BS: Holiday Baking

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: maire-aine
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 03:55 PM

I discovered that I'd "traced" this thread from last year, so I figured I'd just refresh it.

Here's my favorite cooky recipe:

Cream together 1 C butter and 1½ C sugar

Add
1 egg, beaten until fluffy
1½ T grated orange peel
2 T clear corn syrup
1 T water

Mix above.

Sift together
3¼ C flour
2 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
Add dry ingredients to butter-sugar mix. Chill.

Roll out & cut into shapes.
Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 12:48 PM

The images I find online are loaves that are apparently commercially made. They appear to be more long like a jelly roll. But I know what you meant. Others in the images took the log and shaped it in a kind of bunt or angel food pan, but that isn't it either. Think about what I described--

Roll your dough very flat, put your filling on it, and roll it into a straight log. Then take one corner of it and start to coil the log into a spiral on a cookie sheet; it rises there again then is baked. You get the spiral within the spiral. I found one image (link), it's a big sloppy one, not the neatly arranged and several rings that my mom did. Here's another.

Here is one being made though this filling being poured and mom's was dryer, had to be sprinkled and spread (but the outcome could be like my mom's poteca, though apparently these folks cut it and put it in a loaf pan) link. Here's the whole site: http://www.devichnik.ru/9912/recepty_ny.htm Is this any clearer now? People have gotten lazy, or had a different tradition, and it doesn't turn up the old fashioned way very often. I've made it only once or twice, but enough that I can see that the same recipe has simply been modified to a different shape, probably for automation.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 11:42 AM

Interesting recipe, but not the same. The one I'm looking for is a flattish spiral, not a roll, coiled more like a cinnamon bun but dough an even strip, long enough to make a spiral about 8 inches in diameter. Very firm when finished.
Taste probably similar to the poteca roll, however. Almonds and hazelnuts (prob. depends on what is available).

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 11:30 AM

Also search for it under "potica." There are lots and lots of recipes, and some good photos.

The walnuts have to be ground to work, not chopped. And you need a really big surface to prepare this on. The way my mother fixed it, she rolled the thing out probably at least three feet across (round) and then covered it with the walnut mix and slowly made a big log, like you would cut through when making cinnamon rolls. Then that log was wrapped around itself to give the large loaf a cinnamon roll in appearance.

One web site says this is Slovenian. That sounds right.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 11:20 AM

Poteca. Pronounced Po-tee-za

It's actually from north of Italy, maybe Polish? I don't remember now.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Walnut-Poteca/Detail.aspx

It's wonderful, but quite time consuming to make.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 10:39 AM

I wish I was doing some holiday baking- on the beach in Hawai'i.

That aside, this season we received from relatives a wonderful desert made by an Italian woman. It is made something like a cinnamon bun, spirally rolled pastry, the layers with caramelized filling, and chopped nuts- flavor like baklava (sp.). It is much firmer that a bun. Diameter about eight inches.
Does anyone recognize it from this poor description? It really good- very rich.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 05:27 AM

Several people have mentioned baking in coffee cans or steel pails.
Can I add teracotta flower pots as a suggestion?
Available in many sizes feom your local plant nursery.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 11:05 AM

I have to get past all of this holiday baking. I noticed that my jeans were uncomfortably snug this morning when I pulled them off the rack. Time to switch to reading a soup thread, or one with good salad recipes. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: ClaireBear
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 11:01 AM

Here is the recipe Dave'sWife requested for buttermilk gingerbread.

Dave'sWife, I wish I could say it was ancient and ancestral like those I sent you at Christmas, but actually I found it on the side of a buttermilk carton. Looking on the bright side, it's much better than my grandmother's recipe, for all that hers IS ancient and ancestral.

BUTTERMILK GINGERBREAD

2-1/2 c. sifted flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ginger (I use more)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. light brown sugar (I think I've used dark)
2 eggs
3/4 c. light molasses (again, I've used dark)
1 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 x 13 x 2 cake pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon.

Cream butter and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing well. Blend in molasses. Add dry ingredients in three portions, alternating with buttermilk; beat well after each addition.

Pour into prepared pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes.

Hope you like it!

Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 12 Jan 08 - 03:45 PM

This morning I was on the phone with my mother and father talking about upcoming Shrove Tuesday and somehow I got on the subject of my irish Grandmother's admonition to me to always cut a cross into your breads.

