(Sufganiyot for sale in Israel)
A desperate plea has gone out for a recipe thread. Or a pet thread. I’ve decided not to combine them – not to look down on anyone’s traditional/cultural culinary delights. And since I didn’t bother to do any photo documentation of the meatballs and red sauce I made earlier today, I thought I’d share this NY Times recipe for sufganiyot (h/t: The Vicious Babushka at LGF – and today is, apparently, her birthday so all you folks that don’t comment there, click across and wish her a happy birthday just because!). Sufganiyot are served in Israel as part of Hanukah celebrations as opposed to potato latkes (potato pancakes), which are the Hanukah treat of choice here in the US.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
- ¼ cup lukewarm milk or water
- 1 teaspoon dry yeast
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 3 tablespoons sour cream or vegetable oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Freshly grated zest of 1/2 orange
- 1 ⅔ cups flour, more as needed
- ½ cup thick raspberry or strawberry jam (Adam baking comment: you can also use chocolate mousse, boston cream, pastry cream, or anything else you want inside your sufganiyot)
- Vegetable oil for deep-frying
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
- Nutritional Information
- Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings) 162 calories; 8 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 29 milligrams cholesterol; 57 milligrams sodium
- Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. Powered by Edamam
Preparation
- Place milk or water in small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar over milk. Set aside until frothy, about 10 minutes.
- In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat remaining sugar with egg and egg yolk. Add sour cream, salt, vanilla extract, orange zest and yeast mixture, and mix well. With mixer running, gradually add flour. Mix until dough is soft, smooth and elastic, adding flour if dough seems very sticky, 3 to 5 minutes. Do not add more than an additional 3 tablespoons flour; dough will be somewhat sticky, but will firm up in refrigerator. Place in an oiled bowl, cover, and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
- On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Use a biscuit or a cookie cutter to cut out 2-inch rounds, placing them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Reroll scraps and cut again. Let rise in a warm place 30 minutes.
- In a heavy pot, heat 3 inches of oil to 365 degrees; when hot enough, a small piece of dough will brown on bottom in 30 seconds. If too hot, doughnuts will brown outside before cooking through. Working in batches, fry doughnuts until golden brown, turning once. Drain on paper towels and dust with sugar while still warm. Let oil come back to 365 degrees between batches.
- If you have a pastry bag, fit with a small round tip and spoon jam into bag. When doughnuts are cool enough to handle, use tip of bag (or pointed tip of a serrated knife) to make a hole in bottom of doughnut. Squeeze or use a small spoon to nudge 1/2 teaspoon jam into hole. Repeat with remaining doughnuts and serve immediately. Dust again with powdered sugar.
Elizabelle
Thank you! Minty.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: You’re welcome. Please don’t call me Minty.
Elizabelle
Nutella.
ETA: funny. As a filling. Not a pet name.
You will always be “Ganache” to me.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Would Shirley be OK then?
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: That would work as a filling, but it won’t work as a replacement for calling me Minty.
jeffreyw
The traditional Bean burrito with nacho chips and a lovely bean dip with more beans.
Adam L Silverman
@BillinGlendaleCA: No, that was my aunt’s name. So it would get confusing. Also, and unfortunately, she was nuts.
Elizabelle
@jeffreyw: Gorgeous. But I liked Gabe on the couch. Beautiful pet portrait.
Adam L Silverman
@jeffreyw: Do you have a non-traditional bean burrito? Perhaps a neo-Cubist bean burrito or a post-modern bean burrito?
Elmo
@Adam L Silverman: Mint filling? Here, suck on this toothpaste tube instead.
The Lodger
@BillinGlendaleCA: Shirley as a filling? Ew.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman:
Surely you jest.
Elizabelle
SO: Raleigh News & Observer readers detest Franklin Graham. He gets dissed a lot in the comments.
Franklin been tweeting. Twere not the Russians intervening in the election. It was God.
Poor North Carolina.
Adam L Silverman
@Elmo: I did not recommend mint filling. A mint, chocolate mousse would work. But only if you like mint and chocolate together. Though, I suppose, one could do a more Christmasy peppermint stick cream filling.
