Recently we had a TEAM Resources meeting where we enjoyed reading and reviewing your letters. Thank you to all the readers who sent in candied zucchini recipes.
This year in our Christmas draw on Dec. 10, we are giving away 12 cookbooks: six of Atco’s A Holiday Collection, three Omelettes-Perfect Anytime, and three Grandma’s Kitchen.
To enter the draw, mail your name and address to TEAM Resources Christmas Cookbook Draw, The Western Producer, P.0. Box 2500, Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 2C4.
If you would like to include your family’s favourite ethnic or traditional holiday or Christmas recipe, we would be glad to receive these recipes to share with our readers.
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Speaking of recipes for Christmas, we have had a request for an old recipe that we couldn’t find. It is a butter tart made with dry cottage cheese. Anyone having it, please send it along.
This week’s column features a recipe from each of the cookbooks in the draw. With Christmas less than a month away, and family and friends arriving, I appreciate new recipe ideas.
From A Holiday Collection, these spice bran muffins will be a welcome addition to breakfast, brunch or evening snack.
Since Don bought buttermilk rather than regular milk when he was in town, this recipe appealed to me.
Holiday spice bran muffins
1 cup buttermilk 250 mL
1/3 cup oil 75 mL
1/4 cup fancy molasses 50 mL
1/4 cup sugar 50 mL
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla 5 mL
11/2 cups shredded bran cereal 375 mL
1 cup flour 250 mL
11/2 teaspoons baking powder 7 mL
11/2 teaspoons cinnamon 7 mL
1 teaspoon ginger 5 mL
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 mL
1/2 teaspoon salt 2 mL
1/4 teaspoon cloves 1 mL
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg 1 mL
Whisk together first six ingredients in a bowl until blended. Stir in bran cereal. Let stand for 10 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients in another bowl.
Stir in bran mixture until just blended. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups, filling them three-quarters full. Bake at 375 F (190 C) for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.
Cool muffins in pan for five minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a rack. May be frozen. Makes one dozen muffins.
Source: The Atco Blue Flame Kitchen’s A Holiday Collection, 800-840-3393.
Since we’ll all be home for Christmas this year, I am looking for ideas for something different for morning meals.
Grandma’s Kitchen is full of breakfast recipes, appetizers, soups and stews, main courses and desserts. I was immediately attracted to the treat on the front cover of Grandma’s Kitchen, and it tastes as good as it looks, like a cross between a pancake and a cream puff.
It takes less than five minutes to prepare, and while it’s cooking for 25 minutes, you can get the fruit and the rest of the breakfast ready.
Puffy oven pancake with fresh fruit
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk 125 mL
1/4 teaspoon salt 1 mL
1/2 cup flour 125 mL
1 tablespoon butter 15 mL
3 cups fresh berries 750 mLÂ or chopped fresh fruit
sour cream or yogurt for topping
brown sugar for topping
In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt and flour.
Place butter in a nine inch (22 cm) pie plate; melt in a 450 F (230 C) oven for two minutes, or until butter sizzles. Remove pan from oven; tilt to coat with butter.
Quickly pour whisked batter into pie plate and return to oven. Bake for 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350 F (180 C) and bake 10 minutes, or until pancake is puffed and golden brown.
Spoon fruit over pancake. Serve with sour cream and brown sugar. Yield: Four servings.
Source: Grandma’s Kitchen – Comfort Cooking from Canadian Grandmas by Irene Hrechuk and Verna Zasada, Centax Books.
The following is a one-serving Christmas breakfast or brunch idea with an added horseradish zing.
Sure wake-up omelette
2 eggs
1 tablespoon milk 15 mL
1 tablespoon minced red pepper 15 mL
1 tablespoon minced green pepper 15 mL
salt and pepper, to taste
horseradish to taste
1 tablespoon shredded 15 mL
cheddar cheese
Whisk eggs and milk in a medium bowl. Stir in peppers, salt, pepper and horseradish. Spray a small non-stick skillet with cooking spray. Preheat to medium. Pour egg mixture into skillet.
As mixture sets at the edges, use a spatula to gently lift cooked portion to allow uncooked egg to flow underneath. Cook until bottom is set and top is almost set, about four minutes. Sprinkle cheese on top. Fold the omelette in half. Slide onto a warm plate
Source: Omelettes – Perfect Anytime by the Canadian Egg Mar-keting Agency, Centax Books, 306-525-2304.
Custard for a pie
An Alberta reader requested a custard for flapper pie. My favourite pie of all is my mother’s flapper pie. She bakes a graham wafer crust, cooks the cream filling in the double boiler on the stove, then tops the filling with a meringue of beaten egg whites and sugar. Here is the cream filling recipe:
Cream filling
2 cups milk 500 mL
2/3 cup sugar 150 mL
1/3 cup cornstarch 75 mL
3 egg yolks (use the whites for meringue)
1 tablespoon butter 15 mL
1 teaspoon vanilla 5 mL
Cook the first four ingredients in the double boiler, stirring until thick. Remove from stove and add butter and vanilla.
Pour into a baked graham wafer crust and top with beaten egg white meringue. Cook the pie in a 375 F (190 C) oven for seven-10 minutes.
If you are looking for an old-fashioned egg custard pie, try the following recipe from www.cooks.com/rec/ch/desserts:
Old-fashioned egg custard pie
1 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar 255 mL
3 eggs
2 cups milk 500 mL
2 tablespoons melted butter 30 mL
1 teaspoon vanilla 5 mL
1 teaspoon nutmeg 5 mL
(optional)
1 teaspoon flour 5 mL
1 unbaked pie shell, 9 inch (22 cm)
Set aside one teaspoon (five mL) sugar. Whip remaining one cup (250 mL) sugar with eggs until creamy.
Beat in milk, melted butter, vanilla and nutmeg. Combine the reserved sugar with the flour and sprinkle evenly over the pie shell before filling. Heat oven to 300 F (150 C). Pour custard into pie shell and bake about 40 minutes, until firm.