My father was on the line and he laughed remembering the same thing but my mother said we were both nuts that my Grandmother never told us any such thing. Not sure how she'd know since it wasn't HER mother.. but.. I then launched into the story about the Great fall from heaven and the orgin of Fairies and how they are just this side of evil and again, my Dad laughed and agreed with the memory even adding to it. My mother thinks we're liars and that we read it in a book.

This is her typcial response whenever I exhibit too much being my Father's daughter. She doesn't remember these stories because nobody ever told them to her and why would they? Grandparents don't need to pass these stories down to grandchildren through their son or daughter-in-law!

ahh.. my mother can be grumpy about things and one of them is my dad's family.


At any rate, Dad remembers it the same exact way plus a few other things for good measure. It was an amusing conversation. I still haven't gotten my mother's mom's recipe for dark gingerbread baked in a coffee can and I don't think I ever will!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jan 08 - 01:51 PM

Go to your local restaurant supply store. Maybe you'll find a suitable steel container that is actually meant to hold silverware or something. Amazing what those places offer.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Jan 08 - 09:17 AM

"I've been researching steel pails for baking. "

Chinese made stainless steel buckets (about 1 gallon size!) are now available here in Oz.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: maeve
Date: 11 Jan 08 - 11:44 AM

On a related note, I've seen quick breads baked in canning jars, and it seems to me they could be stored in the pantry rather than freezer or refrigerator. Anyone have a link or experience with that?

I do sometimes see the old pound coffee cans at our local little recycling center. I'll have to grab 'em when I see 'em again!

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 11 Jan 08 - 11:33 AM

Ooh ooh - please pst your Buttermilk Gingerbread recipe or ask Silenus Charm if he has one!

I called my mom Yesterday to try and get her mother's recipe only to find that she was in the midst of a 2 day power outage and trying to keep warm using a gasoline generator. She told me that grandma's recipes were in a big box - mostly handwritten cards and clippins and that she'd try and dig it out when the lights came back on.

As is usually the case within families, she says she has NO recollection of any such Gingerbread although I clearly recall her eating some when we visted in 1991...errr... or was that 1992? Memory is funny thing, eh? She only remmebers the gingerbread baked in a sqaure pan and Grandma did that too but she preferred to bake it on the coffee cans!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: ClaireBear
Date: 11 Jan 08 - 11:21 AM

Santee, I confess I was a wee bit afraid I'd offended you somehow. Very sorry that you've been sick, but also relieved...

I've been researching steel pails for baking. These were the best I could do, but you'd have to make a lot of gingerbread to fill even the smallest one!

I like warm gingerbread with lemon curd. I also enjoy it with (sorry, Dave'sWife who can't have blue-veined cheese) smeared thinly with a blend of Roquefort and cream cheese, which gives the gingerbread a delightful complexity.

Also, when I make "fruitcake," I do it by adding heaps of dried (NOT candied!!!) fruits -- figs, prunes, apricots, raisins, and cherries mostly -- plus soft, crystalized stem ginger, my home-candied (or, if I'm in a hurry, fresh grated) orange or lemon peel, and optional pecans to my buttermilk gingerbread recipe. Even fruitcake haters often like it. Mmmm...

Cheers,
Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 11 Jan 08 - 09:10 AM

Clairebear - my own darling Secret Santa! Sorry I shuffled off to Buffalo after posting in the Pressie arrived thread. Inky & I did not sleep for two weeks but that day we spelt a looong time. I wound up with a winter cold, took some cold medicine and slept for what seemed like days. It was cold and rainy here so Inky was perfectly happy to stay with me in the nest of blankies he makes at the foot of the bed!

I'll talk about my pressies in the pressie thread to prevent thread drift. On the issue of breads - on the site you linked to I saw this quote:

>>British bakers scar hot cross buns Ð seasoned with raisins and citrus Ð with Christ's cross to Ôlet the devil fly out<<

And it reminded me of how my irish grandmother always told me to cut a cross into my sodabreads to keep the fairies from from tainting them. In a thread elsewhere I once told the story she told me about how Fairies are really fallen angels. I also PMed it to somebody - let me look and see if I can find it to paste here:

Ok I found it - this is how she expalined what the Sidhe are to me:

>>During the time of the great war in heaven, Lucifer rose in rebellion against God our
father. A terrible battle was fought with Lucifer and his legions being defeated. God
proclaimed that Lucifer and every angel who sympathised with his cause were to be cast
out of heaven. This is known as The Fall.

