Dough is easy, fillings are hard.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette A braided coffeecake, left, and tea ring have distinctive fillings. Click photo for larger image.

Home bakers usually have one or two reliable sweet yeast dough recipes for making coffeecakes, sweet rolls and sugar buns. The same goes for favorite layer cakes.

But fillings are another thing completely. Once you get past ground nuts and cinnamon sugar, you can find yourself out of time or limited to using canned supermarket fillings that can be of inferior quality.

Professional pastry chefs have long relied on fillings and nut pastes made by a Brooklyn company, American Almond. A few months ago, the company introduced a consumer line of the products, available in 15- to 16-ounce cans.

This is good news indeed. A whole world of baking possibilities opens wide when I think of how to use the all-natural almond paste, marzipan, almond butter, toasted hazelnut praline and pistachio pastes. Three other ready-to-use bakeable fillings -- prune, poppy seed and chocolate -- are called "schmears."

I bought several cans at Sur La Table at SouthSide Works and started playing in the kitchen. The prices, from $6 to $15 a can, vary depending on the rise and fall of annual nut crop prices. The cans are finger friendly with their easy-to-open, pull-top rings.

Almond paste -- I made an almond cake that keeps so well that it was slivered away for almost a week before we ate the last crumb. The paste also makes the basis for a good coffeecake filling or Danish pastry and adds flavor and texture to biscotti.

Hazelnut paste -- I remade the recipe for almond cake using hazelnut paste instead of almond and Frangelico for the amaretto in the ingredient list. Oh, my, what a cake. I piled it high with whipped cream and served it at book club.

Poppy seed filling -- Usually I make a ground walnut filling for Slovenian potica. Poppy filling is traditional, too, but I've run across too many rancid batches to try it again. Until now. This filling cut down on the prep time and is the perfect texture and sweetness for the rolls. I also made coffeecakes from my favorite sweet dough. I always do three small ones, the way my mother did -- one to eat, one to freeze and one to give away.

Prune lekvar -- Traditionally, this is paired with a cookie, prune-filled hamantaschen. After the holiday onslaught, I'm cookied out. So instead, I made a sour cream bundt cake and dropped blobs of the mixture (thinned and lightened with a little batter) onto the surface of the batter, swirling it in to make a marbled vein. This cake goes to a potluck supper next week. I sneaked a slice, and it's pretty inside and very good.

Pistachio paste -- I didn't try this one, but pistachio gelato is on my to-do list. If it's as good as the others, this should get raves.

Chocolate schmear -- I was going to make a speedy version of chocolate-filled croissants, but my husband beat me to it. He ate the stuff on a spoon straight from the can and firmly declared that the rest was his. The pastes and schmears can also be warmed and spooned over ice cream or plain cake. If you can get to them in time, that is.

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PRUNE LEKVAR BUNDT CAKE

Rename this recipe Plum Butter Bundt Cake if you think the title is a better sell to the family. Either way, it's pretty and delicious.

• 2 sticks (8 ounces) butter
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 3 large eggs
  
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
  
• 1 cup sour cream
  
• Grated zest and juice of one lemon
  
• 1 cup prune lekvar (prune butter)
  
• Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spritz a 10-inch bundt or tube pan with non-stick baking spray. Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, blending well.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Stir flour mixture into butter mixture alternating with sour cream. Stir in lemon zest and juice.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the batter. Spread remaining batter in the prepared bundt pan.

Combine the reserved batter with the prune lekvar. Drop tablespoonfuls of the prune mixture on the surface of the batter, then use a knife to swirl into batter.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to sit in the pan for 5 minutes. Then turn the cake out onto a rack to cool. Before serving, shower the cake with a dusting of confectioners' sugar. Makes one 10-inch cake.

ALMOND CAKE

Chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Napa created this simple three-way almond cake with almond paste, sliced almonds and amaretto. Doll it up with berries or a tart fruit compote and whipped cream or whipped creme fraiche.

