Q:Here's a coffee cake that my mother's longtime friend Claire Genicoff shared with me when I was bride in the early 1960s. It's easy and versatile, as you can use any fruit.

Norma Orovitz

A: Cook's Corner readers adore easy, adaptable recipes like this one. I tried it with mangoes, substituting brown sugar and a sprinkling of dark rum for the cinnamon sugar. To make your own cinnamon sugar, mix ½ cup white sugar with 1 tablespoon cinnamon, more or less to taste.

Q: Do you have a recipe for a candy called crema de leche (milk cream) that is sold at drugstores, gas stations, etc.? It tastes like a candy that my mother used to make many years ago in North Carolina.

Rachel Muller

A: We've published crema de leche recipes over the years from nearly every Latin American country, including the Cuban one here. But I'm guessing the version you remember was made via an old method, in which a whole, unopened can of sweetened condensed milk was cooked for hours in a large pot of water.

That is no longer recommended because of safety concerns, so use one of these methods from Eagle Brand:

Oven: Pour into a 9-inch pie plate. Cover with aluminum foil; place in larger shallow pan. Fill larger pan with hot water. Bake at 425 degrees for 1 ½ hours or until thick and caramel colored.

Stovetop: Pour into top of double boiler; place over boiling water. Over low heat, simmer 1 to 1 ½ hours or until thick and caramel colored. Beat until smooth.

Q: I'm still discovering things I lost to Hurricane Andrew. Here's a doozy my daughter reminded me of recently. I had a recipe, no doubt from Campbell's, for a simple chicken cooked with oranges, almonds and I'm not sure what else. Can you help?

Nickie Williams

A: I found the recipe in the 1980 Campbell's International Cookbook, one of my favorite vintage cookbooks from a food manufacturer. It is amazingly varied, with recipes from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, all simplified with American ingredients, including, of course, condensed soup.

''This delicately scented chicken dish is a classic from east-central Mexico,'' the pollo con naranjas recipe reads. ''It is colorful with oranges, nuts and raisins and it tastes as good as it looks.'' We enjoyed it immensely, served over rice.

SLEUTH'S CORNER

Q: I loved the mini cheese Danish at Rascal House, Pumpernick's and the Eden Roc Hotel. Has anyone been able to obtain the recipe?.

Marlene

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