Swedish Coffee Cake

DIRECTLY from my Grandma Gordon's kitchen... the precious family recipe. If this doesn't show up for Christmas brunch, and Easter morning brunch, I don't know what will happen in our family. :) I don't know how many years we hear that Grandma stayed up half the night making the coffee cake, because "she had to". Last year for school, we were assigned to bring a family recipe to one of our classes, and I chose to make this. It's a labor of love for sure, and while mine turned out OK, Grandma's for sure "takes the cake." And to make things even better, when I needed to make this for class, Grandma even offered to help me make some so I wouldn't have to do it all myself, and she loaned me her prized food processor... like I said - a labor of love.

Oslo Kringler or Swedish Coffeecake

Crust:

1 cup flour

1 cube chilled butter

2 or 3 T of ice water

Cut butter into flour with a pastry cutter. Add the water and toss with a fork.

Spread the dough on an ungreased cookie sheet in two 10” x 4” thin crusts.

Topping:

1 cup water

1 cube butter

1 cup flour

3 eggs

½ tsp almond flavoring

½ tsp vanilla

In a 2 or 3 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring the water and butter to a boil.

Add the flour and stir vigorously to combine. (with a whisk)

Mixture should form a ball and pull away from the sides of the pan. Stir over the heat

for 3 or 4 more minutes.

At this point I put the dough in a food processor, wait about 3 or 4 minutes, and then add

the eggs, one at a time, processing one minute after each addition. You can also leave them

in the pan and beat them with the whisk, but this is hard on the arm and not as successful.

The food processor really incorporates the air well.

Add the flavorings. It’s easy to forget them.

Spread the mixture over the uncooked crusts. I use the back of a spoon to slightly smooth

it out.

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. Don’t underbake. Cool completely before drizzling with

a thin powdered sugar frosting, with almond and vanilla. Liberally sprinkle with toasted slivered almonds.

Then drizzle with enough frosting to anchor the almonds.

For a generous amount for our whole family, I do this three times, which takes a fair amount of time,

since each one takes awhile to bake. This recipe is inexpensive to make but very rich with love.

*Most importantly, DO NOT COVER WITH FOIL OR PLASTIC WRAP OR IT WILL WEEP.

You can cover with waxed paper to transport.