Christmas Baking

41 this morning, cloudy. Showers predicted later.

It seems like Christmas here in our region is either warm or snowy, with not many in between. 

I looked back through Facebook posts from this date for the past 10 years. Every one was either a warm day or snowy--usually just flurries, but still.  This year will be a warm one; last year we had snow. I'm happy with whatever weather we have, honestly; the holiday is still magical.

I'm baking today, pies and mincemeat tarts. I used our own mincemeat from the cellar and our apple pie filling from the freezer, but the pumpkin came from a can because we didn't raise any this year, somehow. Seems like that just slipped by us. But the pies smell delicious anyway.

  Mincemeat tarts, almost ready to go in the oven.

This is the least baking I've done for Christmas since I was a bride in 1968. It seems odd not to do more, but this year there hasn't been time for it, and I honestly just didn't feel like it. Which is okay; I usually give most of it away anyway, or it goes to waste because we don't eat much of it, actually. Larry has to watch his sugar and I have to watch my weight, so not having sweets around is a good thing.

Back to the kitchen for me. The pies need to come out of the oven, and the tarts need to go in. Merry Christmas Eve, my friends!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Fruitcake Day

They're done. About 50 fruitcakes, all packed up, some soaked with brandy, and waiting for the holidays.

Three of my seven sisters made the long trek from northern Virginia to my home in the West Virginia hills, not far from the Ohio River. My aunt and her daughter-in-law, our beloved Bridget, also came, as did three granddaughters and a couple of their friends.

We had a blast. We ate and baked and laughed and mixed,

made messes and cleaned them up and completely enjoyed our time together.

The tradition came from our mother, who may have learned it from her mother. Get together with other women and girls to make the holiday cakes. And everyone gets three stirs of each bowl and makes a wish on each one. We are passing it on to our grandchildren in hopes this fun tradition will continue to bring our womenfolk together long after we're gone.

We make good cakes too. Even those who say they don't like fruitcake like our cakes. Each batch comes out a little differently from the others, and every year the cakes are different from the year before. Which is odd because we use basically the same ingredients. But sometimes we add more or less fruit; the fruits vary year to year; sometimes some of us use honey instead of molasses, or sorghum molasses instead of blackstrap. Sometimes we put in peach jam, other times blackberry or other berries, sometimes jelly; sometimes the eggs are bigger, and other years some might use dark brown sugar while others use light brown. Sometimes we add brandy to the mix, sometimes not.

Mine are now soaked with brandy, to sit and absorb the flavor into the fruits and cake. I've already sampled one without brandy, and it was delicious...but the brandy will make it better!

My house is now back in order, the dishes washed and put away, the bed linens and towels washed and sorted and put away, the floors swept. But the joy that permeated this place over the weekend is still here. It seeped into every corner and cupboard, and still hovers around the corners of my mouth.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Making Plum Pudding for the First Time in 40 Years

I've always wanted to try this again. In 1972 when I was 21 I tried making plum pudding. The result was, well, not so great. But my mother would make it sometimes at the holidays and I remembered the taste and the excitement of the flaming pudding being brought to the table. Mom also used to wrap silver coins in waxed paper and put them in the pudding so that was something we looked forward to, money being a scarce commodity for us children.

In the past few years I've bought not one but two pudding pans. Actually, three---one I put for sale in my booth. I kept the other two, thinking I would surely use them, but until today they just took up space in my cabinet. The time was right today, though, so I found a recipe that sounded something like what I remembered of my mother's puddings and set to work.

Of course, I didn't have all the right ingredients. And I forgot to add the chopped apples AND the silver coins! Ah me. Even with my substitutions and deletions, the puddings came out pretty well. As a matter of fact, I plan to make more next week, because I read that they are best if kept for a year before serving. Just like fruitcake that is properly soaked with brandy and packed up and put away, the flavors and texture keep developing.

Here's the recipe I used:

1 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup honey (recipe called for white sugar and molasses, but I didn't have molasses so I used brown sugar and honey as a sort of substitute
1 cup butter, at room temperature (butter, not margarine or shortening)
1 cup apple cider (recipe called for milk)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 tsp salt (that's not very much, is it?)
1 tsp baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour plus 2 additional tablespoons
1 1/2 cups raisins, finely chopped (I used more than that, and mixed dark and golden raisins since I had them, and I did not chop them)
1 1/2 cups candied fruit mix (that fruitcake mix with citron, orange and lemon peel, cherries, etc)
1 1/2 cups chopped apples (which I forgot to put in)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I used more because I like cinnamon)
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Boiling water

1. Grease 2 2-pound coffee cans, 2 2-quart pudding molds, or 3 2-quart oven-proof deep baking dishes. The recipe I used didn't say to flour the pans, but mine stuck a bit so next time I'll flour them well too, and hope that helps.

2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, cider or milk, eggs, and molasses.

3. Add salt, baking soda, baking powder and flour. When well mixed add fruit, nuts and spices and mix well.

4. MOST IMPORTANT PART: stir three times and make a wish. Invite anyone else in the house to do the same.

5. Fill each pan 1/2 full of batter. Cover the tops of your pans with their lids, or if you're using a coffee can or baking dish with 2 layers of aluminum foil and seal it well around the edges.

6. In a large pot with a rack or trivet in the bottom, place your pans and add enough boiling water to go 2/3 up the side of each pan. I used my pressure canner for one mold, and another tall pan with the rack from a small pressure cooker in the bottom. I put the pudding molds in, then added warm water to be sure of the right water level, then took my puddings out again and waited until the water boiled. Then I put them into the water, put the lids on the big pots, and reduced the heat to medium low so that the water was just boiling gently.

