Banket (Dutch Pastry with almond filling) family recipe

I have been wanting a chance to make it with my mother and document it for the blog, but she lives in Michigan and with me in Florida for the last 21 years it just never happened. When my parents visit in February she will bring me some almond paste and one year she did show me how to assemble it, but the filling and dough was already made. The one time we did make it back to Michigan for Christmas a couple of years back, of course it was already made and ready to eat.


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Grandma Bouwman's Banket
Crust:
1 pound butter/oleo, soften at room temp (I used cold butter, like you would making pie crust)4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar (optional) I skipped the sugar3/4 cup milk - make sure it's coldMix well until crumbly, add milk. Form into dough using fork, divide into eight balls.
Roll out each ball to form rectangle, put almond filling on crust.



My take on this: I used a pastry cutter like you would when making pie crust, cutting in the butter until you get a crumbly oatmeal-like texture. Use cold butter and cold milk or water so it will be nice and flaky...form into dough try not to over-work the dough. After talking to my mother she said another old recipe she had has you refrigerate the dough and filling overnight. My personal tip would be to form it into the eight balls, and then flatten them first before refrigerating them.


Filling:
1 pound almond paste (2 cups)
2 cups sugar (you could probably use a little less, but I use a scant 2 cups)3 eggs (I think next time I will us 2 eggs)Mix well, put in fridge to harden. Add flour to make it less sticky when putting it on crust.
My take on this: I had a block of almond paste that mom brought down from Michigan. They can get it every where up there...if you can't find almond paste, you can make your own almond paste try this one here
My mom told me to beat the eggs and sugar first then add the almond paste after breaking it into crumbles.Bake 10 minutes at 425° then 15 minutes at 350°
I found I had to bake this longer. If you want to bake it like a pie you can bake it high heat for 15 minutes then turn it down and bake another 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown. Make sure your dough is nice and cold. I would brush an egg wash on before baking next time, I didn't on these and they came out fine, but sometimes my grand mother would.

This was the almond paste mixture after it was in the refrigerator overnight.

When I was trying to mix the almond paste my mom suggested to beat the eggs first with a hand mixer, so I did, I think I did it too much and it became a little frothy, then I added the crumbled almond paste and sugar. I think I should of added the sugar with the eggs, then added the almond paste. Mine turned out fine, but it was different from my mother's. I think 2 eggs would work fine in it. I didn't add any extra flour because it was very spreadable this way...maybe because of the three eggs. Maybe I should stick to it this way, my mom would spread it with her hands and flour her fingers, and place little pieces around all over the dough. It was sticky to work with!

I just used a rubber spatula to spread it on. My mom cautioned me not to have too much filling do it won't ooze out on the baking pan. She said she added too much last year and she didn't like the way it turned out.

You are supposed to roll the dough out into rectangles, but I got it as close as I could, and they still turned out even without smooth edges. You can cut and paste it, the dough seems to handle it well.


To keep it a family tradition I got my daughter involved...of course she asked to roll some of her own...so I had to stand back and let her do it!!
And she did great! Of course I have such a small area it's so difficult to have two people in the kitchen at the same time. It was also 80° out and seemed very hot with to oven on, I know my grandma and mom didn't have to deal with weather like that in Michigan at Christmas time! :)

The dough is rolled out thin sorta like a pie dough would be...dusting the work surface and rolling pin with flour as you go. After you roll up the filling inside the logs, seal it with water. Since I used a little more filling than my mother did I made sure it was sealed well and gave it a little pinch too.


I have baked the "logs" that my mom gave me (they freeze really well) at 350° or 375° for 30 - 35 minutes. I didn't know the directions at that time, so I think you can do it that way without having to start out baking it at high heat and turning it down. Just keep any eye on it until its a nice golden brown.


If you don't have a stoneware baking pan or pizza stone, line your cookie sheet with parchment paper so it browns up nicely. I didn't use an egg-wash in this batch.


After the first batch was done baking I had to call my mom again to see how long I had to wait before I can cut into them. I couldn't wait... mmm...so good and reminds me of my mom's...


...they were nice and flaky, the almond filling didn't ooze out (of course I like it oozing out a little when it caramelizes up a little) .


It is so good for breakfast the next morning, not too sweet, delicate flavor.

Even though I kept calling my mom several times throughout the process...and she said "why don't you wait until I get there in February" I think it turned out pretty good.

