Recipes from Cooking with Doyle Moore on Focus 580

December 5, 2007:  Holiday Dishes

We’re in a holiday period now, and holidays are associated with treats.  A lot of people have some items that they only make at this time of year. 

CROCKPOT CAKE

A caller reported that she had made the “dump and run” crockpot cake from the TV show, but she modified it.  She used home canned apples (1/2 quart) instead of pears.  Adding applesauce, carrots or sauerkraut to a cake adds moisture and texture rather than specific taste.  And she used chocolate (devil’s food) to enhance the cherries (cherry pie filling) and almonds.  To cut the sweetness, she served it with plain yogurt.  

On the TV show, the woman who brought the recipe showed how to put a paper towel at the top of the layers before putting the lid on the crock pot, to prevent the condensation from dripping back down onto the cake as it cooks.

A caller from Indiana asked about crockpot cakes, and from his memory Doyle provided this recipe:

• 1 box of moist cake mix (Duncan Hines extra-moist chocolate cake mix works well)

• 1 package of jello non-fat non-sweetened instant chocolate pudding (adds bulk)

• 1 cup water

• ¾ cup vegetable oil

• 2 grated apples

• 4 eggs (beat in one at a time)

Mix that all together, then toss in

• 1 cup dried cherries

• 1 cup chocolate chips

• 1 cup sour cream

• ¼ cup bourbon

Mix thoroughly so well combined.  Put in crock pot that you have sprayed Pam in.  Bake at low temperature for 6 hours.

Other crockpot cake recipes can be found at http://www.recipegoldmine.com/crockpotcake/crockcake.html

MAILANDERLI

In the caller’s family, they have a traditional Swiss Christmas cookie made of just butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.  It is a sort of hard butter cookie, and they would hang them on the tree.  It’s called mailanderli.  This recipe comes from her Swiss-born mother:

• 6 oz. soft butter

• 2½ cups sugar

• 4 eggs

• ~3 ½ cups (unsifted) flour

Cream the butter; add the sugar; beat.  Add eggs and beat until fluffy, then add flour slowly.  Finish by mixing the last of the flour by hand.  If needed, add more flour and knead until the dough can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin.  Roll out to ⅛-  to ¼-inch thickness in small batches, and cut with cookie cutters.  Brush cookies on the baking sheet with beaten egg, and bake around 10 minutes in a slow oven (300°).  Cookies will be golden yellow and stiff.  They make great tree decorations too.  When they had the mailanderli made, then Christmas could come! 

MONSTER COOKIES

A caller from Champaign makes “monster” cookies at Christmas time as gifts for teachers.  This huge recipe makes 5 dozen giant cookies.

• 1 dozen eggs

• 4 cups granulated sugar

• 2 lbs. brown sugar

• 1 lb. butter

• 3 lbs. peanut butter

• 8 tsps. baking soda

• 1 Tbsp. corn syrup

• 1 Tbsp. vanilla

Mix these ingredients in the order given in a heavy duty stand mixer.  Separately, mix:

• 18 cups quick oatmeal

• 1 lb. M&Ms

• 1 lb. chocolate chips

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.  Drop about 1/3 cup dough from an ice cream scoop onto the cookie sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes at 350°. 

The caller likes to eat them for breakfast; they have peanut butter and oatmeal so they’re good for you.  They are also good for people who have celiac disease, because there is no flour.  If you microwave the cookies for a few seconds before serving, that makes them nice and squishy.

FRICO – PARMESAN, BASIL, AND LEMON WAFERS

Doyle got this recipe for something savory to go with champagne from Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network.  Little crackers made out of parmesan cheese, so simple. 

• 1 cup shredded (not grated) parmesan cheese

• 2 Tbsps shredded basil leaves

• ½ Tbsp grated lemon zest

Mix the ingredients; note that there is no liquid to hold together.  Place by tablespoons onto a silicon pad and bake at 400° for 3-5 minutes.  They spread out and become very lacy and brown and crisp.

