RECIPES

Like all people's of German origins, cakes are great Dutch favorites. They made a most amazing variety of them.

First of all were the simple "coffee cakes" or "crumb cakes" which were half bread, half cake. They facilitated the "dunking" which the Dutch liked in common with so many other people's of mid-European origin.

The varieties of recipes available comprise far more than I am providing here. I excluded many whichpeopare known to other people, such as marble cake, ice cream cake, pound cake etc. I also excluded some of the simpler and less attractive kinds, for the number becomes quite wearisome. I found more Dutch cake recipes than recipes for any other single division of food.

The Dutch celebrated every event with cakes of some kind or other, the climax being, of course Christmas. The baking activities of some Dutch hausfraus at Christmas time when the Bells-Nickle was abroad, is still often enormous. The German Lebkuchen, internationally famous, is also made extensively. The Dutch also pay real attention to bread. They bake many varieties, and very early made good rye bread by securing the rye flour without separation. They also baked pumpernickel, potato bread, etc.

In modern times bread consumption has been cut by all peoples, including the Dutch. In 1875 the people of the U. S. ate 1088 loaves of bread annually per family, and I do not doubt that the Dutch consumption was at least 1200 loaves per family. But this consumption of bread has been cut in half since 1875.

The hearth-baked breads of the Dutch must have tempted large consumption simply by its appeal to the nose, if not also to the eyes,-perhaps also by the wonderful dairy butter, jams, applebutter and cheese spreads available.

Dutch Kaffee Kuchen

Scald milk, let cool slightly. Mix sugar, butter, lard, and egg yolk, then add to milk, alternately with flour to which yeast, dissolved has been added. Beat and then add well beaten egg white. Let rise for 2 or 3 hours. Flour a bread board, and roll out flat cakes from large spoonfuls of dough. Place in greased pie pans, let rise 1 1/2 hours. Brush with melted butter, crumb with brown sugar or Dutch "rivels" (made of crumbed sugar, flour and butter), and bake in medium hot oven.

Coffee Bread

Mix sugar and butter, pour warm milk over it, add yeast, dissolved. Add the eggs well beaten, flour and salt, to make a batter. Beat, and let rise for 1 1/2 hours. Beat again, place in deep pie pans, sprinkled with flour. Make crurnbing by mixing bread crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, almonds and 2 tablespoons nearly melted butter. Mix in bowl, spread over cakes, let rise for 15 minutes and bake in medium hot oven.

Cinnamon Kuchen

Scald a pint of milk, and when partly cooled add yeast, dissolved, and 3 1/2 cups of flour. Beat well, let rise for 2 hours. Then cream butter and sugar, add salt, beat egg into it and add remainder of flour, enough to stiffen. Let rise for an hour. Cut into four sections, roll out each to inch thickness. Place in pie tins, let rise another hour. Then dent the top with a number of dents, brush with melted butter, sprinkle with brown sugar, sift cinnamon over it, and bake 25 to 30 minutes in medium hot oven.

Quaker Biscuits

Prepare a dough sponge of the above ingredients and set about 2 hours to rise. Roll out thinly, cut into round biscuits, brush each with melted butter. Pile in stacks of two--one on top of another, let rise another hour. Then brush tops with yolk of an egg mixed with milk. Then bake in moderately hot oven.

Dutch Kisses

Beat the whites of eggs stiffly, add the salt, sugar and then the nuts. Make teaspoon drops of this batter and bake in greased and floured pan in rnedium hot oven.

Dutch Currant Cake

Mix butter, sugar and eggs, add nutmeg and cinnamon, then add milk and flour alternately, with flour, after sifting in cream of tartar. Dissolve baking soda in a little water, add currants, floured, and then the whites of eggs well beaten. Bake slowly in medium hot oven.

Schwingfelder (Potato) Cakes

Mix 1 cup of sugar and the hot mashed potatoes; after cooling add I cup flour and yeast, dissolved; beat and let rise 3 hours. Mix lard, butter 1 cup of sugar, eggs and salt; mix this with the sponge and beat vigorously, and stir stiff. Let rise overnight roll out, cut, place biscuits in pans, spread with melted butter, sift brown sugar over them. Bake 20-30 minutes in moderate oven.