Adam L Silverman
@BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t jest. And don’t call me Shirley!
Patricia Kayden
And for the pet lovers.
Roger Moore
@Adam L Silverman:
What kind of nuts? Was she a nut only by the culinary definition, or also by the botanical definition?
Curtis
@Adam L Silverman: are you this Minty?
jeffreyw
This just in: We can now confirm that this is a boy kitteh, named Ollie.
Now, back to your boring food thread sans enough kittehs to be morally meaningful.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
Cigarette?
Yes, I know.
Adam L Silverman
@Roger Moore: Unfortunately, neither.
Eljai
@Elmo: One year my sister made mint brownies with light green frosting for the holidays and I renamed them crest brownies because I was kind of obnoxious, but so were the brownies.
jeffreyw
@Adam L Silverman: I have a non traditional bean burrito that uses pork and cheeses in lieu of beans. It is sauced with a honey chocolate mole.
JPL
Michelle Obama’s interview with Oprah is on CBS at 8.
Schlemazel
@Adam L Silverman:
Surely you jest
edit: craaaaap, bill got there before me!
Elizabelle
@JPL: Thank you for the head’s up. I will watch it.
She’s right about the “no hope” part.
jeffreyw
@Elizabelle:
This one?
cynthia ackerman
@jeffreyw:
Pork burritos for Hannukah.
You’re nuts, Adam, but greatly appreciated.
Best to you.
Major Major Major Major
I love how this post is tagged ‘sufganiyot’.
Schlemazel
@SiubhanDuinne:
The Hospital! What is it doctor?
Schlemazel
@cynthia ackerman:
If you are going with the pork don’t forget the sour cream . . . as long as you keep them on separate plates.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I doubt even his dad liked him.
Jay Noble
Sideways here – I think I may have a way to Resist and Preserve at the same time.
Head over to the NOAA site and download or buy a CD/ROM or DVD of your local weather history. I get lost and haven’t been able to find it again but at one time they had my local DAILY National Weather Service station (airport) history all the way back to 1949. Temps, Precip, wind, etc. There are tons of data available and that’s the point. An awful lot of our climate info isn’t reliant on satellites but one of Trump’s minions might actuall get a clue and go after it. Should worse come to worst . . . Hopefully it’s a gift to the future that never needs to be used.
Heck, even archiving digital versions of local papers can help in this aspect.
Elizabelle
@debbie: His mother definitely had some issues with young Franklin.
Billy is still alive. 98. Probably wishing he’d given the ministry to the girls.
Elizabelle
@jeffreyw: That very one.
Museum quality. Love it.
A photo? How?
Adam L Silverman
@Curtis: No.
Adam L Silverman
@jeffreyw: wouldn’t that just be a pork and cheese burrito?
Schlemazel
@Elizabelle:
actually for the last 10 years or so I believe what he really wanted was banana mambo slide wiggle room top knot
Adam L Silverman
@cynthia ackerman: Thanks, I think…
lamh36
OT…
Newsflash: FLOTUS Michelle Obama (and a surprise PBO) and her LAST interview as First Lady is speaking with Oprah (of course) now on CBS!!
Elizabelle
@debbie: You remind me: I saw a great article today about actual faith in action.
In Spain. A priest in Madrid who (among other things) runs four Robin Hood cafes that serve dinner to homeless people, in a restaurant setting, after opening to paying customers for breakfast and lunch.
I think Father Angel and Pope Francis would get along just fine. And they’d see Franklin Graham for what he is.
Oprah and Michelle up now. CBS.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@jeffreyw:
Linky no work. You fix.
Elizabelle
@Schlemazel: Not sure what that means, but Chuck Berry could make a song out of that.
And thank dog Chuck is still with us. This effing year.
Michelle is gorgeous.
jeffreyw
@Elizabelle: Using this app.
JPL
Trump will be tweeting tonight. Michelle is discussing Trump and sexual abuse.
jeffreyw
@Adam L Silverman: Yes! It’s a non traditional bean burrito. Word have meaning!
Hal
I’m probably late to the party on this, but Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Daily Show pretty much sums up what gets me so enraged about Trump being President after Obama.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Thank you. Nice to read that story on a day like this.
