Here's my favorite recipe. I received it from a friend who's mother heard it years ago on a radio program in Boston, MA.  It's a great recipe to do with "help" from a child. They can mix the cream cheese mixture, or help to mush in the bottom layer of crescent dinner rolls into the pan.

Crescent Roll Coffee Cake

2 pkgs. Pillsbury Crescent Dinner Rolls

2 (8 oz) pkgs. cream cheese (room temp.)
1 egg, separated
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. almond extract

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) (I use pecans)

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
water

Take 1 pkg of rolls, press into 13x9x2 ungreased pan. Put in one layer - stretch out as necessary.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, and extracts. Beat until smooth. Spread on top of layer of rolls. Take other can of rolls and spread on top. (Note:  make sure it is touching corners and sides, then stretch towards middle to cover.)

Mix egg white until frothy, brush on top. Sprinkle with nuts on top of that. Bake 30 min. in a 350 degree oven until golden. Cool.

Mix a little water slowly with powdered sugar to make a watery glaze. After cake has cooled, drizzle on top.

It is GREAT warm, cool, cold, or hot!

Enjoy!!

And don't forget to have your child join you in the kitchen! Time passes faster than you think and the days of little fingers helping (and even making a bit of a mess) will be dim happy memories. It's so easy to think we need to do it because it'll be easier or faster, but if you delay, you will regret not having those memories to look back on.

Donna Conner lives in Fort Worth, TX with her husband, Glenn, their son, Mike, Donna's mother, Charlotte, and their dog, Lucia. Donna and Glenn have been homeschooling their son since the beginning of his education. Mike completed his homeschooling in the fall of 2008. Donna is an artist and has always enjoyed writing. She wrote Homeschooling Only One in 2003, after discovering that there were many other families homeschooling only one child. Her website is devoted to those with only one student in their homeschool, with listings of online resources. You can find these free resources, including a message board for those who HOO, on her website at  http://donnac.com and read her blog at: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DonnaC

copyright © 2009 Donna Conner ~~ All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of author, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles where the title and author are listed.