Potato (Grumbera) Biscuit

Boil and mash potatoes, dissolve yeast in water from potato boiler, mix it with 1 cup of flour and teaspoon of sugar. Let rise for 1 1/2 hours in warm place, then add butter, egg and salt, beaten, also two cups flour; beat again and let rise for an hour. Roll to one inch thickness, and cut; then dip each biscuit in melted butter and place in pans, where let rise for another hour. Bake in hot oven and serve fresh and hot.

Fruit Bread-"Hutzel Brod"

Stew the dried pears gently for half hour; separate the juice, add yeast after dissolving in warm water. Mix with flour and salt, cover and let stand overnight. Then add soda dissolved in warm water. Mix lard, butter, eggs and sugar. Dice the pears, sift flour over them, add raisins, fennel and cinnamon, stiffen with flour and knead, give plenty of time to rise. Mold into four or five loaves, brush with melted butter and bake 1 hour to 1 1/4 hours in moderate oven.

Old Dutch Molasses Cakes

Make the dough 12 hours before the baking. Must be very cold to roll, cut with round cutter and brush with egg before baking. Bake in slow oven.

Fruit Kuechen

Spread in a pan about 8.5 x 8.5, inches, then pile 1 quart of cherries, peaches, blue berries or plums mixed with 1 cup of sugar on top of the dough and bake for 40 minutes in moderate oven. Serve with whipped cream.

Moravian Coffee Cake

Stir this together and let it begin to raise at 8:30 A.M. Let raise until noon. Then add 1 cup butter and lard mixed, enough flour to make stiff. Let raise until 3 P.M. Shape into rolls and raise again. Bake in a quick oven 15 minutes.

Midnight Cake

Take curd and mix with good rich milk to the consistency of cottage cheese. Fry sliced onions until soft in butter and add to cheese. Season with salt; bake in pastry.

Tangled Jackets

Boil and mash 3 or 4 large potatoes in water enough to make 3 cups. To this add 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 cup of yeast (or 1 cake dissolved), 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of lard, enough flour to make a stiff batter. Cover well, keep in warm place over night. In the morning add 2 eggs, work into a soft dough, let rise, cut into cakes, let rise again, bake in deep fat.

Dutch Snowballs

Take 2 eggs and 1 cup of sweet milk add flour enough to make a stiff dough also a little salt. Roll thin and cut into four-inch squares. Have ready a pan of deep fat. Mark each square with a knife into strips 1 inch wide, but leaving a border of half an inch. Pick them up to place in lard when hot, by taking alternate strips and lay them in sideways. They puff up into a flaky ball, and make a very nice addition to lunch or tea.

Dutch Crullers

2 eggs, I cup sugar, 1 pint of thick milk, 1 pint of butter and lard mixed, 1 teaspoonful of soda and 1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar dissolved in the milk. Flavor with nutmeg and add flour sufficient to roll. Swim in hot fat.

Dutch Cakes (Schneckenhaus'ln)

Dissolve a yeast cake in 1/2 cup of lukewarm water. Add 1 tablespoonful of sugar, a little salt, and flour to stiffen to a sponge. Let rise about 1 hour. Now add 2 cups of lukewarm milk, 4 Tablespoonfuls of sugar, 1/2 cup of melted butter, (butter and lard will do) 2 eggs beaten whole, 1 qt. of sifted flour enough to make a soft sponge. Let rise again. Roll out, spread with a mixture of butter, sugar, and cinnamon, cut into strips and roll up from one end. Place in pans and let rise a third time, then bake in a quick oven.

Dutch Molasses Crumb Cake

Mix sugar, flour and butter together, using the hands to make into crumbs. Put molasses into separate vessel, and into it stir the soda and hot water. Put soda into cup and dissolve with a little water, before filling the cup to the full. Put pastry into deep pans, pour in the molasses mixture, and sprinkle the crumbs over the top, and bake at once in a moderate oven.

Lady Lancaster Cake

Cream the butter and sugar, add the milk and flavoring, and then the sifted flour into which the baking powder has been sifted. Then fold in the egg whites. Bake in three layer pans in a hot oven.

The filling is made by dissolving the sugar in a cup of boiling water, and cook until it "threads." Then pour it gradually over the stiffly beaten egg whites and add the flavoring, nuts, raisins and figs. Some of the fruit may be reserved for the top of the cake.

