukewarm water an  little sugar. Put flour into a large bowl, make a hole in one side and pour the yeast mixture into and add a little flour to it. Let rise about 10 minutes. Add the lukewarm milk, sugar, melted butter and eggs to flour. Beat the dough pretty hard to a soft texture. If to soft had a little more four. Cover the bowl in a warm place and let rise to triple size. That might take a few hours. I put the bowl in an unlit gas oven as it is warm in there and out of a draft, or on a sunny day, in the sun by the window.  Check it after an hour or so. After it has sufficiently risen, spread it onto two large greased cookie sheets. Because I prefer my coffee cake thin I use the cookie sheets. Other size pans can also be used.  Let rise again about ½ hour or so. Add the (Streussel) crumbs topping.  For variation, add fruit. For example, using your favorite  apples,  cut them  into slices, arrange the slices onto the dough, sprinkle sugar to taste and then ad the topping. Then add the crumbs.   

Streussel Topping

Because I like thick Streussel on my coffee cake, I blend together 2 sticks of softened butter and 1 or more cups sugar (to your taste). Then beginning with 1 cup flour, add to the mixture, mix well, continue adding more flour until its crumbly. Optional: you can add crushed almonds.      

 Preheat oven to 350.

 Bake Coffee Cake approx. 20-30 minutes until golden brown. Or with fruit, bake another 15 minutes or so.

Honey Topping  (This is really good!)

3 cups white sugar                                      1cup flour

1cup cream or canned milk                         ½ cup butter

3 cups water

Burn sugar slowly to a golden brown color on low heat. Add water all at once. Simmer until hardened mixture boils down to a syrup texture.  Add to melted butter, cream and flour to a paste.  Slowly add all together keep stirring constantly until it thickens like pudding. Let cool and spread on Coffee Cake dough.

 Add crumb topping on top, let rise about 30 min. Bake like above.

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