Well, The Fall went on for days and weeks, months even. Thousands upon thousands of angels were cast out. Seeing the great multitudes falling, Michael the Arch Angel begged God to have Mercy and to end The Fall. God was moved by his plea and that instant he ceased casting angels out of heaven. He said "Wherever they are now, let them stay there."

The angels that were still falling through the air became the spirits of the air. The angels that were not yet to hell but in the ground became the spirtis of the earth, those in the oceans, lakes and rivers became the spirits of the water. Some angels were caught inside of trees or boulders and they became the spirits of the trees and rocks. There they remain between heaven and hell. They are apart from God and so they resent us and His love for us.

They are also apart from Lucifer, who they supported. They seek to meddle in the affairs of men to earn his favor and hopefully gain a place in Hell. This is why you must never walk alone at night or walk without your father or cousins (male). If a Fairy were to catch you alone, they could carry you off or bewitch you. You must also never walk by the water alone without your father or cousins for the same reasons. There are fairies there who would kidnap you and carry you to their land onder the water and you would never see your parents again<<

To continue her story -

So, the fairies who resent God's love for humans will sometimes reach out and touch breads set out to cool. Their touch will taint the bread but you cannot see that it is tainted with their envy. To eat the bread tainted by a fairy can make you sick with a mysterious illness no doctor can heal. That is why you must cut the symbol of the Cross into the bread. this prevents the fairies from toaching and tainting it.


I kid you not - that's what she told me. So all you bread makers out there - cut the cross into all your breads if you have envious fairies in your neighborhood! You wouldn't want to get sick!

Of course, this Christian explanation of the fairies is in direct conflict with other Pagan explanations she gave me but it's kinda neat so I offer it up for your amusement.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Cats at Work
Date: 11 Jan 08 - 08:41 AM

Tonight I start baking for tomorrows Wassailing. Lots of appley things.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 05:38 PM

Go by the feed store and look at all of the various galvanized tins--everything from cute little cans and buckets to multi-gallon stock tanks. If you can get it seasoned to a point where you don't get metal stuff sloughing off, you might have something.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: ClaireBear
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 05:02 PM

To switch holidays for a minute (but stay on the subject of the gingerbread), there's a Finnish Easter bread called something very much like Paasiaisleipa (only with several umlauts) that's traditionally baked in a small milk pail. I wonder if that would work for your gingerbread? And where would you find one? Maybe in Solvang (though that's nominally Danish...).

Cheers,
Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 03:43 PM

Ooooh! I've stopped for split pea soup when I passed through Solvang! :)

World Market sells a big tin of pepperkrakor for about $10. They're very good.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: ClaireBear
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 01:30 PM

Dave'sWife, I'll bring tea, you serve the gingerbread and we'll sing duets! Meet you in Solvang?

Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: PoppaGator
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 01:24 PM

As a confirmed coffee drinker, let me point out that most coffee these days is sold in vacuum-packed foil bags; plastic can-like containers are another latte-day packaging alternative. The good old-fashioned coffee can is getting harder and harder to find.

Also: When you do find coffee in a can, as often as not it's smaller than the long-established classic one-pound can. Many companies are now selling 13-ounce packages for the price formerly charged for a full 16-ounce pound ~ in the US, anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 01:22 PM

SRS - I see you've been busy purging nasty alien Exe files from your PC. Just wack 'em with that emoty hunts sauce can.

I fell guilty posting in here when those fat fighting threads are ongoing. I'm not in any serious need of major weight loss and I don't often eat much of my own baking - just a piece or so.

SRS - the practice of baking sweet gingerbread in a can (and traditionally most gingerbread is a sweet quickbread and not a cookie) may have originated in the USA during the Depression - I'm not sure. It's one of those things you either grow up with or you don't.

My Great Grandmother told me it wad done long before the Depression (and she should have known! She was already a grandmother in 1929) and it was just a matter of thrift and common sense. You could bake many more breads all at once in empty cans than you could in loaf pans.   I suppose it saved on firewood but since in her day, the stove was used both for heat and for cooking, it woulda been going all winter.

