Coffee Squares

Sometimes you need a dessert in short notice. Supper is a bit thin and the family is hungry after a day of hard work; friends have dropped in and you want a little tasty treat to go with coffee or tea.

These bar cookies, or squares, are quick to make and bake in less than 30 minutes. They have a delicious butterscotch richness. I put almonds in them because almonds don't overwhelm the buttery-sugar taste, but any other mild cooking nut could be used, or none at all.

I adapted this from an old Ontario Mennonite recipe.

Equipment: Medium mixing bowl and wooden spoon; small saucepan and spoon; 9x9 square baking pan; measuring cups and spoons.

Ingredients: 1/4 cup butter, and use real butter; 3/4 cup brown sugar; 1 egg; 3/4 cup flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 tablespoon cold brewed coffee; 1/2 cup slivered almonds or other nuts.

Directions: Heat the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, just until they meld and turn a rich brown, but not until the mixture is melted into a liquid. Pour the butter and sugar mixture into a medium mixing bowl, let cool a bit, then add the egg, mixing in well. Add the flour and baking powder, and beat, then the coffee and nuts, mixing them in thoroughly. Butter the 9x9 pan and spread the batter across the bottom. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, just until the top is done and the cookie dough is firm but still moist and a bit gooey. Cut into bars or squares while still warm, and serve. They don't come out neatly, but don't worry about that, as they are so delicious even in uneven pieces. These do not become fluffy like a cake.

Don't neglect to scrape down the saucepan while the remaining butter-sugar mixture is still warm and fudgy. Just don't burn your mouth tasting it. It is sumptuous, and if I lived alone, I would be tempted to make the butterscotch mixture sans other ingredients just to spread on squares of white cake or sugar cookies, or - oh, I'll admit it - eat right out of the pan.

Egg Fu Yung with Zucchini

We like Chinese style food, but the average prepared Chinese restaurant or take-out meal is much too high in sodium and fat for us. Considering that the ingredients used are fairly low cost, the price seems a tad high, too. I adapted this recipe from one in More With Less, a famous Mennonite cookbook I first had back in the 1980s. My sister Jeanne was at university in Pennsylvania then, and got to know Mennonites. She sent me the cookbook for Christmas one year. I loaned that copy to someone and never got it back, and then bought another copy, which also disappeared the same way. I finally bought another copy this year through eBay. It has recipes from not only Mennonites living on farms, but missionaries and people who have traveled extensively. The recipes are simple, low cost, and nutritious, which is the mission of the editor and committee that compiled the cookbook.

Equipment: Box grater, knife, cutting board, mixing bowl, spoon, skillet and spatula, measuring cups and spoons.

Ingredients: Enough zucchini to make four cups grated, maybe one large or two mediumish zukes; 3-4 eggs; 1/3 cup flour; one clove garlic, pressed or minced; 1 finely diced or grated white onion, medium. For the sauce: 1 cup broth or stock, chicken or vegetable; 1 tablespoon soy sauce, preferably low sodium; 1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot.

Directions: Wash but do not peel zucchini, cut into large pieces and grate on a box grater. Stir in the eggs, flour, garlic and onion. Fry in a little olive oil over medium high heat, turning when lightly browned. Keep warm in an oven set at 275-300F. Blend the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a bubbling boil for a few minutes, until thickened.

Serve over rice or rice noodles, with the sauce poured over the little fu yung pancakes and anything else you are serving. I usually serve just steamed vegetables on the side. This is quick if you use the rice noodles, which cook in minutes.

Mennonite Bran Gems or Muffins

While I love to bake, so many homebaked goods are high in sugar and fat. That's what makes them taste so good, right? But there are good homemade treats that aren't all sweet and saturated, and can be served without a dollop of butter or jam. These little bran muffins, for instance, are delicious.

This is another adaptation of an old Waterloo County Mennonite recipe. I like this for a quick bread or sweet to go with afternoon tea, and my husband thinks they are as good as cookies. They aren't very sweet in terms of sugar, but the molasses and bran make them seem sweeter than they are.

Bran is part of the wheat kernel, and when flour is milled, it is removed. Usually it is included in the manufacture of boxed cereals or used for animal feeds. That's a pity, because it is nutritious and adds a good deal of necessary fibre to the diet. Why save it for grape nuts or bran buds, or feed it to the goats?

