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Sweet
Sacrifice By Cathy Orr The holidays are time for giving gifts—often sweet, edible tokens of love—and since many families and friends are worlds apart, geographically speaking, a lot of these palatable parcels arrive on our doorsteps, wrapped in cardboard boxes. Homemade treats from fudge to fruitcake make their way under the light-laden boughs of Christmas trees in far-flung places where they tempt even the most formidable health food purists. So why is it that the humble fruitcake—laced with nuts, dried fruits, and a good soaking of brandy or rum—draws such mordant criticism? A better question yet is why, since it’s been the butt of countless, tasteless jokes, hasn’t this traditional, tin-shaped cake disappeared into the annals of ancient culinary history? A fruitcake once was considered a lavish, extravagant gift. Traditional fruitcake ingredients either were scarce or expensive, or both, so they made their appearance but once a year—Christmas—and to give or receive one generated pure delight all around. Not only were fruitcakes once in demand, but they also stood up to the troubled circumstances of long distance travel in an age when horses outnumbered cars, and traveling took days, if not weeks, instead of hours. In a word, a fruitcake boasted an extended shelf life, remaining intact and safe to eat for weeks. Now this was a cake meant for the West! Ironically, it’s that very trait—longevity—that has brought perennial ridicule upon the fruitcake. “Fruitcake is the only food durable enough to become a family heirloom,”Russell Baker once remarked in a New York Times column, adding another wisecrack to a mounting pile of chestnuts devoted to the dessert. Despite its standing as a source of merriment, the nut-loaded confection is a Christmas tradition with deep historical roots in the Middle Age practice of making cakes with dried fruits, honey, and nuts, ingredients inherently “durable”as Russell put it. No small measure of emotion goes into the very creation of fruitcake, as was evident when Frances Roe, wife of Lt. Fayette W. Roe, spent two days making fruitcake for her first Christmas on the frontier at Fort Lyon in Colorado Territory in 1871. “I rejoiced at having a nice cake to send them [bachelors at the Fort] Christmas morning,”she wrote in a letter, words clearly evocative of the profound satisfaction, sentiment, and generous self-sacrifice so often tied to rare and precious gifts. Indeed, when a gift comes from the heart and the hearth, it’s always wrapped in the joyful spirit of the season. So, may your holidays be merry and bright. And may all your gifts—including the fruitcake—be wrapped in the fruit of a giving spirit. Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Heat oven to 350°F. Combine brown sugar and butter in large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (1 to 2 minutes). Add eggs, water, and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes). Reduce speed to low. Add all remaining ingredients except oats and raisins; beat until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes). Stir in oats and raisins by hand. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Let stand 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely. Yield: 4 dozen cookies Courtesy of Land O’ Lakes Jeweled Fruitcake Fruitcake recipes vary as much as individual tastes. While this recipe excludes liquor, many recipes incorporate rum or brandy into them either by soaking the fruit in the liquor before adding them to the batter or by pouring it over the top and sides of the baked, cooled cake, as you would a glaze.
Heat oven to 300°F. Line loaf pan, 9 x 5 x 3 or 8½ x 4½ x 2½ inches, with aluminum foil; grease foil. Mix all the ingredients except corn syrup. Spread in pan. Bake about 1 hour, 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If necessary, cover with aluminum foil for last 30 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. Remove fruitcake from pan (with foil) to wire rack. For a glossy top, immediately brush with corn syrup. Cool completely before cutting, about 24 hours. Wrap tightly, and store in refrigerator no longer than 2 months. Courtesy of General Mills Ranch Rolls This dough may be refrigerated for three or four days so that you can make as many or as few rolls as you need.
Preheat oven
to 450°F. Dissolve yeast in warm water; let stand 10 minutes. Mix all
dry ingredients. Add yeast mixture, oil, and buttermilk. Stir
with wooden spoon. Turn onto floured surface, and knead lightly. Roll
out, and cut
into 2-inch rolls. Generously oil top and bottom of rolls. Bake in 2-
to 3-inch deep pan 12 to 15 minutes until golden. Yield: 3 dozen rolls; unused
dough
may be refrigerated and used as needed. From Barbecue, Biscuits, and Beans: Chuck Wagon Cooking by Bill Cauble and Cliff Teinert, Bright Sky Press 2002, Albany, Texas www.brightskypress.com. Fruited Sourdough Rolls Sourdough lends itself well to sweet breads. Chuck Wagon cooks typically used dried or canned fruits or whatever they found along the trail. We use whatever’s in season or what we find in the pantry.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll sourdough out on well-floured surface until it is about 18 to 20 inches long and 8 to 10 inches wide. Quarter butter lengthwise. Place quarter cuts of butter end to end the length of dough, about 1- inch from edge nearest to you. Repeat placing the butter quarters just past the middle of the dough. Spread apricots on each side of both rows of butter. Sprinkle first row of quartered butter as guide. (This gets easier after doing several times.) Cut with a sharp knife into 1-inch rolls. Carefully oil both sides, or cut rolls, and place in nonstick, large, deep baking pan or 16-inch Dutch oven. Pat down as you would sourdough rolls. Cook 20 to 25 minutes. Mix confectioners’ sugar with 1 tablespoon water until smooth. Pour over rolls when removed from oven. Let rest 5 minutes before serving. Yield: 12 to 14 rolls From Barbecue, Biscuits, and Beans: Chuck Wagon Cooking by Bill Cauble and Cliff Teinert, Bright Sky Press 2002, Albany, Texas www.brightskypress.com.
Sourdough Biscuits This recipe was passed along by Richard Bolt—cook at the famous Pitchfork Ranch for more than 40 years. Richard knew more about the old ways of cooking than just about anyone. He even wrote his own cookbook: 40 Years Behind the Lid.
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, form a nest or hollow in 4 cups of flour. Pour 4 cups of Sourdough Starter into hollow. Add salt, sugar, baking powder, and shortening. Mix well to form soft dough. Pinch off in balls the size of an egg, and place in well-greased 14-inch Dutch bread oven or skillet—cast-iron containers give the best results. Grease tops of biscuits gener-ously. Set them in a warm place to rise for 5 to 10 minutes before baking. Bake for 30 minutes or until nicely browned. The closer the biscuits are crowded in the pan, the higher they will rise. When cooking in a covered Dutch oven over coals, consistent heat for baking sourdough biscuits is very important. Beware of wind and drafts that can result in uneven heat. Yield: 30 biscuits. From Barbecue, Biscuits, and Beans: Chuck Wagon Cooking by Bill Cauble and Cliff Teinert, Bright Sky Press 2002, Albany, Texas, www.brightskypress.com Divinity
Cook sugar, corn syrup, and water (use 1 Tablespoon less water on humid days) in 2-quart sauce-pan over low heat, stirring con-stantly, until sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking, without stir-ring, to 260°F on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water forms a hard ball that holds its shape but is pliable. Beat egg whites in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Continue beating while pouring hot syrup in a thin stream into egg whites, beating constantly on medium speed. (For best results, use electric stand mixer, not a portable handheld mixer since beating time is about 10 minutes and mixture is thick.) Add vanilla. Beat until mixture holds its shape and become slightly dull. (Mixture may become too stiff for mixer.) Gently stir in nuts. Drop mixture from buttered spoon onto waxed paper. Let stand at room temperature at least 12 hours, turning candies over once, until candies feel firm. Store in airtight container. Yield: 4 dozen candies From Betty Crocker’s Best Christmas Cookbook, Wiley Publishing Inc. 1999, New York, N.Y. For more recipes go to: www.westernchef.com |
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