A caller from Champaign reported that she makes similar Parmesan crisps.  She found a recipe on a food blog out of Chicago.  This was simply the cheese only.  She used a microplane zester to produce filaments of cheese that worked really well.  She packed it into a little tablespoon measure and dropped it onto parchment paper.  Cook them about 5 minutes.  They come out crunchy and perfect with champagne.

Many variations on this idea are possible: you can try a different cheese, such as Asiago.  You could add other herbs, such as rosemary, or cumin.  You could top them with chopped nuts. 

NAPOLEONAS

A caller from Urbana used to go to a  Lithuanian bakery in Omaha that made an out-of-this-world Napoleon torte.  It had many, many layers with a vanilla butter cream almost like a pudding, and a hint of apricots; the wafers are not dry, but they’re not cakey either.  Does anyone have a recipe? 

Another caller from Urbana supplied this recipe, that probably takes two days to make:

Day 1:

Cut 1 lb butter into 4 cups of flour.

Stir in 1 pint of sour cream and 1 egg.

Chill the dough for a few hours in the refrigerator or one hour in the freezer, then roll out as thin as you possible can.  Cut dinner-plate sized wafers out of the rolled dough.  This should make 15-20 wafers.

Bake the wafers at 350° for 4-5 minutes (you can get 2 on a cookie sheet).

If they break, that’s okay; if they crumble to pieces, save the pieces and use it for the topping.

Day 2:

• 2 packages of vanilla pudding (2-cups of milk size), not instant

• ½ - ¾ of the milk called for on the packages

• powdered sugar to taste

• 4 egg yolks

• 2 tsps vanilla extract or rum

• Juice of one lemon

• ½ pound butter (soft)

• Some tangy preserves (apricot or lingonberry)

Cream the butter.  Make the pudding and cool it.  Add eggs yolks to pudding.  Slowly add the pudding mixture to the creamed butter.  Add the sugar, vanilla or rum, and lemon juice.

On a flat cake plate, place one wafer.  Spread about 1 Tbsp. of creamed

filling to the edges.  Put another wafer on top.  Don’t worry if they become warped.  Take something flat like a piece of corrugated cardboard or a cookie sheet and press down evenly on the second wafer to rid the torte of air pockets.  Don’t worry if the wafers crack.  Spread the cream filling on the wafer, add another wafer, and press down.  Continue until the torte is done.  Every third or fourth layer, spread the preserve instead of the butter cream.  Save the last wafer and smash it (if none of your wafers crumbled while baking; otherwise use the crumbled one(s)).  Looking down on the torte from above, cut off any irregularities on the wafer edges, and add the cuttings to your collection of wafer crumbs.  Use the remaining butter cream to frost the top and sides of the torte, using extra cream to fill any cavities and to make the shape the conventional.  Sprinkle the top and sides of the torte with the wafer crumbs.  Refrigerate! 

This recipe comes from the late Silvija Sparkis.

AMUSES BOUCHE

Another “champagne” treat from Doyle:

Take sheets of phyllo dough, about 6 inches square.  Butter each sheet and lay it down.

Put a tiny bit of cream cheese and a walnut half in the center of each square, pour honey over that, and fold up the square into some sort of packet or purse.  Spread some butter on top and bake a short while. 

So ancient Roman!

A caller from Vermilion County sought suggestions for similar treats to have with champagne, but not quite so high in fat?  Doyle suggests vegetable purées, perhaps  puréed parsnips would make a good dip.  Or you could use green peas and green beans, fresh or frozen, and chop them up in a vegetarian broth to make a purée.

A caller recommended a delicious pumpkin dip that was served at a reception at the Anita Purves Nature Center.  She didn’t know the exact proportions of the ingredients, but it consisted of puréed  pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and cream cheese (you could use the low fat kind).  It was wonderful with apple wedges.  Here a web recipe:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Dip/Detail.aspx