I buy it in the baking aisle of the store, or at the bulk foods store. It isn't expensive, and sometimes I add a half cup or so to baked products that are just white flour. It adds fibre without changing the taste or texture.

Equipment: Mixing bowl, mixing spoon or electric mixer, mini muffin or "gem" pan, measuring cup and spoons.

Ingredients: 1/3 cup white sugar; 1 tablespoon molasses; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 egg; 1 cup milk with 1 teaspoon vinegar, or 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk;  1 teaspoon baking soda stirred into 1/2 cup white flour; about 2 cups wheat bran.

Directions: Cream (mix thoroughly until soft) the sugar, molasses and butter. Beat in the egg, then the milk. Add the flour mixture, stir well. Add the bran until you have a soft, pourable dough that just starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Butter the muffin tin cups and dollop a tablespoon or more or more of batter into each cup, depending on the size of the cups. My mini muffin pan takes about two tablespoons per cup, and that makes two dozen exactly.

Bake at 375F for 10-15 minutes or so, depending on the size of the muffins. Do not overbake. They should be nicely moist inside, without a crispy crust.

Traditional Apple Pie

"Easy as pie" is apparently a self-contradictory statement. Many people tell me they have never made a pie, or the one they made was such a horror that the dog buried it rather than risk eating it.

One friend tried to impress the man she was dating by making a pumpkin pie. the filling is just a custard with pureed pumpkin it it; that's pretty easy. She'd seen her mother make pie crust many times, and it didn't look like it took an advanced degree in engineering. So she pulled out the ever-faithful "Joy of Cooking" and got started.

First, the dough didn't want to hang together, so she added more water. This made it sticky, so as she rolled it out, she added more flour. And then some more flour. Then it was so stiff she had to bash it with the rolling pin to roll it into a circle big enough for the pie plate. The filling went in, she baked it as directed, and after a couple of grilled steaks and a nice garden salad, she served dessert.

The filling was great, she related. But the crust itself required a hacksaw. The pathetic empty crust had the same texture as an asphalt roofing shingle.

My father makes great pies, much better than my mother did. "Your mother was too impatient with it," he says. "You have to be gentle, gentle with it."

My Dad makes it sound like a Zen meditation, the Yankee equivalent of tea ceremony. Plan. Lay out the utensils and ingredients. Chill what needs to be chilled, including your attitude. Take your time. You can't rush a great pie crust.

Equipment: Mixing bowl, pastry blender, fork, pie plate.

Ingredients: To make a 9-inch double crust pie, 2 cups sifted flour; 1 teaspoon salt (or not if you prefer); 1/2 cup lard or vegetable shortening, cold; 1/4 cup or so of very cold water.

Do not substitute cooking oil for the solid shortening. I use lard because I am wary of how vegetable shortening is made to be solid at room temperature. Lard will make a flakier crust, too, but some people object to the subtle taste difference. Obviously, for a vegetarian pie you would use vegetable shortening. You can use fine whole wheat flour instead of white flour. I don't find a big difference.

Directions: Mix the salt into the flour in a bowl. Cut the lard/shortening into the flour with the pastry blender until it is pretty thoroughly mixed in. (Some people say until the particles are the size of small peas, or rough ground meal. It just needs to be well blended, but not so worked over that it gets warm and starts to melt.) Now add the cold water all at once, stir quickly with a fork to work in most of the flour/fat particles. Don't worry if there is some at the bottom of the bowl. Try not to add more than a tablespoon more, working quickly, if it seems way too dry. This will be a fairly dry dough.

Now turn it out onto a floured pastry board or counter top. Very lightly knead it gently to hold it together. It should look like layers of shale or something flaky, not like bread dough. With a floured rolling pin, and a little flour sprinkled over the top, work half the dough out into a round, rolling from the middle with a light touch. When it is big enough to fit in the pie plate and up the sides, lift it with the rolling pin and slide it in. Roll out the other half the same way, and set aside. I sometimes refrigerate the dough before rolling it out, and if the kitchen is warm, put the rolled dough in the refrigerator while you get the filling ready.

