Fresh Strawberry Pie

This is the best fresh strawberry pie I have ever tasted. It has become an annual tradition. My friend Erna introduced us to this delectable dessert last year. Happy 4th of July to our American friends. This pie will surely brighten the festivities.

• 1 single baked pie shell
• 4 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
• 2 additional cups of mashed strawberries
• 1 cup water
• 5 drops red food color
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

1. In a saucepan combine the mashed strawberries and water.
2. Cook for 2 minutes. 
3. Add the food coloring.
4. Pour through a fine sieve to collect all the juice. 
5. Combine the sugar and the cornstarch. 
6. Bring the juice to a boil with the sugar mixture and boil until it thickens and runs clear. 
7. Chill completely.
8. Pour the cooled juice mixture over the fresh strawberries in the pie crust.
9. Serve with whipped cream.

Delicious, best fresh Strawberry Pie ever! Did I mention that already? 

Roll Kuchen

• 2 cups of sour cream
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• oil for deep frying

1. Combine sour cream, egg, oil.
2. Add the flour with baking powder and salt.
3. Knead together till you have a soft dough.
4. Flour the counter well and roll out to about a 1/4 inch.
5. Cut into strips, twisting them is optional.
6. Deep fry in a pan with about 2 inches of hot oil.
7. Let the oil come to the desired temperature, on your stoves medium setting. This takes a few minutes.
8. Do a test one, the dough should bubble at the sides, and be browned in matter seconds. Turn the roll kuchen, fry til you have the desired color. DO NOT leave the pan unattended at any time!

The first time that I had this particular recipe is when our friends came to visit us while we were camping. They have a very light and soft texture as opposed to a very thin and crispy one, and don't taste greasy at all. I just love these plus they taste great with jam too!

Rollkuchen

 
Rollkuchen are a tasty, deep fried pastry that are a wonderful accompaniment to cold watermelon on a hot summer day.  How well I recall childhood picnics with big tubs of fresh Rollkuchen.  Let's just say that eating them is rather like eating peanuts...you can't stop at just one! Sometime over the years, Rollkuchen became paired with Roger's Golden Syrup (definitely a Canadian thing) on my table; they make a great team!

My mother-in-law made the best flaky, crispy Rollkuchen. Mine never quite measured up, so I have always made the thicker, softer variety and they have become a family favorite. Hers were all uniform in shape; mine are rather 'free-form'. Each recipe seems to differ slightly but I've never met a Rollkuchen I didn't like!

Rollkuchen

• 5 - 6 cups / 1150 - 1350 ml flour
• 3 teaspoons / 15 ml  baking powder
• 1 teaspoon / 5 ml salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup / 250 ml sour cream
• 1 cup / 250 ml milk

 

1. Combine 5 cups / 1150 ml  flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Beat eggs, sour cream and milk together and add to dry ingredients
3. Continue to add flour to form a soft dough ... usually about 1/2 cup more.
4. Allow the dough to chill for an hour or two before rolling, for easier handling.
5. Divide the dough in half and roll out quite thin on a floured board ... if you prefer them soft, then not quite so thin.
6. Cut strips of dough about 2x4 inches / 5x10 cm ... with two slits cut in center of each.
7. Stretch the pieces somewhat before dropping into the hot oil.
8. Fry in deep hot oil over medium heat until golden on one side. Turn and brown the other side.
    

The rollkuchen puff up beautifully while cooking and are really mostly air pockets by the time they are ready to eat. A totally a healthy choice!  Who am I fooling?

Serve with cold watermelon and Roger's golden syrup.  Grilled farmer sausage is also a nice touch!

Canada Day Strawberry Filled Doughnuts

Happy Canada Day!

All over Canada families and friends will be gathering to celebrate Canada's birthday.

If you live in Canada you already know that a Canadian favorite place to meet for coffee is the local doughnut shop.  

We stopped in ourselves for coffee and picked up some Tim Horton  Honey Crullers  for our Canada Day dessert.

 As far as I can tell, a glazed honey cruller is basically deep fried cream puff dough.

I thought it might make a great way to make cream puffs without heating up the oven on a hot day and a great way to make a quick dessert.

 I used an electric knife to slice them in half.

If you don't have an electric knife, use a sharp serrated knife.

I then gently removed the soft part inside which is much like we do with cream puffs.
I then filled them and served them "open faced".
Six doughnuts makes enough for 12 servings.

