Christmas Cookies: Sugar Roll Cookies
The trick I have found with these cookies is to glaze them with a sugar glaze. The cookies are cut, baked and then dipped on one side into a sugar glaze while still warm. This takes some preparation, but it’s worth it.
These cookies are a little fiddly, so you really need to do it on a more relaxed day. If you have a friend you can trust, it doesn’t hurt to have an extra pair of hands helping you. You will need a rolling pin, and some cookie cutters, powdered sugar and evaporated milk, and cookie decorations like silver balls, colored sugar sprinkles, cinnamon candies, etc.
Put down waxed paper under cookie racks to catch all the glaze that will drip off, it saves a big mess. Find three flat soup bowls, big enough to dip cookies in. Fill with powdered sugar. Put in drops of food color; be generous to get a good strong color.
Use evaporated milk, stirring in a drop at a time, until you have a glaze that is not too thick, but like cream. That way, when you dip the cookie in, and then turn it on it’s back to drain, the glaze will come down over the sides, but not too much will fall off. If it gets too thin, you need to add more sugar until it firms back up a little. Have plenty of powdered sugar on hand. It always takes a little experimenting, sometimes even just doing it on a humid day can make it trickier. But nothing you can’t handle.
Remember, this dough needs to be refrigerated, so you can make it ahead of time, and pull it out when you are ready to bake cookies.
Dough:
Cream together:
1 cup butter
1 cup fine sugar
Beat in one egg.
Sift and add to above:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
Add:
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Mix all together well, and refrigerate several hours.
Roll out a little at a time, cut the cookies, put on cookie tray, bake at 350 F/180 C, 8 – 10 minutes or until slightly gold.
When they come out of the oven, cool two – three minutes, and quickly glaze while they are still warm but not hot.
Now those are the basics. Here are some hints:
When rolling out, rub flour into the rolling pin, and use as little as possible under the dough – the more flour, the tougher it gets. Try not to roll too much, and use a light touch.
If you are working with children, just relax and let whatever happens happen. If they eat the dough, oh well. They’re kids. If they want to decorate, let them decorate. Let these be the kids cookies.They won’t be beautiful, but the kids will think they are, and that is what matters. They’re kids!
If these are for your cookie-obligations, here are different hints.
Choose only three or four cookie cutters, and go for uniformity – it makes for a prettier plate. Like make a whole bunch of trees, glaze them all green, and put a silver ball on the end of each bough. It isn’t imaginative, but when the cookie trays go together, it just looks nicer. Make stars, one red cinnamon at each point. Or reverse, or whatever you think looks good, just make a whole bunch the same if you are giving these away.
Again, wait until the glaze and decorations are totally cool and dried before putting into containers to store. Store in a cool dry place, in an airtight container, and they will be good up to a month.
These cookies are from Baking 911 Ask Sarah where there is a lot more information about glazing, so if you are looking for a more advanced sugar cookie, go there!
Christmas Cookies: Spritz or Cookie Press
Not such a secret: when you buy your cookie press, there will be recipes inside.
Here is an old faithful recipe from The Joy of Cooking, a very dry cookbook with solid gold information when you are an inexperienced cook. The ingredients and instructions are from the book, but the explanations I am adding for clarity. Ask questions if it doesn’t make sense!
Although learning how to use a cookie press may seem hard, it’s about as hard as painting your toenails – you figure out the tricks as you go along. The cookies LOOK so fantastic, and you look so clever for making them . . . don’t tell how easy it is.
And remember, one reason we do these cookies is because we can make the dough a day or two ahead when we have a couple minutes, and stick it in the refrigerator in an air-tight container, and then just cook up a batch when we have the time.
I personally think they look better when you use strong food coloring, so don’t skrimp on the green or the red. It helps make your cookie platter look more festive.
Try one batch this year, just to get the hang of it. Double or triple next year, when you have more confidence in your cookie-press skills.