Apple filling:
Peel and core 7-9 medium to large apples. I used yellow transparent for this pie, as the flavour is old-fashioned appley, although the slices dissolve into a wondrous apple butter. If you want visible slices, use a firmer cooking apple. Slice into eighths or so, but not too thin. Toss in a bowl with about 2/3 cup of white sugar or, half white, half brown; 2 tablespoons flour; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg and allspice. Spoon into the prepared pie crust (don't prick the lower crust, though, or you will have a gooey mess), add some dabs of butter, about 4 teaspoon size pieces, then top with the crust. Trim the crusts around the outer edge of the pie plate, and fold the two crusts together inside the plate. My mother always crimped hers along the lip of the plate, and the filling always bubbled out and burned in the oven. Then cut slits in the top crust to vent the steam.

Bake for ten minutes at 400F, then turn down the heat to about 350F for 30-40 minutes, until the crust starts to brown. If you like a nicely browned crust, brush it after the first ten minutes with a bit of milk. My crusts don't brown as much in the wood stove as the heat is even all around and not concentrated at the bottom.

 That's a basic pie. You can use other fruit instead of apples, but berry pies usually need cornstarch to keep them from turning into soups.

Homemade Mennonite Noodles

I can find the "noodles" recipe in my favourite Mennonite cookbook by touch. The page is gritty with flour. Noodle making is a floury undertaking.

I modified this recipe quite a bit as I used it, as ingredients have changed a bit since the 1950s, when it was first written. For one, eggs aren't usually as fresh or as big as farm eggs used to be. Standardization of breeding has changed that. I wonder, too, if flour has changed a bit, with different wheat varieties - there are fewer heirloom types commercially available - and a better drying process.

Noodles are easy but time consuming. It helps to have someone else to aid with cutting and hanging the noodles to dry. I don't recommend doubling the recipe unless there is someone else to spell with the rolling.

The equipment: Mixing bowl, measuring cup, heavy wooden spoon or steel mixing spoon, rolling pin (mine is marble), counter top or pastry board, sharp knife or rotary pizza cutter, floured tea towels or a folding clothes drying rack.

The ingredients: 2 cups flour, 2 whole eggs or 4 yolks, a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup or so of cold water.

Sprinkle the salt into the flour in the mixing bowl, lightly toss with your hands. Make a little well in the middle of the flour, add the eggs, muddle a little, then blend into the flour, adding the water as needed to make a dough that holds together and doesn't leave a lot of crumbs in the bottom.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board or counter top, and knead lightly until it is smooth and all the crumbly bits are worked in. Divide into four balls, add roll out one ball as thin as possible without tearing it. (Here is where a heavy marble pin really helps.) You are aiming for a rough rectangle in shape. You will never get it commercial egg noodle thin unless you have a pasta machine to roll it.

Put the dough sheet on a cutting board, and using a very sharp pointed knife, or even easier, a sharp pizza cutter, cut the rough rectangle the long way into strips about 1/4" wide, or whatever size you want. I toss the ragged edges aside to reroll.

Hang the cut strips on a drying rack - I use my wooden laundry rack, or lay them out on a floured tea (linen) towel or even a clean sheet if you can't improvise a drying rack. Some Mennonite women hang them on broomsticks laid across the backs of chairs. You can hang towels or sheets over the noodles to keep them clean, but it does slow down the drying. I always put a large towel under the drying rack because I will drop some of the noodles, without fail.

Roll and cut the rest of the noodle dough the same way. Leave it to dry at least a couple of hours. Traditionally, noodles were made in the morning for the evening meal. If there are more noodles than you wish to cook at once, let the rest dry overnight and store them in a canister or jar.

To cook: Get the rest of the meal prepared and hold it warm. Bring a pot of water to a boil, throw in some noodles, and cook at boiling for about five minutes. Test a piece for doneness. When it is cooked to your satisfaction, drain in a colander, and wither serve immediately or use in another dish. If you want to keep noodles in the refrigerator after boiling, toss them with olive oil or a bit of butter.

Serve the noodles dressed with butter and pepper, or with gravy. They are also really good with some fresh grated mild cheese, a little olive oil, and some fresh herbs. They can be the platform for Italian style tomato sauces, as well.

My mother would make them evenings my father was working, and we would have them in tomato soup garnished with bacon bits. We still eat them that way. It is a delicious light supper. Use any favourite canned or tetra pak tomato soup, or make your own by simmering tomato juice until it is reduced in volume by about 25%, then add a spoonful or so of sugar, a pinch of salt, and celery seed or other herbs. The bacon I use is smoked locally and is as dense as ham. I don't buy much of it because I use it mainly as a garnish or flavouring. I add fresh herbs to my soup, since I have a miniature herb garden just outside the door. Basil, chives and parsley are good.