Air Buns

I found this recipe on Mennonite Girls Can Cook dot com. The picture looks wonderful! This makes a fairly big batch.

• 4 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 tbsp. quick rise yeast
• 1 cup oil
• 1 tbsp.vinegar
• 2 tsp.salt
• 1/2 cup sugar ( I use 1/4 cup)
• 10 cups flour/ a little more if needed

1. start with about 6 cups flour, add the yeast salt and sugar and stir together.
2. add the warm water, oil and vinegar.
3. stir together with a wooden spoon adding more flour till it is hard to stir.
4. add remaining flour a bit at a time till you have a soft, smooth and elastic dough that is no longer very sticky when kneading.
5. knead for a few minutes by hand on a floured surface.
6. let rest in greased and covered bowl in a warm place for about 40 minutes. I use my oven with the light on.
7. Make into buns and let rise for another 40 minutes.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Watch your oven, temperatures vary.
9. Share and enjoy!!!!!

Notes:

I read the notes for the recipe on the MGCC blog and it says the vinegar is used to preserve the buns so they last longer, not to change the taste or texture. Interesting!

Mackintosh Toffee Marshmallows

Once again, a gem from the white recipe book. This one is from Martha Brandt. Her note: It is helpful for two people to do this; one to dip the marshmallows and the other to roll them.

1 large bag marshmallows
5 boxes Mackintosh toffee (I have used more than this, Martha noted)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup crushed cornflakes (or more)
1/2 cup toasted coconut (or more)

Melt butter, condensed milk, and toffee together. Dip marshmallows in mixture (using a fork) and coat evenly. Next, roll marshmallow in the cornflake crumbs and then in the coconut.

Notes:
The first time I made this, I wrote in my recipe book:
2 x 250g marshmallows
2 x 170g Mac. toffee pieces
Rice Krispies, no coconut
used skewer instead of fork
makes approx 7 doz.

Today:
Used skewer to hold marshmallows, but I first stuck the skewer into butter so the marshmallow doesn't stick. Probably put butter on it every two or three marshmallows.

used 3 x 170g toffee pieces, and 1/3 cup butter

When the toffee mixture got low, I poured it into a mug, warmed it up and was able to dip the marshmallows more easily.

Made another batch and added one ounce (one square) of semi-sweet baking chocolate and a small handful of dark chocolate chips that I had leftover from my Brownie Fudge Puddles recipe. It's good with the toffee and chocolate!

Butter Tart Squares

I think Mennonite Girls Can Cook is my new favorite recipe site. The name alone is enough to make it awesome! I didn't realize Butter Tarts were a Canadian thing! For this recipe, they've made a note: If you can't finish off the whole pan at once...they freeze well and even taste great partially frozen!

Base:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Topping:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Base:

Combine flour and sugar. With pastry blender, cut in butter until crumbly. Press into cookie sheet (10" x 15"). Bake at 350° F for 15 minutes.

Topping:

1. Mix together butter and sugar.
2. Blend in eggs.
3. Add flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla.
4. Stir in raisins and pecans.
5. Pour over base.
6. Bake at 350° F for 20 to 25 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched.
7. Allow to cool...then cut into squares.

Notes:

It's still in the oven, but I'll let you know how it turns out!

Päpanät

Mennonitegirlscancook.ca has loads of great recipes, Mennonite and not-Mennonite foods. Here's a recipe they posted recently. If you're not familiar with it, it's a small, hard bite-sized cookie that's packed with Christmas spices. There are pictures on the site. Here's what they wrote:

I think when it comes to Mennonite food there are as many recipes for each dish as there are Grandmothers. My recipe for Pfeffernuesse is quite different than the ones posted previously. These tiny cookies are quite hard and are meant to be sucked or dunked. I was told that in years past, the grandmothers would bring them to church for the children to suck on - ensuring they would keep quiet during the sermon.

I like to bake them around this time of year so that the flavours have a chance to mellow before serving them in December. However, once my family knows I've made them, they disappear by the handfuls. The original recipe is a very large one - I think it usually makes about 3 ice cream buckets full. I've halved the recipe to make it easier for smaller families.

It's a good time to invite someone to help - there are a lot of very small cookies to put on the pans.

