Bake Coffee Cake like Betty Crocker!

This school year we are featuring recipes from cookbooks located in the UW-Stout Archives Special Collections. The Special Collections are older, more rare, or Stout related books that were originally located in the UW-Stout Library’s main stacks collection. This past year we added a wealth of cookbooks to the special collections, and I scoured the shelves to find new recipes to try that would make cooking from home fun, affordable, and easy.

I recreated an easy 5-ingredient coffee cake from Betty Crocker’s Guide to Easy Entertaining, 1959, TX731 .B47x. This cookbook provides easy tips and tricks about hospitality, hosting a party, and recipes to make and how to prepare for different occasions such as brunches, dinners, and parties. You can still find this cookbook and other vintage Betty Crocker cookbooks on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-Guide-Entertaining-Facsimile/dp/0470386266

Learn more about the history of Betty Crocker on the Betty Crocker website: https://www.bettycrocker.com/betty-crocker-kitchens

Butter-Ball Coffee Cake, p. 158, from the Brunch Section

2 cans Betty Crocker Bisquick Refrigerated Biscuits

¼ cup butter, melted

¾ cup sugar

1 tbsp. cinnamon

¼ cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 375*. Grease a 9” round layer pan. Separate biscuits and dip in melted butter, then coat each entirely with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Place 15 biscuits around the outer part of the pan, overlapping to make a circle. Overlap remaining 5 biscuits to fill center. Pour remaining butter over. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to stand 5 minutes before serving. The rich, buttery biscuits break apart easily.

I believe this coffee cake could be a good addition for the upcoming holiday season, at home as a side dish or dessert with dinner, or as a special sweet treat. The recipe calls for 2 cans of Betty Crocker Bisquick Refrigerated Biscuits. I don’t know if these are manufactured anymore, but try Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits, or I used Food Club Buttermilk refrigerated biscuits, 10 in each tube. To prep the coffee cake, I created an assembly line, like you would to coat fish or chicken with breading to fry or cook it. I used a pair of tongs to dip the biscuits in a glass measuring cup of melted butter, coated the biscuits in a bowl of the sugar/cinnamon mixture, and then placed the biscuits in a 9-inch round cake pan (I think any baking dish could work) starting on the outer circle and finishing in the middle, and sprinkled with pecan pieces at the end. This recipe is delicious, easy to make, and sure to impress. Bon Appetit!

Ingredients: 2 cans biscuits, pecan pieces, butter, and cinnamon/sugar mixture

Setting up my prep. assembly line

The finished coffee cake. The presentation is sure to impress anyone!

By: Julie Hatfield, Archives Assistant, UW-Stout Archives