I do think that it is easier to cut if you can wait until it cools completely. I gave one (log) to my aunt and uncle when we met them for dinner, after all it is his mother's recipe...they are going north for Christmas. She says it's been awhile since she's had it she's never made it...I hope they enjoy it as much as we do.

Corn Pancakes and Lavender Syrup

I am not a big pancake fan, I am not a big fan of sweets for breakfast ...well unless it's a chocolate croissant ;) If I have waffles or French toast it's usually without syrup. So you are probably wondering where I am going with this....My daughter has been making pancakes for her breakfast (takes after her grandmother) now and then and when we go out for breakfast she always gets one pancake and a side of hash browns. So the other day I was thinking about when I did eat pancakes...when I was a kid and my mom would make us corn pancakes. That's what I grew up eating...corn pancakes made with Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix....
The recipe was on the side of the box and that is how we had pancakes. I loved them as a kid and I love using Jiffy to make corn bread. Sometimes you just have to pull out the box. So being the weekend I thought it would be fun to make my mom's Jiffy corn pancakes and see what my daughter thought of them....well they were a big hit...just like when I was a kid!! I was telling my sister that I made mom's corn pancakes and she asked "Did you use Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix?" It sure makes it easy and why mess with it.
>

If you can't get Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix where you live you can always try to make them from scratch:

Ingredients
!/2 to 3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tbs. sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 Tbs. margarine, melted

Mix the dry ingredients then add the wet and stir together, don't over-mix. Make sure your griddle is hot before you pour the batter on it. When you start to see the bubbles, flip them over.


Now for the syrup...I have never made jam or jelly before and I really wanted to try. I do eat jam on toast with almond butter, but I use it sparingly so it's not too sweet. I wanted to try something a little different so I thought it would be fun to make lavender jelly. Well I tried and it didn't set up. Then after reading... it said to wait two weeks because it could take that long before it sets. So that's what I did, as long as it seals it is okay to do this....and it didn't set up. After following the direction on how to remake the jelly and doing a lot of reading, that's what I did. It even said sometimes it just doesn't set up...even for experienced jelly makers...this sometimes will happen. Then you just say you made syrup! So I made Lavender Syrup!

I must say... it was really good! It was so good on the corn pancakes (which is now on our breakfast menu).

I used a jar that really didn't seal so I popped it in the fridge and used it here. After awhile the rest of my jelly did set up some I will let you know if it works on toast!

Lavender Syrup:
3 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dried lavender
1/4 cup juice of 1 lemon
1 pouch of liquid pectin
4 cups sugar
of course if you are making syrup I would leave out the pectin and cook everything with the lemon peels and cook it to the right consistency.

It brought back such good memories. Funny how food can do that.



We didn't have much of a sunset tonight, but it was still a beautiful evening at the beach.

I love watching the clouds over the water...


a perfect evening with a nice breeze...

walking barefoot...wishing you all were here with us...

...the moon even was out. Have a wonderful evening!

A Tale of a Sapodilla, my Garden Fruits, and Granola

I bought my sapodilla tree at the rare fruit and nut show that we had in town years ago. I planted it in our extra lot and pretty much forgot about it. The leaves are very pretty and it was a slow growing tree, so I just let it go. I had noticed that it did blossom a few times but I never saw any fruit on the tree...until this year.

I was walking around our yard...we have two lots, and the back boundary is all natural, where I have banana trees, bird of paradise, elephant ears, sea grapes and many more plants.

...then I spotted it, I have fruit on my sopadilla tree!! I immediately picked one and brought it inside. Oh sure then I check to see when the fruit is ripe...

I found a lot of information on sapodilla...I guess it is not unusual for a young tree to take around 8 years before you see any fruit...so there you go...right on time! Here is a little bit of info from Nutrition and you website about the fruit :

Sapodilla or Sapota or chikoo, a delicious tropical fruit is rich in vitamins, minerals and health benefiting anti-oxidant tannins. The fruit is soft, composed of easily digestible pulp made up with simple sugars like fructose and sucrose that when eaten replenishes energy and revitalizes the body instantly.

Sapota is a tropical evergreen fruit bearing tree belongs to the family of sapotaceae of the genus: Manilkara. Scientific name: Manilkara zapota.

So I guess it's okay to pick it when I did...I just have to wait until it is ripe or soft before I eat it., kind of like an avocado. ..

This one was firm but when I scratched the skin it was white or cream color and not green, and it was okay to let it soften before I eat it.

