My Mother in Law's Cream Cheese Coffee Cake. Delicious. Delectable. Delightful.

This recipe comes from my mother-in-law who made it for decades. It is quick and delicious. But also very naughty, and SO not South Beach… Use sparingly.

pastry:

2 cups Bisquick (don’t have any? make your own and thank me later)

1/4 cup butter, cubed and COLD

3 ounces cream cheese, cubed — the brick-style, not the kind in a tub

1/3 cup milk

filling:

about 2/3 cup fruit preserves

glaze:

2 Tb milk

1/2 cup powdered sugar

tools:

– pastry knife

– bowl with rounded bottom

– parchment paper and wax paper

– rolling pin

– cookie sheet

Pre-heat oven to 375° F.

Place Bisquick, butter and cream cheese in a round-bottomed bowl. Using a pastry knife, cut the mix together. Don’t have a pastry knife? Get a regular knife in each hand and go at it.

Drizzle the milk over the mix and stir until almost combined. Dump it out onto wax paper and press into a log shape. Do this quickly so the heat of your hands does not melt the butter. Place another sheet of wax paper on top and roll it out until it is an oblong shape about 12 inches long. In the US your roll of wax paper is probably 12 inches, so you can use that as your guide.

Don’t have wax paper? You can use saran wrap instead, but don’t blame me if it all ends up a ball. I can never use that stuff…

Remove the top sheet of wax paper. Place a sheet of parchment paper on the cookie sheet, turn the dough out into the center, and remove the second sheet of wax paper. Score two lines down the center of the dough two inches apart to use as a guide. Cut flaps in the dough at an angle.

Don’t have parchment paper? you can just smear a little butter on the cookie sheet instead, but it will be a little harder to get the pastry transferred onto the serving plate.

Now you’ll add the filling. I used two kinds of preserves — apricot and cherry — but using one also works well. Leave about an inch at either end with no preserves.

Start closing up the pastry by folding in one end so that the preserves don’t melt out of the pastry when cooking. Fold each set of flaps to the middle being sure to squeeze them together so that they don’t open up in the heat. Make another fold at the end to close it off.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 30 minutes.

Add 2 tablespoons milk to 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Whisk until the lumps are gone. Transfer pastry to serving platter and drizzle this glaze over top. Let it set before serving.

We usually make this for holiday breakfasts, like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Slice and serve — yum.