‘Jam Coffee Cake’ is just the ticket for winning over your Valentine

by Mary Jo David

Woah Nellie continues to focus on recipes found in community cookbooks in our area. And at the risk of showing my age, I admit that today I became sad thinking how future generations may never know the joy of thumbing through the pages of a local cookbook. Seeing family names that go back generations and their preferences for certain kinds of dishes. Watching how the recipes and product trends have changed over the years, like the evolution of “catsup” to “ketchup” or “oleo” to “margarine” (and now “butter”).

In “Kitchen Magic,” the 1984 community cookbook sponsored by the Gregory Firemen’s Ladies Auxiliary of Unadilla Township, I spotted a recipe for “Hazel’s Hawaiian Pie,” submitted by Brenda Schneider, and I found myself wondering who Hazel was to Brenda, and did Hazel ever get to visit Hawaii? When I come across “Busy Day Casserole,” a one-pan “unstuffed” cabbage recipe, submitted by Wilma Keiser, my mind wanders back to what constituted a busy day in 1984. For me that would have meant a full day of working outside the home, picking up our oldest daughter from grandma’s house after work, and then getting home to start supper. Hats off to Wilma, because, honestly, I’m not sure I would have been able to pull off Busy Day Casserole at the end of my busy day.

All of this is to say, community cookbooks are so much more than just a collection of recipes that were assembled to raise money for good causes. They stand as a record of our time. A little piece of area history captured and bound in brittle plastic rings, with food spatters on various pages. The more spatters, the better the recipe. I’m sad to think how long it’s been since I last saw the unveiling of a new community cookbook.

There’s no denying the convenience of going online to find any recipe, along with helpful comments to tell other readers what worked and what didn’t. I certainly have more than my share of favorite recipes I’ve found online, and I will continue to do so. But in a nod to the waning popularity of community cookbooks, I have been making more of an effort to print out some of my favorite online recipes. This way, I can add notes—in my own handwriting—about why I made it, what changes I made to the recipe, how well it was received by family and friends, and anything else that comes to mind. I don’t think about whether my grown kids or grandkids will keep these marked-up pages when I’m gone. They are more than welcome to toss them in the garbage bin if they don’t want them. But fair warning—I’ll haunt them if they do!

‘Jam Coffee Cake’

As for this month’s “Woah Nellie” recipe from “Kitchen Magic,” I believe I landed on a recipe that will be most suitable to try for Valentine’s Day.

“Jam Coffee Cake” was submitted by Peg Stoffer back in 1984, and it fit the bill perfectly. It’s sweet. It contains a red fruit filling. And it actually looks pretty and tastes good. It’s a recipe that might convince a Valentine to “Be Mine.” And it’s easy enough that even a non-morning person (like myself) could pull it off in order to include a special sweet into someone’s lunch as a reminder of undying affection.

The recipe for “Jam Coffee Cake” is straightforward. Suffice it to say, you can use any flavor of jam, but this month just begs the use of something red. Other tips that will help to ensure the success of your efforts include the following:

• Use cold butter and shave it into the Jiffy Mix using a cheese grater (medium grate).
• Keep your dairy ingredients cold before incorporating them into the recipe.
• Consider reducing the amount of jam to 1 cup, which was plenty.
• Try pinching the very ends of the coffee cake closed so less jam escapes (I learned the hard way), and line your baking sheet with parchment paper for easier cleanup (again, I learned the hard way).
• Use more powdered sugar or less milk to make the frosting a consistency that will not run completely off the coffee cake.
• Watch the cake closely near the end of baking. I found that 15 minutes wasn’t quite long enough, but 3 additional minutes was a little too long.

My resident taste tester rated this as one of the best recipes I’ve made since embarking on this Woah Nellie adventure. Thanks to “Jam Coffee Cake,” I do believe he’ll “Be Mine” for another year!