RECIPE: Sweetheart Coffee Cake

As a girl, a highlight of my holiday mornings often revolved around whatever sort of breakfast pastry would be found on the breakfast table upon waking. Like many others who grew up in central Indiana, my holiday breakfasts more often than not featured pastries out of the Roselyn’s Bakery case. You know the one: the iconic flying V sign, rotating slowly on corners all over central Indiana. 

Anyone who grew up in The Time of Roselyn’s (the business shuttered in the late ’90s after an unsavory health inspection) can likely recall their favorite if asked. Was it the thickly iced, bright yellow smiley face cookies? The Zebra Brownies covered in rich Caramel Fudge icing?  The Blackout Cake? As for our house– We were all in on the Sweetheart Coffee Cake. 

A buttery laminated dough shaped into a lumpy heart, it’s filled with toffee and streusel, and then generously coated in a thick and shiny butterscotch glaze. Every Christmas and Valentine’s morning, for what feels like my entire childhood and most of my early adulthood, a sweetheart coffee cake stood proudly on the table to start the day.  After the closure, Roselyn’s contracted recipes to be baked and sold in local grocery chains, where you can still find them to this day.

Until of course one year when I couldn’t find one. I was in charge of picking up the coffeecake for Christmas morning and three Krogers and a Marsh (may it rest in peace) visited and no sweetheart coffee cake was found. Panic slowly started to set in until I remembered: The Cookbook. 

The Roselyn Cookbook was released shortly after the business closed in a hurried attempt to, in addition to cashing in on their customer’s loyalty, make the recipes widely available, thereby “allowing everyone’s favorites to be made at home.” My mom bought it, took one glance at the recipes, and quickly closed the book. Too much work, the recipes were too complicated. She shelved it, and years later–  I grabbed it. For years it sat on my bookshelf. Waiting for me. 

Unfortunately, while the intentions of the cookbook were good, the recipes were seriously lacking. There on the page was my beloved Sweetheart Coffee Cake, but the road to get to the final pastry was bumpy. The commercial recipes had been cut down, but yields remained generous.  After the first run-through of the recipe as written, I ended up with not one, not two, but THREE Sweetheart coffeecakes (much to my family’s delight). They tasted good, but the cookbook was reminiscent of the days in which it was written. A dash of yellow food coloring added a buttery look! Crushed toffee candies in place of the real deal. So much margarine you couldn’t see straight. I decided to tackle it again. I tweaked the amounts, made it with all-natural ingredients, and after a lot of testing, a lot of math, and many coffee cakes later, I landed on a recipe that I feel lives up to the Sweetheart Coffeecake of my childhood. Inspired by Roselyn’s, and executed in a way that is less 1970s mass-production and more homemade pastry.

Like all homemade pastries, the recipe is a commitment.  It is best to spread the process out over two days, and some of the components can be made ahead of time and later assembled when it’s time to bake.  The result is what food, recipes, and tradition do best. Not only is it delicious, but when I take that first bite, it strikes that nostalgic nerve in just the right way, and before I know it, I’m sitting at that breakfast table on Valentine’s morning.

Sweetheart Coffee Cake

Makes 1 Coffee cake | Adapted from the Roselyn’s Recipe Cookbook

Note: This recipe needs to be spread out over 2 days, however, the toffee, streusel, and filling can be made ahead of time on day 1. You will also need a candy or digital thermometer, and a scale!

Ingredients

Danish Dough

½ cup water 

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons bread flour

½ cup all purpose flour

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon milk powder

3 tablespoon Crisco vegetable shortening

3 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon instant yeast

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

Sweetheart Toffee

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1½ teaspoon kosher salt

Note: you’ll also need a candy or food thermometer

Sweetheart Streusel

2 tablespoon butter, chilled and cut into 4 pieces

2 tablespoon light brown sugar

2 tablespoon granulated sugar

¼  teaspoon salt

⅓ cup all purpose flour

Sweetheart Filling

Heaping ⅓ cup crushed Sweetheart Toffee

⅓ cup Sweetheart Streusel

Sweetheart Glaze

1⅓ cups powdered sugar, sifted

¼ cup water

¼ teaspoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp granulated sugar

2 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoon brown sugar

½  tsp kosher salt

Method

Note: This recipe (as stated at the beginning) is best spread out over two days. Read through the whole dang thing before starting. 

Make the Dough: In stand mixer fitted with dough hook, combine water, egg, bread flour, all purpose flour, kosher salt, milk powder, vegetable shortening, granulated sugar and yeast. Mix on low speed until all ingredients are combined, pausing to scrape the bottom of the mixer to ensure everything is incorporated. A rough dough ball will form. Place plastic wrap over bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. Transfer dough to lightly floured countertop and knead gently until combined. Move to parchment lined quarter sheet pan and spread evenly with lightly floured fingertips. Cover with plastic and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Make the butter packet: While chilling, create the butter packet for the pastry. In the center of an 18×13 inch piece of parchment, measure a 4×5 inch rectangle. Fold each side in, to create a square (see similar tutorial here). Cut a cold stick of butter in half and place both haves in the middle of the rectangle. Fold/overlap parchment over the butter and give it a good whack with a rolling pin across the stick to flatten it a bit. Readjust the parchment to lay flatter over the smashed sticks and flip the packet over seam-side-down. Using the rolling pin, roll the cold butter into an even layer, pushing into the corners of the packet to create a nice and tidy 4×5 inch rectangle of butter. Chill in the fridge. 