Sadly, my Grandma, her daughter, passed away last year. My mum promised me all her handwritten recipes including her Gigerbread in a can but I've yet to see it.

The way I was raised, Gingerbread shaped like a cookie is called Pfefferneuse. Gingerbread Quick Bread is called Gingerbread. It's not quite a cake it has a much denser and wetter texture. When you take a bite, it sticks to your teeth and roof of your mouth but in a delightful way! Grandma and Great-Grandma's Gingerbread in a can was almost black in color and they'd roll it one more time in crystal sugar before wrapping in wax paper (they didn't have parchment) and then putting it into a clean coffee can to seal with a lid.

The best size coffee cans were the 1 pound cans whch aren't available anymore. most Coffee cans only come in 12 or 14 ounce sizes now.

I'm gonna call my mother and ask for that recipe. I want it so badly now I can taste it. Grandma used to top it only with freshly whipped cream and maybe some candied ginger

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 12:50 PM

You must be talking about a gingerbread cake, not a gingerbread cookie? I've only done the cookies. But my pumpkin bread recipe comes out pretty dark and rich and could almost accomplish the same thing. It's the recipe in an older version of The Joy of Cooking. I don't drink coffee, so I don't have coffee cans around. I suppose you could do a loaf if you really cleaned out the inside of the Hunts spaghetti sauce can? ;-D

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 11:20 AM

I am such a thread killer - I swear!

Come on, SRS - you must have good and dark Gingerbread recipe and a method for cooking in a coffeecan?? yes?

I haven't done this in ages, but I think the method for getting the sticky wet round gingerbread with the sugar coating is to grease the inside of small coffee cans very well with crisco shortening and then coat the inside well with a large white crystal sugar. Then you pour in the batter, bake and cool. When cool enough to handle but before the cans are cold and contracted, slide the can-shaped loaves out and wrap in parchment before slipping inside a tube bag.

Is that about right? I'd like to make some this weekend perhaps.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 27 Dec 07 - 05:50 AM

PattyClink - that Brisket recipe you mention of a can of cranberry sauce and a can of tomato paste isn't much different from the party meatballs recipe. If I was going to do that, I'd use my homemade sauce of course and would use a couple cans of diced tomatoes in addition to the paste and perhaps throw in a couple teaspooons of dry mustard and a splash of worcstershire - tossing it all into a slow cooker on low for 8 hours. An hour before it's done, I'd toss in some frozen pearl onions. That'd be super good!

I wound up running all my cranberry sauce through a sieve this time as we watched a movie on DVD. Since I had the time, I worked the sieve by hand and was rewarded with an extra 3/4 of a quart iof suace for my labours! I used the same recipe that I had posted but was out of Cranberry jello. I substituted Cherry Jello instead and it came out fine. I also had some wonderfully fragrant oranges so I zested them up and tossed the zest into the bubbling cranberry sauce.

You know, It's amazing how much more sauce you can get when you work the mash as hard as possible unitl all that's left are stringy dry berry skins and little else. I'd say that when I was done, I had less than one cup of skins from the entire four bags of cranberries plus the 2 cups of blueberries! I put some of the sauce up in mason jars for later in the year and to maybe send to some mudcatter in the US who's SS Pressie went astra y and needs a replacement.

My only other big baking this week was to make 3 Deep Dish Crab Quiches with orange and yellow sweet bell peppers, onions, parmesan and cream cheese. We have a party to go to and I thought the Quiches would be an easy thing to bring.

This morning when my usband wakes up, I'm going to try out my new Batter Dispenser gadget with Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. I've already zested up and juiced some of those lovely meyer lemons my husband's coworker gave us for Christmas. The house smells heavenly! I've been guilty of zesting up lemons, grapefruits and oranges just to make a room smell good when things get kinda stuffy in the winter! When I do that, if I don't have an immediate use for the zest, I just dry it on wax paper and then store it until needed.

So no cookies baked here, but I could be persuaded. I'd really love to make some nice and dark gingerbread in old coffee cans and then sprinkle with large crystal sugar. Those make for great holiday gifts. Nothing like a nice thick round of nearly black gingerbread with some fresh whipped cream. if you want to go totally over the top, you can chops some crystalized ginger and sprinkle it on the whipped cream! Yummmmm. I use the Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread recipe which calls for a pint of Stout (can be found on Epicurious.com) .