Elizabelle
Calling out Trump for his vulgarity and assaults.
And then he got elected. By the Electoral College.
Dog bless all of us good ones that did not deserve this.
Michelle is talking about “words matter.”
Elizabelle
And she says right out: it wasn’t done for my husband when he took office.
People did not support his presidency. Not good for the country. It was good for (their) politics ….
Patricia Kayden
Not agreeing with FLOTUS’ promise to help Trump succeed.
Patricia Kayden
FLOTUS is too polite. Love her anyways.
jeffreyw
@Steeplejack (tablet): Works for me. here it is bare: http://i.imgur.com/9PIzoQZ.jpg
lollipopguild
@efgoldman: Mint Chocolate chip bourbon brownies.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: I liked ksmiami’s revision on an earlier thread.
They go low, we kick them in their faces. Don’t normalize Trump.
Plus, it’s hilarious to hear about the Michelle to Melania transition, when it sounds like the third Mrs. Trump will not be moving to the White House for a long time. If ever.
lamh36
@JPL:
Let me tell ya…ya’ll can come for PBO…fine…but
DON’T COME FOR MICHELLE LAVAUGHN ROBINSON OBAMA!!!!
Steeplejack (tablet)
@jeffreyw:
Works now. Wasn’t working before for quite a while. Message was “This page is not working” rather than “Page not found,” etc. Sounded like a message specific to the site.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Why are you repeating yourself like that?
Elizabelle
Thank you Oprah. Discussing the financial crisis:
“Most people don’t remember, and a lot of people choose to forget.”
It is a choice. People who did not vote for Hillary this year voted on fake news and fake history. When they weren’t just voting out of selfishness and spite.
Shame on them.
Patricia Kayden
Lol!!! Kick them in the face, rhetorically speaking, of course.
LAO
@efgoldman: I stand with EFG, I love a good donut but latkes are the best.
Patricia Kayden
Love the highlighting of diversity in our current White House. We won’t see that for the next four years.
SiubhanDuinne
@lollipopguild:
! ! !
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: @efgoldman: That recipe is coming later this week.
JPL
Michelle is a remarkable woman. Ivanka is going to have trouble filling her shoes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
applies even more, I think, to the Iraq war. Some precious flower in WA, a Dem/Clinton elector, couldn’t bring its precious self to vote for the warmongering email deleter, and cast its precious vote for… Colin Powell.
Beam me up, as the man with what is now the second worse coiffure in US politics used to say.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
Yeah, don’t even THINK it!!
Woman throws best shade in the history of the world. And if her girls are as smart as I think they are, Malia and Sasha are gonna be side-eyein’ a whole new generation.
Love that family so much. I wish them every happiness, forever.
lamh36
So many adults want childish reactions to everything…
Roger Moore
@Patricia Kayden:
I don’t know. I think we’re going to see a lot more diversity in terms of mental health than we saw during the Obama years. Obama had a boringly sane group for his cabinet, while Trump is going to go for all of DSM V. That’s some real diversity for you!
Elizabelle
Apropos of nothing: did I tell you all that I saw Marvel’s Dr. Strange and absolutely loved it?
Not usually my type of movie, but it was a favorite this year. A bit much fighting, but very good story and casting, and costumes and just everything.
Patricia Kayden
Now I have to hunt down that Coates’ article about Mrs. Obama. Dang it!!
Patricia Kayden
@Roger Moore: That’s too much diversity for me.
Elizabelle
@Roger Moore: Truly. We will have our DSM V categories out.
Which borderline personality disorder is that?
Fun times ahead.
Oprah show: Michelle as angry black woman. Really?
Patricia Kayden
Tearing up at the photos of the Obama girls. They’ve grown up so beautifully.
lamh36
@Elizabelle: dang…I still haven’t seen it…I need to though…
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: Not according to the National Enquirer. Malia is in rehab. The young lady you saw getting off the plane in Hawaii must have been a body double.
Elizabelle
@lamh36: You will like it. Promise!
lamh36
chopper
my latkes are insanely good. this year tho I’m really goin all nuts in the frying. whatever, I’m a deep fry it.
