MOM FOOD : Remembering the women who shaped our tastes. The recipes are the least of it. : We Remember Mama : When Iowa Came to California

My mother was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and she never lost her taste for Iowa-style roast pork, corn on the cob and apple pie. Cooking was her great love, and her trusted guide was “Fannie,” meaning Fannie Merritt Farmer, the author of the original “Boston Cooking School Cook Book.” However, Mother never followed a recipe as written, not even “Fannie’s,” because she insisted on adding her own touch. There was no recipe that she couldn’t improve and nothing that she couldn’t cook, if she set her mind to it.

When she moved to Los Angeles long before I was born, she continued to enjoy roast pork and corn on the cob, but she also responded to the new influences around her. She quickly became expert at Mexican food, copying the green corn tamales at El Cholo and duplicating the dishes that she enjoyed at a neighborhood Mexican restaurant. She made wonderful egg foo young, sukiyaki, Japanese cucumber salad, gazpacho, Norwegian lefse , Danish aebleskiver , baklava, German Christmas cookies and anything else that appealed to her, often simply copying what she had tasted. Dinner was always a feast, and the conversation frequently centered around the great finds she had made at the market that day.

When I began to write cookbooks, she was of immeasurable inspiration. And I was pleased to tell her that my manuscript for a book on bread had been accepted. It was she who taught me to bake, making easy what could have been an intimidating pursuit. Unfortunately she passed away before she could see the book, but her recipes live on in its pages, among them this sumptuous coffee cake.

ANNE HANSEN’S DANISH ALMOND COFFEE CAKE

4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 envelope dry yeast

Granulated sugar

1/4 cup warm water

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 ounces almond paste

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons water, about

1/4 cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted

Sift flour and salt together into large bowl. Add butter and rub into flour with fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir yeast and dash granulated sugar into 1/4 cup warm water and let stand until yeast is dissolved.

Combine 1 whole egg and 2 yolks in medium bowl. Place remaining 2 whites in small bowl, cover and refrigerate. Beat eggs until combined. Beat in sour cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add dissolved yeast and beat until blended. Add to flour mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Cover and chill thoroughly overnight, or at least 2 hours.

When ready to complete coffee cakes, mash almond paste with enough of reserved egg whites to make soft mixture of spreading consistency. Beat until smooth.

Measure 2/3 cup granulated sugar. Sprinkle some sugar over work surface. Divide chilled dough in half, returning one half to refrigerator. Place dough on sugar and pat to fairly smooth round. (Dough will be very soft and sticky.) Sprinkle dough lightly with more sugar and roll out to rectangle, rolling one way in each direction, not back and forth. Sprinkle any parts of dough that stick to rolling pin with sugar.

Fold short edges of rectangle to meet at center. Do not overlap. Pat dough with hands into even rectangle. Sprinkle with sugar and roll out again to rectangle. Repeat this procedure third time. Fold short edges to center once more and sprinkle with sugar.

Roll dough out to 14x10-inch rectangle. (Make as even as possible.) Spread entire surface with half almond paste mixture. Roll up like jellyroll, starting at one long edge. Place seam side down on large ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining half of dough and place on baking sheet well separated from other roll.

Let coffee cakes stand in warm place, away from drafts, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (They do not need to double in bulk.) Bake at 375 degrees about 25 minutes, or until light brown. Cover loosely with foil if cakes start to brown too much. Remove from oven and immediately slide spatula under each to loosen. Let cool on baking sheet, loosening again if necessary.

To make frosting, blend powdered sugar with about 2 tablespoons water (use enough to make spreading consistency). Add remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla and beat until smooth. Spread frosting over warm coffee cakes (frosting will not cover cakes completely). Sprinkle with sliced almonds. Makes 2 coffee cakes.