The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Week 4-Germany, Volga Germans

 Week 4: Germany, Volga Germans

(Sources: Britannica.com, sites.ualberta.ca)

My great grandfather on my dad's side, Heinrich Weitzel, aka, Henry Whitesell, was a Volga German. Volga Germans are people of German descent who colonized(with permission) the Volga River region of Russia in the 1700's, and stayed until their rights were eroded and Russia made it too difficult for them to survive(there was some genocide and people being sent to Siberia. It was pretty terrible...) My great grandfather's family moved around the turn of the 20th century to Alberta, Canada, where there was a Volga German community already established.

My great grandfather was a butcher, by trade, and I have his butcher knife on my ancestor shelf. He made his own beer and sauerkraut, and I like to think that a lot of my love of food comes from him. I apparently met him as a young child, but I have no memory of it, and he passed away before I could know him. I like to think that he'd enjoy this project, particularly this week! We just had Halloween and are in the time of Dia de los Muertos. I didn't make pan de muerto this year, but I think that the baked goods that I made, honor my ancestors, possibly even more because it's from their culture.

I made two breads this weekend. One German, and one Volga German recipe, and both turned out ok!

Yesterday I made a Riwwelkuchen, the recipe for which was found from a Volga German website dedicated to the village my family came from.

Proofing the yeast and making the heated milk mixture.

The first look at the dough. Looks kind of iffy at this point, but keep working with it.

It'll eventually look like this before you set it aside to rise. This didn't rise for the longest time and I was getting worried about it but I finally turned on the oven and let the heat from it heat the bowl from on top of the stove and that worked really well.

After you let it rise the first time, you punch it down and shape it into a rectangle before letting it rise for another half hour.

This is the apricot glaze for on top of the dough.

 

The risen dough.

The apricot glaze spreads really easily on top of the dough.

The crumble topping for over the glaze. Very easy to make.

Crumble topping and cinnamon sprinkled on top. Ready to bake!

Just out of the oven.

This is such a soft bread. It cuts like hot butter.

Side view. This was not a very sweet dish, so if you're not a huge dessert person, you'll probably really like this. The crumble topping isn't too hard and crunchy, so it doesn't hurt your teeth when you eat it. I tried freezing most of this and we'll see how it thaws. I might take it next week to my family gathering, if it thaws ok. I was really pleased with this one!

Today I made a stollen, a German fruitcake. I have never made one before, I have never actually eaten one before, so this was my first try at it. It doesn't look like a traditional stollen should, but it tastes really good, which is what really matters most! I used this recipe.

On Friday, I got the dark rum from my dad and Saturday morning I started soaking the fruit and almonds in it. They soaked for a little over 24 hours and absorbed a lot, but there was still some rum leftover.

This yeast really puffed up! I've never seen it do that before! This is all the ingredients, the lemon zest smells so wonderful!

The first mix. It says it will be crumbly, so I wasn't too worried at this point.

Creaming more flour into the butter with the spices is weird. I've never done this before.

Post-creaming.

Creamed mixture set on top of the mixed dough, ready to blend. I did this all by-hand, though I used a spoon for the creaming step.

The dough was supposed to be a nice smooth dough at this point and as you can see it's quite crumbly, almost like a shortbread dough. I was starting to get nervous by this point.

Then I made the executive decision to add more milk to the dough to get it to stay together better and it did work but it was still this odd gummy texture and so dense. It really didn't rise that much when I set it aside. I was even more nervous at this time but I kept going.

A floured tea towel to mix the dough to incorporate the rum-soaked fruit and nuts. I put all of it in, including the leftover rum. This spilled all over the place and soaked through the towel and definitely didn't help the gummy texture of the dough. I was extremely nervous by this time.

You have to shape it in a strange way with high sides and an indented middle, and then you do this folding thing. I did the best I could with it.

 This is the best I could get for a traditional stollen shape.

Then you make a foil holder for it that allegedly helps it keep its shape during baking.

You let it rise again for a bit at this point.

Dot it with butter before baking.

