Heart of the Kitchen

Stir Up Sunday White Fruitcake Recipe

This is a simple fruitcake to make and has a mild flavor.  It is a great fruitcake for people who do not like fruitcake! :)

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 c. butter, softened

1 T. vanilla extract

1 T. lemon extract

5 eggs

7 1/2 cups (total) dried fruits and nuts (I use 3 cups pecan pieces, 2 cups apricots, 2 cups dried glace cherries, 1/2 cup white raisins but you can use any combination including dark raisins, walnuts, dried glace pineapple, dried glace cranberries, etc.)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Grease well and lightly flour either 2 eight inch cake pans or one jelly roll pan. 

Cream butter and sugar briefly.  Add flour, salt, baking powder and extracts.  Add eggs one at a time.  Then add all of dried glace fruits and nuts.  Mix all together and place in pan(s).  Bake until done 30-60 minutes on two eight inch pans, 20 minutes on the jellyroll pan.  Done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cut into rectangular/square pieces the size of an average brownie.

Serves 16.  I make a double batch and store in tins until Christmas.

Ok, who am I kidding.  About half of it makes it until Christmas and the rest is eaten throughout Advent. :)

Advent Sugar Cookies for Week 2

I usually make a couple batches of this dough so that each person in the family can have one cookie per night during the second week of Advent devotions.  This dough does not need chilled before cutting out.

3c. sifted flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp.  baking soda

1 c. butter or butter flavored shortening

2 eggs

1 c. sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Sift dry ingredients together.  Cut in shortening as for pie crust.  Beat eggs, add sugar and beat well.  Blend egg mixture into flour mixture.  Roll out to 1/8 " thickness on floured board or counter.  Cut and lift with spatula to ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 6-8 minutes.  When done, remove very carefully and cool on a wire rack.  Be especially careful with the key and scepter cookies as they break very easily.  Store in a tin for use during the week.

Here are the patterns for the cookies to be cut into freehand with a knife (make at least one per family member) or use cutters if you have these shapes. 

Sunday (Day 8): Crown

Monday (Day 9): Rose

Tuesday (Day 10): Scepter

Wednesday (Day 11):Rising Sun

Thursday (Day 12): Key

Friday (Day 13):  Star

Saturday (Day 14): Lamb

St. Martinmas Horseshoe Cookies

1 c. butter

1/2 c. powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. quick oats, rolled

2 c. sifted all purpose-flour

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Stir in vanilla, flour and salt.  Blend in rolled oats. 

Roll out to 1/4 inch thick on floured board.  Cut in strips six inches lon and 1/2 inch wide.  On ungreased cookie sheet, shape strips to resemble horseshoes.  Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Remove carefully, as they break easily.  Makes three dozen.

Recipe from The Cook's Blessing, Random House

Michaelmas Blackberry Pie

Blackberry Pie is traditionally eaten on this day because the legend says that the devil spits on the blackberries after Michaelmas. 

The crust for a double crust pie:

2 cups all purpose-flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup shortening or lard

6 to 7 tablespoons cold water

Stir together flour and salt.  Cut in shortening until pieces are the size of small peas.  Add water and mix with hands.  Divide in half and toll out in a circle on a lightly floured surface.  Wrap pastry around rolling pin and unroll onto a 9" pie pan.

Filling:

4 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen, slightly thawed)

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

Coat berries with flour and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Transfer filling to waiting pie crust.  After filling, top with second pie crust.  Pinch edges of pie together, cut slits for steam.  Cover edges of crust with foil.  Bake for 50 minutes at 375 degrees.  Remove foil, bake for another 20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Elizabeth’s Lamb Cake

For a number of years, I tried with much pain and effort, to make a lamb cake for Easter.  Usually the batter didn't spread to fill the mold or it stuck to the pan and broke when I tried to remove it.  This year Elizabeth posted a foolproof recipe for a delicious lamb cake, complete with hazelnut frosting.  I decided to give it another try, forgoing the poppy seed cake that I usually make.

I baked the lamb cake early in the afternoon on Holy Saturday.  Not only did it smell heavenly while it was baking but it emerged from the pan unscathed, just as Elizabeth promised.  The cake takes most of a day to cool. I, being a bit of a last minute person, began to ice it at 2 a.m. on Easter morning, only to find that I did not have the icing decorating tips needed to make the curly lamb's wool.  I then decided to frost it with a butterknife. 

The end results are a delicious tasting cake that, through my own decorating fault, looks a bit, well...sheepish. As I began to take a photo of the cake to post, two year old Mary Kathryn commented, "Say cheese, doggie!

Nevertheless, Elizabeth's lamb pound cake and icing is truly scrumptuous.  Just don't try to frost it without decorating tips! 

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Vanilla Pound Cake

Follow the Wilton instructions for baking to the letter, including the cooling instructions.

Here's the recipe for a pound cake that is dense enough to fill the nooks and crannies, stand up alone in the pan half, and hold the shape:

1 1/2 cups butter
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese
2 3/4 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Have all ingredients at room temperature.
Beat butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat eggs, one at a time. Sift flour and add to batter. Add vanilla; mix well.
Place batter into a greased and floured pan; follow Wilton baking instructions.