Heat oven to 350 F/180 C.
Sift together:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (not self-rising, not whole wheat)
3/4 cups sugar (the finest sugar you can find, if it is too coarse, grind it finer if you can because big sugar will give you problems getting through the press)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend in, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs:
1 cup butter
(The best thing for “blending in” would be a food processor, or an pastry blender.)
Break one egg into a 1/4 cup measuring cup. If the egg does not fill the cup, add water until it equals 1/4 cup.
Stir egg into crumb mixture, and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. This is also where I add the food coloring.
Beat well, then chill. Put about a cup and a half dough into cookie press and press onto UNGREASED cookie sheet. The dough should be pliable, but if it becomes too soft, re-chill it slightly. Don’t get discouraged at first . . . it takes a little while to get it to come out right, and to stick to the pan . . . keep at it. You’ll get it, just keep trying. Once you know how, you never forget.
Bake at 10 – 15 minutes.
These beautiful cookies in the photo are courtesy of about Southern food.com.
Christmas Cookies: Russian Tea Cakes
Note: Americans call these cookies. My British friends call them biscuits. Either name, they taste wonderful.
Who knows where these cookies really came from? The first cookbook I used to make them called them Mexican Wedding Cakes, later I have heard them called Swedish Tea Cakes, Sugar Nut Balls, Pecan Sandies . . . I bet there are more. Russian Tea Cakes is just the name I like the best.
These cookies are the easiest. If you only do one cookie this year, this one is it. They store easily – you can even store them in layers, as long as you use a piece of waxed paper between the layers, otherwish the moisture in the cookie will soak into the powdered sugar. And they melt in your mouth.
You will need at least two cookie baking sheets (flat or low lipped metal pans you find in the baking goods area) and two or more racks for cooling the cookies on. (A food processor helps this recipe go very fast. Chop the nuts first, empty into a bowl, then cream the butter and sugar.)
You will need powdered sugar, also called confectioners sugar – what a Godsend. I don’t even bother with a sifter, just use a good seive, put the powdered sugar in and tap the side of the seive with a spoon, and the sugar will sprinkle finely wherever you need it.
Heat the oven to 400 F/200 C. You don’t even grease the cookie sheets for these, because they have so much butter in them.
For these cookies, though, you have to cool them JUST ENOUGH, and then roll them in a small bowl of confectioner’s/powdered sugar. They have to be warm enough that the sugar wants to stick to them. Too cool and the sugar won’t stick so thickly. Too hot and you will burn your fingers!
1 cup butter, softened (a pint’s a pound the world round. That means that four sticks of butter make a pound, a pint is equal to 2 cups, so 2 sticks of butter equal one cup One stick of butter equals 1/2 cup.)
1 cup powdered sugar
When butter is softened, mix the butter and sugar together. You can do this with a fork, but it sure is easy in a food processor, or a mixer, especially if you are doubling or tripling this recipe. When butter and sugar are well mixed, add in the following:
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups white flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts (pecans are wonderful if you can find them, and if they don’t cost an arm and a leg)
Now, take pinches about the size of a large date, or walnut, and roll them into a ball. When you put it on the cookie tray, flatten it slightly. I don’t know why. It’s just the way this cookie is made.
Pop the tray into the heated oven, set your timer for 8 – 10 minutes.
While the first batch is cooking, pour some powdered sugar in a small bowl.
Keep making balls, put them on the second pan while the first pan of cookies is baking. When the first batch is finished cooking, you can just pop the second batch in.
Check the cookies when the timer rings. They will be a light golden brown when they are ready. Take them out of the oven, and let them sit for about four minutes, so that they are warm, but not hot. Roll them in powdered sugar in a small bowl, and quickly put them on a rack until they are thoroughly cool. Do not pack them up until they are totally cool or they will absorb the powdered sugar when they are in the container.
This makes about 50 cookies. They are so easy . . . go ahead. Double the recipe.
