Kitchen Mailbox: Holiday recipes from readers
Share with others:
Finished with your Christmas baking? Hopefully not, because today's Kitchen Mailbox is featuring a tasty selection of holiday goodies from our readers. Starting with Coconut Cranberry Delights from George Dolan of Bethel Park: "My brother Jack started the Party Cake Shop in Brookline in 1961. I worked alongside him mostly as a cake decorator. He retired in 2001. I took over and we opened our second location at 297 Beverly Road in Mt. Lebanon."
These cookies are so good that my husband and I were grabbing them off the cooling rack!
The next recipe, Large Date Cake, began as request for a lost recipe that the reader later found, but it's one we're sure you'll like. Here's how Gloria R. Natale of Irwin described her lost recipe: "It starts out with at least a cup each of dates, raisins and walnuts in a large bowl ... then pour boiling water over them and set aside until cool. The walnut mixture is mixed with a batter then baked. It is served topped with whipped cream cheese and warm lemon sauce."
Former Pittsburgher Barbara Mann of Punta Gorda, Fla., writes: "This spring I lost my dear mother. The holidays this year are going to be tough. One of the best things my mom baked were her 'Hunky Cookies.' My son asked me for the recipe and I could not find it. I would love some help finding this cookie recipe that I know many Pittsburghers still make. My mom usually made with apricot and nuts, but I remember as a little girl my grandma sending me to the store for a jar of apricot and this black stuff in a jar. I think it was prunes ... gross!
"I would so appreciate your help. Thank you and have a blessed Christmas. Love to Pittsburgh!"
COCONUT CRANBERRY DELIGHTS
PG tested
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cup butter (3 sticks), room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Mix together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. On medium speed cream butter, sugar, vanilla and orange zest. Scrape down the bowl. Add the egg. Scrape bowl again. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix 3 to 5 minutes on low speed. Add coconut and cranberries and mix just until incorporated. Form cookies into 1-inch balls and bake 350 degrees for about 16 minutes or less for chewier cookies.
Makes about 51/2 dozen cookies.
-- George Dolan
LARGE DATE CAKE WITH LEMON SAUCE
PG tested
Gloria Natale notes, "You may purchase whipped cream cheese. When I got this recipe in the late 1950s you had to make your own."
- 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
- 1 cup chopped dates
- 1 cup raisins
- 2 cups boiling water
- 3 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup shortening (or butter)
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
- 1 tablespoon or more confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- About 3 tablespoons milk
Grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place walnuts, dates and raisins in large bowl. Pour boiling water over mixture. Set aside to cool. Do not drain water from fruit mixture.
Mix together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
Cream together shortening (or butter) and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Mix in vanilla. Add cooled fruit mixture. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture. Pour batter in the prepared pan.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until it tested done.
Prepare whipped cream cheese by beating together cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk.
For the Lemon Sauce
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cups boiling water
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice (about 2 lemons
- 2 tablespoons butter
Mix sugar with cornstarch and salt and add mixture to 2 cups boiling water. Cook, stirring constantly until thick. Remove from heat; add lemon zest and juice and butter and mix until smooth.
To serve: Cut cake into serving-size pieces, add a dollop of whipped cream cheese, followed by the lemon sauce.
-- Gloria Natale
This recipe for Gary Nelson's Nut Rolls was sent by Carole Tucker of South Fayette: "Reading Franklin Spaniol's request for Gary Nelson's Nut Rolls in the Post-Gazette, I knew I had the recipe in my files. However, I dreaded looking through my 200-plus cookie recipes trying to find it. Amazingly, it was the first recipe I spotted when I began my search. I have copied it exactly as printed in the paper. The notes in parentheses are the Post-Gazette's, not mine."
GARY NELSON'S NUT ROLLS
- 2-ounce cake yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 pound (4 sticks) butter or margarine
- 6 eggs, slightly beaten
- 2 1/2 cups of milk scalded
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt (optional)
- 10 to 12 cups pre-sifted flour (start with 10 and add until dough is not sticky)
-
For the filling
- 4 to 5 cups ground walnuts
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 16-ounce jar honey
- 2 cups milk, scalded
- 2 egg yolks, thinned with a little water
Dissolve yeast and sugar in water.
Wait until dissolved and yeast has activated. (Our cake yeast was dead as a door nail). We switched to 2 tablespoons of dry yeast, which bubbled and had a nice yeasty smell. (Something the original did not.)
Melt butter, cool to lukewarm.
Beat eggs slightly. Nuke milk until lukewarm, then add vanilla.
Place 10 cups of flour in large bowl and add all other ingredients, mix with wooden spoon. (We did this in an electric mixer with a dough hook.) If dough seems to moist, add more flour until it gets soft and not sticky. ( We used about 121/2 cups all together).
Place on floured board and knead until dough is soft, about 10 minutes. (Make 6 balls).
Mix all ingredients together until smooth paste forms. (Because we wanted some texture in the filling, we processed the walnuts leaving a few small chunks, rather than until smooth. If you do this, you might start with 11/2 cups milk, adding more if needed for a spreadable consistency. We used 2 cups, and our filling was quite soupy, so we had leakage problems.)
Roll each ball on floured board until thick (approximately 12-by-15 inches). Add about 11/2 cups filling and spread filling to the edges. Roll jelly-roll fashion and place seam side down on a greased cookies sheet (2 per sheet), or cover the sheet with aluminum foil (we used parchment paper, which required no greasing). Fold a flap over the open end to contain the filling while baking. Cover with a towel and let rise 2 hours.
Brush rolls with yolk-water mixture (for glaze), and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned, in a 325 degrees preheated oven. (Ours took a bit longer to become golden brown.)
Makes 6 nut rolls.
Correction/Clarification: (Published December 21, 2011) A recipe for Large Date Cake with Lemon Sauce in the Dec. 15 Kitchen Mailbox was missing some ingredients and has been corrected online at post-gazette.com/food.
First Published December 20, 2011 12:00 am