Spoiler alert: The foil absolutely nothing to keep the shape. Mine unfolded halfway through baking and nothing I could try to fix it, worked. With the gummy dough, and this disaster, I was pretty much done with stollen.

But...in spite of the disastrous look, I tasted it and it was fantastic! I melted more butter on the top, like you're supposed to, and when I kept adding powdered sugar to it, as my sister pointed out, you can hardly tell it's actually messed up. This is a shot from the side, with the cut piece leaning up against it. I think it looks nearly like it's supposed to!

Now, this is where it gets interesting. I think it tastes great now, but the recipe says to wrap it and let it sit for a couple weeks to develop properly as a fruitcake. I looked up some other recipes for reference and it was about half and half for doing this step, or not. So, I'm going to cut it in half and eat half now, and leave half to sit and then I'll be able to taste how it is then. I keep thinking it's going to be really dry, but we'll find out, I suppose!

These were both really new recipes to me, but they both turned out really great. It was exciting to try these out on this weekend where we're supposed to be thinking about our ancestors. It made me feel close to them. 

If you're a fan of baked goods and/or German food, I recommend both of these. The stollen is definitely a recipe for more advanced bakers, so if you're brand new to baking, consider letting a bakery do the baking for you if you want a stollen, and give the Riwwelkuchen a try. It's much more forgiving as a recipe. But if you're feeling adventurous, go for the stollen, and just be fearless with it! If alcohol is an issue for you, you'll need to see if this recipe would work by soaking the fruit in juice instead. I can't guarantee it'll have the same result, however.

We're a full third of the way through this project! I'm having a fun time with it and I hope you are too! Happy baking and Froliche Weihnachten!

The 12 Weeks of Christmas-The United States and Canada

Week 3: The United States & Canada

(Source: Britannica.com)

Neither the United States, nor Canada shows up on my DNA tests, of course, as I have no Native blood in me, but these are the countries of origin for my parents and grandparents, so I thought it was appropriate to include them in this project. And it wasn't as easy as you'd think, to find foods for these two countries that aren't too "done" by other countries that will be featured in this project.

Canada's recipe was very easy to decide on. It's one I've heard of a lot over the years but just never tried. And for once, I actually had a recipe card to test out, which means I can share the recipe here!

I have had this recipe in my collection forever, but for some reason, have never tried it. It's old enough that I don't know the source, so I can share it here. Just know, I didn't invent this recipe! This is called a Tourtiere, or Pork Pie.

1lb. ground pork

1tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. mace(this is really hard to find and very expensive. It's part of the nutmeg plant, so if you don't have any on hand, don't go out of your way to get it, just use a smidge extra nutmeg and it'll be fine.)

2 tsp. cornstarch

Pastry for 2-crust 8" pie(I used store bought, and it worked just fine) 

Combine all ingredients, except pastry, with 1 cup water. Blend thoroughly.

Simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently, 30 minutes.

Line an 8" pie pan with pastry, pour in meat mixture.

Cover with remaining pastry. Press edges together and prick with a fork to allow steam to escape during baking. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes before reducing temperature to 350 degrees. Bake 35 minutes longer or until top is brown. Serve hot. Makes 6 servings.

 

Here's the final product, just out of the oven. Nice and golden brown!

And here's the final product, cut and presented on the plate! It's a very simple dish, but it's really tasty. I would say it almost borders on too salty for my tastes, and I'd probably cut the salt down to 3/4 tsp. There are fancier versions of this dish you can find online, but I wanted to try this very basic version for the first time I made the dish. 

This was really delicious and I would definitely eat it again. I'll be eating leftovers throughout the week. This might freeze and thaw well, but I would have to test that to know for sure.

The United States was definitely a hard one to find a recipe for. All of our traditions come from other places, so I had to think long and hard about foods and traditions unique to this country. It finally came to me: Jell-o salad. A 60's and 70's classic, and nearly every white family in this nation has the family jell-o salad recipe. Admit it, if you're white, you know this salad. It usually involves lime jell-o and pineapple and some sort of dairy. Admit it, there's nothing to be ashamed of, I promise. So, I went about tracking down a jell-salad that wasn't the same as our family recipe, and ran across one that sounded promising.

