Kuchen like Mom used to make

A few years ago I was digging through some cookbooks and found a 1970s era recipe booklet from Fleischmann's tucked inside another old cookbook.  As I read through the recipe it brought to mind the kuchens my mom made when I was a kid.  I decided to give it a whirl and discovered that wow, these tasted just like the ones Mom made.  I made some changes to the recipe like using Milnot and then doubling and tripling the recipe (and then learned how to fit 6 in my oven at a time).  I prefer to have a stash of these in the freezer all the time so we can have a treat from time to time.

Basic Coffee Cake Dough
1 cup milk
½ cup sugar
1 tp salt
½ cup margarine or butter
1/4 cup warm water (105-115°)
1 pkg Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast
1 egg
4 to 4 ½ cups Gold Medal or Gold Medal Wondra Flour

Scald milk; stir in sugar, salt and margarine. Cool to lukewarm. Measure water into large warm bowl. Sprinkle in yeast; stir until dissolved. Stir in milk mixture, egg and half the flour. Beat until Smooth. Add remaining flour to make a stiff batter. Cover loosely with aluminum foil; refrigerate at least 2 hours. (Dough may be kept in refrigerator up to 3 days) Finish as directed in individual recipes.

Each Basic Coffee Cake Dough will make 3 8 inch round kuchens

Mom's Kuchens
Divide dough into 3 equal portions. Pat dough into greased pans. Poke into dough with fingers or the end of a wooden spoon. Dribble 1-2 tablespoons of Milnot (or milk) on each dough. Then put 1/2 to 2/3 cup of light brown sugar on top of dough. Sprinkle each kuchen with cinnamon sugar. Let rise until doubled (45-60 minutes).

Bake at 375° for about 30 minutes. You may want to start checking them at 20 minutes if you like “pale” kuchens.

If you make these in 8" aluminum pans, they slip right into a Ziploc freezer bag.  When you take them out of the freezer, you can pop them out of the pan onto a plate and then put in the microwave for about a minute to thaw.  

Yuuuuuuum!