Recipe - Moravian Sugar Cake

One half cup Warm water; (110 deg F)
One half teaspoon Sugar
2 pack Active dry yeast
Three fourths cup Warm water; (110 deg F)
One half cup Sugar
2 tablespoon Dry milk
One fourth cup Instant mashed potatoes;
(dry)
One half teaspoon Salt
One half cup Melted and cooled butter
2 Eggs
3 cup Flour
1 cup Brown sugar (I prefer light;
but dark will do. DH)
1 teaspoon Cinammon
One half cup Melted and cooled butter

I grew up in WinstonSalem, NC, originally settled by Moravians in the
mid1700s. As a kid, I thought everyone enjoyed all those Moravian goodies
like ginger cookies and sugar cake, especially popular around the Holidays.
It wasn't till I was in my late teens that I learned what treasures I had
been blithely eating all my life.

Here's a recipe for Winkler's Moravian sugar cake. (Winkler's is the name
of the bakery in Old Salem, the reconstructed Moravian settlement near
downtown WinstonSalem.) The recipe comes from _Cooking in Old Salem_.
Obviously, this is an updated version of the recipe (the original Moravians
didn't have *instant* mashed potatoes), but it is still tasty. I find this
needs to be eaten fairly fresh, but you can seal it in an airtight bag or
container to extend its life for a while. It freezes wonderfully. It's
delicious with coffee. All in all, it takes about 3 hours to make; most of
that time is letting the dough rise. It's so easy, it would be an ideal
Holiday project for the young Alice Waters or Paul Bocuse in the family :)

Add yeast to warm water and sugar. Set aside until yeast bubbles.

Add next seven ingredients plus one cup of the flour. Beat 2 minutes on
medium speed. With a wooden spoon add the two remaining cups of flour.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn once to grease the top of the
dough. Cover and let rise until double about one hour.

Punch dough down and put in greased shallow pan about 17" x 12" x 1". Let
rise 30 minutes. Spread evenly in pan and sprinkle evenly with brown sugar
and cinammon. Make shallow indentations in the dough with your fingers and
dribble with last One half cup of melted and cooled butter. Let rise 30 minutes
and bake until golden brown about 12 to 15 minutes at 375 deg F.

Posted to FOODWINE Digest by David Hall sasdmh@UNX.SAS.COM on Dec 12,
1997