Coffee Cake Dough

Coffee Cake Dough

½ cup warm water

2 pkg Active Dry Yeast

1 ½ cups lukewarm milk

½ cup sugar

2 tsp. Salt

2 eggs

½ cup soft shortening

3 ½ to 3 ¾ cups of flour

Put water in mixing bowl.

Add yeast, stirring to dissolve.

Stir in remaining ingredients.

Mix with spoon until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to handle easily; mix with hand. Turn onto lightly floured board; knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 min). Round up in greased bowl, greased side up. Cover with Damp cloth. Let rise in warm place (85°) until double (about 1 ½ hours). Punch down; let rise again until almost double (about ½ hour). Divide dough for desired rolls and coffee cakes. Shape, let rise, bake according to directions. Amount: 1 large coffee cake and 1 ½ to 2 doz. rolls.

For Swedish Tea Ring:

Roll out ½ recipe of sweet roll dough into roughly a 9x12 rectangle. Spread with ¼ cup melted butter, and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Sprinkle with raisins and chopped walnuts. Starting with one of the short sides, roll up like a jelly-roll so that you have a tube. Form tube into large doughnut-shaped ring. Take scissors and slice ¾ of the way through the ring all around. Take each slice and twist it slightly so that instead of standing out vertically from the roll, it faces up as much as possible. Bake at 350° for 25-35 minutes (or until lightly brown on top).