Holiday Recipes from SLD

Potato Rolls

From Doug Church

Ingredients

• 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup unseasoned mashed potatoes
• 4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 large egg

Preparation

1. YEAST. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast in ¼ cup warm water.
2. WET INGREDIENTS. In a small saucepan, add 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of mashed potatoes, and 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Heat until the butter is melted and the milk is warm but not hot. Add the milk mixture, ¼ cup sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, and 1 egg to the yeast mixture.
3. DRY INGREDIENTS. Add 2 cups of flour and mix to combine. Mix in 2-3 cups flour, ¼ cup at a time, to form a soft dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
4. KNEAD, SHAPE, & RISE. On a lightly floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, place in a greased bowl, cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise for about one hour, until doubled.
5. DIVIDE. After one hour, gently punch the dough down. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Divide the dough into 24 pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Place the balls of dough with the smoothest side up on a greased or parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
6. SECOND RISE. Cover and let rise for 30-60 minutes, until the dough springs back when touched lightly.
7. BAKE. Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Brush with the remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter.
8. SERVE!

Family Fruitcake

From David Godfrey

It is fruitcake season, and I am not talking about great-uncle John; I am talking about the fruity, nutty confection that my grandmother’s side of the family taught me to love. Her mother was Welsh, her father was English, and fruitcake is a traditional standing confection for special occasions in her family. When my grandparents married in 1926 in Detroit, the wedding cake was a fruitcake, iced and decorated in white with pink roses. Reportedly, my grandfather's family wondered aloud what kind of fruitcake family he was marrying into.  

Fruitcake suffers from an identity crisis in the United States that leads to it being misunderstood, joked about, and disliked. I think this is in part because of the name Fruitcake. It is not what people expect when they think of a cake. But then again, neither is cheesecake. A fruitcake is really a confection made of dried and candied fruits and nuts held together with a heavy spice batter as a binder. Some bakeries make it in small single-serving rounds, like candy. Fruit cake is best enjoyed in small pieces. A big slice of it could be used as a sedative, especially if you soak it in good booze like my grandmother taught me to.

I prefer to make my own. I can vary the mixture of dried and candied fruits and nuts to my taste. I like the unnatural red candied cherries that many people find revolting. You can substitute dried cherries. I am not a big fan of candied pineapple, or candied peel, so I use less of those. We like raisins, so my fruitcake has twice the volume of raisins in it that my grandmother’s recipe did. I prefer walnuts to pecans. By making my own I can vary the mix to my taste.

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°F
2. Grease and line with a baking paper sling two medium loaf pans

Ingredients

Wet ingredients for the cake

• ¼ pound butter, salted or unsalted, it really does not matter, allowed to soften to room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup molasses
• ½ cup heavy cream

Dry ingredients for the cake

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (I prefer Saigon Cinnamon)
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grated if you can)

Fruit and nuts

• ½ cup each of dark rum, bourbon, and brandy
• 1 to 2 cups of raisins
• 2 ½ cups of mixed dried and candied fruits - put in what you like
• 1 cup walnuts or pecans, broken or chopped, are fine (can be left out)

Directions

1. Soak raisins in the rum, bourbon, and brandy mixture for 1-3 hours. Vary the mix of booze depending on your taste. 
2. Mix the dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Cream the softened butter in a stand mixer, add brown sugar and molasses, beat eggs one at a time, and mix in heavy cream (you can use milk). Add in dry ingredients a couple of spoonfuls at a time until well mixed. This will make a thick batter, almost like cookie dough. 
4. Drain the raisins, reserving the liquid. Place the fruits and nuts in the largest mixing bowl you have. This is a massive dough and can be messy to mix. Add the cake batter and fold together by hand. It is important that this step be done by hand. If you do this with a power mixer, the fruit and nuts may be smashed beyond recognition (a complaint I have about some commercially available fruitcakes).
5. Divide the batter between prepared loaf pans (medium bread pans).
6. Bake at 325°F for 75-90 minutes. A toothpick or skewer will come out clean when the cakes are done. Cool for about an hour, remove from pans, and cool on a rack to room temperature.
7. Wrap in cheesecloth and baste with the reserved rum, bourbon, and brandy mixture. You want to get it wet, allowing the booze to soak into the cake. Wrap tightly in foil and a plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks.
8. After two weeks, unwrap and baste again heavily with bourbon, rum, and brandy. It should be wet on the outside. It will soak into the cake as it matures. Wrap back up and return to the refrigerator. Fruit cake really needs to age at least a month, longer if you can. I usually make my end of the year fruitcakes at the end of August to allow plenty of time to age (soak up the booze).