GregB
@Elizabelle:
I Liked Dr. Strange alot.
lamh36
Vicious Babushka
Thanks for sharing this thread! These doughnuts are insanely good, I took them to work and there are none left! I made 2 kinds using this basic dough: raspberry filling with powdered sugar topping, and custard filling with chocolate glaze topping.
Elizabelle
Ad for Hidden Figures!
Can’t wait to see that movie. Wish John Glenn had lived to see it, but he had a good ride.
Elizabelle
@lamh36: I know. Think I might have to watch it again.
@efgoldman: Probably true, that. Cannibals!
lamh36
@Elizabelle: I’m really looking forward to Hidden Figures guys…I hope EVERYONE, but especially POC go to see it on Christmas Day.
I think Hidden Figures more so than Fences…needs the heft of a big box office. Fences has Denzel…win or lose it will do alright.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Its in there!
Schlemazel
@Patricia Kayden:
Typical liberal! YOU’RE the ones who discriminate!!
Patricia Kayden
Don’t blame FLOTUS for not wanting to run for office. She has done enough.
lamh36
love it…”I’m NOT coy…I’m pretty direct…I’m not interested in playing games…”
#OprahandFLOTUS
Patricia Kayden
@Schlemazel: Yes, we’re the real racists!!!!
Roger Moore
@lamh36:
Most people won’t be able to. It’s opening on a few screens on Christmas so it’s Oscar qualified, but it won’t hit wide release until January 6th.
Adam L Silverman
@Vicious Babushka: You’re quite welcome. And happy birthday!
Crazy question: several years ago in a comment at LGF you asked a military related question. I found your website/blog and emailed you a response. Did you get it? And I cannot for the life of me remember the question.
lamh36
“don’t take this job cavalierly…this jobs is HARD”
#OprahandFLOTUS
lamh36
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: We all may be in rehab when Trump really gets going with his nightmarish agenda. Sigh.
Not even going to ask what Malia is supposedly in rehab for.
Patricia Kayden
And here comes cool Barack!!
Elizabelle
They’re going someplace warm, on that helicopter.
Elizabelle
Adam is my hero, for giving us a fresh thread. With tasty pastries.
lamh36
shorter FLOTUS on being asked again if she was running for office…
NO…
#OprahandFLOTUS
LAO
@efgoldman: I didn’t feel a disturbance in the force. I blame the puppy, which despite being very cute, is sucking my will to live some days.
Patricia Kayden
The Obamas have chemistry so not surprising that their stay in the White House has drawn them closer.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: That’s a completely separate recipe post:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty
Patricia Kayden
@efgoldman: Lol. No kids but I was a rebellious teenager way back when.
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle: remember how liberals were evil disrespectful monsters undeserving of democracy for singing hey hey goodbye when W got on the helicopter? Good times.
Elizabelle
NY Times op ed: Time to End the Electoral College.
Well yeah.
You didn’t get to beat up on Hillary without a disaster happening. Maybe you guys could have thought that through a bit.
But does sound like the EC should go.
Also, I like increasing the number of congress critters, as Mnemosyne suggested. Give California a heap of new ones.
MomSense
@lamh36:
I keep reading that hashtag orphanandflotus. And I do feel a bit like an orphan when I think of them leaving the White House. Unpresidented as of 1/20/17 at 12:01 p.m.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Jamaica!! Just joking. Probably Hawaii, I would guess.
Patricia Kayden
That was sweet!
lamh36
“@Oprah and @FLOTUS on the road…”
I’d SOOOOO watch that on tv
#OprahandFLOTUS
Elizabelle
@Major Major Major Major: I have repressed memories of all of that. Found a bunch of newspapers I’d saved about the run-up to the Iraq War — for reading at a saner time — and tossed them. Just no longer any interest. W and Cheney were a fucking disaster, and the red states went large for a bigger disaster after that.
I am so wondering where in California to move. Sane state.
And: the Oprah interview ends. Very fast hour.