Speaking from experience, it's good to read the whole recipe through once before starting.

• 2 cups golden cane syrup (in Canada it is made by Rogers) this has a unique flavour somewhat different than regular corn syrup.
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup margarine
• 1 cup milk

1. Place above ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil.
2. Cool to room temperature.

• 1 beaten egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (yes that's right)
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground star anise
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 7-8 cups flour

1. Add egg and extracts to sugar syrup mixture, mixing well.
2. Into a large mixing bowl, sift together 4 cups of the flour with the spices and baking powder.
3. Pour liquid mixture over and mix thoroughly.
4. Continue adding flour - dough will be sticky and still somewhat soft.
5. Cover bowl with lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 5 days.
6. Spoon out about 1 - 2 cups dough, leaving remainder in fridge.
7. On a floured board or pastry sheet, roll into long logs about the thickness of your index finger.
8. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces and place on parchment paper covered cookie sheets. (this makes it much easier to remove the cookies after baking.)

• Bake at 350º for 15 minutes or until set. (if you have a convection oven, the baking goes much faster as you can bake 3 cookie sheets at a time)
• Repeat with remaining cookie dough.
• When cookies are baked, remove from cookie sheets and allow to cool completely before storing in ice cream pails.
• These store best in a cool place like a garage. They do not need to be in the freezer. They will keep for months.
• If you bake them early in November, the flavours have a chance to mellow.
• Warning - these can become addictive.

Notes:
The first half of the dough, we made the pieces too large. The second half I made them much smaller. I'd say... maybe the size of a nickel.

Also with the first half of the dough, the pieces ended up being square. I grew up with round ones, so square just wasn't going to cut it for me. So, for the second half, I rounded the corners, each piece individually, with well-floured fingers.

I was surprised to find they were still soft when I took them out of the oven, but they harden as they cool.

Worth noting as well, once you've mixed the dough, before you put the ingredients or coffee grinder (which you'll need to grind the anise) away, fill your coffee grinder with cloves and the syrup. Just for fun. Well, not so much fun for me, but it was for Ella.

Update, December 11, 2017:
After having added 8 cups of flour, I thought the dough was still too sticky; almost like a thick cake batter. I squeezed in nearly another full cup of flour, but as I'm working with the dough, I think I shouldn't have added that last cup.

The first day after baking the cookies, they tasted bland, but by the second day, the flavour really showed up.

Brownie Fudge Puddles

Another treasure from the white recipe book! This one was submitted by Daphne Thiessen.

Brownies:
4 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
1 cup butter
3/4 tsp black pepper

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup Kahlua (strong coffee or other liqueur would work equally well)

1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Fudge:
2 cups dark chocolate chips (or combination of milk and dark)
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla

For Brownies:
Grease and flour mini-muffin pans thoroughly. Set aside. Melt butter, chocolate and pepper over low heat or in microwave. In another bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until blended. Stir in cooled chocolate mixture. Then stir in Kahlua. Sift dry ingredients into chocolate and stir until blended. Fill muffin tins about 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake in 350 degree oven just until set, about 8 - 12 minutes (depending on the size of your muffin tins). Do not overbake. Immediately upon removing brownie cups from oven, make a deep dent in each brownie with the back of a melon baller. Remove from pan and cool.

For Fudge:
Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk over low heat or in microwave, stirring often, until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Cool slightly and pour into cake decorating bag with any kind of small -- medium tip (or Ziploc bag with a small corner cut off). Pipe filling into each brownie cup. Let fudge set before packing away.

Makes about 72 mini brownies.

Notes:
The first time I made these, I used a Ziploc bag for the fudge, but cut too small a hole. The bag exploded. Oops.

I used muffin papers instead of greasing the pans. The papers remove easily because the brownies are very buttery. But, it also does soak the papers and they aren't as cute soaked in grease as they are when they were in the package. Oh well. Chocolate trumps the need for cute papers.

Interestingly enough, I made exactly 72 brownies. But, I overfilled them just a bit, so I didn't have enough fudge. However, I melted a small amount of dark chocolate chips, mixed them with some crunchy peanut butter and filled the remaining brownies with that. It's gonna be goooooood! I'd suggest only adding enough fudge so it's level with the top of the brownie, not till there's a little chocolate mountain on top.