There are a million variations on this. Differences in fruit mixtures, differences in spices, with or without booze in the aging process. Make it your own. Maybe bake it in individual serving sizes in a cupcake pan. If you prefer a lighter cake, replace the molasses with corn syrup, and brown sugar with granulated sugar. If you prefer, put in less fruit for a lighter cake. 

Fruitcake connects me with old family traditions. I like to make my fruitcakes in the first late summer or early fall cool snap. The house smells like holiday spice for a couple of days. 

Gravlax (Cured Salmon)

From William F. Stutts

Ingredients

• Two 1-lb (about 1 kg) fresh salmon filets, with scales scraped off and all pin-bones removed, each about the same size, and preferably from the same fish. Fresh means fresh—as in no fishy smell.
• One glass dish that is large and deep enough to hold the two filets, one stacked on top of the other.
• Plastic wrap (2 +/-ft?)
• About 4 tablespoons of coarse salt (kosher will do well—don’t use finishing or fine-ground salt; that’s much too salty for this dish)
• About 4 tablespoons of caster (regular, refined, white) sugar.
• One bunch of dill (or about 10 small stalks plus fronds), cut into pieces about 1 inch long, and chop most of the stems off, leaving mainly the fronds.
• One brick (wrapped in clean foil or in a sealed plastic bag, or a 1 lb bag of decomposed granite. Yes, really.
• Clean hands.

Directions

1. Wash the salmon and pat it dry.
2. Spread out a generous amount (2 +/-ft?) of plastic wrap on a clean, flat surface.
3. Place a small amount of salt (1 tbsp) and an equal amount of sugar in the middle of the plastic wrap.
4. Place the two pieces of salmon next to each other in the middle of the plastic wrap on top of the salt and sugar, skin side down, placing them so the thin edges of the filets both face either left or right.
5. Put 1 tbsp of the salt and 1 tbsp of the sugar on top of the flesh of each of the salmon pieces. It will look like it will be too much.
6. On top of the salt/sugar mixture that tops the salmon, spread about ½ of the dill on each piece.
7. Flip one piece of the salmon over on top of the other. You will have to be fast about that because the salt/sugar will want to escape. Don’t let much of it drop out. The combined pieces should be about flat in height because you will have aligned the thin edges of one piece on top of the thick side of the other piece.
8. For any salt and sugar left over (maybe about 1 tbsp), spread that on top of the stacked salmon.
9. Now start tightly wrapping the salmon package in the plastic wrap by folding the wrap over the salmon, tightly folding it over and over again, both from the sides and the ends. It will look a little silly now, with the plastic wrap entirely encasing the fish and the salt/sugar/dill.
10. Then, cut another piece of plastic wrap (maybe 1 ft long) and fold it over the fish package the opposite way from the way you folded most of the plastic wrap—you want to seal the fish in completely.
11. Put this wrapped package in the glass dish. Put the brick or bag of granite on top of the fish.
12. Put the loaded dish in the refrigerator. You should probably put it in the back of the refrigerator because most of the other people in the household will say, “Ooh, ick, what is that, and why is there a brick in the frig?” or something like that.
13. After 2 days, take the dish out of the refrigerator, remove the brick or granite, and, without unwrapping the package, pour any liquid that has accumulated down the drain. If you drop any of that liquid, clean it up and sponge any liquid that may have dropped on the outside of the glass dish.
14. Turn the salmon package over and replace the brick or granite.
15. Replace the glass dish and its contents back in the refrigerator.
16. On the 4^th day after you have first put the salmon and brick in the refrigerator, remove the glass dish, remove the brick or granite, then unwrap the fish. The plastic wrap will be pretty messy (best to do this over a sink with a garbage can nearby). Then, take the two pieces of salmon (which will have shrunk quite a bit) and, with a damp paper towel, brush off all of the salt, sugar, and dill from both sides of the fish.
17. You should end up with just salmon, no salt or sugar crystals or notable bits of dill on the fish or the skin. You probably won’t get all of the salt or sugar off, but make a good effort at it.
18. Put the salmon skin side down on a cutting board and cut the salmon crossways in slices as thin as you can manage. ⅓of an inch (0.8 cm) is too thick. I try for about ⅙ of an inch (0.4 cm) or less.
19. Serve with small rounds of bread (e.g., sliced baguette) or cracker (preferably one with very little flavor of its own) topped by a little bit of dill, a caper if you like, and crème fraiche or Greek yogurt, or (in the alternative) with a mustard sauce of your choice (but remember that this is a Scandinavian food and most Scandinavians have overpowering aversions to strong flavors). Refrigerate any leftovers; they will keep in the refrigerator for another four or five days; keep them in a plastic or other closed container.