LAO
@efgoldman: she’s about 8 1/2 months. Right in the middle of adolescence. You know the point when all of her training magically disappears. Today she destroyed her 5th dog bed in 10 weeks. Thankfully, she’s currently snoring away beside me on the couch.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
That’s nothing. Malia has hit rock bottom. She is desperate. Her father, the POTUS, refuses to have anything to do with her. Her FLOTUS mother won’t speak to her. Her sister Sasha has disowned her.
The devastation one toke can cause, I swear….
Elizabelle
@LAO: What kind of puppy? Besides “active!”
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Curious if anyone has seen the biopic Jackie? Natalie Portman is said to have turned in an Oscar-worthy performance. Am thinking about going to see it, maybe tomorrow or Thursday.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Love on an island. Hmmmmm. Fits right in with the Obamas going somewhere warm.
But yeah.
Death by stupidity in a red state. (As you know, though, I live in Terry McAuliffe Land, so safe for now.) Or death by quake. I’ll take the quake.
LAO
@Elizabelle: Southern mutt (beagle, spaniel, pitt). Small, currently 26lbs. Very cute, but sorta evil.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: I want to see it.
Thought it would depress me but, hey. Real life.
Iowa Old Lady
@SiubhanDuinne: The thing that always gets to me is that eventually it becomes clear some story is false. There are no death panels, for instance. But there’s never any moment when someone has to take it back.
Elizabelle
@LAO: Part Beagle! Love them. 26 pounds is a good size. Do you think she’ll get much bigger?
Her is busy, hmmm?
LAO
@Elizabelle: She probably won’t get much bigger. Weird fact, if her howling didn’t give her away, Maggie has yellow irises, which according to her vet, is a genetic trait found only in lemon beagles. So everything but the beagle is currently a guess.
lamh36
@Roger Moore: Damn! It’s showing in DFW, but not here in NOLA…
BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: Hey, they tried to warn you all with “Reefer Madness”.
Elizabelle
@LAO: Howling? The word is baying.
Lemon beagles. Any beagle is a love.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Gawd, unless you’re right on the coast, the state isn’t falling into the Pacific(at that point it’s due to waves hitting the coast).
RSR
fyi, in the Philly region, Federal Donuts make sufganiyot as special order items: https://store.cooknsolo.com/collections/federal-donuts/products/chanukah-minis
There’s also a Christmas milk & cookies donut for we goyim: https://store.cooknsolo.com/collections/federal-donuts/products/milk-cookies-minis
lamh36
Mahn…I’m gonna be sad when PBO leaves, but I’ma be crying crocodile tears when I see Michelle O and the girls walk away from the White House!!
LAO
@Elizabelle: I stand corrected!
@efgoldman: The size of dogs in NYC is crazy. But what amazes me is the current popularity of the Australian Shepherd. There are 4 in my apartment building and I meet tons of them at the dog park. I can’t imagine that they are happy in a city like NY.
MomSense
@lamh36:
I’m already crying about it.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
There is no better latke than Nana’s latke.
Major Major Major Major
@BillinGlendaleCA: I mean part of the southwest will fall into the ocean eventually.
You know, a few hundred thousand years or something. But if that keeps people from moving to the coasts, more seats on the train for me!
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
More like 10 million or so, assuming current trends continue. The key is that the part that’s moving relative to the rest of North American is actually moving sideways, not directly away. So LA is going to have to slide all the way up the coast to San Francisco at 2-3 inches per year before we can ever turn into an island.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: ah yes, that’s right.
We can have a big party!
BillinGlendaleCA
Looking south from LA City Hall.
This shot was doomed from the beginning, shot into the sun with a fisheye. But I made it artsy, and I think it kind of worked.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman:
Roger went to CalTech, what’d you expect.
Elizabelle
Speaking of the West Coast, I am so sad about the Ghost Ship warehouse fire. Oakland. 36 victims.
We needed the artists and young people who lost their lives. I think art is going to get us through the Cheetoh Fraud-ito years.
Maybe some lives will be saved, in that other artists colonies realize they have to step up their fire prevention. But it’s a real issue, housing and work spaces for the creatives, and for any young people.
I would have thought a place like that was cool, and can see hanging out, but would have been wary about the rabbit warren part of it. Safety squirrel tendencies.