Popcorn Cake Mennonite

Mix the popped corn and the nuts, and then pour over it the following syrup: cook together the sugar and butter until it forms a taffy when you test it in water. Mix the syrup well with the popcorn and nuts, using a large spoon. Then butter a bake pan and put in a layer of the mixture, then press together; then another layer and press, until the dish is full. Then you can slice the "cake."

Fasnacht Kucha, Kutztown

Scald the milk, then after cooling a little stir in 2 quarts of the flour, to make a batter. Add the yeast after dissolving in lukewarm water. Beat well and let stand overnight to rise. Cream the butter; eggs, molasses or honey, and then add more flour and the lard. Knead well, adding almost all the remainder of the flour. Let rise and then roll out for doughnuts, and fry in deep fat.

Blitz Kucha, Ephrata

Cream the sugar and butter, blend with the eggs, beaten. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, and then add alternately the milk and the vanilla. Pour into a bake pan, sprinkle with the cinnamon and the sugar and the chopped walnuts. Bake for 30 minutes in moderate oven.

Dutch Black Walnut Christmas,Cake

Cream the butter and then work in the eggs (well-beaten) and sugar. Then sift the flour, baking powder and salt; add the nuts and stir alternately into the first mixture'together with the milk. Oil a large cake pan put in the mixture and bake for 50 minutes in moderate oven. Spread a nut icing over it.

Dutch "Shell Bark" Macaroons

After beating the eggs, mix in the sugar and other ingredients, first the brown then white sugar, then the flour, baking powder, milk, salt, and finally the nuts. Roll the mixture out to one half-inch thickness, cut into macaroon size, and bake on buttered pans for 15 minutes in moderate oven.

Oat Meal Cakes, Drexel

Sift flour and baking soda together and mix with all other ingredients except eggs and milk. Beat the eggs well and add the milk. Roll and cut into cakes and bake in moderate oven.

Cocoanut Crackers, Dunker

Mix well to form stiff batter. Cut in cookie form on greased baking sheets in baking pans. Bake in hot oven until brown, then remove from oven and allow to cool thoroughly without removing from pan.

Chocolate Cookies, Adventist

Mix the ingredients to make a stiff batter, using just flour enough to roll. Cut out with a cookie cutter about 14 inches in diameter. Bake the cookies in a hot oven, on greased paper. Then when baked and cooled, put in a stone crock in a cool place and keep for a month or six weeks before eating. (The early Dutch baked them at Thanksgiving time for Christmas use). The result is a soft, chewy cookie with a caramel effect which men particularly like.

Dutch "Shellbark" and Raisin Cake

Mix all the ingredients, add the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs, and bake in layers. Ice with vanilla icing.

SHOO-FLY CAKE
my Aunt Shirley's recipe

1 c. flour
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 tbsp. Crisco
1 c. molasses
1 c. hot water
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp. baking soda with hot water

Mix flour, brown sugar and Crisco. Save some for top. Mix crumbs and
syrup together but save a handful of crumbs for top. Grease and flour a 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
submitted by Candy J. Gessat

SHOO-FLY CUPCAKES
my cousin Peggy's recipe

3 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. molasses
1-1/2 c. boiling water
1 tsp. baking soda

Combine flour, sugar, shortening, salt and set aside one cup. Combine molasses, water and soda with the dry ingredients. Pour into cupcake papers and sprinkle with the cup of crumbs. Set aside. Makes about 18 cupcakes. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
submitted by Candy J. Gessat
WET BOTTOM SHOO-FLY CAKE
1 c. flour
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. shortening
1 c. molasses
1 egg, well beaten
3/4 c. hot water
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix flour, sugar, and shortening. Set aside 1/2 c. of the crumbs. Pourhot water over soda and add molasses, well beaten egg, vanilla, and crumbs.Pour into unbaked pie shell and sprinkle the 1/2 c. crumbs on top of pie.
Bake at 425 for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 until brown.
Makes one 9 inch pie.
submitted by Candy J. Gessat

SHOO-FLY PIE

Crumbs:
2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. shortening
1/2 tsp. salt

Liquid:
1 c. molasses
1 c. hot water
1 tsp. baking soda
1 egg

Mix molasses, hot water, soda and egg; beat well. Make crumbs with flour,
sugar, salt and shortening. Put all crumbs, but 1 cup in liquid. Put in two 9 inch pans lined with pie dough. Put crumbs on top. Bake in a 350 oven for at least 30 minutes.
submitted by Candy J. Gessat

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