Dotty's Coffee Cake

Dotty Griffith brought me into her circle as a food reviewer nearly 30 years ago. When I told her that I was collecting Coffee Dessert recipes, she offered one of her favorite childhood memories with her MoMo and PoPo. This is special to me even more so with her passing almost a year after she sent me this Coffee Cake recipe. Thank you Dotty 

  Mon 8/24/2020 4:03 PM To: JB Blocker JB Coffee Book Recipes

Hi, J.B. Here are my recipes. If you have questions or these recipes aren’t what you had in mind, let me know. Best regards, D Dotty Griffith True Texas Cuisine 214.356.5896 @dottygriffith  

Lots of kids went to camp. Instead, I went to spend a month with my grandparents in the small central Texas town of New Ulm. Summers with my maternal grandparents, Olga and Monroe Koch, were a blast. I called them MoMo and PoPo. The tiny town is part of the Texas German belt that runs from west of Houston through Austin and San Antonio into the Hill Country. Olga was an accomplished baker. She made their bread. She baked angel food cakes from scratch, separating a dozen eggs for the whites. Still, Olga was perhaps most renowned for what she called simply “coffee cake.” Full of butter, the crumb is airy and moist. Yet it holds together well enough to dunk into coffee. I’d love to be able to sit with her again in her small farmhouse over breakfast or her afternoon coffee break and dunk slices of MoMo’s cake into a cup of strong coffee. In the summer when fabulous Fredericksburg or Weatherford peaches are in season, I like to crown the cake with peaches. The remainder of the time, thumbprints filled with butter and sugar will do.  

Olga’s Coffee Cake (Maybe with Peaches) 3 cups all-purpose flour ½ cup sugar 1 package yeast 1 teaspoon salt ¼ cup water ¾ cup milk ¼ cup unsalted butter, cubed 1 egg 6 tablespoons butter, melted, plus additional as needed 3 small peaches (optional), halved and pits removed 6 tablespoons sugar plus additional as needed Heat oven to 350 F. Lightly coat a 13x9-inch baking pan or 2 (9-inch) cake pans with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine 1 ½ cups flour, ½ cup sugar, yeast and salt. In a 16-ounce microwave safe measuring cup, heat the water, milk and butter to 120-130 F. Add to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened. Beat in egg until smooth. Stir in remaining flour to form a soft, sticky dough. Cover loosely with a piece of plastic wrap and a towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 50 minutes. Stir dough down and spoon into baking pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 30 minutes. Melt 6 tablespoons butter and cool to room temperature. Using your thumb, make 6 thumbprints evenly spaced on top of cake. Divide sugar evenly between the indentations. Pour melted butter over sugar in each thumbprint. If using peaches, press a peach half into the thumbprint so peach is deeply embedded into the dough. Divide sugar evenly between the peaches. Pour melted butter over each. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until light golden. Remove from oven and brush surface with more melted butter. Sprinkle surface with more sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 servings. Recipe adapted from The Texas Holiday Cookbook, Second Edition (Taylor Trade Publishing) by Dotty Griffith • This is quite simply the best cobbler ever. Why? Because it has two crusts. Not a soggy bottom crust and a beautifully brown and flaky top crust. No, this recipe makes a cobbler with two crisp top crusts. It is a cobbler baked on top of a cobbler. Try it. You’ll love the double crust. It comes from my Celebrating Barbecue (Simon & Schuster) cookbook. I always wonder how anyone can find room for dessert after a plate of brisket and ribs. But this cobbler makes you want dessert with a cup of coffee no matter how much ‘cue you put away at your favorite barbecue joint. Double Crust Fruit Cobbler 8 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches or other fruit such as apples or berries 2 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 tablespoons lemon juice 3 tablespoons butter Pastry for 2-crust pie 2 tablespoons melted butter Heat oven to 425 F. Lightly coat a round 3-quart round or 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. In a large saucepan over low heat, combine peaches, 2 cups sugar, flour, nutmeg and cinnamon. When mixture bubbles, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until the peaches are barely tender. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice and 3 tablespoons butter, stirring gently until the butter melts. Spoon half of the peach filling into the baking dish. Top with a layer of pastry cut to fit the dish. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and spoon the remaining peaches over the baked pastry. Top with a second layer of pastry cut to fit the dish. Pierce the top of the pastry with a fork to vent and brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 8 servings. ###

- J.B. Blocker is a media consultant based in Collin County in North Texas. Advertise with J.B. by calling 469-334-9962.