You will see that I have given you a lot of extra instruction for your first time. Once you have done these and you know how easy they are, just use the bold, you won’t need all the blah-blah-blah!
I borrowed this beautiful photo from a website where you can BUY these cookies, so if you would rather buy the cookies, you can do it here.
Early Christmas Preparations
Did you know that Thanksgiving used to be earlier in November, and when it was moved to the 4th Thursday in November, the merchants objected because it shortened the Christmas shopping season? It seems to me that the season gets started earlier and earlier every year, in spite of the Thanksgiving change.
In Germany, many people used to put up the tree on Christmas Eve day. We usually put ours up around December 15th – we wanted to have the beauty in the house, but also wanted to be sure it would last without drying out and becoming a fire hazard. It was cold enough that we could buy the tree and keep it outside, and then put it up when we had the time and energy.
And our tradition was that the tree had to be down by the Feast of Epiphany, on January 6th, the day the church celebrates the Wise Men (probably Persians) who came seeking the small baby born in Bethlehem.
We are having a smaller Christmas this year. With my Dad so ill, I don’t have the psychic energy to go all out as usual. Last year, we were all together; Dad and Mom bought tickets for Christmas Eve Day for all of us, the huge entire family, to go see the Nutcracker Ballet together. It was hugely fun. The production was lively and beautiful and delightful, all our plans went smoothly, and then we gathered back at Mom and Dad’s for finger-food dinner and a cut-throat game of Hearts. So much laughter, so much fun.
So I have the packages wrapped and my husband, God bless him, will get them in the mail today to insure they will arrive in time for Christmas. Although we are not going back, our son and his bride will be with us for Christmas here in Kuwait – alhamdullah! In my heart, I think of her as “the Seaside bride” – they were married on a gorgeous late afternoon in April on a snowy white sand beach in Florida. She was glowing and beautiful. He was beside himself with happiness. It was one of the happiest days in my life.
It was a bright, sunny afternoon. The minister, in his black suit, had sunglasses on. When we posted the photos, all our friends asked if he was FBI. He looked like a “man in black”.
On our way to church last night, I saw people who already have Christmas trees up and ready, all lit up in their windows. I remember last year in Qatar, where the word “Christmas” is never mentioned in the ads; stores advertise “seasonal decorations”. We celebrated 50 years of the church in Kuwait last night, and I thank God to live in a sophisticated country, where we are free to worship the same God, but in our own way.
(Qatteri Cat thinking about getting ready for Christmas)
But for me, it’s still too early to put up a tree. It is too bright, too sunny, the Christmas tree looks diminished in the bright light. I have my boxes labled so I can pull out the early decorations first, without having to go through everything. Just a few baubles, a few little lights, and a little more next week.
(Thought I would go silver this year, courtesy of some cool stuff from IKEA, but it was too cold and hard, softened up by adding just a little additional color)
Christmas Cookies – Get Ready
It doesn’t have to be so hard. Yes, you are working. Yes, you have children. Yes, you have a million obligations, and the presents to buy and the presents to wrap and the presents to mail, and the cards to write.
Take a deep breath.
There’s an old joke. How do you eat an elephant? The answer? One bite at a time. Let that be your mantra. When you start breathing in short gasps, when you think you will never get it done, think “one bite at a time”.
Think about how much time is wasted at work. In those meetings, when the pompous so-and-so who is always bragging about her project, or the jerk is going on and on about what he has done, and it is pathetic, YOU can be organizing.
Here is the cool thing. When you write things down, you also get to check them off. Once you have written a bunch of things down, you also can see more clearly what comes first, what has more importance, what you can actually let go, and you can give them some sort of priority, on paper. You will be amazed how good it feels to be able to cross things off your list. Use notecards – you can quickly revise them. Save the used ones to savor after Christmas, to see how much you really did get done. You will be surprised – and proud.