So here it is after a few days on the counter to let it sweeten like it should before you cut into it's tender flesh and dig in.

It is described as brown sugar in flavor or caramel, and it was just that, they also said it had a pear-like texture which really worried me because I don't like pears or their texture, but I didn't see or taste any pear here. It was almost like dulce de leche, yum, more like caramel than brown sugar. Very good.

An up date on how far my pineapple has grown...

...and now for my mango tree... I have a big problem...squirrels! They are going after my mangoes!! I don't know how to stop them! If anyone has any ideas...I am all ears, please let me know...I need help!

One dropped on our pool screen.

This one was already picked by the squirrels and it is not big enough yet. I am going to see if it will ripen, but I was hoping for tree full of ripened mangoes this July when they should be ready.

They don't care how big or little, ripe or not...they dig right in...at least it looks like it did ripen a little...they better finish it. Nothing is worse than going to pick a mango right off the tree and turning it to find a bite out if it still hanging on the tree! darn squirrels!!!

Just noticed my bananas, kinda tiny too!


...and now for the granola...it is the 3rd Saturday of the month which means it's my turn to post on Our Krazy Kitchen so check out my post on...My grandmother's granola recipe.

Thanks for stopping by! Now hop on over for a Relax and Surf Sunday blog hop and enjoy!

Popcorn! an old family tip!

This posted before I meant for it to be posted so you will have to put up with a few changes before it ends up the way it was intended too. (don't you love computer glitches?)

We I was a kid our family would often have popcorn on Sunday nights. This was a family tradition way back, and started with my grandma and grandpa my dad's parents. This was also a rare time we could drink "pop" was with popcorn. My grandma and grandpa worked together to make sure every perfectly puffed kernel was coated with just the right amount of butter and salt. They would use a large lightweight pot that had handles on both side. Grandpa would shake and toss the popcorn as grandma poured the butter and sprinkled on the salt.

Grandpa also had a family secret on the best way to pop the corn and had very little unpopped kernels left. I had bought some new to me popcorn from this new Amish Market that opened up near us.

These are very small, tender, hulless, kernels. First you pour in some canola oil, then the amount of popcorn to fill up the oil. I think grandma and grandpa used corn oil back then.

The canola oil can take the high heat pretty well before it starts smoking. I use med high heat, electric is a lot different that the gas stove we grew up using. Heat the oil and corn until the kernels start to get a little pale and just before they start to pop, one might slip out. Shake the pan a little then set in down on burner, then shake, repeat. Once you get to the stage you are looking for, remove the pan from the heat for a minute. Now on put the lid on, it doesn't have to be tight fitting, you don't want too much of the steam created to stay in the pot. Shake and stop, shake and stop, once it starts popping you want to keep shaking so the unpopped kernels go to the bottom so they can pop. Holding it up above the heat when you hear the popping slow down, you can keep shaking above the heat and when it's done set it off the heat, and dump it into a large bowl (or two handled pot like grandma and grandpa did).

In a little stainless steel measuring cup melt the butter. Whiles someone else is shaking the bowl tossing the popcorn drizzle the butter and sprinkle the salt! There you have it!

Perfect popped corn!

With hardly any "old maids" left in the pot!

Perfect with soda as we call it here in Florida!

Enjoy!

Now on to the awards, and boy, is it hard to post this!

First off I want to apologize for the long delay on some of these awards. I don't want to skip anyone, but I'm afraid I probably did. My food blog has given me such joy. It's a place where I can come and share what I have learned and learn so much more from all of you. I can talk about food and cooking without boring anyone. I can't even do that with my co-workers and family members. They just don't understand how exciting it is to find a new seasoning or kitchen gadget, or the joy of just walking around the farmer's market!