• 7 ounces almond paste
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
  
• 2 tablespoons honey
  
• 3 large eggs
  
• 2 tablespoons amaretto, plus additional for brushing
  
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
  
• Kosher salt
  
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted in a dry skillet
  
• Confectioners' sugar for dusting
  
• Fresh berries
  
• Heavy cream or creme fraiche, whipped to soft peaks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan (or springform pan) and butter and flour its sides. Line bottom of the pan with parchment paper.

Cream almond paste and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer. Start on low speed to break up almond paste, then increase speed to medium for about 2 minutes, or until paste is broken into fine particles. Add butter and mix for 4 to 5 minutes, or until mixture is light in color and airy, scraping down the sides as necessary. It's important to mix it long enough or cake will have a dense texture.

Mix in honey, then add eggs 1 at a time, beating until each one is incorporated before adding next. Add amaretto, flour and a pinch of salt and mix just to combine.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until cake is golden and springs back when pressed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Invert cooled cake onto rack, remove parchment paper and invert cake again so that top is once again facing upward. Brush top of cake with amaretto and sprinkle with almonds. Dust with confectioners' sugar. The cake will keep, well wrapped, at room temperature for 2 days.

Cut cake into wedges and serve with fruit or whipped topping.

Thomas Keller

YEAST COFFEECAKE

Once you find a good coffeecake dough, you have the basis of many coffeecakes. This buttery-eggy dough is soft and rich and can morph into lots of shapes: one big wreath, or 3 (8-inch) pans of buns, 3 wreaths formed in 9-inch glass pie plates, hot cross buns in a 9- by 13-inch pan or individual rolls baked in muffin tins.

• 1 package active dry yeast
  
• 1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
  
• 3/4 cup milk
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
  
• 1 teaspoon saffron threads (good pinch)
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 large eggs, warmed
  
• 4 to 4 1/2 cups flour, plus more for the board
  
• 1/2 cup currants
  
• 1 (16 ounce) can coffeecake filling
  
• 1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
  
• Confectioners' sugar icing

In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm water. Add a pinch of sugar. Heat milk and add melted butter to it; cool until mixture is lukewarm.

Pulverize saffron with 1 teaspoon of sugar, using a mortar and pestle or the back of a spoon in a small dish. Add 1 tablespoon of warm milk-and-butter mixture and allow saffron to steep for 5 minutes.

Add saffron mixture, milk and butter mixture, sugar, salt and eggs to yeast. Using an electric blender on medium speed, beat until blended. Add 2 cups flour and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, until smooth and satiny. Stir in currants and 2 cups of remaining flour and mix with a wooden spoon to make a medium-stiff dough. Let dough rest for 15 minutes.

Turn sticky dough out onto a lightly floured board. Flop it around in flour until it's manageable. Knead for 8 minutes or until dough is smooth and satiny. Place dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Turn dough over to lightly oil the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

To make 3 small coffeecake braids:

Divide the dough into 3 parts. Roll each part into a rectangle about 12 by 10 inches. Place 1/3 of the filling down the center third of the dough. Cut strips on both sides at a 45-degree angle. Braid the strips across the filling (but not too tight), allowing some of the filling to show through. Let rise for about 45 minutes or just until puffy. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush the braids with egg wash. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned, or until a wooden skewer inserted into center of dough comes out clean and dry. Cool on a rack.

To make 3 tea rings:

Divide the dough into 3 parts. Roll each third of dough into a rectangle about 12 by 10 inches. Spread 1/3 of the filling on each rectangle of dough. Roll each rectangle jelly-roll fashion, starting with the long edge at the edge farthest from you. Pinch the seam to seal. Grasp the ends of the rolls and carefully stretch the roll into a snake.

Place each roll, seam side down, in a well-greased Pyrex pie plate, pinching ends together to form a circle. With kitchen scissors, snip almost through the dough about every inch apart. Separate sections slightly. Let rise, uncovered, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Brush rings with egg wash. Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven about 25 minutes or until browned. Makes 3 tea rings.

For icing: When cool, drizzle over an icing made by adding a few drops of vanilla and milk to about 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Drizzle icing over the coffeecakes through the tines of a fork.