So what are YOUR must-dos? Once you know what the must do’s are, you can draw a little time line . . .do today, do next week, do just before Christmas . . .write in when all the cookies are due. You know, your child’s Christmas party, the Lessons and Carols service, your husband’s office party, your office party. . .and you will be able to see when you need to get the majority of your baking done. Or the majority of your Christmas-goody buying. Who says you need to provide home baked cookies? Sometimes, you throw money at the problem.
But IF you are going to bake cookies – and it is a cool, easy thing to do if you have been making notes – let’s get it out of the way.
Advent starts next Sunday – so let’s plan to start the baking this coming Saturday.
What will you need? For sure you will need fine, white flour, and fine white sugar. For you in the US, that is a given, you don’t even think twice about it. For people in other parts of the world, sugar is not always so incredibly fine, or so white.
If you are facing that sugar problem, get a blender. Blenders make so many things so easy, they are cheap and they are a Godsend to the busy person trying to put together Christmas.
Pour that large grained sugar, a cup at a time, into the blender, and turn the blender on. It won’t give you the refined sugar of back home, but a good whirl will cut some of those larger lumps down into a sugar usable in cookie recipes like Spritz, where it has to be able to come through the press, and large lumps of sugar cause annoying hold-ups while you clean them out of the mold every time. it’s worth a few extra minutes, and you can just set aside a half hour one evening to whirl sugar. That’s it – you’re done.
As well as the flour and the sugar, you will need butter – lots of butter. Some people use other solid shortening, but folks – it’s Christmas. Nothing tastes like real butter. When you cook with real butter, they taste better, and you only eat one or two, because they satisfy you, instead of gobbling the whole bunch and having to start all over again!
You will need flavoring – vanilla for sure, almond flavoring and lemon flavoring if you are doind different kinds of cookies. Walnuts if you are doing Mexican Wedding Cakes/Russian Tea Cakes, which are where we will start because they are SO SO easy. You will need red food coloring and green food coloring. You will need confectioner’s sugar, lots of it. A little evaporated milk.
And you will need Tupperware containers. Well, not necessarily Tupperware, but some large containers, air-tight, for storing dough in the refrigerator and then for storing cookies you have made.
See, we are eating this elephant one bite at a time. On the way home from (work, picking up the kids, soccer practice, choir practice) you stop at the store and get the flour and sugar and walnuts and flavorings – you know what you need because you have your LIST! Wooo Hoooo! In and out of the supermarket in a flash, and on your way back home.
Leave a couple sticks of butter out (in the microwave if you have a cat – cats will lick the butter if you leave it out) to soften while you fix dinner. Feed the kids, get the dishes out of the way and quick – before you fall down in exhaustion! – mix up a batch of cookie dough!
Here’s what I suggest:
Russian Tea Cakes
Spritz Cookies
Sugar Cookies
Candy Cane Cookies
That is all. Russian Tea Cakes are so so easy, especially with a food processor. Mix the dough one night, roll the cookies and bake another night – see? One bite at a time. Here’s the trick – the Russian Tea Cakes will all be snowy white, from the confectioner’s sugar on the outside.
Make two different kinds of Spritz cookies – yes, you can. The cookie presses are CHEAP and they last for years. You will need to get the feel of it, but that just takes a little practice. You can do it. The secret is keeping the dough in the refrigerator and popping it through the press is it is cool enough to stick together.
So you make a triple batch of Spritz cookie dough, and divide it into two portions. Color one portion green – and use a lot of green food coloring so the color will be strong and you can make trees. The other portion can be used for wreaths, or whatever you want to choose. You will be surprised how quickly you can make a variety of cookies with the Spritz cookier maker. (yes, I will post these cookie recipes – right now, we are still making lists. We won’t bake until this weekend.)
