Molasses Cookies

Since it has been finals week and I’ve had so many papers to write. I am a bit behind. So, to make it up to you all I will be posting the recipes now. I have them all typed up, but I just haven’t had time to post them. As such, the introductions will be almost non-existent.  I will, however, post them under the days they were supposed to be posted. Here is today’s: Molasses Cookies! They are super delicious. I hope you enjoy them!

Ingredients

·         3/4 cup sugar

·         2/3 cup softened butter

·         1/4 cup orange or lemon juice

·         1/2 cup dark corn syrup

·         1/2 cup dark molasses

·         4 1/2 cups unbleached flour

·         2 teaspoons ground ginger

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

·         1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Directions

·         In a bowl, cream sugar and butter

·         Blend in orange or lemon juice, corn syrup and molasses

·         Combine the dry ingredients before adding to creamed mixture

·         Mix well

·         Chill overnight

·         Roll out the dough to about ¼ in

·         Cut into shapes

·         Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets

·         Bake at 350 degrees F for 14 minutes

Glass Candy

This is a recipe that has been in my family for a while. It is really easy and really pretty when you make various colours. Here is today's recipe: Glass Candy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 cups of light corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon of food colouring
• 1 tablespoon of flavouring oil

Directions

• In a thick sauce pan combine the corn syrup and sugar
• Bring to a boil while stirring constantly
• When it starts to boil heat to 300 degrees F without stirring
• When hard crack is reached, remove from heat and stir in colouring and flavouring
• Pour onto a cookie sheet that has edges
• Make sure to set to cool overnight
• Using a kitchen hammer, break into small pieces

Weihnachten Stollen!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Today I will be posting a recipe that is near and dear to my heart. The good German that is me demands this at Christmas time.  Now, this is a food that you can buy at all times of the year.  However, I find it best to eat it at Christmas. So, today I present to you Weihnachten Stollen! I hope you enjoy this super traditional German food.

Ingredients

·         1 ½ cups warm milk at 115°F

·         2 packages active dry yeast

·         6 ½ cups unbleached flour, divided

·         1 ½ cups butter

·         ¾ cup sugar

·         3 eggs

·         ¾ teaspoon salt

·         ¾ teaspoon grated lemon peel

·         ½ pound raisins

·         ½ pound chopped almonds

·         ½ cup chopped candied fruit

·         3 tablespoons butter, melted

·         1 ¼ cups of confectioners’ sugar

·         ¼ cup of lemon juice

·         1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

·         2 sheets of rolled marzipan

Directions

·         Combine milk  and yeast

·         Let stand 3-5 minutes

·         Add 1 cup flour and mix well

·         Cover and let rest in a warm place until light and foamy or about 1 hour.

·         In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar

·         Beat in eggs, one at a time

·         Add salt and lemon peel

·         Stir in the yeast mixture and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough

·         Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes

·         Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

·         Punch dough down; knead in raisins, nuts and fruit

·         Divide into two parts and roll each into an oval

·         Fold each in half lengthwise and place on a greased baking sheet

·         Brush with melted butter

·         Cover and allow loaves to rise until almost doubled,  about 45 minutes.

·         Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown

·         Cool on wire racks

·         Combine confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract

·         Brush on tops of cooled loaves.

·         Cover each with a sheet of marzipan

Kaiserschmarm

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Today’s recipe comes from Austria! Hurray! Austria is so pretty and beautiful. Since I <3 it so much I will be posting the recipe for what is probably the most famous sweets in Austria. Today you get Kaiserschmarm! It’s delicious. Of course, Austria is known for its sweets so this is a really sweet recipe. If you don’t like sickly sweet things, I don’t recommend eating it. That being said, if you make it for a Holiday Party it will be the hit of the party. So enjoy!

Ingredients

·         ½ cup of unbleached flour

·         5 tablespoons of vanilla sugar

·         ½ teaspoons of sea salt

·         1 cup of heavy milk

·         5 eggs that are separated

·         2 tablespoons of butter

·         Confectioners’ sugar

Directions

·         Sift flour, sugar, and salt together in a mixing bowl

·         Pour the milk slowly into the dry mixture while stirring

·         Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating until well blended before adding the next egg yolk

·         Place the egg whites in a separate bowl

·         Beat until egg whites form stiff peaks

·         Gently stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter

·         Fold in the remaining egg whites.

·         Melt 1 tablespoon butter in an 8 inch skillet over moderate heat

·         Pour in half the batter and cook about 4 minutes or until browned on the bottom

·         Loosen edges and slide pancake onto a plate using spatula

·         Invert the pancake back into the skillet and cook until both sides are brown (Takes about 2 minutes)

·         Remove to a warm platter and keep warm

·         Repeat with the rest of the batter

·          Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve

Soft Maple Candy!

Merry Christmas!Joyeux Noël!