ANy other gingerbread bakers here?

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: open mike
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 11:11 PM

while waiting for the cobbler to cool, i will copy the recipe here.
It is called: Everybody's Grandmother's favorite Cobbler Recipe
(i do not know what the metric equivalents are...)the ingredients are:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1 stick/cube butter (1/2 cup)
1 1/2 - 2 cups fruit...
berries, fresh or canned peaches,
fresh, canned or dried apricot, etc.

preheat oven to 350 degrees
in a 9" X 13" pan, melt the butter
(this is the tricky part...you melt the
butter in the pan...do not mix into the batter)
In a seperate bowl, stir together flour, sugar,
baking powder and milk. Pour ("drizzle") this batter
into the pan over the butte--do not mix or stir it.
sprinkle the fruit on top. Bake at 350 for 20 T0 40 minutes.
The batter will cover up the fruit and there will be a crunchy
outside to this yummy treat.

the one i baked is ready now....let me know if you make this too!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 01:45 PM

Ducklings were up well befre dawn baking buns this morning decorated with icing and snowmen, santas and puddings. Brought us tea and buns at around 8 am.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Anne Lister
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 07:00 PM

Just completed big batch of mince pies with my speciality lemon pastry ...use lemon juice and water to bind the dough instead of just water, add lemon zest to dry ingredients and just a little sugar. This year's refinement - also adding a little cinnamon. I'm ridiculously proud of them! They won't last long.
And tomorrow's prime desserts will be (a) mince pies, (b) a trifle, with probably too much sherry, if that's possible and (c)Queen Charlotte's Tart, which is like a lemon meringue pie but has oranges in it as well ... and because I'm now having fun with pastry I'm baking it in a chocolate pastry shell.
Fingers crossed ....

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 11:01 PM

oooh, snickerdoodles!   

Dave's Wife: I've lost my NY chzcake recipe, I used to love it. It called for a crust made from zwieback.
On the cranberry front, I am told a brisket, a can of berry sauce, and a can of tomato paste will cook up amazingly well, haven't tried it yet.

But as for holiday baking: 'twas not fated to be a baking year after all. Shopping ate my day. Spouse ate my bananas. We did bake a ham, and made up the strudel dough for tomorrow morning, it has to ripen overnight. That'll be the sole output. Drat.

I had hoped to at least get in some simple macaroons with little red candied cherries stuck on top, thought I could handle something that simple. Stopped for the cherries on the way home, found them, yada yada. Only to find two count'em two absolutely empty bottles of almond extract at home. Evidently it volatilized itself over the summer. I give up. We'll take our strudel and our Jamesons and head to the relatives looking for Nog.

Happy Christmas eve, bakers!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 10:03 PM

Parchment's for sissies. . . the recipe has you coat the pan with 2 tablespoons butter--and you really need to layer it on thick for it to work. But it does. You can test the cake for doneness with a toothpick. It needs to be almost the consistency of a bar when it's finished baking so it holds together when you cut it and handle it.

Time for some baking tonight. Spritz, I think. And snickerdoodles. I have bread rising now and about a half of a turkey left from our party last night. When the kids finally get here in another hour or so we'll have a late night feast of hot turkey sandwiches. Mmmmmmm!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 05:28 PM

Oh yes Charley! Have you posted your recipe before? if not, please do. if yes, tell me which thread.

A good and reliable NY Cheesecake recipe is always nice to have. I like to see how others make theirs. Do you put a thin layer of sour cream atop yours? I like to make White-Chocolate Raspberry NY Style Cheesecake myself but I've mislaid my old recipe for it.

I did just get two boxed sets of White-Chocolate raspberry cupcake mix for a Christmas Gift. I think I'm going to wait until Valentine's day and make the two mixes up as a layer cake

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 04:21 PM

Well, it's cheesecake time again, as a dessert to pass at Aunt Peggy's. This time it will be a baked New York Cheesecake with Grand Marnier added to the batter, and blackberries to the top. If the group assembled doesn't like it, we can always bring it home.

I think we'll transport the cake in its deep-dish pan, and do the final set-up at her house.

Anyone want a slice?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 04:09 PM

SRS - I read the comments and it seems that depeding upon your oven, you may have to adjust the cooking time a little to make sure it's done. I printed that recipe out as well as one for Cranberry Upside Down Cake which was more of a traditonal upside down cakey cake. The Duff is like a big cookie gooey type thing.