Recruiting a Winning Team

The Andrew Principle

Campaigning 101

jb blocker

John 1: 40  One of the two who heard Jesus speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter)

  

  You don’t hear much about Andrew the apostle. We know he was one of the first to be chosen by Jesus along with James and John. Later in the Bible, he is the one who brings the boy to Jesus with the fish and loaves that feed thousands. He is also at the resurrection. But Andrew is also mentioned for one other thing that has resonated throughout the ages.
  You see, Andrew met Jesus and went to his brother Simon to tell him he had found the Savior! Simon's name was changed to Peter. "Upon this rock, I will build my church."

  That is some really good recruiting! That is like finding Babe Ruth and introducing him to baseball. 

I call it ‘The Andrew Principle’.

J. B. becomes the writing cowboy.

Romancing the Bean, A Series of Short Stories   by J.B. Blocker

Cowboy Coffee

Sunray, Texas 'just a ways from Dumas'

  By the time I met Tom Robinette, he was walking with a cane to help him bear the years he carried on those stooped shoulders.  I didn’t know it then, but now I know that years are like gravity.                     

  His short-cropped balding head was usually covered by a very worn and venerable cowboy hat. All scrunched up and sweat-stained, that hat was usually tilted to one side. Tom would scratch the side of his forehead when he was contemplating serious questions. I caused him to scratch a lot.

  I clearly remember those hands. His fingers were bent and knotted. His skin had the look of fragile leather as they opened and closed in an almost robotic dance I have witnessed often.

  Tom ran the old pool hall in Sunray, the tiny West Texas town where I spent my teenage years. I watched those hands many times as they caressed his pool cue with chalk and then slowly plant those fingers on the pool table to set his bridge. They looked like the roots of an old vine growing out of the green felt of the table and into his long shirt sleeves that were always buttoned.               

  I don’t know why they call it West Texas. We’re the very northern part of the state.  It’s the Panhandle! It should be called North Texas, but that name was taken by the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area. Still, if you drive about 400 miles north and west of Dallas you’re near my home town and you are still in Texas!

  If you keep on driving north past Amarillo, Dumas, and Stratford you are in the Oklahoma Panhandle and another 40 miles will get you into Kansas. Now, that’s really North Texas! From there, only a barbed wire fence separates us from Canada ‘so they say’.

I AM PRO-LIFE!

 I remember those windows. They are the windows that we would look out of and watch the people leave on visitation day at our Buddhist orphanage in Yokohama. We would stand in front of those windows and see friends leave with their new families. Other visitors would leave their children behind and the children would cry. 

I am told that my mother visited me often but I don't remember that. I remember wondering why no one was taking me away. Maybe it was my clothes. 

On one visitation day, I threw a fit. I was 5. I wanted nicer clothes for people to see me in. I refused to dress. I ran away. They found me naked under the stilted building that housed the orphan girls.

One visitor wanted to meet all the boys. He offered to bring back new clothes. The visitor was a Navy sailor and his wife. They wanted a boy and girl to take back to America.

I was too old. The lady wanted babies. I was 5.

When the couple went to the office the lady knew who my mother was! The Navy sailor said,"We'll take him! Nancy, meet your son."

 If my grandfather had had his way, I would never have been born! Many Japanese women of the post-WWII and Korean War era became pregnant by the military who were just passing through per-Se.

  Because of the extreme racism of the Japanese at that time and for many years after, such pregnancies were aborted so as to not bring shame to the family by corrupting the race.

Fortunately, I had a mother who not only spared my life to her shame, but also found a job at the local Naval Base beauty salon where she showed my pictures to prospective American service men's wives. Now you know that the story is much more complicated than that, but the end result is that I am a Blocker! 

I have no doubt that by the grace of God and the strength of conviction of my birth mother Nobuko, Chief PNC Charles Blocker and his wife Nancy took me away from that pitiful orphanage and raised me in Texas!

Nobuko

I believe that 'All things are possible!' 

I believe that one of the greatest sins is suicide because that person has given up on God and taken away the opportunity to find peace, joy, and fulfillment through God's grace.

I believe in mercy, hope, and faith.

I am Pro-Life with consideration to the safety to mother and child. 

I am no doctor, or judge. But I believe that whenever possible we should give God a chance and give people like the Blockers the opportunity to raise the child they had wanted. 