Double this recipe and you'll have plenty to completely fill the lamb pan and some leftover batter for a little cake.

Hazelnut Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Shortening
1/2 cup Butter
5 cups Confectioner's Sugar
4 TBS Frangelico (or more to get the right consistency)

Directions:
Cream butter and shortening with mixer for 3 minutes on high speed. Add Frangelico. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Mix on high speed for 5 minutes.

This frosting works to make star-swirls on the lamb. Use jelly beans and licorice for eyes and whiskers. Colored coconut on the plate is a nice touch for grass or just use Easter grass from baskets.

Hot Cross Buns ?

Anyone have a delicious recipe for these?  I have tried a plethora of different recipes each Good Friday but can't seem to find one that we really like.   

My Easter Brunch Menu

On Easter Sunday, our family traditionally has a large brunch around one o'clock.  I am trying to plan ahead, making and freezing some of the food to avoid having to make it all on Holy Saturday.  I am also buying a ready made ham to avoid having that job to do. 

Here is our Easter menu this year:

Homemade waffles with strawberries and whipped cream/ maple syrup

Link Sausage

Fresh kielbasi and smoked kielbasi tray with hardboiled Easter eggs

Golden Braided Bread

Honeybaked Ham

Easter Poppyseed Cake

Mom B.'s Potato Casserole

Mixed fruit salad

In advance, I can make the waffles on a not-so-busy-day and freeze them.  I will be making eggs, cake and bread on Holy Saturday and will assemble the potato casserole Saturday evening to bake on Easter morning.  My mom is picking up the kielbasi at the butcher.  Fruit for the fruit salad can be cut on Saturday evening for the salad. 

I think it will be a relatively stress-free Easter as far as food preparation goes because I am planning ahead. 

What do you have for Easter brunch/dinner?

Holy Saturday Preparations–The Poppy Seed Cake

Each year, on Holy Saturday, we take our basket of Easter food up to the church for our priest to bless.  A funny thing you should know about me is that when I was a relatively young bride, I read in the church bulletin that Easter foods would be blessed on Holy Saturday afternoon.  When the time came around, I carried my blue grocery bags full of uncolored eggs, various condiments, slices of ham, etc. up to the church to be blessed.  When I got there, dozens of families were there with these gorgeous Longaberger type baskets lined with beautiful white linen cloths, colored eggs and all of their food displayed beautifully within.  Here I was with my blue plastic grocery bags setting on the altar steps!  My son (the only one we had at the time) said, "Uh, Mom?  I think we were supposed to make it look a little prettier!"   

Ever since that day, I try to have the Easter bread and poppy seed cake made first thing in the morning on Holy Saturday.  While I make the bread, Mike and the children dye the eggs.  This way we have a good portion of our food ready for the noontime blessing and it makes Easter Sunday go a bit smoother.

I am very fond of our Easter Poppy Seed Cake.  I had read in Mary Reed Newland's The Year and Our Children that Ukranian Catholics always have a poppy seed cake on Easter Sunday to remind us that the lesson of Lent is "the seed thrust into the ground to die, that it might live. The circle of the cake, baked in a tube pan, is like the circle of eternity--and that is the point of death to self: to live forever."  Although I have made Mary's recipe many times, we have a recipe that uses almond flavoring that, in my opinion, is simply scrumptuous. 

Here it is:

3 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 Tbls. poppy seed

1 1/3 c. oil

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanillla extract

1 1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 1/2 tsp. butter extract

Beat all ingredients in one large bowl with mixer until smooth.  Grease pan (one tube or two loaf).  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Done when cracked on top and golden brown.   Can be sprinkled with powder sugar or confectioner's glaze.  We eat ours without any topping.  Yum! I will post a picture of one as soon as I can.

Easter Paska Bread

With Easter soon approaching, I have been planning our "spread" for Easter brunch.  This year, with a new little baby in the house, I am hoping to keep it simple yet meaningful and delicious!  One item that we really enjoy at the Easter meal is paska. Traditionally, paska is baked in a greased can, shaping the dough into decorative forms. Our family braids ours into a loaf.  Here is a simple recipe for a delicious, light paska.  You can add golden raisins if your family likes them.  This golden braided bread looks so pretty on the table for Easter. 

Golden Braid Paska

Dissolve three packets of yeast (or one cake) in 1/4-1/2 cup warm water

Combine in a large bowl--

1/2 cup melted butter

2 TBL. sugar

3 eggs, slightly beaten

2 tsp. salt

1 cup scalded milk

Blend well, cool to luke warm, add the yeast mixture.

Add 4 1/2 or 5 cups flour, sifted.

Blend gradually to form a stiff dough.

Knead on floured board until smooth and satiny, about 10 minutes.  Let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk.  Place dough on board and divide into 6 parts; let stand about 15 minutes covered.  Shape into strips about 12" long.  Place 3 strips side by side and pinch ends together and braid.  Cover, let rise until light and fluffy, brush with egg yolk and bake at 375 degrees for 35 or 40 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes two loaves.