When you make the Duff, do you line the pan with well-greased parchment or do you just grease the pan and hope for the best?

BTW - my party meatballs were so good thatI have another stock pot of cranberry sauce simmering down to the desired thickness as I type. I want to be able to bring a big crockpot of mini meatballs in that sauce to a party later in the week. My husband suggests adding some more horseraddish since the commercial chili suace wasn't horseraddishy enough for his tastes. I might leave half this batch of cranberry sauce thick and not run it through a sieve. That way the party meatballs will have bits of real cranberries and such.

I had my doubts about any recipe that called for opening a bottle of something and a can of something and dumping it in a crockpot but it turned out to be a tasty combination. if you don't have homemade cranberry sauce on hand, I'm sure the jellied kind will work just fine. Just taste the sauces when its all combined and decide if it needs punching up with some horseraddish or hot sauce.

My neighbor brought over the most delightful sugar cookies last night. They had that perfect melt-in-your-mouth texture while at the same time being a little bit sandy. That was a nice surprise. Then she asked if she could use my washing machine! LOL. Clever girl - ply me with cookies first!

I made another batch of my low-fat Oatmeal Pumpkin mini-loaves to package up as gifts for the neighbors. The last batch was a big hit. I love my new silicone mini loaf pan. It makes 8 mini-loaves instead of six so if I double most recipes, I get 16 perfect loaves and they pop out so easily. I should try try SRS's Banana Bread recipe in my new mini-loaf pan!

Last weekened I made Mini-loaf lemon spongecakes with meyer lemon juice and meyer lemon glaze. A co-worker of my husbands has a meyer lemon tree and I just had to zest them up and make the house smell like a lemon grove! Those little cakes didn't last 2 days. Everyone snacked on them. I'd make more but I figured I'd stick to the healthy Oatmeal-Pumpkin loaves this week.

I just got a great new cookbook and it has some wonderful Clafouti recipes in it. I'm going to make Cherry Clafouti for Christmas morning

My sister-in-law sent us a nice gift of meats from Virginia Traditions including peppered bacon and slices of country Ham. That means Country Ham, braised cabbage with peppered bacon and Red Eye Gravy for Christmas morning breakfast in addition to the Clafouti! Yum! We'll be having two other couples over for Christmas Brunch so it should be nice.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 12:14 PM

BTW: if that Cranberry Duff is a little soft in the middle you can kind of pack it back together again on the plate. And even a little underdone, it's like eating cookie dough--it has a charm all it's own soft or completely cooked.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 10:29 AM

I brined and roasted a turkey yesterday for a gathering of friends and family. It was great! I feel like christmas has come and gone, now that all of that is done. Tuesday will be a mild anticlimax. The most I'll have to cook there are buttermilk pancakes and bacon for breakfast. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Cats
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 09:17 AM

Finished!!! All I have to do now is cook the goose on Christmas Day.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 03:22 AM

I posted this over in the Squirrel thread but I think it belongs here too:


Acorn Pie
(not really made of acorns but looks like it kinda)

Ingredients:
1 9 inch Graham Cracker Pie Crust
3 Eggs lightly beaten
1 cup of light corn syrup or Golden Syrup (I prefer Golden Syrup)
2 Tablespoons of butter, melted
1 Teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 cup castor sugar (superfine sugar to US readers)
1 1/2 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the beaten eggs, syrup, melted butter, vanilla and sugar. Mix well and then stir in the nuts. Pour contents of bowl into the crust and bake for 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool completely before serving.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 03:18 AM

Ok, that looks good! Here's the link:

Martha's New England Cranberry Duff

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 02:01 AM

For a cranberry recipe to die for, go to MarthaStewart.com and do a quick recipe search for "Cranberry Duff." Be sure it is golden brown so it comes out of the pan. It's rich--don't eat one by yourself, as tempting as it is!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 12:06 AM

Hey folks - I got an email from Ocean Spray cranberries with a recipe for Party meatballs and I adapted it using some of my leftover homemade cranberry sauce. I stuck it all in the crockpot and ity came out delicous.

