Holiday baking: 7 recipes from different cuisines of the world
text:Olga Antonova
in the midst of winter, the expression "festive spirit" It acquires a literal meaning: the time comes for "seasonal" flavors, everywhere tangerines and ginger. On this occasion, we recently collected recipes for spicy warming drinks. But New Year and Christmas are getting closer, and time to think about special dishes for the festive table. Today we talk about the unusual pastries, which are prepared for the winter holidays in different countries of the world. We chose seven non-dull variations of traditional dishes - salty and sweet. Some recipes will require a lot of time, food and effort, but the result is worth it. Do not deny yourself the pleasure to eat fragrant pies: winter holidays are an excellent reason to try something new and tasty.
Pineapple Pumpkin Pie
Open pumpkin pie - a cult dessert of American cuisine that is often associated with Thanksgiving. In fact, the cake is baked during the whole pumpkin season: for both Halloween and Christmas. We offer an unusual variation of the traditional dessert.
PREPARATION:
For the base, mix the flour, sugar and baking powder, add the chopped cold butter, egg yolk and knead the dough. Then distribute it in shape, forming the bottom and sides, and refrigerate for an hour. Send the cooled dough to an oven preheated to 180 degrees for five to seven minutes. Cool the base.
Pour the gelatin with cold water, leave for five minutes, then pour in boiling water and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
Put pumpkin puree, peeled and chopped pineapple, milk, sugar and spices in a blender: cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and vanilla. Beat all ingredients until smooth and frothy. Let the mixture stand until it thickens slightly.
Pour the filling into the base for the cake and refrigerate for 4 hours. Serve chilled.
Pancakes with fish filling and feta dip
After the ban on religious holidays in 1929 in Soviet Russia, all the traditions of Christmas - the Christmas tree, gifts and feast - smoothly switched to the secular New Year. Traditional Christmas dishes have always been cakes and pancakes with various fillings. We propose to dwell on the latter and share a recipe for pancakes, a tasty filling and a savory dip - a thick sauce in which you can dip the pancakes.
PREPARATION:
All ingredients for the dough should be at room temperature. In a deep bowl, beat the eggs with salt and sugar into a sumptuous foam, then add half the milk and mix until smooth. Pour the flour, mix thoroughly, pour in milk and vegetable oil, mix again, cover the dough and leave for 30 minutes.
Bake thin pancakes in a greased pan over high heat.
For the filling, sprinkle the spinach in the pan for a couple of minutes and then cool. Fry chopped onion and garlic, also cool, mix with spinach and tuna. Add pepper to taste, dill and yogurt.
For a dip, chop the garlic and greens, using a blender, chop the crushed feta with yogurt into mash and mix all the ingredients. Salt and pepper the resulting mass.
Wrap the stuffing in pancakes, deep serve separately.
Cherry strudel
The traditional Austrian dessert, popular on Christmas in many European countries, first appeared in 1696 and has long needed no introduction. Stuffing for strudel can be very different, but the classic options involve apples or cherries. Special exhaust dough that needs to be rolled to a translucent state allows for a multi-layered and tender restaurant dessert. Feel free to cook it at home: strudel does not require sophisticated products and complex manipulations.
PREPARATION:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, cover the baking sheet with baking paper. Thaw the cherries, letting the juice drain.
In a deep bowl, mix the flour, salt, vegetable oil, egg and water. Knead the dough thoroughly on a greased surface for 10-15 minutes. Wrap the dough in the film and let stand for at least half an hour.
Crush dried bread into a crumb with a blender. Grind the almonds separately. In a dry frying pan or butter, fry the bread crumbs for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat. Add crushed almonds, sugar and mix thoroughly.
Lightly roll the dough onto a floured surface, and then slowly stretch it with your hands into a rectangle. The dough should be very thin and transparent.
Grease the surface of the dough with butter and evenly spread the dressing, stepping back from the edges by 3-4 centimeters. On the side where there will be the top layer of strudel, leave a little more space.
Spread the cherries evenly, fold the edges of the dough from the sides and gently fold the strudel, brushing the outer part of the roll with butter after each turn. It will be much more convenient to fold the strudel if you spread out the stretched dough on a thin clean towel and use it to carry out all the manipulations.
Transfer the strudel down onto a baking tray covered with baking paper. Grease with melted butter and bake at 180 degrees for 40-45 minutes.