Maple Candy is a recipe that comes from my country’s northern neighbor, Canada! It is so delicious. I <3 it crazy like wow! Of course, I hardly ever get to make it because as far south as I am it makes getting good maple syrup rather difficult. That is not to say that it is impossible, but Canadian maple syrup is expensive! OMG, really. $15 a bottle for just the small one and that would be with my discount. Ugg… Really, that’s like buying Saffron.  I will have to make some this year though. I do have lots of Canadian buddies and family. I hope you enjoy this. It is really sweet and filled maplely goodness. Also, it is really easy to make since there are only 2 ingredients, but keep in mind that you do need to know how to make candy for this. I also recommend getting a candy mold as they are much more fun when they are in a molded shape.

Ingredients

·         2 cups of pure maple syrup

·         ½ cup of chopped walnuts

Directions

·         In a large, heavy pan, bring maple syrup to a boil

·         Cook to 235°F while stirring occasionally to prevent scorching

·         Remove from heat and cool to about 175°F without stirring, this will take about 10 to 15 minutes

·         Stir mixture rapidly with a thick wooden spoon, or it might break, for about 5 minutes or until the colour lightens and the candy becomes creamy, but still thick

·         Stir in the walnuts

·         Pour into molds

·         Cool before popping out of the mold

Julen Brød

God jul!

It just is not a Norwegian Christmas without Julen Brød. For those of you who have no idea what that means, it is Christmas bread. That is pretty easy to figure out though. Norwegian is the closest language to English that I have found outside of the English speaking world. Norwegian recipes have a special place in my heart in the same way that German ones do. Actually, it’s all Feno-Scandinavian recipes and German recipes.  Anyways, if you do not like fruit cake, you may not like this. I do, but that is just me.  This is another recipe that is in metric units that you will need to convert. I will convert the temperatures on this one for you. So that will be less work.Enjoy!

Ingredients

·         7 g active dry yeast

·         235 ml warm water, about 110 degrees to 115 degrees

·         100 g sugar

·         1 egg

·         55 g butter or margarine, softened

·         3 g salt

·         2 g ground cardamom

·         470 g whole grain flour

·         70 g raisins

·         120 g diced citron or mixed candied fruit

Directions

·         In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water

·         Add sugar, egg, butter, salt, cardamom and 470g flour and mix well

·         Stir in raisins, citron and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough

·         Turn onto a floured surface

·         Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes

·         Place in a greased bowl, turning once to greased top

·         Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

·         Punch dough down and divide in half

·         Shape each portion into a flattened ball

·         Place in two greased 9-in. round baking pans

·         Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour

·         Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown

·         Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

Vacanze Cookie

Buon Natale!

Vacanze Cookies are Italian! They are interesting. Some people won’t like them as they are fried cookies. Strange, I know, but they are tasty. Hope you enjoy making these!

Ingredients

·         1 tablespoon of sugar

·         1 teaspoon of lemon zest

·         1 teaspoon of vanilla oil

·         ½ teaspoon of sea salt

·         4 eggs

·         2 ½ cups of unbleached flour

·         Canola oil for frying

·         1 cup of honey

·         Candy sprinkles

Directions

·         In a large bowl mix together sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, and sea salt

·         Add eggs and 2 cups of flour and mix until well blended

·         Turn out onto a floured surface and knead in the remaining flour

·         With a floured knife cut into 20 pieces

·         Roll each piece into a rope

·         Cut rope into ½ inch pieces

·         Heat the oil to 350 degrees F

·         Fry cookies, about 5 at a time for 2 minutes per side

·         Drain on paper towels and place in a large bowl

·         Heat honey until it comes to a boil

·         Pour over the cookies

·         Move the cookies to a serving platter cover with candy sprinkles

·         Allow to cool before serving

Boże Narodzenie Ciastka

Wesołych Świąt!

Boże Narodzenie Ciastka are from Poland, duh. Anyways, this is a recipe that I received from this wonderfully eccentric Polish lady that I know.  She told me that I had to share it with the world. So, I am. Keep in mind that this recipe is in metric measurements and you will have to convert them. Since I am European, I have metric measuring cups and do not need to do so. They sort of taste like licorice. So, if you do not like licorice, I do not recommend this type of cookie. It is delicious though. I like them and a bunch of my friends that do not like licorice love these. Enjoy!

Ingredients

·         225 g. butter

·         205 g. shortening

·         400 g. vanilla sugar

·         5 large eggs

·         940 g. whole grain flour

·         30 g. baking powder

·         3. salt

·         15 g. anise oil

Directions

·         Preheat oven to 175 degrees C

·         Cream butter, shortening, and vanilla sugar

·         Add eggs and anise oil

·         While mixing stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt

·         Mix until soft

·         Chill dough for half an hour

·         Roll out the dough and cut out with cookie cutters

·         Grease cookie sheet

·         Bake cookies for 15 minutes