Monthly Archives: December 2011

Hungarian pancakes with ricotta filling

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My menus for Christmas weekend included a breakfast of Hungarian Palacsinta stuffed with sweetened ricotta. It’s a breakfast I seldom have. When my husband makes the thin crepe-like pancakes, they are consumed in no time by our family. Palacsinta is a favorite of our grandchildren. With no palacsinta leftover, there are no roll-ups the next day.

Unfortunately, the flu bug paid a visit to our house on Christmas weekend. Many of the foods intended to be served are still in the refrigerator and freezer. No one had much of an appetite at my house. It was a tough couple of days.

On Saturday morning, before the bug hit, we had palacsinta for breakfast. With the few that remained, I planned to make roll-ups for Monday morning. Couldn’t happen.

I wound up preparing the roll-ups for our evening meal tonight. We’ll see who can eat it.

Years ago my mom typed her recipe for Hungarian Palacsinta on a card for my husband, who is not Hungarian but is the best Palacsinta-maker. One line in the recipe, typed in all caps and underlined for emphasis, says: DENNIS: LET THIS RECIPE BE OUR SECRET OKAY. So, we’ve guarded her exact recipe.

A couple of years ago Dennis did a demonstration on how to make the thin Hungarian pancake. This is the recipe he used and the crepe-like pancakes were almost as good as those made with the secret recipe.

Hungarian Palacsinta

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • About 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 2 eggs

Put milk and eggs in blender. Give it a whirl to blend. Add dry ingredients and blend until mixed.
Use about 3 tablespoons batter for each pancake. The larger the pan, the more batter you will need. My mom always used a 10-inch skillet to make pancakes as big as a plate. Melt a little lard in pan and add batter. Rotate pan until batter covers the bottom. Brown pancake on one side, then carefully flip with a spatula to brown other side. Stack pancakes until all are cooked.

For Filling:

  • 1 1/4 cups ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg yolk from a large egg
  • 2 tablespoons sugar plus a little more for sprinkling over the top
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons sour cream for spreading over the top

Place all ingredients except sour cream in a bowl and mix well with a spoon to blend. Lay one pancake down on work surface. Spread a few tablespoons of filling over the pancake. Roll up. Place in buttered casserole dish. Repeat procedure with each pancake. Pack them tightly together in the casserole dish. Top with a thin layer of sour cream. Sprinkle with more sugar. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, uncover and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes or until heated through. The pancakes will puff up and they will be steaming hot. Serve immediately. They can also be baked as soon as they have been filled and rolled. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Easy appetizer (or meal) for those who love olives

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Have you noticed how easy it is to make a meal of just appetizers at a restaurant? On a trip to the Twin Cities last week, my husband and I paid our first visit to 112 Eatery. Located in the warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis, it’s a popular spot for the after-work crowd to stop for drinks and eats. It’s also the place diners hit when they want to eat food prepared by Isaac Becker, chef/co-owner of both 112 Eatery and Bar La Grassa in downtown Minneapolis. Becker was named Best Chef: Midwest by the James Beard Foundation last May.

We started our meal with a luxurious appetizer of fresh ricotta with white truffle honey and crostini. From that starter we went onto another appetizer, lamb scottadito with goats milk yogurt, which we paired with two sides, cauliflower fritters and pan-fried gnocchi with Parmesan Reggiano. That was dinner. Done. Not even room for one of the fantastic-sounding desserts. I’ll do dessert on my next visit to 112 Eatery. And, there will definitely be a next time. Our server was the best, the food was wonderful and the prices were surprisingly reasonable. But, if you have a 5:00 dinner reservation, don’t bother getting there even a minute early. They won’t unlock the door until 5:00 on the dot.

On Friday night we ate at the cozy Terra Waconia in quaint downtown Waconia, of course. Once again, we started with appetizers. A honeycomb-topped crostini with chevre and fresh fruit was elegantly presented. The cheese platter of the night was an array of locally produced cheese. The handful of entrees on the ever-changing blackboard taunted us, and although we could have gone right to the ginger creme brulee for dessert, we did order entrees. We split the dessert.

If you haven’t had a chance to eat at Terra Waconia, it’s just a short drive from the Twin Cities. Head down mid-afternoon and stop at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on your way. If you like to shop, downtown Excelsior seemed to have something for everyone. I couldn’t pass up the independent bookstore — Excelsior Bay Books.

It’s easy to make an evening meal of appetizers at home, too. Especially when the small bites are quick and easy to prepare. Even better when they can be made ahead and heated up at the last minute.

Today I made some small pastries filled with cream cheese and grated Provolone studded with chopped Greek olives. I like using fillo dough to produce flaky, crisp spirals filled voluptuously with the tangy, salty mixture. It’s important to mix up the filling before laying out the paper-thin sheets of dough. They quickly dry out and become brittle.