Sprinkle the finished strudel with powdered sugar and serve warm with a scoop of ice cream.
Gingerbread
The recipe for such gingerbread has become widely known during the Crusades, and gradually ginger baking became an integral part of the Catholic Christmas. As a rule, gingerbread make curly and covered with multi-colored glaze. Sometimes they even collect a small gingerbread house, having prepared a model in advance and made edible parts. This recipe comes from Finland, there the gingerbread is known as gingerbread - gingerbread.
PREPARATION:
Bring honey and spices to a boil, add butter, mix thoroughly and cool.
Beat eggs with sugar and combine with cooled spicy honey. Mix soda with flour and gradually, sifting through a sieve, mix the flour into the honey mass. Do not knead the dough, but immediately put it in the fridge for the night.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 3 millimeters, cut the figures out of it using molds and bake for about 10 minutes in an oven at 180 degrees.
For glaze, mix water and powdered sugar, apply the mixture on the finished gingerbread and leave to dry for 10-12 hours.
Christmas cakes
The famous mince pies are an integral part of the Christmas table in the UK. At first, the stuffing for them was made from minced meat, dried fruits, nuts, spices and lard, but in the Victorian era meat was gradually abandoned, and the cakes themselves became much sweeter and less. The most important thing in the recipe is the aromatic filling, and for the sake of an authentic, unforgettable taste, it is worthwhile to find the right ingredients.
PREPARATION:
For shortbread dough, soften the softened butter with sugar and eggs. Then mix the flour with sugar and soda, quenched with lemon juice. Combine all the ingredients, quickly knead the dough and refrigerate.
For the filling, chop the prunes and walnuts, add the raisins, sugar and spices, pour the resulting mixture of brandy and leave the filling to soak for a day.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease the molds with oil. On a floured surface, roll out half the short pastry to a thickness of about 3 millimeters. Carefully cut out twelve large circles with a glass, then place them in molds and refrigerate for thirty minutes.
Put the mixture of dried fruits in a bowl, add the peeled and finely chopped apple, cinnamon, cranberries, chopped dried apricots and ginger and mix thoroughly.
Roll out the remaining half of the dough also to a thickness of 3 millimeters and, using a glass of a smaller diameter than the previous one, cut out twelve more circles — these will be lids for the pies. Then knead the remains of dough, roll out and cut into figures to decorate the cakes.
Put the stuffing into the bases for the pies, fill them in half, and then carefully distribute them to the brim. Grease the edges with an egg beaten with milk. Cover the cakes with lids and gently clamp the edges. Garnish with carved figures on top and brush with egg mixture again.
Bake the patties in the oven at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve, sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Rugelah
Hanukkah is one of the main holidays in the Jewish calendar, the day of light and freedom, which is celebrated in honor of the liberation of the Jerusalem temple from its enemies. It is customary to gather at Hanukkah by large companies for conversations and meals, and it is not surprising that a large number of delicious dishes appear on the tables. Baking is very popular with bagels - small bagels stuffed with jam, nuts and dried fruits.
PREPARATION:
For the dough, mix in a large bowl softened butter and cream cheese, flour and salt. Knead, divide into four balls and refrigerate for 4 hours.
Lightly heat the apricot jam. In a separate small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon.
Sprinkle the surface with flour. Roll each dough ball separately into a circle, evenly spread apricot jam over the surface and sprinkle with chopped walnuts, sugar with cinnamon and dried cranberries.
Cut each circle into eight triangles and fold each from the wide side to the top. Put the bagels on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
For topping in a small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. Grease each bagel with a beaten egg and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Bake the bagels for 25 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees until golden brown. Cool before serving.
Rice Buns
Fa gao - these are colorful airy cupcakes that are made for the New Year in China. Preparing this simple steamed dessert. In the process of making the tops of cupcakes cracking, split into four pieces and resemble blossoming flowers. In China, it is believed that fa gao symbolize the flowering of new life and hope, and also bring happiness.
PREPARATION:
In a deep bowl, mix rice and wheat flour, baking powder and sugar, then pour in water and add jam, dried fruit and food coloring. Mix thoroughly and leave to mix for twenty minutes.
Put four or five small bowls into a steamer and heat them with steam at maximum power for five minutes. Then place paper molds in pialas and fill them with dough almost to the brim.
Cook the buns for thirty minutes without opening the steamer. Then cool fa gao and remove from the molds.
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