All together now: Tradition... Tradition...
I know that most of the time everyone just does what they have - or want - to do.
But now it’s the holiday season, and there are rules - I mean, traditions - that must be followed.
Yippee kay yoh kay yay!
Back in December, 2009 I posted the recipe for the Winnipeg Free Press’s 1930s Dollar Fruitcake in my blog Winnipeg is Better Than Chocolate.
It’s been a popular post every December and it just occurred to me that, if you haven’t been reading my Winnipeg blog, you haven’t seen the recipe.
So, I’m reposting it here.
Ma wouldn’t have made that fruitcake, but she did make Ricotta Cookies.
Why not? It was an easy, and sneaky, way to get more cheese into us.
Ricotta Cookies, when fresh from the oven, can be used as shortcake.
In the summer, instead of putting icing on the cookies, Ma sometimes topped the cookies with mashed sugared berries and added a dollop of whipped cream.
For the grown-ups she’d add a dash of booze to the fruit.
If you don’t want to make a fruitcake but want a cake for your holiday dinner you could make this Christmas Cake.
It has layers of almond butter cake, a jam filling, and a chocolate icing.
Hints:
About the Ricotta Cookies…
As with all cookies, have the butter and eggs at room temperature so that the butter is soft enough to blend easily with the sugar.
The extra fat in whole milk ricotta helps make soft, tender cookies.
The cookies are often flavoured with lemon or anise extract, but you could use vanilla or almond or orange extract. You could use one flavour in the cookies and a different one in the icing. You could divide the batter and use a different flavouring in each batch.
The dough can be made ahead of time and stored, covered, in the refrigerator for a few days. The unbaked dough does not freeze well.
If you have 2 cookie sheets allow them to cool completely before using for the second batch. Refrigerate the remaining dough while working on the first portion.
Unglazed cookies can be stored in an airtight container.
Let frosted cookies dry for at least 2 hours before placing them in a covered, not airtight, container with wax paper separating each layer. Store at room temperature.
The glaze softens over time. If giving as gifts, frost on the day you deliver.
You could also use a buttercream frosting.
It is best to eat them within 5 days.
Baked unfrosted Ricotta Cookies freeze well.
About the Christmas Cake…
To evenly divide the batter, use a kitchen scale and weigh out the batter in each bowl.
Add as much food colouring as you like. I used 1/2 teaspoon of each colour.
Chill the cake to produce fewer crumbs. Score around the cake layer and cut only a little bit at a time. When cutting the layer in half use a long serrated knife and keep it parallel to your work surface.
If a cake does split when you are cutting it, fit the pieces back together and use a bit of jam as glue. Place the split layers in the centre of the cake and no one will know.
About the 1930s Dollar Fruitcake…
During the early 1930s this recipe cost $1 to make.
By 1974 the cost of those same ingredients had increased to more than $4.
By 1979 the price passed $8.
Now? Don't ask. Just enjoy.
Ricotta Cookies
48 cookies
Line 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper
or use 4 ungreased cookie sheets
Sift together
4 1/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Place in a large bowl
1/2 pound butter, softened
Cream thoroughly, then add, 1/2 cup at a time
2 Cups sugar
Continue creaming until well blended.
Add
1 pound whole milk ricotta
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon extract of your choice, or more vanilla
Beat well.
Add sifted ingredients to the batter.
Preheat oven to 350º F
Drop about a teaspoon of dough two inches apart on 2 baking sheets.
Place in the oven and bake 10 to 13 minutes, until edges are lightly browned.
WHILE COOKIES ARE BAKING make cookies with the remaining dough and place on other 2 baking sheets.
Remove cookies from the oven when the edges are lightly browned.
Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
Bake remaining cookies.
Icing:
Place in large mixer bowl
1/4 Cup butter
3 Tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
Blend well, then gradually add
2 Cups confectioners’ sugar
Spread icing on top of the cookies.
While the frosting is still wet top with
multi-coloured sprinkles or coloured sugar
Christmas Cake
Grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans
For the cake
Sift together in a medium bowl
2 3/4 Cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Set aside.
Place in a large bowl of an electric mixer
10 ounces almond paste, broken into small pieces
1 1/2 Cups unsalted butter, softened
Beat together until thoroughly combined, about 4 minutes.
Add in, 1/2 cup at a time
2 Cups sugar
Mix until fluffy and thoroughly combined, about 3 minutes.
Stir in
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Beat in, one at a time, until blended
5 large eggs
Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
Making 3 dry and 2 liquid additions add
the flour mixture
3/4 Cup whole milk
Mix only until the dry ingredients are just blended. Do not over mix as the batter will also be mixed when you add the colouring.
Pre-heat oven to 350º F
Evenly divide the batter into 3 separate bowls.
Add to the first bowl
1/2 teaspoon red food colouring
Add to the second bowl
1/2 teaspoon green food colouring
Mix each bowl until combined.
Pour the red batter into a prepared pan, the green batter into the second pan, and the uncoloured batter into the third pan.
Bake for 28 - 32 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Remove the cakes from their pans.
Let the cakes cool completely.
Refrigerate before slicing each cake in half horizontally to have 6 layers of cake.
For the frosting
Melt
8 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate
Allow to cool thoroughly.
Place in a large mixer bowl
1 Cup unsalted butter, softened
Beat until smooth and creamy.
With the mixer on low, gradually add
1 1/2 Cups confectioners’ sugar
1/3 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
Turn the mixer up to medium and mix until combined.