This is much easier than it looks.

Zesty Salad Dressing

From Stanley P. Jaskiewicz

Many holiday food favorites come ready to heat and eat–with plenty of salt to preserve freshness.

As a person living with heart disease, I pay close attention to the cumulative salt level in my diet – which can be challenging since so many packaged foods already have salt in them. 

Fortunately, my wife (with help from the dietitian from the hospital system where I have been treated) has developed excellent recipes for both special and everyday meals. Here is one of my favorites. 

Mix ⅓ cup of red wine vinegar, 1 cup of olive oil, and ¼ tsp of black pepper. 

Shake vigorously, and chill. (Don’t worry if the dressing congeals – remove from the refrigerator about half an hour before serving.)

Toss with fresh salad ingredients. I prefer spinach, sliced Campari or Roma tomatoes, and quartered cucumber, but choose your own preferred greens and salad mixers.

Lemon Pepper Broiled Salmon

From Stanley P. Jaskiewicz

Here is another one of my favorites. We have frozen salmon fillets each week year-round. However, it has also become my preferred alternative meal for special occasions, when we would normally have traditional foods I no longer prefer to eat (such as kielbasa or ham).

Ingredients

• Salmon fillets (however many you want)
• DASH lemon pepper seasoning to taste
• Lemon juice to taste

Directions

1. If salmon is frozen, defrost it first before broiling it.
2. Line a broiler pan with foil and spray with a nonstick coating. (We use a nondairy version.)
3. Preheat broiler.
4. Place salmon on broiler pan, and sprinkle salmon with DASH lemon pepper seasoning, to taste.  
5. When the broiler is ready, insert the pan, uncovered, for 10–12 minutes, depending on thickness.
6. Drizzle with lemon juice before serving. 

Disclaimer: I am neither a doctor nor a dietitian. I have described my own diet, but you should consult with your own medical providers or dietitians for meal planning to suit your own medical needs.

Gingerbread Cookies

From Cathy Stricklin Krendl

NOTE: These cookies are for fun with your grandchildren. They are sufficiently sturdy to handle decorations and not bad to eat.

Ingredients

• 1 stick (½ cup) butter or margarine
• ⅔ cup brown sugar firmly packed
• 1 extra large egg
• ⅓ cup molasses
• 2 ¾ cups unsifted flour (spoon flour into measuring cup)
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugar.
2. Add egg and molasses and mix well.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients.
4. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture and mix well.
5. Refrigerate dough until thoroughly chilled.
6. Using about ⅓of dough at a time, roll out dough about ¼ inch thick on a floured surface.
7. Cut into shapes and, using a spatula, transfer to a greased baking sheet.
8. Bake at 350-375°F for 8 or more minutes, depending on your oven and the thickness of the cookies.
9. Remove straws after baking.

Decorations

• Decorate with Christmas candy before baking and add icing after the cookies are cool.
• (Make your own icing or buy cans of pre-made icing of different colors. Your grandkids will prefer pre-mixed!)
• If you want to use as tree decorations, place short straws at top of cookies before baking.

Surprise Loaf

From Diane Rynerson

(from The Silent Hostess Treasure Book, General Electric 1932. Serves 12 to 14.)

Ingredients

• 1 loaf sandwich bread
• Mayonnaise dressing
• 1 ½ cups chopped raw cabbage
• ½ cup shredded lettuce
• 2 cups of cheese relish
• ½ pound cream cheese
• ½ pound yellow or snappy cheese
• 1 pimiento, chopped
• Salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce to taste
• Parsley and radish roses for garnish

Directions

1. Remove the crust from the bread and slice lengthwise in thirds.
2. Place one slice of bread on a platter and spread with mayonnaise, then with the cabbage, lettuce, and pimiento, which have been mixed with enough mayonnaise dressing to moisten.
3. Cover this with a second slice of bread, which has been spread with mayonnaise. Spread over the cheese relish and cover with the third slice.
4. Mash cream cheese, press yellow cheese through a sieve, or grate it—and mix together with enough thin cream to make a soft spreading consistency.
5. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce.
6. Spread on the outside of the loaf as you would frost a cake.
7. Place it in the refrigerator Cabinet to chill thoroughly.
8. Garnish with parsley and radish roses.
9. Cut in thick slices and serve