Longing for those mouth-watering conconctions of your youth? Wondering where they came from, who made them and most importantly, how can I whip up batch now?

Well, this is where you'll find the great Mangelsdorf comfort foods. If you discover an old family favorite in your recipe folder or even a variation on a theme, by all means, send them in!

Mangelsdorf Coffee Cake (4 cakes)

1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of Crisco
1/2 tsp. of salt
2 eggs
1 cup flour (will add 6 cups of flour later)
1 cake of yeast (or one packet) proofed in 1/2 cup of warm water
1 cup of mashed potatoes

Cream the Crisco, sugar and salt; add one egg and beat, then add the 2^nd egg and beat, then add the yeast and water. Stir in 1 cup of flour and beat well. Add 1 cup of lukewarm potato water and stir in the mashed potatoes mixing well. Sift and mix in the 6 cups of flour gradually. As the dough forms, begin kneading to work in all the flour. Grease a large container, cover dough and let dough rise over night. I use a large ceramic bread crock.

The next morning on a floured surface work (knead) the dough and divide into 4 equal portions. Work each portion with a little flour and put into a pie pan. Let rise about 1 hour in a warm place.

Brush tops with melted butter and then take a teaspoon and press holes (not completely though the dough) and fill each hole with sugar. We make 7-8 holes which helps to spread the dough in the pie plate.  Then sprinkle the top of each cake with milk and then cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees 25-30 minutes. Watch them and move them around in the oven to bake all four cakes evenly.

Take out of pie plates to cool. This coffee cake should be sliced thin like bread not as a pie. These cakes freeze well. Wrap the cake or a few slices in foil to reheat. Dunking in milk or coffee is the accepted manner of eating.

Hint: the sugar holes need to be deep enough or they pop up during baking. If the hole breaks the dough, sugar and milk seep through the bottom and can burn the bottom of the cake during cooking.

This recipe came from my father’s family in Germany. My father was one of eight children and out of necessity his parents were very frugal. My grandmother only put 2-4 sugar holes in each cake. The child who took the end of the cake then selected his or her choice of slice with the favored sugar hole. My mother decided that “her George” would have a bit of a sugar hole with almost every slice, thus the 7-8 sugar holes.

My grandfather (Will Mangelsdorf) wanted all of his granddaughters (14 of us) to learn to make the coffee cakes. He offered a dollar (usually a silver dollar) for the first time any of us made the coffee cakes. Several of my cousins made the effort. After my grandfather’s funeral, my mother served the coffee cakes.

Submitted by: Sarah Mangelsdorf-Walter