For smaller appetites,

I used some of the little honey cruller tim bits and stuffed them with whipped cream and strawberries.

• Tim Horton Honey Cruller doughnuts and doughnut holes
• fresh berries
• 2 cups whipping cream (for one dozen doughnuts and 20 timbits
• 2 packages Dr. Oetker Whip It cream stabilizer or 2 tablespoons vanilla instant pudding
• 1/4 cup powdered / icing sugar

1. Slice doughnuts in half using a electric knife or serrated knife.
2. Remove the soft part of in the inside of the doughnut.
3. Wash and dry strawberries and slice and dice into small pieces.
4. Whip cream with stabilizer or instant pudding and powdered sugar until stiff.
5. Place whipped cream into a piping bag with a star tip, fill the doughnut and top with strawberry pieces and then garnish with a few more stars of whipped cream.
6. Refrigerate until serving time.  These filled doughnuts are best when doughnuts are purchased and and put together on the same day.

Rollkuchen

Every Mennonite recipe book needs at least a few different recipes for Rollkuchen. . .and that way when you are out of ingredients for one of the recipes. . maybe you'll have the ingredients for another. . . This recipe is my mother in laws. . .and I've been making it this way. . .for 31 years. . .with no complaints.

Rollkuchen

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 3 farm fresh eggs
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 3 cups of flour

1. Mix these ingredients together and knead into a ball.
2. Wrap the dough up and refrigerate it for a few hours.

Letting it sit makes it so much easier to roll out.Rolling it thin, makes a crisper roll kuchen and leaving it a bit thicker makes for a softer roll kuchen. No doubt you'll be making them a few times in summer, so you can experiment on how you prefer them.
Because the dough is rich, its very easy to work with. No sticking problems.Cut the dough into about 3 -4 long strips and then cut across to make rectangular shapes.
Cut 2 slits in the middle of each so that they don't become one big balloon in the hot fat. You can also cut one slit. . .and pull the dough through. . .for a change.
Heat some fat up in a large pot. I use Canola Oil.
When the fat has little bubbles coming to the surface, it is likely hot enough, but put in a small piece of dough to test it. It should start to bubble around the dough quickly and rise to the surface.
Put the fried rollkuchen on paper towels to cool. Serve with Cold Watermelon. ..and some Rogers Syrup on the side.

Bread for the Journey

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;

may the Lord rejoice in his works.

He looks at the earth, and it trembles;

he touches the mountains, and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,

as I rejoice in the Lord.

Psalm 104: 31 - 34

Have a Blessed Sunday.

All for now. . .

with love,

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are a favorite dessert in our family. We like them served with whipped cream and peaches or strawberries or with a vanilla pudding and whipped cream and chocolate drizzled on top.
This recipe can be doubled and you may want to because they disappear really fast!

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 large eggs

1. In a medium sized saucepan bring water and butter to boil.
2. Stir in flour, sugar and salt, stirring constantly until mixture forms into a ball. Remove from heat.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time until mixture is smooth.
4. Scoop mixture on baking sheet at least 2" apart.
5. Bake in a 400º oven for 15 minutes, then lower temperature to 350º for 30 minutes.
6. Turn oven off and with oven door slightly ajar allow puffs to dry out for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven.
7. Best served fresh. They can be frozen and reheated. 
8. Yield: 9 medium sized puffs

Raspberry Glaze for a Raspberry Custard Pie

It is Raspberry Pie seaon.  This summers raspberry pie features a glaze made with part of the fresh raspberries.  Last year I featured my  raspberry custard pie using a bit of raspberry jam glaze.  It is a bit redundant and yet I like the option of different glazes and perhaps you do too. You should also take a look at Judy's Raspberry Glaze which features raspberry jello.  I have also made that one many times with raspberries, strawberries and peaches. . . Like I said, we want to provide you with options.

• one baked pie shell 

Custard

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 egg yolks

Fresh Raspberry Glaze

• 4 cups raspberries
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Custard Instructions

1. Combine the 1/3 sugar and the first 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a small  saucepan.
2. Stir in the milk and the egg yolks and bring to a boil over medium heat. . stirring continually.
3. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then pour into the baked pie shell and allow to cool in the refrigerator.