The pre-conflagration pictures are cool. It was quite the installation. But Jeebus, does it look flammable.
Tragic.
Adrift
@Adam L Silverman: are you shure you didn’t mean http://imgur.com/823QpTp ?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: That shows why you need regulation, like fire codes.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: @BillinGlendaleCA: I suggested a big party.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: Truly.
And it’s good to pay for inspectors. Government can work. When you fund it adequately.
lamh36
@efgoldman: can’t edit now…so…
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
Yes we do need the creatives. I wish we could find them because they struggle so to support themselves and their art.
raven
Whew, the unbirthday party for the princess was a rollicking success. Lots of good folks, eats and just enough munchkins to keep it lively!
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: parties are fun!
Adam L Silverman
@Adrift: yes
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
From “The Elephant’s Child” (from Just-So Stories) by Rudyard Kipling:
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: Aah Kipling, the racist SOB who had a way with words, wrote eloquently in defense of another SOB who was responsible for slaughtering hundreds of peaceful protestors.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m not going to try to defend Kipling’s racism or colonial outlook, but I can’t deny my entire childhood, and I was brought up on the Just-So Stories, Stalky & Co., and of course The Jungle Book, along with dozens of his best-known poems. I don’t apologise for any of it. I recognise the offensive attitudes, I acknowledge that he was a product of his times, and I rejoice that we are, Deo volente, a little better now than a century ago.
All that said, the “crocodile tears” quote was to the point, and nothing in the passage I cited was particularly racist.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: I did acknowledge that RK was eloquent. Are we really better. Kipling’s attitudes are alive and well. I can no longer enjoy his written word knowing that he condoned the killing of unarmed protestors and started a fund for the butcher of Jallianwala Bagh, collecting thousands of pounds.
You on the other hand, have nothing to apologize for.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
@SiubhanDuinne:
Kipling is so strange, because he seemed to genuinely love India and Indian culture, but hate the actual people who lived there. He’s like the people who think the Ancient Greeks were the greatest civilization ever but hate modern Greeks.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: He probably never interacted with Indians other those who were his servants. British India was a segregated society.
Cathie from Canada
For some odd and unknown (to me anyway) reason, in Canada we call jelly donuts “Bismarks”.
Just thought I would contribute that to the discussion….
Steeplejack (tablet)
@SiubhanDuinne:
Kipling’s Plain Tales from the Hills is a phenomenal collection of short stories, on my shelf next to Joyce’s Dubliners, Salinger’s Nine Stories, Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, etc.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
There are many great Christmas cookies, but only one is the best…and that is the Swedish Pepparkakor (translation: spice cookie). My family has been making them using this recipe for at least three generations (me & sister, mom and dad, and paternal grandparents). Here it is:
1/2 lb. butter
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon corn syrup
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 egg
3 and 1/4 to 3 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour (amount varies to get the dough to the right stiffness)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
juice and grated zest from one orange
Sift the flour with the baking soda and spices
Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
Add syrup, egg and orange juice and zest
Add flour mixture and mix thoroughly
Chill dough thoroughly in refrigerator.
To roll out the dough it really helps to use a well floured cloth rolling pin sleeve and a well floured pastry cloth to roll the dough out on. Otherwise the dough will stick to both your countertop and the rolling pin and will be impossible to cut.
Roll dough very thin, and use cookie cutters to cut dough into cookies. Place cookies on baking sheet and sprinkle with colored sugar granules (we always use green and white because Christmas). Bake at 400 degrees until brown – should be somewhere between 4-8 minutes depending on how thin you’ve rolled the dough.
The leftover dough from cutting the cookies can be chilled and re-rolled once. After that it picks up so much flour that it’s too brittle to roll out again. They’re a wonderful combination of spicy, sweet and citrusy.
Elizabelle
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Thank you! Looks delicious. I worry a bit about the rolling out, but looks worth a try.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Elizabelle: As long as the cloth rolling pin sleeve and pastry cloth are well floured the rolling is pretty easy. The chilled dough is very firm and when you first start you think there’s no way you’ll be able to roll it out thin but once you get going it’s pretty easy. Still they are a fair amount of work but worth it IMO.