Now come the sugar cookies. Again, double the recipe, make it one night so it will be all ready to go when YOU have the time. If you have children and want them to have Christmas Cooky experience, sugar cookies are where you want them to spend their time. Let them roll out the dough and cut a cookie or two – most kids will lose interest in a very short time, but they will remember that they helped! 😉
Again, key to the PERCEPTION that you have done a lot of baking is that we will glaze these cookies with three colors of icing, one set white (like stars) one set green (like trees) and one set red (like reindeer). Sugar cookies are a pain to make, lots of fiddly work, but they are big and showy, and worth the morning it takes to get them done. They go a long way.
Candy Cane Cookies – the dough is a lot like sugar cookie dough, you divide the recipe in half, color one half red, twist lengths of these together, form into candy cane form and bake. Voila!
You’ve baked four kinds of cookies in three different colors.
You buy sturdy paper plates (and raid the post-Christmas sales at the party supply stores this year to stock up on these) so that you don’t have to worry about getting your plate back, and you put a few of each of these cookies on the plate. You will be amazed at how good it looks, with the different cookies on the plate, and how easy it was.
Above recipes will follow. I will even include one special recipe for extra credit – Swedish Rosettes. You will need to find a Rosette Iron, which usually comes with two disks, always one lacy round one, and often one for a shell that can be filled. It takes a couple hours, but the results are amazing. You get to do that one because you made your lists, did a little bit of prep here and there, got the cookies baked and even have a little extra time to dance for joy. Go for it!
The cookie press and the rosette iron are both from Amazon.com, only because I couldn’t get any other photos to print. There are other sources – cooking.com, maid of scandinavia, etc. These are tools worth the small investment – you use them year after year.
But remember, this is extra credit, not required. You can do it next year!
Patricia Wells, France and Fallot Mustard
As I was scrambling through the Salmiyya Sultan, looking desperately for a few good ingredients on Thanksgiving morning, I stopped short in sheer wonder. There, on the shelves, here in Kuwait, were mustards by Edmond Fallot.
Monsieur Fallot makes the best mustards in the entire world. One year, we did a “French” turkey, slivered with a thousand slices of garlic carefully placed in a thousand tiny slits just under the turkey skin. It was magnificent. We served the turkey that year with a variety of Monsieur Fallot’s mustards.
We lived in Germany, and we often travelled to France for a couple weeks at a time, exploring different regions. We used lots of books, but the three we used most often for France were Patricia Wells Food Lover’s Guide to France, Patricia Wells Food Lover’s Guide to Paris, and a book published annually called Europe’s Wonderful Little Hotels and Inns.
We didn’t have a lot of money, but what we lacked in money, we made up in energy, optimism and research. We found wonderful places to stay, fabulous meals and affordable side trips. We lunched out of charcouteries and boulangeries, we dined demi-pension in Michelin “Red R’s” (good local food at reasonable prices.) We found ourselves in the Burgundy area again and again, and Patricia Wells led us to Monsieur Fallot’s mustard factory in Beaune. Click there for a virtual visit to his factory in preparation for your real time, in person visit.
As I stood there, transfixed, in the Sultan Center, I was back in Beaune, travelling in France with some history and “foodie” friends, and we made a special stop at M. Fallot’s factory, whose address was listed in the original Food Lover’s Guide to France I was using then. I am guessing he has asked NOT to have his address given any more, maybe he had too many visitors like us. We couldn’t get enough of his mustards – we stayed and watch him filling jars with many different kinds, and bought at least one of each variety. His mustard is the gold standard of mustards. Worth a trip to Beaune.
Except you don’t have to go to Beaune – you can find M. Fallot in the Sultan Center in Salmiyya, or in William-Sonoma if you are in the U.S. and in other parts of the world where you find fine condiments.
The latest edition I could find of the Food Lover’s Guide to France was 1987, for $1.99 used, through Amazon. The latest edition I could find of Food Lover’s Guide to Paris was 1999, and the cost, used, was $9.99, again through Amazon. (Disclaimer/Disclosure: yes. I do own stock in Amazon. Help me keep Amazon stock high, please. 🙂 ) I imagine some of the information in both books is outdated, restaurants have closed, newer, haute-er places are open, but I would still say they are worth the price.
