Oatmeal Waffles

This recipe can be used for either waffles or pancakes.  Recipe courtesy of Hilary's Aunt Hilary

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Ingredients:

• 1.5 C rolled oats
• 2 C milk
• 1 C flour
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2.5 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 C oil or melted butter

Steps:

1. Soak oats in milk for 5 minutes
2. Sift together dry ingredients 
3. Add eggs and butter to oat mixture
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients, mixing well
5. Cook in waffle maker, or can be done as pancakes

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Tres Leche Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup masa harina
• 1/4 cup fine cornmeal
• 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 1 cup half and half cream
• 1/2 pt whipping cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Steps:

1. Setup a double boiler by filling a pot large enough to hold your mixer bowl and bring the water to a simmer. Move your oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 350 degrees F. 
2. Grease and flour a 9″ cake pan to prevent the finished cake from sticking.
3. Put the whole eggs, yolks, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a metal mixer bowl and whisk to combine. Put the bowl in your double boiler and whisk, heating until the mixture reaches 100 degrees F (luke warm).
4. Mount the bowl on the mixer and beat with the whisk attachment for at least 5 minutes. It may look ready before then, but it really needs to go this long to get enough air integrated. The volume will triple and pale yellow ribbons of egg will flow off the whisk
5. Sift the masa harina and cornmeal into a bowl though a fine double mesh strainer. 
6. When the egg mixture is ready, add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the eggs and fold together. Repeat twice more, folding between each addition until you can’t see any more clumps of flour.  Be gentle while folding though as it will not rise properly if the egg mixture deflates. 
7. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake until a skewer comes out clean (about 20-25 minutes). 
8. Put the cake pan on a rack and allow to cool.
9. To make the tres leches syrup, just whisk the three ingredients together in a bowl. You only need half the mixture, so you can either double the batter and make 2 cakes, or you can store the extra syrup in a sealed container for the next cake you make.
10. Use a toothpick to poke holes all over the cake, this will help the cake absorb the tres leches syrup. 
11. When the cake cools to room temperature, pour half the syrup mixture over the cake, making sure to evenly saturate the edges. 
12. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
13. For the whipped cream, put the cream, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. 
14. Beat until you see peaks form in the cream. 
15. Spread the whipped cream evenly over the top of the cake. 
16. Slice and serve with fruit.

Recipe source:  http://norecipes.com/blog/pastel-de-tres-leches/

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Pizzelles

Pizelles are traditional Italian Christmas cookies.  Both my Grandmother and my mother have made them for years, and now it's my turn.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 2 tsp Anise flavouring
• 1-3/4 cups sugar
• 5-1/2 cups flour (approx)

Steps:

Mix all the ingredients together until well blended, using your hands at the end as it can be quite stiff.  If your dough is too wet, add a bit more flour.

Roll the dough into small half inch balls, place in the middle of the hot press and slowly close it tight.  It takes a couple of trial cookies to get your balls just the right size, not too small like the one below, but not so big that they leak out the sides and make a mess.

These cookies do requires a Pizzelle press. You can get an electric one, which my Grandmother used, but I found hers made the cookies too small and too thick.  I much prefer this one, though it does mean making the cookies one by one (most electric ones do two at a time)

Because there is so much oil in the dough, there is little need to oil the press before you use it.  Just make sure it's very hot to start.  The risk of these cookies is that you will likely set off the smoke detector at least once and will end up with all the windows open, even though it's December.  The oil also splatters and can cause small flare ups on the burner, so you must be very attentive to each cookie.  Once your press is hot enough it only takes about a minute per side to get them cooked just right.

 

 

 

Spaetzle

Spaetzle
from The Joy of Cooking

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk or water

Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture and combine. The batter should be slightly elastic. Boil 6 cups of salted water in a large saucepan. Press batter through a large-holed colander or spaetzle maker. Don't try to use all the batter all at once. As the noodles rise to the top of the water, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place them in a colander to drain. The noodles should be light - if they're on the heavy side, add more milk to the batter before continuing with the next batch.