Edited: I deleted the photos of the awards just to be safe from copywrite laws.
Many of you have given me awards, some of you are, Anncoo of Anncoo's Hobby , Kristy of My Little Space , Petite Nyonya of A Nyonya's Kitchen , Hana of donuts to delirium , to name a few. Again I apologise if I missed any, I waited too long.
I would love to pass any of these on to my many friends and readers, and here are to a few that I enjoy to follow and read too. Some I didn't note here I knew had already been given this or others had just listed you, I didn't want you all to be overwhelmed. Others I know really don't want it! So let's have fun!
Pru of Perfecting Pru
Lia Chen of Bentolicious
Gulmohar and Nostalgia of Collaborative Curry
Debra of Hapa Bento
Barbara of Moveable Feasts
Sarah of Mum in Bloom ~
Cheah of No-Frills Recipes
Erica of My Colombian Recipes
Pam of Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner
Zia Elle of Uova, zucchero e farina
Martha of Seaside Simplicity - eat, drink, relax, enjoy!
EC of Simple Indian Food- An Easy Cooking Blog
Gloria of Canela Kitchen Recipes
Pikko of Adventures in Bentomaking: Bento Lunches by Pikko
Okay I know I missed many. I want you all to have it all. No pressure here so you don't have to do anything, just enjoy! Thanks for putting up with the mess up, I'm still learning! I hope I got it all right! Enjoy!

My Mom's Rice Pilaf

After being home for Christmas where we had a lot of traditional recipes got me thinking of the recipes that I use from my mom and grandma. My mom learned how to cook from my dad's mom (mostly). I am not sure where my mom got this rice pilaf recipe from, but she made it for us when we were kids and I still make it often today. The nice thing about it is I always have the ingredients on hand, it's not something you have to go out and buy anything special for. When I make it for a special dinner or where I am going to take it to someones house I use my Corelle dish that I can use on the stove top and finish in the oven. If it is just for the family I make it in a pan stove top.

When my mom made it the recipe calls for minute rice (Of course I never used instant rice) it works well with regular rice.
When my mom made this recipe she used vermicelli from the Italian store that came in little "nests". It was such a mess when you broke it up to put in the rice. I find it here in our stores already in little pieces...easy peasy!

I have a lot of Rosemary plants and I often cut it and dry it, so I can use both fresh and dried Rosemary! Dried rosemary works really well in this dish.

With this casserole dish you can use in on the stoves burner to melt the butter and saute the rice, vermicelli and almonds.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice

1/2 cup vermicelli (broken)

1/4 cup sliced almonds

2 T butter

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

2 1/4 cups broth

Directions:

Melt butter in a casserole dish that can be used stove top as well as in the oven. Add rice, vermicelli, rosemary and almonds. Slowly brown vermicelli, and almonds, the rice will turn white. Add warm chicken broth. Cover and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until the rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.

This pilaf has a nice delicate flavor that goes well with chicken, and many other dishes. It's certainly an old standby recipe for me! I love it!

My mom and her mom, my grandma. Probably around the time she started to make this, but I really couldn't tell you for sure!

Me and my mom back in the days when I had my days assigned to me when I had to do the dishes. My older sis and I each had 3 days a week and little sis had one! Hmmm...how is that fair? But I'm not bitter about it...look how much fun my mom and I had posing for photos!!! Thanks for going with me down memory lane!!!

Grandma Bouwman's Granola

My grandma Bouwman was a good cook and baker. She raised a family during the depression, and because of that was very frugal. She used to make her own cracked wheat bread. My dad used to love getting store bought bread as a kid because it was a special treat for him. We never could get a recipe from her, because she didn't use one. My grandpa and her would even use an old coffee grinder to crack the wheat in.

She used to make this cereal when I was a kid. They didn't really have store bought granola then. I don't think she called it granola until later, I think it was just called dry cereal or something. I have always liked it, and I like that you can control what is in it. I never did like boxed granola, I guess I was spoiled with my grandma's.

Ingredients:
4 cups rolled oats
1 cup oat bran
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut (I use the wide grated)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
I added chopped crystallized ginger in this one (I've been on a ginger kick lately). I wanted to add dried cherries that I was going to bring back from Michigan, but we didn't have time to get them (my mom will bring them when they come to Florida in Feb). So I was going to get some dried cranberries, but in the natural food store that was around the corner only had sweetened ones. My grandma didn't use dried fruit in hers, but you can add what you like.

It's really simple, just dump and mix! I do end up using my hands!

Then spread it on one or two cookie sheets pressing it down in the pans. I use my stoneware bar pan it's large, I also used my medium size bar pan.

Toast at 350° for 10-12 minute then stir and turn. Continue to toast it for another 10-12 minutes until the desired golden toasted, crispy, goodness.
You can add milk to it or snack on it as is. I only added 1/4 cup of the ginger, I didn't want to overpower it with the ginger. If you would like more chunks you can add more honey. I like it this way it's lightly sweetened and tender.

Tucker fell asleep on the futon in the spare room while I was making this. He even had his toy with him. I couldn't resist, I had to get a picture!