Phew! That is quite a title, but it’s exactly what I set out to make on Saturday night. My family has had a love affair going with those Entenmann’s cream cheese danish things for years. We had an outlet store close by us when we lived near Seattle. At least once a month, if not more often, we’d stop by and pick up 2 or 3 of the cream filled coffee cakes to eat for breakfast or dessert. My boys always would ask how much they’d have. I’d hold up my youngest son’s hand and say “The Comedian’s pinkie length,” (of course, I don’t actually call him the Comedian in real life). The other boys would take their thumbs and first fingers and measure the Comedian’s finger and then carry that measurement through the air to the cakes. Not surprisingly, the space between their fingers grew as they got closer to the cake. We were lucky to get five quasi equal pieces cut out of one cake.
Once we moved out of the Northwest, we were faced with retail Entenmann’s prices. At over $3 a cake, we had to seriously cut back on our cream cake purchases. When I was thinking about what to make this week for this series, it suddenly hit me that I could make our old favorite at home. It was actually one of those Duh! moments, as I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before!
First of all, though, I had to figure out what was in those Entenmann’s cakes. I decided that they were really a kuchen. After all, the original Mr. Entenmann was a German immigrant. What else would they be? So, I needed a sweet yeast dough for the cake. Then, I needed a thick cheesecake like filling and a good streusel for the topping. There are no copycat recipes out there, so I had to combine and tweak three different recipes to get the desired results. If you really want a store bought taste, include some lemon rind in your yeast dough.
1. Info for Homemade Entenmann’s Cheese Filled Crumb Coffee Cake
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 150 mins
- Servings: 2
- Calories: 231
2. Ingredients for Homemade Entenmann’s Cheese Filled Crumb Coffee Cake
- the dough:
- 4-4½ cups flour
- 6 Tbsp butter
- 1½ tsp yeast (I always use bulk yeast…I think that’s ½ a packet)
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- the filling:
- 2 8 ounce brick cream cheese
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- the streusel:
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 4 Tbsp butter
3. Directions:
- Combine the milk and butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat until butter is melted.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk mixture with the sugar and salt and let cool.
- In a small bowl, combine the water and yeast and let foam.
- When the milk mixture is cooled a bit, add the eggs and yeast (the point of the cooling is to not kill the yeast, so don’t let it get cold).
- With a dough hook, mix in the flour. (If using a wooden spoon and elbow grease, mix in the flour and then knead on a floured surface until dough is smooth and soft – about 5-10 minutes)
- Cover and let rise until double in bulk; about 1-1½ hours.
- After rising, punch down and divide in half.
- Roll out on a large jelly roll pan to fit the length of the pan and almost the width.
- In a bowl, mix the filling ingredients on medium speed.
- Spread the filling down the middle of each cake and either fold over the outer halves or cut strips and braid it over the filling…it’s your call.
- Alternately, you can bake it in a 9X13 or 11X7 pan to get it thicker.
- In a bowl, mix the streusel ingredients with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly.
- Sprinkle the streusel equally on top of the two coffee cakes.
- Cover and let rise another 20 minutes and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
- When cooled, dust with powdered sugar.