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Desserts and Sweets

Loretta’s Hazelnut Torte

A rich torte of hazelnuts (filberts) combined with chocolate that uses almost no flour.  A Loretta specialty.

  • 1 cups hazelnuts
  • 1/3 cups dry crumbs
  • 1 T flour
  • 1 square shaved chocolate, unsweetened
  • 6 egg white
  • pinch cream of tartar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 6 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Toast and grind the hazelnuts. Add crumbs, flour,  and shaved chocolate. Beat egg whites stiff with cream of tartar. Add 1/2 cups sugar slowly. Beat yolks and whole egg with the other 1/2 cup sugar. Add to nut mixture. Fold carefully into whites.

Turn into a greased torte pan and bake at 300 F until firm.

hazelnuts filberts

Desserts and Sweets

Maria Teresa’s Apple Pudding

María Teresa’s Very Special Apple Pudding from Chile

This recipe is so simple, has absolutely no flour in it (though it does have all that sugar in the sweetened condensed milk), and is scrumptious. It is one of those concoctions that you see one moment, and the next, it’s gone, it gets eaten so fast.

  • 2 lbs. of apples, peeled, cored, and halved
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
  • 2 t baking powder
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 4 egg whites beaten stiff with 2 t sugar

 

In a blender or food processor, mix the milk, apples, egg yolks, and half the nuts. When well blended, add the baking powder. Stir in the rest of the nuts by hand (to avoid grinding smaller in the blender).

Turn into a buttered, oven-proof dish. Place in a 350 F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until set.

Meanwhile, make a meringue with the egg whites and sugar. Spread on top of the pudding and return to oven until meringue is golden.

This pudding is good chilled before serving (if it lasts that long).

Note from Maria Teresa, Oct. 21, 1982

Maria Teresa's Apple PuddingIn her note, Maria Teresa states that her Apple Pudding normally serves 8 unless Juan Esteban eats the whole thing first…

Desserts and Sweets

Pracny (Czech Bear Claws)

Pracny were cookies that Grandma baked at Christmas–amongst many other delicacies such as Walnut and Poppyseed Rolls (Beigli), Cottage Cheese Cake, Hoska, and Viennese Crescents (AKA Mexican Wedding Cakes). The Pracny were baked in special molds, were a rich, dark brown covered with a snowy sprinkling of powdered sugar, and had a most wonderful texture (and taste!).

This particular recipe is one that a second cousin gave us when she came to visit us from the Czech Republic. The measurements are in dekakilograms (each dekakilogram measures 10 grams)… happy converting!

(Note: below this recipe is a link to a very similar recipe with convenient conversions already made)

Ingredients for Pracny

7 dkg ground walnuts
10 dkg butter
7 dkg powder sugar
14 dky flour (very mild one)
2 tsp Vanilla sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Mix all this together and let is sit for at least an hour or 24 hours, it’s up to you.

Spread a lot of butter into small cookie forms (we use metal one, if you don’t have any, we’ll send you some). It’s very important to spread the butter properly, otherwise, you won’t be able to take the cookies out.

Lay the forms (with the open side up) on the cookie sheet. Put the sheet in oven (about 180 C or 350 F). Bake them until they are done (until the cookies turn gold). After you pull the sheet out of oven, let it sit for a while. Then comes the final moment–cookies digging. Sometimes it is easy to take them out and sometimes you get just crumbs. Sometimes just knocking on the sheet helps.

Then you prepare some powder sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Every cookie you cover with sugar in that bowl. Then you have to keep them at the safe place without insect and with low humidity.

Merry Christmas….. Vesele Vanoce……. Marketa

Walnuts

Another Czech Christmas Cookie Recipe: Bear paws / Recept na medvedi tlapicky

Soups and Stews

Borscht, Doukhobor Style

A thick, very rich version of Russian beet soup melded with potatoes and other vegetables, butter, and cream..

For years, various members of the family have lived in an area of British Columbia, Canada, into which many Doukhobors (a sect of Christian Russians who practice  what is called “radical pacifism”) settled after emigrating to Canada from Russia in the early 1900s to escape persecution. One of the mainstays of the Doukhobour diet, which is vegetarian, is their particular style of borscht, or beet soup, which is thick with potato starch and heavily laden with butter and cream. It is a full-course meal in itself.

  • 1-1/2 cups runny mashed potatoes
  • 1/2 medium cabbage, shredded
  • 1 beet, diced
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1/2 lb. butter
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 can tomatoes
  • 1 t basil
  • salt and dill to taste
  • water as needed
  • 1/2 to 1 cup whipping cream

Prepare the mashed potatoes, reserving the water in which the potatoes were cooked. Set the mashed potatoes aside. Add 3/4 of the cabbage, the diced beet, carrot, and green pepper to the hot potato water in a large soup pot and cook for 15 minutes.

Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the chopped onion and garlic and stir until transparent, and then add the rest of the cabbage. Fry to brown slightly.

Toss the fried cabbage in with the other vegetables in the potato broth. Empty the tomatoes into the skillet and add the basil. Heat well and throw into the soup pot. Add water as needed and continue simmering. Add the mashed potatoes and dill. Stir in cream (use as much as your taste buds dictate and your conscience will allow) and heat but do not boil. Season.

Serves 8.

Cats, by Rayna, Dec 2008


Appetizers

Garbanzo Dip (Hummus)

Garbanzo or chickpea dip is known as hummus, a Middle Eastern food that is eaten with pita bread and is rich in iron, vitamin B6,  and fiber. The proteins of the garbanzo beans and sesame seeds complement each other, making it a very nutritious food.

Ingredients for Garbanzo Dip (Hummus)

  • 2 cups cooked garbanzos/chick peas (reserve liquid)
  • 1/3 cup sesame tahini (sesame seed paste)
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2-3 T lemon or lime juice
  • 1/4 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/3 cup black olives, chopped (optional) or
  • 1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil (optional)
  • 2 T olive oil (optional)

Blend or process garbanzos, sesame tahini, garlic, salt, lemon or lime juice, and seasonings until smooth, using some of the reserved liquid from the garbanzo beans if thinning is required. You want a paste that is thick and smooth, not runny.

For variety, try adding either the chopped black olives or chopped sun-dried tomatoes to your dip, although plain hummus is just plain good.

Chill. Drizzle the olive oil on top and serve with pita bread triangles, crackers, or as a dip for vegetable crudites such as celery sticks, carrot spears, and sliced red peppers. .
Garbanzo beans