Both guides list market days for various arrondisement/towns/villages, and for that alone, they are worth the price. Wells describes local specialities, and best of all, Wells is deliciously readable. Even if you don’t have a trip to Paris or France in your near future, Wells’ books are fun to read, and full of wonderful, valuable information.
The most recent edition I can find of Europe’s Wonderful Little Hotels and Inns on Amazon is 2003, but I know there are more recent editions because mine is 2004. It is edited by Adam & Caroline Raphael, and has hotels listed throughout Europe, not just France, although the lion’s share of hotels listed ARE in France. They range from budget to unbelievable luxury – and the twist is, this book is made up solely of recommendations from customers. Someone has to recommend the hotel, another has to second the recommendation, and readers keep the postings up to date. We have found some truly memorable hotels using this guide, hotels full of charm but affordable for the region. Most of the hotels were awesome. Even used, even outdated, one good hotel stay at a charming but reasonably priced hotel will pay the cost of the book.
How Thanksgiving Really Went . . .
The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally a HUGE shopping day in the U.S. Stores have sales that start at 7 a.m. in the morning, some even reward customers who get there at 6 a.m. People start putting up their Christmas decorations. Almost everyone is in calorie overload – no matter how much you tell yourself you are going to go light, you end up eating more than you intended.
The really good news is that leftover turkey and cranberry sauce make dynamite sandwiches. Pies are great the second day.
I didn’t do the pecan pie. When I went to make it, I didn’t have any Karo syrup, and you can’t make a pecan pie without corn syrup. We made an early trip to the Sultan Center, where they DID have those gorgeous huge Kuwaiti shrimp, (they were yummy) and I bought some corn syrup, but by the time I got home, I needed to focus on other things and didn’t have time to make another pie. I had made a plum pie the day before when I discovered I didn’t have corn syrup, and that would have to do. As it turned out, my friend had made THREE pies, two stunningly beautiful pumpkin pies with little leaves of pastry crust on them, and a cranberry/lemon pie that was a tart surprise, and a welcome change from all the sweet stuff. She also baked three kinds of bread – she is one talented lady. She made it all look so easy. Whew!
Pumpkin Pie with Autumn Leaves
My friend did the turkey, and it was PERFECT. She also did the gravy, and it, too, was perfect. I will have to learn her secret. She also made a smokey black bean soup that was to die for.
Balsamic Sweet Potatoes
Mom’s Roquefort dressing was a big hit, the cranberry jello was great, all the side dishes were great – something for everyone.
But I have to get the recipe for that smokey bean soup from my friend. . . WOW.
Best of all – good conversation with good friends, people you can be comfortable with.
My parents are doing OK, and were baking a turkey when I called and would be sharing Thanksgiving Dinner with my youngest sister and her husband. I give thanks they still have the drive to do their own Thanksgiving.
Enough of the Thanksgiving. . . time to move on. I want to thank all of you who had fun with this meal, who tried making even one dish – you inspired me. And I guess there is a need for easy recipes, because once I had put those recipes online, I was getting huge hits every day – the day before Thanksgiving, I had almost 700 hits. . . it was a huge shock.
I especially want to thank 1001 Kuwaiti Nights for her inspiration, and her questions. I don’t even know what I know, until I know what you don’t know! See her first Thanksgiving dinner at that link. What courage! To try a Feast and to bring it off! I especially love the after photo of her first Pecan Pie! Woooo Hooooooo, 1001!
Still Learning – Alhamdallah
Another Side of Thanksgiving . . .
My friend asked about my father, and when I told her he was slipping away, losing a little more every day, she said “Alhamdallah!”
I was caught up short. Her face was smiling. I had just told her my father is dying and she says “Thanks be to God?”