I took half of the dough from a one-pound package. On a dry work surface, I brushed each sheet with olive oil, stacking them on top of each layer to form the flaky pastry. After the dough was cut into rectangles and spread with the olive mixture, I baked them for 10 to 15 minutes. They are delicious served hot right from the oven. But, you can make them ahead and reheat them in a 400-degree oven for a few minutes.

I can make a meal of these olive spirals along with a spinach salad. And, maybe a few Christmas cookies for dessert:)

Your friends will love these when you share them as an appetizer at your next party.

Olive Wheels

  • 1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup grated Provolone cheese
  • 1/2 cup pitted Greek olives, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 pound fillo dough
  • Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat cream cheese with Provolone until light and creamy. Stir in the chopped olives.

Lay one sheet of fillo dough at a time on a clean, dry work surface. Brush with olive oil, lay another sheet of dough over the top and brush with olive oil. Continue this process until all sheets have been stacked. Use a pizza cutter to divide the stack of dough into rectangles. I made 3 evenly-spaced cuts from long side to long side and 5 cuts from one short end to the other.

Spoon filling in the center of each rectangle. Bring the long sides up and coil each rectangle to form a wheel. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and brush with more olive oil. Bake in preheated 400-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot. With a salad, these Wheels will serve 5 or 6.

Baked and cooled, the Wheels can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. When you are ready to serve them, reheat in a preheated 400-degree oven for about 5 minutes.

 

 

 

Mocha Kissy Cookies require no kissing before eating

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When you work with preschoolers as I did for many years during my career in early childhood education, you learn how to hold in your laughs. From the mouths of those sweet, innocent little children come words that express their most serious thoughts. More than once during those years with young children I was astonished as I listened to their conversations.

I’ll never forget the day I was sitting in a child-size chair at a kidney-bean-shaped table with short legs, enjoying a snack with a small group of three-year-old children. Out of the blue, one little girl said, “Dolly Parton’s not a Christian.” Her big eyes glistened. Her mouth kept moving as she nonchalantly continued to eat her snack.

On the chair right beside her, another blue-eyed little girl with long blonde hair spoke up. “She’s not Jewish, either.” It was so surprising, it was humorous. I held back a little giggle. As Art Linkletter would have said, “Kids say the darndest things!”

Each year just before Christmas, we had a holiday gathering for all the children and their families at the campus child care center I worked at for several years. Each family contributed a plate of holiday treats.

One year, as I moved around the Center visiting with parents and siblings of the preschoolers I spent time with each day, I happened upon a conversation between two preschoolers. They each held one of those peanut butter cookies with a Hershey kiss in the middle. “Kiss me,” said the little girl as she looked at the confused little boy in front of her. “You can’t take a bite of your kissy cookie until you kiss me. That’s what my mom and dad do,” she said sweetly. I pictured her young parents sitting on the couch in their living room at home with a tin of Kissy Cookies resting on their laps, sharing a quick little peck as they ate cookies together. I held back a little giggle.

The little boy wanted nothing to do with any kind of kiss other than the chocolate one in the middle of the cookie he held in his small hand. He turned on his heels and walked away, the cookie held up to his mouth as he began to chew the chocolate out of its middle.

Mocha Kissy Cookies do have a milk-chocolate kiss stuck into their middle. No kisses are required before eating them, though.

The cookie dough comes from a recipe for cookies I got at a cookie swap in 1992. Typically, the dough is rolled into balls and smashed with a fork to make a criss-cross pattern on each cookie. For Mocha Kissy Cookies, I rolled each ball of dough in an egg white whipped with enough water to make it thin and then rolled them in cinnamon-sugar before baking. The result is a crunchy outside with a chewy coffee-flavored inside, a hint of cinnamon and a big kiss of chocolate — mocha flavors through and through.

It’s a cookie adults will enjoy more than children. If you’re having friends over, serve Mocha Kissy Cookies with a cup of Holiday Hot Mocha topped with fluffy whipped cream. That recipe is in my column this week. Click here to get to that recipe.

Eat, sip and be merry. Kissing requirements are up to you.

Mocha Kissy Cookies

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules or espresso powder
  • 1/3 cup shortening
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon hot water
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 egg white mixed with a couple of teaspoons of water and whipped with a whisk
  • 48 Hershey’s milk chocolate kisses, wrappers removed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Sift flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and instant coffee granules or espresso powder into a bowl and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening, brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar, egg, vanilla and milk until fluffy. Add sifted dry ingredients and blend. Add hot water and mix. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. (I used a #100 portion scooper).

Mix remaining 3 tablespoons granulated sugar with cinnamon in a bowl. Quickly dip each ball of dough into a bowl of egg white and water mixture. With a fork, transfer ball to sugar mixture and roll to coat. Place sugar-coated ball of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Bake in preheated 400-degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Remove from oven and immediately push a milk chocolate kiss into the middle of each cookie. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet. Use a metal spatula to transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely. Makes 3 1/2 to 4 dozen cookies.