Adventures in Eating: Pecan Coffee Cake

Spring is here! I love this time of year so much. Everything seems so fresh and alive. The gar­den is full of tulips and daffodils, summer is just around the corner, and “love” is in the air! With Eas­ter and Passover just around the corner, too, cooks are busy plan­ning their holiday menus.

Brunch seems to be a very pop­ular way to celebrate the season. Spring mornings are so glorious, it’s no wonder Easter brunch be­came a tradition. If I could plan the perfect springtime holiday brunch, it would consist of freshly brewed Columbian coffee, fresh-squeezed orange juice, spicy Bloody Marys, asparagus with hollandaise, scrambled eggs with herbs, smoked country ham with sweet mustard, strawberries lightly dusted with powdered sugar and a luscious, homebaked, just-out-of-the-oven coffeecake!

Coffeecake is good anytime, and the best when it’s warm. My friend, Carrie, made this coffee-cake for a group of women and everyone asked for the recipe. It’s embarrassingly easy, and resem­bles something I made in Home Economics over twenty years ago, but could easily become the star of any menu.

Pecan Coffee Cake

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp.   cinnamon
1 large bag pecans (about 1 lb.)
2 cans refrigerator buttermilk biscuits (Pillsbury)
A few tablespoons Karo syrup (light)
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions to make coffee cake: Mix sugars with cinnamon. Di­vide sugar mixture in half and sprinkle on bottom of a greased 1-quart Jello mold (with center cut out) or ring mold. Sprinkle half bag of pecans over sugar. Cut bis­cuits into quarters. Put half of the biscuits on top of pecans. Lightly sprinkle with Karo syrup. Repeat all layers ending with Karo syrup. Pour melted butter over. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 min. Let cool in pan 5-10 min. and care­fully turn upside down onto serv­ing plate.

Serve warm.

Be Sociable, Share!

•