I know this woman like my own sister. Her daughters are my own daughters. I am welcome in every corner of her house, I pray for every one of her children, and being in her home is like being in my own home, we are all so comfortable together.
“No,” I said, “You’ve misunderstood what I said!” and she hugged me and said “I understood, but no matter what happens, we say ‘alhamdallah’. If you father is dying, we say ‘alhamdallah’. If Hurricane Katrina strikes, we say ‘alhamdallah’. All things come from Allah, and He knows all things. It is his will, so we say ‘alhamdallah’.”
We are both religious women. My faith says the same thing, to give thanks in all things. In my daily life, I sometimes forget. Truly, in my culture, you would never say “thanks be to God” if someone had just told you something very sad.
Being exposed to the Islamic world has complemented my own faith. No, I don’t need to be a Muslim; I think the differences between us are much smaller than the similarities. But truly, I thank God for all that I learn about my own faith by living is Moslem countries.
I love the call to prayer; nothing wrong with being reminded during the day – and night – to love and honor God. I love living among people who give thanks to God so many times a day, even for Hurricane Katrina, even for my failing father. I love watching the fathers and sons headed to the mosque on Fridays. There’s even a very gentle station with Moslem films in English that I watch from time to time because it is so peaceful, and tolerant and sweetly loving.
My friend took time from her very busy life and made a special trip to the bookstore to buy me a book called Don’t Be Sad. It’s a wonderful book by ‘Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni with chapters like “How to deal with bitter criticism,” “Do Not Carry the Weight of the Globe on Your Shoulders,” Do Not be Shaken by Hardships'” “Jealousy is Not Something New” and one of my favorites – “Do Not Be Sad – Do Good to Others.” This book is helpful to me in so many ways, including giving me good sura that are very similar to writings in our own book. This helps me clarify to others in my culture how alike we are, and how similar our faith is. My friend loves me, and I know she wants only the best for me. I give thanks to have her as a friend.
Every now and then, I come across something that shakes me – like when my friend said “alhamdallah” about my Father . . . but in the end, I learn something and my understanding broadens. Alhamdallah!
The Final Blessing: Thanksgiving Desserts
Someone will almost always bring a pumpkin pie and/ or a mincemeat pie. There are variations, but it is always safe to use the recipe on the back of the canned pumpkin can for reliably good pumpkin pie, and by the end of a wonderful dinner, a lot of men just want good-ole-pumpkin pie, nothing fancy, you know, the way Mom used to make it. So go ahead, make one of the plain old pumpkin pies for him.
Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Recipe
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 (15 oz) can Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can Carnation Evaporated milk (12 oz)
1 Unbaked 9-inch deep dish pie shell
Mis sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in a small bowl. Beat eggs in a large bowl. Stir in canned pumpkin and sugar spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell. Bake in preheated 425 F (220 C) oven 40 – 50 minutes or intil knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours and then serve or refrigerate.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Roll
This is a little more challenging, and you have to have a jelly-roll pan. Once you have done one of these roll things, though, you know it’s a whole lot easier than it looks. Yayyyyy.
This is a great Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert when you are sick of the same-old same-old desserts. Plus, one of these old fashioned rolled desserts always looks really fancy!
Cake:
Powdered sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped walnuts
Filling:
1 package cream cheese
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
6 Tablespoons softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
Powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 15” x 10” jelly roll pan. Line with waxed paper, grease and flour paper (there is a reason!) Sprinkle a flat tea towel or dish cloth (flat woven, not terry cloth) with powdered sugar.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in a larger mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin, stir in the flour mixture. Spread evenly in prepared jelly roll pan, sprinkle with chopped nuts.
Bake 13 – 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake out of pan onto prepared tea-towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.
Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla in samll mixer bowel until smooth. Carefully unroll cake, remove towel, and spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Roll cake back up again (it will want to be in the rolled position after cooling that way) Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
Soused Apple Cake
From Quail Country: The Junior League of Albany, Georgia.
