Christmas Breakfast

As I mentioned in my inaugural post--we've been enjoying this Christmas breakfast since 1989 when I found both recipes in the holiday food section of the Washington post.  I clipped and saved the whole section, which was about make ahead Christmas morning recipes, and have made these ever since.

Our Christmas breakfast consists of Country Puff Pastries which can be made any time ahead and frozen or they can be refrigerated for a few days, and Providence Hot Apples, which are prepared the night before and cooked in the morning.   Our routine was to get up, turn on the oven to preheat and make coffee.  We'd pop the apples and pastries in the oven while we all opened our stockings.  Then we'd eat.

After breakfast, it was time for presents--and Mimosas or Sweet Sparkling Wine (usually Asti Spumante) mixed with blueberry juice and Chambord.  That drink doesn't have an official name, but I like to refer to it as a Berry Merry. 

The pastry recipe makes 27 pastries so we'd save some for New Years Day breakfast as well.

Country Puff Pastries
Printable Recipe

--These savory treats come from the Springdale Country Inn in Lincoln, Va.   The entire family will love them--even the kids!  Think of them as an elegant version of an Egg McMuffin.   For ease, buy frozen puff pastry at the grocery store and thaw in the refrigerator.  I get my ham from the deli--usually Virginia baked ham, and the Canadian bacon is the packaged one from the grocery store.

Makes 27 pastries

3 sheets frozen puff pastry (1 1/2 boxes of the most readily available brand), thawed
4 ounces grated Swiss cheese (1 cup)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 ounces silvered country ham (about 1/3 cup packed)
2 ounces Canadian bacon, chopped (about 1/3 cup packed)
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
black pepper to taste
1 egg
1 teaspoon water.

Mix cheeses, ham, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, heavy cream and pepper in a large bowl.

Using one pastry sheet at a time, roll out sheet to a 12 inch square.  Cut pastry dough into 4 inch squares (3 rows of 3 squares) and place 1 tablespoon of the filling in the middle of each square.   Make an egg wash by mixing the remaining egg with 1 teaspoon of water. Brush the edges of each pastry square with a little egg wash, then fold each square top left corner to bottom right corner and press to seal the edges together with the tines of a fork.  Trim the edges with a knife if they need evening up.  Repeat with the other 2 sheets of pastry.  If you don't plan on baking them immediately, wrap each individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze.

When ready to bake, place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or longer if pastries have been frozen.  There is no need to thaw the pastries first.

Providence Hot Apples
Printable Recipe

--adapted from Breakfast with Friends by Elizabeth Alston, 1989

10 servings

4 pounds (about 8) Granny Smith or other tart apples
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Mix sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Peel and core the apples then cut them in 1/2 inch chunks.  Add the apples to the sugar/cinnamon mixture in the large bowl and toss so that the apples are coated with the sugar/cinnamon mixture.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate over night.

One half hour before serving, heat oven to 400 degrees.  Butter a 9 X 13 inch baking dish and add the apples, including all the sugar mixture and juices.  Spread them out and bake for 20 minutes, stirring 3 or 4 times until the apples are tender but not mushy.  Serve very hot.

Family Traditions--Christmas!

This is my inaugural post.  This little project grew out of a conversation I had with my grown kids on Christmas Day.  You see, we have always had certain culinary traditions in our family.  Christmas morning we've always enjoyed Country Puff Pastries and Providence Hot Apples before opening our gifts.  We've done that since 1989.  So this year, as the pastries were cooking, the conversation went something like this:

Me:  If I ever drop dead, you need to know where to find those recipes.  There's a Southern Living Breakfast and Brunch cookbook on the bottom shelf of the kitchen bookcase with a bunch of clippings stuck in the front.  Two of those clippings are our Christmas recipes.

Emily:  Mom, I'll never remember that!

Me:  Well I do intend to type them all up and make a family cookbook, including the two small ones I made of your grandmothers' recipes.

Jeremy:  Put them online.  Make a blog.  Monetize the hell out of it. Call it Mrs. E's Recipes only spell it with a z at the end.

So here we are--without the monetizing.

Welcome to Mrs. E's Recipeez.  You are invited to enjoy our family's traditions.  please note--unlike most food blogs, I may or may not have pictures.  I'm posting recipes that I may not have made in years so they will just be without photos.  If I do make them, I'll update with pictures.  This is our family recipe archive.

I realized how important maintaining family recipes was when cleaning out my mother's house about 14 years ago.  She had a huge pantry full of cookbooks which I had to go through.  I was able to find many of her favorite recipes easily enough because she also had a file and she had submitted many of them to her church cookbook.  There was one, however, that I was desperate to find.  Though out my childhood and as I was growing up, Mom made one particular cookie that I dearly loved.  It was different than any other I'd ever had--almost like a pastry.  It was a yeast dough with butter and sour cream but no sugar.  It was rolled flat then sprinkled with a sugar/vanilla mixture, folded, rolled, sprinkled again--with that process being repeated several times.  The dough was then cut into 1 inch wide strips that were 4 inches long, each piece was twisted and put on the cookie sheet.  When they baked, the cookies fanned out on the ends into the flakiest, yummiest layers.  I can't begin to describe how much I loved these.

I remembered them as being a Pillsbury Bake Off winner from around 1958 - 1960 and they were in one of those little books you see at the grocery store checkout.  I looked through everything.  Books were bagged and donated and I was distraught about not having that recipe.

There were several bags of books on Mom's porch that needed to be put out for donation pick up so I went over there one more time after work on a freezing December afternoon.  I decided to go through those bags one more time.  Lo and behold--there it was!

Pillsbury Bake Off recipes with the price of 25 cents on the lower right hand corner.  This was probably one of the keepsakes from my parent's house that meant the most.

So I've been continuing that tradition.  Starlight Sugar Crisps for Christmas.  That recipe and many more will be posted here for family and friends to enjoy.

So--since I talked about the Starlight Sugar Crisps, That will be the first recipe!

Enjoy!

Starlight Sugar Crisps

Printable Recipe

Absolutely Vicki’s most favorite cookie in the world!

 From Pillsbury Bake-off late 1950’s or early 1960’s--out of print

Soften:

1 packet active dry yeast (or 1 cake compressed yeast) in

1/4 cup lukewarm water.

Sift together:

3 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt into mixing bowl.

Cut in:

1 cup butter until particles are the size of small peas.

Blend in:

2 beaten eggs

1/2 cup sour cream (thick or commercial)

1 teaspoon vanilla and the softened yeast.

Mix thoroughly.  Cover;  chill at least 2 hours. (Dough may be stored in refrigerator for up to 4 days and baked as needed.)

Combine:

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Roll out:

Half  of chilled dough on floured surface sprinkled with about 1/2 cup of the vanilla sugar.  Roll out to a 16 X 8 inch rectangle.  Sprinkle with about 1 Tablespoon of the vanilla sugar.

Fold one end of dough over center.  Fold other end over to make three layers.  Turn 1/4 way around and repeat rolling and folding twice, sprinkling board with additional vanilla sugar as needed.

Roll out to a 16 X 8 inch rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.

Cut into 4 X 1 inch strips.  Twist each strip 2 or 3 times.  Place on ungreased baking sheets.  Repeat entire process with remaining dough and vanilla sugar.

Bake in moderate oven (375 degrees) 15 to 20 minutes until light golden  brown .

Note:  The chilled dough is very stiff.  I always divide the dough in half and pat into a fat rectangle, wrap in saran wrap, then refrigerate until ready to use.  It’s a little easier to roll out this way!