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November 25, 2002

from: Spike's and Jamie's Recipe Collection

http://www.spike-jamie.com/

Many of these recipes have not yet been added to the recipe web site, so you are getting a "sneak peek" of future additions. We hope you enjoy these recipes. Spike's comments are in []Brackets[].

Shalom, from

Spike the Grate & Jamie the Webmistress

[] This is the same recipe I sent out last year. Many subscribers are new since that time, so here it is again. I think I’ll send out the Springerle recipe again, as well. []

FRUITCAKE
Joy of Cooking, 1964 edition

I make fruitcake every year. I understand and agree with all the stuff people say about fruitcake. My feelings on that matter include the thought that if I wanted to eat peelings, I’d rummage around in my garbage can. I hate peelings. I hate citron. I hate all that candied stuff. In my opinion, candied fruit is made with fruit that was inferior, and candying it is a way to disguise it.


In this recipe, the fruit is preconditioned, so it does not draw moisture from the cake during or after baking. Begin this process in the evening. Have all ingredients at about 75 degrees F. This makes about 11 lbs of fruitcake.

1 1/2 cups apricot nectar
2 1/2 cups seedless golden raisins (I just use a whole box)
2 1/2 cups seedless dark raisins (ditto)
1 cup pitted, chopped dates
1 cup diced dried pineapple (candied is okay in this instance, but dried is best)
1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
1 cup diced dried apricots
1 cup diced dried plums (prunes)
(modified original recipe which calls for candied cherries and candied apricots)

If you like, you can further modify this recipe to use other kinds of dried fruits. Guava is nice; mango is nice, dried apple is nice provided it does not include core or seeds, dried peach is nice – all that stuff is good. If I were going to use those kinds of fruits, I would reduce the amount of raisins so that the same whole amount of fruit will be used. There is a total of 10 cups of fruit in the recipe. You can divide that any way you like, just so you have 10 cups.

Place the above ingredients in a heavy pot. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let stand 12 to 15 hours (overnight is fine). In the morning, set up your mixer for the batter.

Sift before measuring:
6 cups flour

Resift with:
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cardamom ( I omit this because it is expensive )

Cream until light:
2 cups butter ( I use 1/2 cup butter and 1 1/2 cups shortening)
2 cups sugar ( I use 1 cup granulated and 1 cup brown sugar)

Add and beat in well:
10 beaten eggs

Add:
2 tbsp (yes, tablespoons) vanilla

Stir in the sifted flour mixture, mixing until well blended.

In a huge mixing bowl, combine the batter with the fruit and liquid in the pot, and add: 3 cups coarsely chopped pecans (I use walnuts)

Stir until well mixed. Pour into your pans and bake until done (see chart below). I like to use the little foil loaf pans. This recipe will fill 16 of them, using about 1 cup batter for each pan. I baked them at 275 deg. F. for about two hours. Use the toothpick method of testing for doneness. Cool thoroughly in the pans, then wrap in plastic, then in foil.

PAN SIZE BATTER TEMP BAKING TIME YIELD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11 x 4.5 x 2.75---recipe---275---2 1/2 hr-----3 loaf cake
9 x 5 x 3 loaf----recipe---275---3 hr---------3 loaf cake
10-inch tube------recipe---275---3 hr 15 min--2 tube cake
1-lb coffee cans--recipe---275---2 hr------4 small round cans /4 recipe in each can
4.5x2.5x1.5 loaf—recipe—275---2 hr-------16 small loaves 1 cup each
5-oz custards----recipe—250---1 hr ---24 cupcakes greased, but not lined; 1/2 cup each

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

[] I once sent a diatribe against Shoo Fly Pie, telling how awful it was. Here is a recipe I hadn’t seen before; I tried it and it is quite good. It really isn’t for flies. []

SHOOFLY PIE
It's no secret why this Pennsylvania Dutch classic is named as it is - it's so sweet that flies can't ignore it.