The Raspberry Glaze

1. Take 1 cup of the raspberries and combine them with the water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil and allow to simmer 4 minutes.
2. Strain the berries and discard the berries. . .but save the juice.
3. Combine the 1 cup sugar and the 3 tablespoons cornstarch in a small bowl and then add to the juice with a whisk  If you do not combine the sugar and cornstarch first. .you will have lumps.
4. Stir over medium heat until the glaze clears and comes to a simmer.
5. Arrange one layer of berries over the custard and drizzle half the glaze over . . .and repeat.
6. Refrigerate  for several hours to set and decorate with sweetened whipped cream

Fresh Strawberry Pie

There is nothing quite like fresh strawberries bursting with the sweet flavour of early summer..... 

unless.... it is fresh strawberries piled high in a tender pastry crust and topped with a sweet fruit glaze.

The only thing that can improve this pie is a dollop of slightly sweetened whipped cream flavoured 

with just a hint of vanilla.

This pie is best served the same day you make it.  

The juice from the berries will make the crust soggy by the second day. 

• Approximately 3-4 quarts of  whole fresh strawberries, washed and hulled. Leave one large berry with the green hull attached to use as a garnish.
• 1 baked pastry crust
• Whipped cream for serving.

For the glaze:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup crushed strawberries (try to crush them as much as possible so that they are almost pureed.
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon rind, if desired

1. Wash berries and lay out on a paper towel and pat dry. Set aside.
2. Prepare glaze:
3. Mix sugar and cornstarch in microwave safe bowl.
4. Add crushed berries, juices, water and lemon rind and stir well.
5. Microwave at 1 minute intervals, stirring after each minute, until mixture thickens.
6. Cool slightly in a cold ice water bath, stirring frequently.
7. In the meantime, fill baked pie shell with berries. Place each starwberry pointed side up, starting on the outside and making circles of berries towards the centre until the bottom of the pie shell is covered.  It's nice if the berries are of fairly uniform size.
8. Spoon about 1/3 of the glaze over berries until they are covered.
9. Make another layer of berries, repeating the circular pattern with the points up.
10. Again, spoon glaze over berries.
11. Starting from the centre this time, make 2 more circles of berries (there should be one berry in the very centre) And cover with the rest of the glaze.
12. Take the strawberry reserved for the garnish, and cut slices from the point  almost to the stem, keeping the hull and top part of the berry intact.  Gently spread the slices of the berry open and place in centre of pie.
13. Refrigerate for several hours.
14. Serve pie with a dollop of whipped cream.

Donuts

I started a tradition that wasn't really meant to be a tradition, but when you are Mennonite and do something once that went over well and everyone liked it HAS to become tradition......."awe come on mom, we did it last year". So hence a new tradition had begun. Each child is allowed to invite their friends, cousins, second, third cousins, whom ever they wish. The first year that we did it my sister in-love and I didn't know how many the recipe would make so to be on the safe side the Mennonite in us came out and quadrupled the recipe. After all we wanted to make sure there was plenty. CAUTION..........unless you want to feed the masses of 500 or more DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT quadruple the recipe. We made hundreds, fried for hours, we were covered in a thin layer of grease ourselves. We invited another family, then more families, then people from church, neighbours. They ALL got eaten. Donuts need to be eaten fresh. Set an afternoon aside, set up a Coleman stove outside so your house doesn't smell like a deep fryer, invite the people you love and just enjoy. I must say that fun was had by all. Oh by the way I only doubled the recipe this time, I am sure the teenagers ate a dozen each. The boys for sure did. It made about 200.

Raised Donuts or (Donuts originally from the Mennonite Treasury Cookbook)

• 1 tablespoon quick rise yeast
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups scalded milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening ( I used oil)
• About 6 cups flour

1. Add dry yeast to 3 cups flour, salt and sugar. 
2. Scald milk, add 1 cup water, oil and beaten eggs. 
3. Mix in enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for about 5 minutes. 
4. Let rise approximately 1/2 hour. 
5. Roll into 1/4-1/2" thick and cut into desired shape with either a donut cutter or cookie cutter.
6. Deep fry until golden brown. 
7. Careful that the oil doesn't get too hot, usually cooking on medium heat to medium high is enough. 
8. Glaze while warm in following glaze.

Glaze:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 milk

Bring to boil, take off heat and add

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Whisk ingredients together, keep on a low element.
2. Dip the warm donuts into the glaze and place on parchment lined cookie sheets to dry.
3. Enjoy.