I used 2 one lb packages of frozen turkey meatballs
added 3 cups of my Ccran berry sauce plus the contents of one Heinz 12 ounce bottle of Chili Sauce (which seems to be just tomatoe puree, vinegar & horseraddish)
I added 4 tablespoons of concorde grape jelly
Mixed the sauce all together, added the meatballs and cooked on High for 2 hours

my husband sliced the meatballs in half and made meatball sandiwches out of them by putting them on toasted oinion rolls. Yum yum

It came out so well I've decided I need to make a few more quarts of homemade cranberry sauce to put up in the freezer or can so as to have on hand for party meatballs year round!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 09:19 PM

My Favorite Holiday Recipe

Take 1 Bobert, add 1 Iron City beer (well, at least one at a time)...

Pssssssssffffttttt!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh.... Good...

Happy Holidays...

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 08:58 PM

Glad you have mentally 'proofread it'. Now if the darn green bananas will get soft!

Happy baking.....

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 10:16 PM

patty, you uttered my exact thoughts. Now that the weekend is here I can really start getting ready, and I have a lot of baking to do, though I have to first bake a turkey for a dinner party tomorrow (kind of snuck up on me). (The spell check doesn't like "snuck" and instead offered one of the following: snick snack sunk Zanuck suck. Snick?)

The off the top of my head recipes like that mean I make them so often I don't have to look them up. I have to visualize the steps as I write it out, though.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 21 Dec 07 - 08:53 PM

Ahh, the workweek is finally over, and NOW Christmas preparations can begin. Just as this lovely thread is trying to ride off into the sunset. Well don't, stay a little longer!

All I am supposed to create this Christmas are a few strudels. They are fairly wonderful and simple.    But the Banana Bread does sound like a great idea, the pecans are being very kind to us this year. The 'off the top of my head' remark from Stilly does kind of scare me, but nothing seems to be missing. Well, it'll be an adventure.

Here's a quest for you experts: I made a pound cake one year that called for quite a bit of freshly grated nutmeg and was pretty fabulous, but I've lost the recipe. Don't suppose one of your mothers used to make this by any chance?

Meanwhile, wishing very much I hadn't read that great well-researched   book about how terribly good a low-carb plan is for us. Sigh.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:57 PM

I suppose I should have looked at Wikipedia first! They have all the info and yes, the fruit is edible:

>>>Nutmeg is the actual seed of the tree, roughly egg-shaped and about 20Ð30 mm long and 15Ð18 mm wide, and weighing between 5 and 10 grams dried, while mace is the dried "lacy" reddish covering or arillus of the seed.<<<

and...

>>>The pericarp (fruit/pod) is used in Grenada to make a jam called Morne Delice. In Indonesia, the fruit is sliced finely, cooked and crystallised to make a fragrant candy called manisan pala ("nutmeg sweets").<<<

Nutmeg article on Wikipedia with pix

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 20 Dec 07 - 10:41 PM

aha - so that red vein-like stuff is the mace. Thanks! The photo I have is from Saveur magazine and it shows thr fruit more clearly. I'll see if they have it posted on their website in the article archives. It looks like a pretty standard stone fruit so I'd guess the fruit itself is edible if not by humans, surely some animal or bird eats them.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Dec 07 - 11:23 AM

I'm not sure about the other parts of the plant. I just always knew they were related, from growing up in a household where my mother was the mistress of baking substitutions (over making a trip to the grocery store for one item).

Nutmeg and mace photo. And here's another. (These are from a Google search but I didn't notice any pages dedicated just to the nutmeg information. I have to run this morning, so I didn't look for very long. Maybe you'll find something here, though.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 19 Dec 07 - 04:09 AM

Mace comes from the membrane around the nutmeg? who know? Certainly not I! I saw a photo once of a nutmeg fruit being opened to expose the nutmeg and it had thiese red vein like things wrapped around the nutmeg sort of like muscles of tendons. Is that part the Mace?

Also, is the fruit that surrounds the nutmeg edible?

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Dec 07 - 12:27 AM

Mace and Nutmeg are from the same plant and they work in substitution situations. (Mace is milder and comes from the outer layer or membrane around the nutmeg).

Some of my holiday recipes call for a lot of oil. My pumpkin bread recipe, for example. Instead of putting in 1 cup of oil, I use 1/2 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of applesauce to give the right consistency and amount of liquid to the recipe. And don't snack foods taste so much better when you can feel virtuous about eating them? :-)

SRS