If you don’t have brandy, don’t bother with this one – the brandy give it the punch, even though all the alcohol cooks off during baking. Kids hate this cake, adults love it.
4 cups cooking apple 2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup raisins 2 teaspoons baking soda
brandy 1 teaspoon nutmeg (grate it fresh, it matters!)
2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup salad oil 1/4 teaspoon mace
2 eggs 1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups flour whipped cream
Peel, core and finely chop apples; put into a bowl with raisins and cover with brandy, and soak overnight. Drain apples and raisins, set aside.
Combine sugar, salad oil and eggs. Set aside. Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and mace. Add to oil mixture. Mix in apples, pecans and raisins. Mix well and pour into an oiled 9 x 13 baking dish. Cook in 325 degree oven for 1 hour.
Cut into squares, serve topped with sweetened whipped cream. Yield 15 – 20 servings.
** I use a tiny bit of ground cloves instead of mace. I also have used all sorts of whiskeys and brandies, but my favorite remains calvados or . . . rum! It is one of my favorite recipes.
Pecan Pie
When I saw pecans during Ramadan, I bought them up, da*n the expense. Pecans! This recipe is also from Quail Country, by the Junior League of Albany, GA. It is permanently marked in my cookbook!
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 9-inch deep dish pastryt shell, unbaked
Beat eggs slightly; add sugar, corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Blend well, but do not overbeat; add butter. Stir in pecans. Pour into pastry shell. Bake in preheated 350 F (180 C) oven about 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Six servings.
OK, that (above) is the fail-proof recipe.
To me, it comes out very flat and thin, so I double the recipe and cook it in a French tart pan (large round glass or ceramic cooking pan with fluted straight edges), and then cut thin slices. This is very rich, very sweet.
Thanksgiving Side Dishes – Branching Out
Sometimes Thanksgiving food gets a little old. We have stopped doing mashed potatoes altogether, because no-one in this calorie conscious age wants to waste their calories on potatoes and gravy, not when there is roquefort dressing and pecan pie to consider! So here are some relatively low calorie additions we have made in recent years, trying to substitute rich taste for fat.
Balsamic roasted Sweet Potatoes
(Oh, so easy!)
Scrub sweet potatoes and take off any growths, etc. Leave skin on and cut into circles about 1″ thick (2.24 cm) Spray a baking pan with olive oil, and lay sweet potato rounds in the pan – they don’t have to be flat. Sprinkle with sea salt (yes! it matters!)
Make up a mixture of about 1 cup olive oil to 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle about half of this mixture over the sweet potatoes. Put them in the oven about two hours before the turkey is finished roasting, and after the first hour, every fifteen minutes or so, when you baste the turkey with turkey juices, baste the sweet potatoes with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil solution. The roasting concentrates the sweet flavor, which is complemented by the vinegar.
Green Beans
It’s the French in me. I gotta have the green beans.
Fresh green beans are best – make sure to take off the strings, and I like to cut off the little ends, too. Bring a pot of water to a boil, pop the beans in and WATCH closely! As soon as they turn bright green – about one minute – take them off the heat, and maybe one minute later, pour out all the water. Put 2 Tablespoons of butter in the pot with the green beans. Sprinkle a little sea salt over them. That’s it. They’re good, just like that.
Thanksgiving Spinach
If you can get your hands on fresh spinach, that is the best. In a very tall pot, sautee about five cloves of finely chopped garlic in really good olive oil (about 1/4 cup), turn the heat down, add just a little water and add a whole lot of fresh spinach. Put the lid on. Give it maybe five minutes to steam down, then open the pot, add a little sea salt, and stir so that the spinach glistens and the garlic is mixed well into the spinach. Oh! So simple. So delicious!
*If I knew, really knew the way Kuwaitis and Qatteris know, how to make machboos, I would serve Machboos with the Thanksgiving meal. It would be perfect.
Recent Comments
intlxpatr on Give to Those Who Ask ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 