CINNAMON FLOP

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I have no idea why this is called Cinnamon Flop. Another crazy thing is with all of the Amish cookbooks I have, I have never seen a recipe for it in any of them. Then over the last two weeks I have gotten five or six "new" Amish cookbooks and guess what? Recipes for it were in two of them, From the Rolling Hills of Holmes County Down Home Cookin' by Abe & Edna Miller and my autographed copy of Dutch Cookbook Volume II by Edna Eby Heller. In the latter cookbook, Mrs. Heller commented "This is sometimes called Moravian Coffee Cake in Lebanon county but is not to be confused with Moravian Sugar Cake which is made with a raised dough."

From the title I thought it was going to be something I would bake and then flip it out of the pan or even worst - it was going to flop, mess up. Probably the craziest thing about the recipe is I almost didn't make it. (What a loss that would have been!) I was writing down names of recipes with the page number on a piece of paper as I was going through the recent cookbooks of recipes I wanted to try. You guessed it - I had not written the name down in either book. (If anyone knows the meaning of the name, I would love to hear it.) Anyway, reading both recipes I saw that I wasn't going to be flipping it out of the pan. 

(My friend Kevin over at Amish365.com said "Flops" have deep roots in the Pennsylvania Dutch and is found primarily in Pennsylvania. His website is a great place to go if you want to read about the Amish and find other delicious Amish recipes.)

While the recipes were very similar, they were also quite different. I decided to use the one from Mrs. Miller mainly because she used about half the amount of sugar as Mrs. Heller's recipe. Mrs. Miller didn't say how much butter to use to brush over the batter, but Mrs. Heller said to "dot with 4 tablespoons of butter" so I decided to use the other half of the stick of butter I used in the "cake". It turned out perfect. I like the way Mrs. Miller used the butter with the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. I'm not sure it would have looked the same if I had made Mrs. Heller's recipe.

Words just seem to escape me when I try to express to you how fabulous this Cinnamon Flop is. My husband and I ate a piece of it while it was still warm and all we could do was swoon. My husband said it was right up there with Roxanne's cinnamon roll. (Roxanne's is a local cafe where we go every Sunday for lunch after church and Sunday school. Their cinnamon rolls are big enough to feed four and are out of this world.) Then he said, "It might taste better." He was also disappointed when he realized I wasn't keeping any more pieces at home for us. (Most of the time I do if the dessert is really good.) I offered to keep him one but he said he wanted me to, but patting his stomach, he said he didn't want me to. I admit it was hard not to leave us another piece.

When I got to Hillcrest Thrift Shop, as I was signing in, I told the men that I hated to stop their working, but I wanted them to know that I had left a treat for them that was similar to, but probably better than a cinnamon roll and they were still warm. Volunteers Roger and Terry just about knocked me down, making their way to the community room. I took fourteen pieces and they were all gone way before lunch.

This Cinnamon Flop has to be one of the best things I have ever made and I know I will be making it again - but when I have friends to help us eat it. It is very sweet - I can't even imagine having twice as much sugar in it (as Mrs. Heller's recipe called for). I might even consider reducing the sugar in the cake batter to half a cup and I don't think you would miss it at all.

PRINT RECIPE.

CINNAMON FLOP

2        cups flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4    cup white sugar
1/2     teaspoon salt
1/2     cup (1 stick) margarine (I use unsalted butter.), divided
1         egg
1         cup milk (I use skim milk.)
3/4    cup brown sugar
1         teaspoon cinnamon

powdered sugar
vanilla
hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 9 - inch square baking pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, white sugar, and salt.

Cut in 1/4 cup margarine/butter until mixture is in fine crumbs.

(I always thinly slice the butter and

then break it in the flour mixture with my fingers. While I try to break up all of the butter, I don't worry if some of it isn't fine crumbs. You can see the pieces of butter in my pictures.)

Beat together the milk and egg and

then gradually add to dry ingredients. (Because I was trying to get a picture, I poured it all at once.)

Stir to combine.

Pour into pan.

Melt the other 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) of butter and

brush it on the batter.

(This was easier to do than I thought and I was able to make a thin layer of the melted butter on top of the batter.)

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and

sprinkle over the top of the butter.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. (I did bake mine for the full 30 minutes.)

Cool on wire rack.

I made a thin glaze with some sifted powdered sugar, a little vanilla, and a little hot water and

drizzled it over the cake as it cooled.

Because it was still hot, I made a little more (without the vanilla) after it cooled a little bit and drizzled again.

This time it didn't soak into the cake.

I cut it into 16 servings.