For the topping:
1 cup (250 ml) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (125 ml) brown sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable shortening, lard, or butter, cut into 1/4-inch (5 mm) pieces

For the filling:
1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
1 cup (250 ml) boiling water
2/3 cup (160 ml) light corn syrup (golden syrup)
1/3 cup (80 ml) dark molasses (treacle)

1 9-inch (23 cm) pastry shell, unbaked
Whipped cream for garnish (optional)

To prepare the topping, combine the flour, sugar, and shortening in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water in a deep bowl. Add the corn syrup and molasses, stirring to mix thoroughly. Pour into the pie shell and sprinkle the topping evenly over the top. Bake in a preheated 350F (180C) oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until the filling is firm and doesn't jiggle when the pie is shaken. Serve at room temperature, garnished with whipped cream if desired.

Serves 6 to 8.

Bon appetit from the Chef at World Wide Recipes

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
[] I am fully aware that Thanksgiving is this Thursday. I have purposely not included any Thanksgiving recipes, since everybody else is giving you recipes for the stuff that most people have for this holiday. One of my friends recently commented that Thanksgiving is sort of a mindless meal. Everybody has the same stuff, and even with all the variations, it is the same. Well, that is what tradition is, isn’t it? []

BAKED YAMS AND APPLES

3 pounds of yams***
4 cups of granny smith apples, thinly sliced
Butter
4 tbsp. brown sugar (or no sugar at all)
Allspice
Salt and pepper

Parboil the whole yams for about 20 minutes with skin on. Remove and cool until you can handle them easily. Peel and slice them about ¼ inch thick. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a two-quart baking dish and layer half the sliced yams on the bottom, top with half the apples.

Dot with 2 tbsp. of butter and 2 tbsp. of brown sugar. Sprinkle with seasonings and repeat.

Bake covered for about 25 minutes, remove cover and bake for an additional 20 minutes, until yams and apples are tender and glazed.

[]***Unless you live in Africa, you won’t have yams for this recipe. Here in the US we have sweet potatoes, golden colored and reddish colored. They are a little different from each other, but not much. Most people think that the golden ones are sweet potatoes and the reddish ones are yams. Sorry. Not so. I recently read that people in Louisiana always call them yams. The fact is that even if you called them horseshoes, they would still be lovely and nutritious. []

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[] Here it is. This recipe makes mass quantities. Springerle has a half-life of probably 2 million years (if frozen) so it’s okay to make lots and lots. It is a great project for two or three people to do together. []

SPRINGERLE

1/2 lb butter
4 lb powdered sugar
16 eggs
1/2 t ammonium carbonate
1 pinch salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t oil of anise (buy at drug store)
10 lb flour

Melt butter, add sugar. Add whole eggs and beat one hour. (In my Kitchen Aid mixer, I beat this mixture for a half hour.)

Add ammonium carbonate, salt, baking powder, and oil of anise. Mix well. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll, cut, let stand overnight. Bake at 300o for 10-20 minutes on ungreased pans. Store in coffee cans; keep in freezer; will keep for years.

Additional instructions:

Getting in all that flour is sometimes difficult - I have a butcher's block (a real one, from an old butcher shop), and I just put the mixture there and knead in the flour, exactly as one would knead bread.

Where it says"roll, cut, let stand overnight," it means that one should take out a lump the size of a cantaloupe and roll it in a rectangular shape with a regular rolling pin, and have the rectangle the same width as the Springerle rolling pin (mould), and about 3/8 inch thick. Then roll it with the Springerle pin and cut the squares with a French Chef knife. Cover your countertop and table with waxed paper, and place the cookies on it, with little spaces in between each cookie, so they will dry nicely. If you have cats, do whatever you have to do to keep them from jumping on the cookies during the night. (Or hire security guards.)

Plan to get up early to start your baking. Place the cookies on the baking sheets with about 1/2 inch space surrounding each cookie. When they are done, they will not be brown; they will be a very little bit golden-looking on the bottoms.

Make sure they are thoroughly cooled before putting them into plastic bags, then coffee cans, or whatever storage medium you want to use. It is not necessary to freeze them if they will be eaten this year. When I moved, I found some Springerle in a coffee can in the cupboard, and they were dated 11 years prior! They were still lovely.

[] Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you are not part of this tradition, have a wonderful Day. We should all be thankful for each day we have,  regardless of where we live. []

Shalom, from Spike the Grate and Jamie the Webmistress

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