Great Grandma’s kuchen

This is a good memory recipe and one I hope our family never stops making. I was debating whether or not I should share it, but in the end i’ve decided to, as that’s what Grandma would have done. Almost every summer growing up, was spent on Vancouver Island with my Great Grandmother. Much of that time was spent at the beach or sitting around her 50′s style kitchen table chatting and eating. Nothing grandma made was terribly complicated, but it was always tasty and filling as she had learned to cook in logging camps.

By far our favourite thing for grandma to make was kuchen, a simple german cake that went well with whatever jam she happened to make that summer, my fav was blackberry. (A close second, was scraping the whole strawberries off the top of a freshly opened jar of jam. )

Kuchen
1 cup & tsp granulated sugar
3 cups Luke warm water
2 envelopes dry yeast or 2 tablespoons (not fast rise)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening or butter
3 eggs
9 cups flour – all purpose (more or less depends on humidity)

Dissolve 2 tsp sugar into 1 cup of luke warm water in a bowl, sprinkle with yeast & let stand 10 min, stir well. Combine remaining cup of sugar, 2 cups warm water, salt & shortening in large mixing bowl – mix together well.
Add your yeast mixture to the bowl and mix it together. In a seperate bowl, beat 3 eggs until light and lemony in colour and add to the mixture. Add 4 cups of flour and mix well, then add remaining 3 to 5 cups of flour (depends on humidity). Mix well and knead dough until soft and elastic. Form into a round ball and rub a little vegetable oil over the ball.

Place the ball of dough in a large bowl and cover with plastic and a towel. Let it rise in a warm place for approximately 2 hours or until your ball of dough has doubled in size. After 2 hours, punch the dough down and let it rise again for another hour. Punch it down and shape it into pans. Round baking dishes, about 1-2 inches deep work best. (Pie plates work ok as well.) Cover with topping and put into a preheated oven at 350F for 25 minutes.

Topping
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup butter

Mix together to make soft crumbs. Beat 1 egg & add a little milk, brush dough & top with streusel.

Thanks to the Canadian baker for kuchen reminder.