If they can turn them in to a Texan, well, that's even better!

blessings, J.B. Blocker

   

- J.B. Blocker is a media consultant based in Collin County in North Texas. Advertise with J.B. by calling 469-334-9962. Email: jbnorthtexas@gmail.com

A Voting Disaster

Voting or Not Voting for the Wrong Reasons. jb blocker

So you think your candidate has it locked up because their district is heavily GOP. Or do you think your district will carry the DEM for the same reason? Guess again. There are several factors that could completely flip your reality. Here is just one.

Complacency is the Big Bad Wolf.

I guess after the liberals read this, then Climate Change might be their excuse this time!

But Weather has changed elections all over the world.

We need a Postman's commitment to vote!

Part I: Weather or not…Voter turnout is on the line.

Complacency is growing as quickly as confusion and frustration while candidates all over Texas and the rest of America campaign for seats from the Top on down.

If you are a candidate, this should concern you. If you are a Republican you have a bit of an advantage when the weather acts up. Here is an approach you should consider.

The Postman’s Pledge: Herodotus

  It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.

  What I suggest is that you gear your campaign toward pledges to vote no matter what! Not just for you, but for our country. If you are speaking, texting, or social mediatizing express the importance of committing to vote! Vote early if possible! And if they can’t do that, tell them to have their all-weather gear ready. This should be your campaign at this point. Taking anything for granted is a mistake.

   I understand the beauty of voting day. I have been involved in many campaigns over the years. I am captivated by the lines of committed citizens exercising their rights and their duty to vote. Parents bringing their children, whole family units from the aged to first-timers, couples, and of course those singles streaming in from every direction is inspirational. But there is still that chance that fickle nature gets in the way. You cannot count on great weather between early voting dates and the big day.

"HONOR THE FLAG!"

Dad taught me well!

  As a teen, I gained possession of a 48-star American flag that was as big as a wall in my bedroom. My father was at Vietnam so I proudly put it up, saluted it, and said the pledge every day for my dad's sake. It stayed there until.....

  

Hong Kong '47

My father, Master Chief of the United States Navy Charles Abraham Blocker was a 32 year Navy man and lay minister. He finished his career as an E-9, one of the highest ranking enlisted men in the Navy. 
  At age 16 he lied about his age in order to join the Army with his older brother Uncle Jimmy in 1942. They found him out at boot camp but a year later he enlisted again and made the Navy his career.
   I was always fascinated and proud of his chest of medals including the Navy Cross.  After those 32 years of traveling the Seven Seas, WWII, Korea, and many other assignments he came home from Vietnam. I was 15 and spent the entire day in the front yard in order to be the first to welcome him home. Back then, there was little or no fanfare for returning military forces.
  When he saw the flag covering the wall in my bedroom, he immediately stopped in his tracks. Without harsh words but rather with solemnity, he helped me take it down with care. He carried this 12-foot flag reverently to the living room where we respectfully folded it. He then had mom find a clear wrapping for it and placed it on my dresser.
  Looking back, I am sure that the 48-star flag meant much more to him than I will ever know. He had defended and saluted that flag during his prime.

Coffee, News, Interesting People, and Tasty Treats

Romancing the Bean Series

by Caffeine Cowboy

Tales from the Old Country

Coffee Cantata by Johan Sebastian Bach

  “No daughter of mine will drink coffee!” declares Schlendrian. (Stuffy in German)  “­­But father, if I don’t have at least three small cups a day, I’ll soon be as dried-out as an un-basted roast!”

  Cleverly, Schlendrian proposes, “Fine, then make your choice, a husband or coffee!”  His willful daughter seemingly demurs to her father's restriction but with a stage whisper tells the audience, “Any man who wishes to win my hand must first promise to supply all of the coffee I want!”

  Amused by the Parisian fad for coffee, Bach asked the famed poet and satirist Picador to write a libretto with coffee as its theme.  The story mirrored the attitude of the German elite toward women and the middle class. Coffee was too special for the commoner and coffeehouses were no place for a lady!

  As seen on U-tube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6-PRCv7SfM

  Before public music halls existed in Germany, cafés attracted music lovers by sponsoring performances by collegia musica (the association of private musicians).

  From 1720 to1740, Bach performed for the public and experimented with new pieces at Zimmerman’s Kaffeehaus in Leipzig.  The Coffee Cantata was first performed there in 1734.  It was a musical and community success.

The most famous coffee snob: