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Homemade Cinnamon Sticks

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I am sure by now you can tell that I love tradition and this very special family recipe takes me down memory lane as far back as I can recall. These homemade cinnamon sticks adorned our memories and palettes for years and years growing up and were a quintessential treat that my great grandmother and grandmother would always make us upon visiting. Now that I know the time and energy that went into them, I wonder how they felt when we gorged down the entire pan in less than 10 mintues……now that I think about it, that was probably the BEST complement they received.

The tradition for these cinnamon sticks continued at our house at Easter time. They were perfect Easter morning as they baked and smelled the house of butter, cinnamon, and sugar while we ran around and hunted our Easter eggs and tore into our Easter baskets. You would think the sugar high from all the candy would have sufficed but we all knew our favorite treat was really the cinnamon sticks waiting on the table.

With the cinnamon sticks, mom served up hard-boiled eggs and homemade sausages sent down from the same grandmother who made the cinnamon sticks. They arrived right before Easter and paired a perfect savory sweet combination.

I look back and think about all the hard work, love, time that went in JUST for that Easter meal and treasure every moment and savor every memory. The joy now is the recreation and the honor of a bygone time and a revamp of old traditions. It really is what we have to pass down…….and it makes for the BEST table side conversation.

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Homemade Cinnamon Sticks
 
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This is an OLD family recipe from my Austrian great grandmother. It is a tradition of ours on Easter Sunday and they are SO good!!! I honestly don't know why we make them once a year only but with how many we eat, probably ALL we can afford!
Author:
Recipe type: Breads
Serves: lots!
Ingredients
  • Day before baking make dough:
  • 3½ tsp active dry yeast
  • ½ cup warm water
  • 1 cup scalded milk
  • ¾ cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 cup potatoes, mashed through sieve
  • 2 fresh eggs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 7 cups unbleached white flour
  • For topping:
  • 2 sticks butter
  • cinnamon and sugar mixed, equal parts
Instructions
  1. Dissolve yeast in warm water.
  2. Cool milk to lukewarm and add yeast water.
  3. In a mixer with mixing attachment, cream butter, sugar, mash potatoes, and eggs. Switch to a dough hook.
  4. Add salt and flour together and start with flour and add a little to butter mixture then add a little water. Alternate between flour and water but start and end with flour. As soon as mixture is pulling from side of bowl and wrapping around dough hook.
  5. Grease a large bowl with butter and add dough. Cover with towel and let rise in warm place til double in size. Punch down and cover with plastic wrap and leave overnight. (I leave out but can put in fridge but bring to room temperature)
  6. Morning of baking:
  7. Punch down dough and in a 9x13 pan, start with a little bit of dough and roll into a log shape, about 4 inches long by 1 inch thick. Dip into butter and then roll into sugar/cinnamon mixture and put in pan. Repeat this with all the dough and alternating sides you place them inside pan as you will make 2 rows. As you put them next to each other, just "push" a little against each other to pack in a little bit. Pan won't be totally full which is fine as they will rise again in oven
  8. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put a pan underneath 9x13 as it will spill over with sugar mixture. Bake for 25 minutes and check to see if they are done. They will be soft but easily pull apart.
  9. Serve immediately with butter. Best HOT and out of oven!

 

Torte di Mele (Apple Cake)

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Here we go again, posting more dessert recipes when it is supposed to be “resolution month”! Don’t we ALL say “no more sweets EVER after Christmas, EVER?” Relate? I know, guilty as charged!

I do break code with this recipe because of the simplicity, both in preparation and flavor (and because I honestly can’t resist some sweets in January). I make this torta anytime of the year and feel good about indulging, not heavy on sugar or flour and the texture of the fruit is magnificent.

I know I am prejudice but Italians really are brilliant and I LOVE their choices of desserts, enhancement at the end of a meal NOT complete gluttony. ONE of the many many reasons I am so very proud of my heritage….so tough to be so perfect…LOL

I came up with this yummy dessert after an Italian friend of mine told me about a torte di mele that her mother made back home in Milan. It sounded SO amazing and I knew I could figure a way re-create something close…at least I hoped since I hadn’t actually tasted or seen her version. What did I have to lose? Certainly, my January resolution…..

Whether it was luck or not I’ll never know but what came out of the oven was something close to sugar cookie crust topped with soft, sweet apples…..I then finished it with raw sugar and a little cinnamon. I might have been able to pass it off as breakfast of champions but that might be pushing it. Nonetheless, it was spectacular…..really spectacular.

So, it you didn’t make any resolutions or simply don’t care, make this and then eat it warm with a little vanilla gelato or mascarpone whip cream…you will thank me, I promise.

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Torte di Mele
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 3 Golden Delicious Apples (or pears if you want), peeled and sliced thin
  • 1 lemon, juice only
  • 1 cup of flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 stick of butter, melted
Instructions
  1. Peel and slice apples, put in a bowl and top with lemon juice. Stir and set aside.
  2. In a kitchen aide mixer, mix together flour, baking powder, egg, and melted butter. If it looks too thick, add some milk to thin out. It should resemble a "liquid" cookie dough but spreadable.
  3. Butter a pie or tart dish. Pour in the batter and smooth all over and up the sides. Arrange apples or pears in a spiral shape and keep layering til finished.
  4. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until crust is golden, apples won't change color much.
  5. Remove and sprinkle raw sugar and cinnamon over the top.
  6. Serve with vanilla gelato or mascarpone whip cream!

 

English Plum Pudding with Southern Comfort Bourbon Sauce

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Who knows traditional plum pudding? Unless you have some connection to England either in heritage or destination, it is quite possible this Christmas treat may have passed you up. While it is dense and oooey gooey (and somewhat resembles a fruit cake), I PROMISE if you give it a try with some magical southern comfort bourbon sauce it just might make it into your recipe collection!

For me, this was tradition and as a little girl I wouldn’t confess to liking it but if my mom would have ventured to NOT make it, Christmas wouldn’t have been quite the same. It didn’t come from her heritage but my Dad’s. He grew up on plum pudding and to this day, I really make it not only to keep tradition passed on but also to see the smile on his face and hear the stories of by gone days. After all, this is what it is all about and I really do love it.

When I was young, this dessert was a family affair as it took a couple of days to prepare between macerating the dried fruit and then combining all the ingredients to “meld” together for a day before the “steaming” of the final product. Where we created the family tradition, this is true in England as well, is when my mom combined everything together, we would all take a turn at stirring it together and making a Christmas wish. It was so special and for many years I was sure this “locked in” the assurance that I would receive EVERY present on my list!

So next year or maybe just a snowy winters day, venture out and make this dessert and start a tradition. It’s not hard, just needs some time to rest, a good example for all of us to follow.  Decorate it with the greens of your choice, topping it with the magic of every season.

English Plum Pudding with Southern Comfort Bourbon Sauce
 
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I have to thank my grandmother and mom for this recipe! Although mine has some "additions" the taste is all the same!
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: English
Serves: 20 servings
Ingredients
  • For Plum Pudding:
  • ½ Cup golden raisins
  • ½ Cup Dark raisins
  • ½ Cup Dried plums
  • ½ Cup Dried currants
  • ½ Cup Dried cherries
  • 2 oz Candied orange or candied lemon
  • 4 Tbsp brandy
  • 1½ Cups Ground suet
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • 1 Cup dark molasses
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 Cup Flour
  • 2 tsp Baking powder
  • 1 Cup Breadcrumbs
  • ½ tsp Ground cloves
  • ½ tsp Nutmeg
  • ½ tsp Ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp Allspice
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1 Raw apple, diced
  • 1 Cup sliced almonds
  • orange, zested
  • lemon, zested
  • 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
  • 1 Cup Milk
  • For Bourbon Sauce:
  • 1 Stick butter
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • ⅓ cup southern comfort
  • 4 Tbsp Heavy cream
Instructions
  1. Two days before steaming pudding: Take all dried fruit (raisins, plums, currants, cherries, and candied orange or lemon) and put in a bowl. Pour brandy over and mix. Cover with Saran Wrap and let macerate
  2. Day before steaming pudding: Sift four and baking powder In a large mixing bowl, add suet, sifted flour, breadcrumbs, spices, salt, and sugar. Mix thoroughly.
  3. Then add macerated dried fruit, nuts, apple, and grated orange and lemon zest. Mix well.
  4. Lastly, add molasses, eggs, and milk and mix well. Cover with Saran Wrap and put in fridge
  5. Day of steaming Take a tin pudding basin and lightly grease. Pour in mixture and spread evenly, it will be very thick.
  6. On the stove, get a stock pot which holds the tin and fill with water and put in tin. Water should come up the sides but not as high as the lid, about ¾ of the way.
  7. Get water boiling and turn down to light boil and cover with lid. Steam for 5½ hours or until done. Refill water to keep it at ¾ full.
  8. Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes
  9. Get a serving plate and take off lid from tin and invert onto plate. Pudding should remove easily
  10. Southern comfort bourbon sauce: In saucepan over medium heat, add sugar and butter until melted and combined. Stir in whip cream and stir. Add southern comfort and stir, cook for a few minutes to cook off alcohol. Add more whip cream, if needed.
  11. Decorate with fresh holly. Slice and serve with southern comfort bourbon sauce.

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Hazelnut Cake with Pear and Ricotta

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It was a rainy Saturday and I wasn’t in the mood to clean, (who ever is?) and so often my solution is to dream up a new recipe and whisk myself away in creativity for a few hours, it definitely helps my soul and eases my guilty conscious.

On this particular day, I decided try my hand at a gluten-free dessert. There is only one problem, I LOVE cake and normally cake needs that one minor ingredient, flour and that one minor ingredient isn’t gluten-free….at least the cakes I love. Dang, maybe my dessert with be glutton-free instead since I don’t feel guilty about being a glutton……now that could be a new trend, GLUTTON-FREE DESSERTS! Brilliant!

Okay, back on focus…..so time to think of some other type of flour.  I thought about all the various kinds of nuts I love, which is all of them, but I particularly love hazelnuts, I mean I LOVE them so I decided to grind up hazelnuts for my “cake flour”. If your not as obsessed with hazelnuts, this cake would be equally amazing with ground up almonds or cashews, just fire up your imagination.

Now that I figured my cake out, I wanted to make a “filling” that would mimic something between semifreddo and gelato, how can you go wrong with that desire? I make a delicious homemade ricotta and since pears were in season  I decided to combine pears, homemade ricotta cheese, whip cream, pear brandy, and sugar together and created a creamy filling that should have been illegal! It ROCKED! Seriously, it was a miracle of flavors.

The last step that needed to happen was to take the two cake layers, gob this yummy creamy filling in between, stick it in the freezer, and cross my fingers that it “sets up”. If this worked, I was sure to eat the whole thing.

I’m not sure if that was a blessing or a curse as I really didn’t need to promise myself an entire dessert, after all I was blowing off cleaning, probably shouldn’t reward that or should I? Anyway, it worked and it worked beautifully! Good thing the bet was to myself and not someone else who would love to see me eat a whole cake into oblivion…..

So here’s a New Years cheer to indulgence, days without cleaning, and glutton-free desserts….

Hazelnut Ricotta Pear Cake
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • For the cake:
  • 2 Cups whole hazelnuts, finely ground
  • 6 Large eggs
  • ⅔ Cup sugar
  • 7 Tbsp butter, melted
  • For the pears:
  • 2 Bartlett or William pears, peeled, cored, and diced or thinly sliced
  • ½ Cup sugar
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 Tbsp pear brandy
  • For the syrup:
  • ⅓ Cup sugar
  • 3 Tbsp pear brandy
  • For the filling:
  • 17 oz ricotta cheese, preferably homemade
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • For the ricotta cheese:
  • 6 cups organic whole milk
  • 2 cups organic heavy cream
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 T organic white wine vinegar
  • For cranberries:
  • 1 bag cranberries
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
Instructions
  1. Make the ricotta: In a saucepan on stove over medium heat, put in the milk, cream, salt, and vinegar. Bring to a medium heat and boil where it starts to separate. Put in a mesh colander over a bowl until liquid is drained
  2. Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter two 9 ½ -inch springform pans.
  3. Grind the hazelnuts in a mini food processor until very fine.
  4. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the eggs and sugar and beat on high speed for 15 minutes, until the mixture has quadrupled in volume. Gently fold in the hazelnuts and flour with a spatula until just combined. Then add in the butter. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until firm to the touch. Set aside.
  5. Make the pears: In a small saucepan combine the pears, sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch and simmer over medium-low heat until the pears are soft. Remove from the heat, stir in the brandy, and let cool to room temperature. Set aside.
  6. Make the syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and ½ cup water and bring to a boil. Stir in brandy.
  7. Make the filling: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the ricotta, sugar, and vanilla for at least 5 minutes, until creamy.
  8. Meanwhile, beat the cream until firm peaks form. Using a spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the ricotta mixture. Fold in the cooled pear mixture.
  9. Assemble the dessert: Remove one of the cake layers from the pan and place on a serving platter large enough to hold the outer ring of the springform pan. Brush the cake with one-half of the syrup to moisten it. Pile the filling in the center of the cake and put the springform ring back over the cake.
  10. Gently spread the filling to the edges and then top with the second layer of cake. Brush the remaining syrup over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer until set, about 2 hours. Remove the springform ring and refrigerate until ready to serve.
  11. For cranberry decorations:
  12. On stovetop in a saucepan, put sugar and water and heat until sugar is dissolved. Pull off and let rest 10 minutes. Put cranberries in a bowl and pour sugar/water mixture over the top. Cover and put in fridge for 2 hours. When ready to decorate, take cranberries out of mixture and roll in sugar to coat. This may take a few times and then let dry on a tray lined with parchment paper.

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