This recipe is what I made.

 

I made some changes based on the fact that I didn't notice that the cream cheese layer called for plain gelatin, and I didn't get any from the store. Then I decided the cream cheese layer sounded kind of gross anyway, and it was a happy mistake in the long run. I also thought of a way to keep it cool-looking though.

Instead of doing the cranberry layer all as one, I cut it in half and did a cranberry layer, then the lime layer, then the second cranberry layer, so it still had three layers. This is the strawberry jell-o with the cranberry sauce mixed in.

Here is the lime layer with pineapple juice and the crushed pineapple. I let every layer sit for a couple hours in the fridge before adding the next one, and they managed to be distinct layers.

Here's the lime layer on top of the first cranberry layer.

And the top cranberry layer. You definitely need to start this in the morning in order for it to be fully set up by dinnertime.

Here you can see the three distinct layers on the plate as I get ready to taste it. It actually has a great flavor and if you like pineapple, you'll enjoy this for sure. The cranberry sort of just melts into the jell-o so you don't feel like you're eating cranberries at all. 

I found this incredibly sweet and was unable to finish my serving. I haven't eaten jell-o in so long I honestly can't remember when I had it last, so I had my sister taste it for me. She assured me it wasn't overly sweet, if anything it was less sweet than normal jell-o, so if jell-o's your thing, definitely give this one a try!

I had fun making these two recipes today. After last week's disaster, I really needed a win! I think I got it, and now I'm feeling very happy about this and ready for next week! Happy cooking!

 

 

The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Week 2-Spain

Week 2 was supposed to be the Iberian Peninsula, but Portugal's recipe was a huge and incredibly disappointing fail, so it's been left over and now it's just Spain. I'm not going to bother sharing the recipe that failed spectacularly. I'm not going to share the tale of the week I spent making the candied pears that ended up being cold and slimy, or the candied oranges, which did turn out ok. I will share that recipe down the line, if I end up using them for something else that manages to turn out ok. I'm just disappointed and a little bitter that I spent a week prepping for this and all day working on a recipe that is now currently sitting in the compost pile waiting to be taken out. Sigh...Ok, enough feeling sorry for myself. Let me share the recipe that did work out!

(Source: Britannica.com)

 Spanish Tortilla

This is a very simple, basic, and well-known Spanish recipe. It's called a tortilla, but it's really an omelet. A potato and onion omelet. I've never made one over the years, even though I've always wanted to try it. I decided this was the year to make it.

So, you chop the onions and slice the peeled potatoes and sprinkle them generously with salt. The potatoes need to be sliced really thin.

It's supposed to be all olive oil, but I didn't have enough so I supplemented with vegetable oil for the rest. You're not really frying the potatoes, you're basically boiling them in the oil slowly. When the potatoes are that thin, it doesn't take too long to cook them, which is nice.

Post cooking, removed from the oil with a slotted spoon and left out to cool down. I added more salt at this point, as well. I was left with a lot of leftover oil which I couldn't in good conscience just get rid of, so I'll probably use it to make hash browns until it's all used up.

When the potatoes are cool, you pour in the mixed eggs and stir together well.

Then, into the frying pan it goes, with a little bit of oil. Now, I was supposed to use a clean, large nonstick frying pan, but I chose to use the same pan I cooked the potatoes in, which isn't a non-stick pan, and had potato and onion bits in it still, so I knew pretty much the outcome of this. I did it anyway.

As you can see, the result is more of a scramble after you flip it to cook the other side. The good news is, a scramble and a proper omelet taste exactly the same, so it doesn't really matter in the long run!

This tasted really good and would make a good breakfast or brunch dish. I think the idea of a Christmas brunch sounds amazing and a dish like this would be really easy to throw together on Christmas morning.

This made a lot, and I will be eating the leftovers for dinner tomorrow night and lunch throughout the week! 

Well, hopefully next week's recipes won't fail so badly on me as the first recipe did for me today. At least I have some deliciousness to look forward to this week!

Feliz Navidad!