Adventures in the Kitchen

holubschi and zwiebach

Last week i made a traditional menonite supper for a group of young adults at our church who are holding a worship service.  Mom and I made the Holubschi and I made the zwiebach that sunday afternoon.  We got the recipes from the blog mennonite girls can cook. http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/  The only problem that we had was that we froze the cabbage first in hopes that the leaves would soften up when defrosted instead of boiling the cabbage leaves.  Our first cabbage was kind of a disaster.  The middle was still kinda frozen and the outer leaves were only wilted on the very tips.  We soon put a pot on the stove to boil.  I am afraid that I did not take pictures of the proces.  Here is the recipe that we used http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/2008/06/holubschi-cabbage-rolls.html 

The zwiebach turned out better than i remember them.  I had difficulty at first with keeping the buns smooth and small but mom came in and saved the day!  To make them smooth and small you first have to put a wad of dough in your hand about the size of a baseball, then you tuck your indext finger under your thumb and sqeeze the dough through with the rest of your fingers.  Just tighten your index finger to seperate the ball.  Tada, a perfect Zweibach.

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1 Tablespoon yeast In1/2 cup of warm waterWith1 teaspoon sugarLet the yeast sit for about 10 minutes or until it has poofed.
Warm 1 1/2 cups of milk for 1 minute in the microwave or on top of the stove to just room temputure.In another bowl measure 4 1/2 cups of all purpose flour1 1/2 teaspoons saltNow…take 2 cups of the flour and put it in another medium sized bowlAdd into this 1/2 cup of room temperature butter.
Cut the butter into the flour as you would a pie crust.

Stir the milk into the yeast.
Stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil.

Stir the flour and butter mixture into the yeast, milk and oil.

Stir this well with a wooden spoon.
Add 1 more cup of flour.
You now should be left with 1 1/2 cups of flour.
Stir in another cup and stir until you can’t stir it anymore.

Put some of the remaining flour onto your counter and dump the dough on top.

If you have a bench scraper, it is great for scraping off the bits of dough while kneading.


Continue to knead and add 1 tablespoon of flour to the counter as you need it.
It will be sticky but go easy on the flour.

Total kneading time will be about 10 minutes.
This small recipe should be easier to handle than a large one.
This recipe makes about 2 dozen

You will end up with a nice soft dough.

Put the dough into a greased bowl and cover.

Let it sit in a warm place until it has doubled. .
about 1 hour.

Now .. .put parchment paper on 2 cookie sheets.Have a little soft butter handy to keep your hands from becoming sticky.Take a handful of dough and pinch off small buns. . about the size of a walnut.This takes practice and if they don’t look great. . never mind. . it won’t affect the taste.
Now .. .pinch off a slighter smaller bun and put it on top of the first bun.


With your fingers which have a bit of butter on them .. .push down through both buns all the way to the pan.


If you don’t press all the way down the buns will likely topple during baking.Cover them with a light tea towel. Preheat your oven to 400 Fahrenheit.If you have convection .. preheat to 375.

Bake the buns until they are golden brown.about 15 minutes at 375 F

Lentil Soup

During the time that mom was sick i tried my hand in the kitchen more to the taste of soups.  This is my try at lentil soup. 

Moms Recipe for lentil soup:

1 hambone

1 1/2 cups lentils

2 stalks celery       chop fine

1 carrot               chop coarse

1 1g onion            chop

spices:

1/8 tsp cloves

1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp parsley

1 bay leaf

1 clove garlic

pinch thyme

1/2 tsp salt

Cook Bone in 8c cold water for 3 hours.  During cooking time you will need to add more water.   add veg and spices and cook for 1 1/2 hours.  

Tagged: souplentil soup

Salt Water Taffy

Me and Luke made salt water taffy for our church’s youth christmas party, we made two batches.  One vanilla and the other one peppermint.  The peppermint turned out better becuase we pulled the taffy alittle while longer and it made the difference.

Salt Water Taffy Recipe

2 cups sugar

2 tbs cornstarch

1-cup corn syrup

2 tsp glycerine (optional)

¾ cup water

2 tbs butter

1 tsp salt

1 tsp flavouring (vanilla, lemon, maple, mint etc)

3 drops of food coloring (optional)

Mix together cornstarch and sugar in the saucepan.  Use wooden spoon to stir in the corn syrup. Glycerine, water, butter, and salt.  Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir until eh sugar dissolves.  Continue stirring until mixture begins to boil, then let cook, undisturbed, until it reaches about 270 F or the soft crack stage.  Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in warm water while the syrup cooks.   Remove saucepan from the heat and add food colouring and flavouring.  Stir gently, and then pour onto a greased marble slab or into a shallow greased cookie sheet to cool.  Never use waxed paper as it does stick!  When the taffy is cool enough o handle, grease your hands with oil or butter and pull the taffy until it’s light in color and has a satiny gloss.  You can have friend help with this step, which would take about 10 minutes.   Roll the pulled taffy into a long rope, about ½ inch in diameter, and cut it with greased scissors or butter knives into 1-inch long pieces. Let the pieces sit for about half an hour before wrapping them in wax paper or plastic wrap and twisting the ends of the wrapper.