Add the cooled melted chocolate and mix until combined.
To assemble
Have on hand
3/4 to 1 Cup raspberry jam
Leave a layer that has a bottom of a cake layer uncovered with jam so that you can have a top layer that is flat and unsliced.
Spread 2 to 3 Tablespoons of the raspberry jam on top of 5 layers of cake.
Stack the layers, alternating the colours, with the top of the cake being unsliced.
Ice the cake with the chocolate frosting.
If the frosting is too thick to spread, add in more hot water, a teaspoon at a time.
If it is too runny, place it in the refrigerator a few minutes.
If you wish to add sprinkles:
The frosting sets quickly. Add sprinkles while the frosting is still fresh so they will stick.
1930s Dollar Fruitcake (Winnipeg Free Press)
Line a 9-inch tube pan with greased brown paper or heavy-duty aluminum foil
Pour boiling water over
1 pound sultana raisins
Place raisins between paper towels and dry thoroughly.
Set aside.
Halve
1/2 pound candied cherries
Chop
1/2 Cup blanched almonds
1/2 Cup walnuts
Place in a measuring cup
1/4 Cup fruit juice (orange, apple, grape or juice from canned fruit)
1/2 teaspoon brandy flavouring or almond extract
Place in a large bowl
the washed and dried raisins
the halved candied cherries
the chopped blanched almonds and walnuts
2 Cups mixed peel
Sift together
2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Sift again over the fruits and nuts, then stir until each piece is coated.
Place in a large mixer bowl
1 Cup butter
Cream until light and fluffy.
Gradually blend in
1 Cup sugar
Beat in, one at a time, until blended
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 300º F
Making 3 dry and 2 liquid additions, stir the flour / fruit mixture alternately with the fruit juice into the butter / sugar mixture.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hours, until the cake starts to pull away from the side of the pan.
Remove pan from oven and let the cake cool in the pan on a rack.
Remove cake from pan and allow to cool thoroughly.
Wrap well and store in airtight container.
~~~
I also wrote the following essay about Christmas traditions for our CKUW radio show ‘2000 & Counting’. Over the years our listeners asked for some seasonal stories to be repeated.
They seemed to like being reminded that we were all in the same holiday boat, a communal ship which made us feel like we were all sinking fast.
Ah… Christmas shopping, holiday baking and holiday customs…
Why do we do it?
I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, there are two questions no one should ever ask a woman.
The first is How old are you?
The second is Have you done your holiday baking yet?
Why is it that, when the thermometer falls, we're supposed to bake?
Does the Queen whip up a fruitcake before writing her speech?
I don't think so.
Holiday baking has been with us an awfully long time.
Did you know that ginger was popular in Greece over 5,000 years ago? The Egyptians were eating gingerbread when the great pyramid of Cheops was just a brick and a prayer. I wonder what their gingerbread men looked like.
A few years after Egypt's building boom, an English King and his hunting party got lost in a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Well, they were clever lads full of English pluck, so they threw everything they had - meat, flour, sugar, apples, ale and brandy - into a bag and cooked it. Wallah!! Plum pudding. The Iron Chef would've been proud.
On Christmas Day in 1666, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that he had risen earlier than his wife Who was desirous to sleep having sat up till four this morning seeing her maids make mince pies.
I really admire Mrs. P. She just sat and watched her maids do the work, yet her husband felt guilty about her workload. How did she get him to suffer like that?
Some Christmas carols seem a little too focused on food. For example:
Now bring us some figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer!
We won't go until we get some, so bring it out here.
Those were somebody's friends? Somebody should've called the cops.
Holiday baking has followed us into modern times. The 1970s was the decade of old time family television shows like The Waltons and memoir books.
Have you ever browsed through a memoir book? It could make you weep. They reminded us of times like this...
Evenings when a cold blustery wind howled outside were perfect for sorting through recipes. They were cozy times. The children were sitting at the oak table helping Mama chop fruit and raisins. Papa was cracking and shelling nuts and crushing fresh spices in the grinder.
Isn't that sweet? Sentences like that convinced me that if we did things just like people did before television was invented, the world would be a kinder, gentler place.
We'll never know. Paul told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was too busy to grind nuts for a cake he didn't even want.
Alright. Scratch Paul grinding his nuts. I bought ground nuts.
Step two... the batter had to be mixed. Back to that memoir...
When all the fruits were in, Grandmother called, 'Come, stir the batter!'
We all took turns giving it a stir - clockwise for good luck - and made a wish.
I made a batter, threw in the fruits and called out Come, stir the batter!
Carl pointed to the electric mixer sitting on the counter and said that he was staying on the eighth level of his computer game, The Temple of Ra. He also told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was too busy to stir batter for a cake he didn't even want.
I stirred the batter, clockwise.
Don't ask what I wished.
It's been downhill ever since. Do you know about the charming Swedish custom of hiding a whole almond in a serving bowl of rice pudding? The lucky person who finds the almond has to get married or do the dishes. Either my husband or my son - the fink never confessed - managed to swallow the almond every time.
I tried the German version: whoever finds the almond receives a marzipan pig. By then Paul and Carl had their own tradition: swallowing the almond. I felt so guilty looking at that poor rejected pig.
I started my own tradition and ate him... along with the cake.
There's a Christmas carol that goes: Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...
Well, the goose isn't the only one.
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