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.

Play Dough

Johan's at church clubs with the older two. Ella needs something to do. We made play dough. This is the link I used, which includes really helpful photos to show just how long to cook it.

Basic ingredient ratios:
2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (optional for improved elasticity)

food coloring (liquid, powder, or unsweetened drink mix)
scented oils

Aaaand she just told me she ate some of the dough, so I'll get off the computer now.

Updated, May 30, 2014, to add:

Used 1 tsp cinnamon into the pot for scent and colour, for a half recipe of dough.

Flax Buns

I had a hankering for buns with flax and I found this at www.flaxcouncil.ca and I'll echo what they state about this recipe: simple and delicious... nothing beats fresh buns! They have called these "Two-hour buns". *update* July 3, 2012: cut the recipe in half and made two large loaves with this recipe. Baked at 350 for 30 minutes. *update again* July 21, 2012: see below for bread maker version.

Two-hour buns
Simple and delicious... nothing beats fresh buns!

25 ml	fast rising instant yeast	2 tbsp
2 L	all-purpose flour	8 cups
175 ml	ground flax seed	3/4 cup
125 ml	granulated sugar	½ cup
2	eggs	2
5 ml	salt	1 tsp
750 ml	lukewarm water	3 cups

• In a bowl, mix yeast, 1 L (4 cups) flour and ground flax.
• In a large bowl, beat sugar, eggs and salt. Add water and stir.
• Add flour mixture to the liquid and beat until well blended.
• Add remaining flour and knead.
• Let rise 15 minutes.
• Punch down and let rise again 15 minutes.
• Punch down and form into buns.
• Let rise one hour.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Bake 20 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack.

Yield: 4 dozen 10 cm (4 inch) buns

Notes:
Breadmaker version:
3/4 cup water
1 egg
1/8 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup ground flax
3 cups flour
1/2 Tbsp yeast

Setting 5 (for 1.5 lb loaf)

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Allrecipes.com. By the way, do take the time to check it out because I find their reviews immensely helpful!

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick-cooking oats

1 cup chocolate chips (my addition)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together shortening, margarine, brown sugar, white sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the oats until just combined. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until just light brown. Don't over-bake. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Notes:
I love these tips someone posted for this recipe!

For those who get flat cookies, there are three likely problems:
a) your fat is too warm. Your shortening/marg/butter should be almost chilled--just barely warm enough to be creamed with the sugar. Anything warmer, and you're likely to spread. Also, don't cream them so long that the fat warms up;
b) warm baking sheets. If you put dough onto a cookie sheet still warm from the last batch, you're asking for it. It's best if both the dough and the pan are cool;
c) if neither of the above seems to be the problem, try adding another 1/4 cup of flour (or just make sure you were adding the proper amount in the first place).

For myself, I used cold butter, and only butter, no shortening or margarine, cut into tiny pieces to cream with the sugar.

I used 1/2 cup of each sugar, which I'm finding sweet enough.

As noted above, I added 1 cup of chocolate chips. It could even use more! Mmmm.

I made sure the pans didn't get warm before baking, kept the ingredients cold, didn't overmix, but had a few cookies spread a bit. As I was mixing it, I thought I could add more oatmeal, but didn't. Maybe that would have kept the cookies a little more compact and less spread-y.

I used crunchy peanut butter.

There is some discussion in the recipe review section about the saltiness of this recipe. Because I reduced the sugar by quite a bit, I find there is a bit of a salty taste. I might reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp.

Interesting Tips

Found this on allrecipes, which is packed with good info!!! For those who get flat cookies, there are three likely problems:
a) your fat is too warm. Your shortening/marg/butter should be almost chilled--just barely warm enough to be creamed with the sugar. Anything warmer, and you're likely to spread. Also, don't cream them so long that the fat warms up;
b) warm baking sheets. If you put dough onto a cookie sheet still warm from the last batch, you're asking for it. It's best if both the dough and the pan are cool;
c) if neither of the above seems to be the problem, try adding another 1/4 cup of flour (or just make sure you were adding the proper amount in the first place).

Roasted Pork Loin

Surprise, surprise. Another one from allrecipes! Here's what the contributor writes: "This roast is great holiday fare, with incredible seasoning. But it's too good to save just for special occasions. It makes a warm, satisfying supper anytime. I'll often serve it with potato pancakes, applesauce and carrots. -Grace Yaskovic, New Jersey"

1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 (4 pound) boneless pork loin roast

In a skillet, combine the first 12 ingredients; saute until the vegetables are tender. Untie roast and separate. Randomly cut 20 deep slits, 1 in. wide, on inside surface of roast. Fill slits with some of the vegetable mixture; retie roast. Place on a rack in a shallow baking pan. Spread remaining vegetable mixture over the roast. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees F for 2-3 hours or until a meat thermometer reaches 160 degrees F-170 degrees F. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

Notes:
I love the idea of making the roast as written, however, I didn't have as much time to do it that way. I tossed in a bunch of celery (maybe a cup), 2 Tbsp of butter, and a medium onion chopped in with the meat and sprinkled the seasonings over it. I should have rubbed the seasonings on the meat before putting the celery and onion in, but it turned out just fine. I covered the baking dish with foil and baked it at 350 for an hour.

I took the seasoned drippings and made a cream gravy, adding a little extra paprika and thyme for flavor, and served with potatoes.

I suspect this would work very well in a slow cooker as well.