Make the Toffee: This toffee is easy to make and will be used later in the filling PLUS it makes a few cups worth so you’ll have a sugary snack to follow your sugary coffee cake! Set a piece of parchment in a sheet pan and set aside. In a medium saucepan, add two sticks of butter, one cup of sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine and set over medium/high heat. Allow to come to a boil, and cook until the mixture becomes a medium brown color (think: Werthers), and the temperature has reached 285F degrees, stirring occasionally. When mixture reaches 285F, pour onto prepared sheet pan and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Stick in the fridge (or outside because the weather is terrible and the outside is colder than your refrigerator) and allow to harden. Break into pieces and store in zipper top bag in the fridge until ready to use.

Laminate the dough: Take the chilled dough out of the fridge. Dust your work surface with flour and roll to a 12in by 6in rectangle (short side facing you). Place the butter packet in the middle and fold the dough over the butter like you’re folding a business letter. pinch the edges closed, rotate 180 degrees, and carefully roll out to a 12in by 6 in rectangle once again. Repeat the folding and turning and stick in the fridge for another 30 minutes. Repeat this two more times, adding flour to your work surface as needed. Refrigerate at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours. Note: This dough is quite tender but ultimately forgiving when it’s time to bake. Be gentle and do not worry if the butter breaks up into small pieces while laminating instead of a smooth layer. This is fine! 

Assemble the Coffeecake: After the dough has properly chilled, prepare the Sweetheart Streusel. In a small bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and all-purpose flour. Using your fingers, pinch and mix the streusel until the butter is evenly incorporated and if you squeeze a small amount of the streusel, it keeps its shape. Measure out 1/3 of the mixture and set aside. Place the remaining streusel in the fridge.

For the filling, take the toffee out of the fridge. Measure out roughly ½ cup of the broken pieces and place in a ziplock bag. Crush it either with a rolling pin, meat pounder, or even a large book. You want to crush it so the largest pieces are about ¼  inch. Combine ⅓ cup of the sweetheart streusel with ⅓ cup of crushed toffee in a bowl. Set aside.

Now that your fillings are ready, let’s turn this coffee cake into a heart! Take the chilled dough out of the fridge (it might have risen slightly, but will flatten out when you roll) and roll out on a floured work surface to a 10×12 in rectangle. Sprinkle the sweetheart filling across the surface, leaving a 1/4in border around the edges. Roll the dough rectangle into a log, brushing excess flour off while you roll (if you’ve ever made cinnamon rolls, you’ll recognize this step). Pinch the seams to seal and turn 180 degrees so the spiral end of the roll is facing you.

Fold the roll in half on top of itself, spin it around so the fold is facing you, and cut through the top and bottom logs in half about 2 inches from the ends.

See the seam? Keep that side up. Fold it over onto itself towards you.

Spin the log around so the folded end is facing you.

Take a sharp knife and cut through the middle, then spin it BACK around.

Give the log another spin so the cut side is facing away from you, and pull the top portion forward and allow the side of the log to fall straddling the bottom log. VOILA! Heart-shaped coffee cake!

Give it a gentle tug to stretch it out a bit.

User your thumbs to fan out the cut side into a heart. Stretch the bottom as needed and pat it into a nice 1-inch thickness heart shape. Place on parchment lined sheet tray. 

Press out the heart shape with your hands to the thickness of 1 inch. Place sweetheart streusel on top. Cover with a damp towel for proofing. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 350°. Let rise at room temperature until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour.  

Transfer baking sheet to oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown, rotating baking sheet halfway. Let cool for 20 minutes on the pan, and carefully transfer to a wire rack. To prepare for the frosting – line a sheet tray with aluminum foil, set wire rack on top. 

Make the frosting!

Note: this is one of the most unique frosting recipes I’ve worked with, but is a direct conversion of the bakery recipe in the original book. It is not very sweet which balances out with the quite sweet coffee cake, and covers and dries on the cake quickly which helps preserve moisture and was probably key in a commercial bakery. I love it, but if you prefer a lighter glaze, whisk 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1-3 tablespoons of milk until pourable and drizzle over the cake. 

In a small bowl, measure out and sift powdered sugar and set aside. Combine water and cornstarch in a small saucepan and mix until well incorporated. Add granulated sugar, corn syrup, and salt to the saucepan and boil for 1 minute. Add vegetable oil and stir well. Add brown sugar and return to a boil. Add hot sugar mixture to powdered sugar and whisk to combine. While still warm– pour over coffee cake getting into all the nooks and crannies. Spread with an offset spatula to evenly coat.