7. I cooked mine about 5 1/2 hours, until a fork came out clean when I stuck it in to test. There might be some sticky fruit that will cling to the fork a bit but you will be able to tell the difference between that an uncooked dough.

8. When they were done, I took them out of the boiling water, let them cool on a rack for about 20 minutes, then turned them over on the cookie rack to remove them from the mold. They didn't come out right away but when I tapped on the pan they plopped out, leaving a good bit of their tops in the pans. I got those bits out and patted them back in place (and tasted a little bit too---MMMM!).

Now they are still cooling on the counter, but later this evening I will wrap them each in a big white hanky, put them in a plastic bag and soak them with brandy. Then I will put them in the fridge and leave them alone until Christmas.

To serve, I'll make a hard sauce, I think, or perhaps some other sauce (lots of recipes and ideas online ofr these). I'll decorate the top with a few cherries, maybe, then pour brandy over and light it (I hope) with a match. Think that will work? I'll let you know, so stay tuned. (Or if you know something about this part that I don't know, do tell!)




Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Quick and Easy Recipe: Chocolate Cherry Tarts, 3 Ingredients!

I came up with this recipe the other day while I was making mincemeat tarts. (For my mincemeat recipe, go here) I had extra pastry that had to be used up, so I looked around to see what I could do with it. These are as easy as can be, look pretty and taste divine. I posted a photo of them yesterday and thought later that others might want to give them a try.

Piecrust pastry, either homemade (see my recipe here) or store-bought
1 can of cherry pie filling (I never have had enough cherries to make my own, but maybe one day...)
Hershey's Kisses or similar chocolate pieces--I used milk chocolate, but it might be fun to experiment with other kinds

Roll out the pastry dough to as thin as you can make it and still be able to handle it (1/8 inch or even thinner if possible)

Cut the pastry dough in circles to fit your muffin pans. I used mini muffin pans and my biscuit cutter was perfect for this--about 3" circles.

Put the pastry rounds in the muffin cups carefully so it doesn't tear. Prick the bottoms of each cup with a fork. Bake at 400 degrees about 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven.

While the pastry is still hot, put one unwrapped chocolate candy into each pastry. Allow to sit for about 5-10 minutes to let the chocolate soften. When the chocolate is soft to the touch, spoon the pie filling over the chocolate in each cup. Remove from pans and let stand until the chocolate hardens.

That's it!




Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Holiday Cookies!

Yesterday was baking day. Today was cleaning up, putting away, putting up the pumpkin and more work on the booth day. But I promised recipes for the cookies I made, so here they are:

First recipe: Italian Cookies. I got this recipe from a friend and loved making them. These were easy, easy. The only down side was dipping them all in the glaze, since the recipe made about 80 cookies. I mixed these with my KitchenAid mixer and it worked great.

Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening (I didn't have any so I used all butter)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking powder (yes, 5)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons anise extract or vanilla or lemon extract.

 Melt the butter and shortening together; then add the sugar and mix well. Add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Mix in the extract. Sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture gradually; if the dough is too sticky to roll into a ball in your hand, add a little more flour but remember the dough should be very soft. Roll the dough into small balls (about 3/4-inch diameter or smaller); the cookies raise quite a bit due to all he baking powder. Place the balls on ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. The cookies should be lightly browned on the bottom but the tops will still be light. Remove from the cookie sheet to a wire cooling rack and let them cool completely before glazing.

Glaze:
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 to 4 tablespoons milk

Mix milk gradually into the sugar to make a thick glaze--you want it to be thick, not runny. Place waxed paper under the cooling racks to catch dripping glaze and scattered sugar or else you'll have a mess.

Dip the top of each cookie in the glaze and sprinkle with colored sugar or your choice of toppings. You will want to dip a few and then sprinkle the sugar as he glaze will harden pretty quickly. Allow to set until the glaze hardens, and store.

Second recipe: Chocolate Orange Shortbread. This is from Better Homes and Gardens Cookie Classics cookbook. Lots of delicious recipes in this book, and this is one that is quick and easy to make.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I like unbleached best)
1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
2/3 cup butter (no substitutes)
3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 to 1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel (use a zester for best results)
Granulated sugar

In a medium mixing bowl stir together the flour and powdered sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling together. (I cheated and used my KitchenAid andit worked just fine--this mixture is pretty stiff and I was tripling the recipe). Stir in the chocolate pieces and orange peel. Form mixture into a ball with your hands ; return to the bowl and knead until smooth.

Shape the dough into 1 1/4" balls. Place balls 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a glass dipped in granulated sugar, slightly flatten the ball to about a 1/2" thickness. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, just until the bottoms start to brown. Cool on the cookie sheet for one minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Makes about 28 cookies.

According to the recipe, these can be packed in a freezer container and stored for up to one month. Just take out of the freezer and thaw in the container for about 15 minutes before serving.

Those were the two I made yesterday, along with the brownie bites. For those, I made my usual recipe but baked them in the small size muffin tins. When they were about 3/4 of the way baked, I added a small chunk of semisweet chocolate in the centers, then let them finish baking. The only problem I had was getting them out of the pans. They really wanted to stick! I used spray cooking oil on the pans, but wonder if butter would have been better. Any suggestions?

So now my cookies are packed and ready for my trip to Virginia this weekend to bake fruitcakes with my sisters. We'll swap (and probably taste-test!) our cookies too. Can't wait for the fun to begin!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.