Seasonal Recipes

Pan_de_yuca

Baking is appropriate for celebrating Imbolc, and we often make Crescent cakes for the end of our Imbolc ritual. Here is our circle’s favorite recipe:

  • 1 1/4 cups Flour
  • 3/4 cup Sugar
  • 1 cup Finely Ground Almonds
  • 3 drops Almond Extract
  • 1/2 cup Butter or Margarine, softened
  • 1 tablespoon Honey
  • 1 Egg Yolk

In a large mixing bowl, combine the first four ingredients. Add the butter, honey and egg yolk and mix together well. Cover with aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and then chill for 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

When ready, pinch off pieces of the dough (about the size of plums) and shape them into crescents. Place the crescents on a well-greased cookie sheet and bake in a 325-degree preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes. This recipe yields 20 to 25 crescents.

From Rose Ariadne

iy0313_three-kings-bread-jpg-rend-sni12col-landscape

This bready, donut-shaped cake is decorated with dried fruits and spiked with a non-edible representation of the baby Jesus. Rosca de reyes is traditionally eaten on January 6 to commemorate the biblical story of the arrival of the Three Kings, (Three Kings Day). Finding the baby Jesus in your slice of cake is an honor –  one the recipient celebrates by throwing a party on February 2 with tamales and atole for all guests.

Ingredients:

  • 1 (1/4-ounce) packet active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup dried figs, cut into strips, plus more for garnish
  • 1/4 cup candied orange peel, cut into strips, plus more for garnish
  • 1/4 cup candied lemon peel, cut into strips, plus more for garnish
  • 1/4 cup chopped candied cherries, plus more whole for garnish
  • 2 tablespoons light rum
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 large eggs, divided
  • Water
  • Small ceramic Jesus figurine or coin to represent Jesus

Instructions:

In a small bowl, combine the yeast and warm water; stir to blend. Let stand until the yeast comes alive and starts to foam, about 5 to 10 minutes. Put all of the candied fruit in small bowl and drizzle the rum on top. Let stand for 15 minutes to 1 hour to infuse the flavor.

In a small pot, warm the milk over medium heat. Add the sugar, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.

In a large bowl, mix 3 1/2 cups flour, 2 eggs, yeast mixture, milk mixture, and the rum soaked candied fruits, mixing very well until the dough gathers into a ball. If the dough is too wet, Add additional flour, a little at a time, if needed to form a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it’s smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Put the ball of dough back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 1 hour.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface. Using your palms, roll the dough into a long rope. Shape the coil into a ring, sealing the ends together. Insert a little doll or coin into the bread from the bottom. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Carefully transfer the dough ring to the prepared baking pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl with 1 tablespoon of water to make an egg wash, and brush the top of the bread. Decoratively garnish the top of the bread with more candied fruit and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cake is golden. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Cook’s Note: Let your guests know there is a little doll or coin inserted inside.

Recipe courtesy of Ingrid Hoffmann

galette-des-rois

Traditionally, a cake was baked for this day, (Jan 17) and a bean hidden somewhere in the mixture and baked along with it. Whoever received the piece of cake with the bean was appointed King or Queen of the Bean for the night, and lead the company in songs and games. Here’s a recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups currants
  • 1 1/2 cups raisins
  • 1 1/2 cups sultanas
  • 3 tbsp brandy
  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 1/4 cup candied cherries
  • 1 pinch cinnamon
  • 1 dried bean

Grease a 12 inch cake tin. Cream the butter and sugar together and stir in the well-beaten eggs and the brandy. Sift the flour with a little cinnamon and fold into the mixture, then stir in the dried fruit.

Add the bean.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for three hours at 300′ F. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before turning out. Melt the honey and glaze the top of the cake, and decorate with the cherries.

Recipe source unknown

Magical Attributes: Generosity, goodwill, empathy, service, and depending on which goodies you put into the dough other blessings will abound.

yulebread

  • 1/2 teaspoon saffron
  • 3 tablespoons hot water
  • 2 envelopes active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
  • 1/4 sup sugar, plus 1/4 teaspoon
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 4 cups sifted flour
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups of any combination of currents, candied fruits, nuts, raisins, chocolate chips,

Soak the saffron in the hot water for 1 1/2 hours. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and 1/4 teaspoon sugar in the warm water. Mix the milk, remaining sugar, butter and salt; cool. Add the egg, milk mixture and saffron to the yeast, beat until smooth.

Sprinkle your combination of goodies with two teaspoons of the flour. Mix until evenly coated. Mix the rest of the flour with the yeast mixture…fold in your combination of goodies and put on a well floured surface and kneed until smooth.

Place in greased bowl, turn once, let rise in warm place until doubled, about an hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Knead dough twice.

Next it’s your choice…divide into 24 pieces and roll into small buns…or…devide in half and bake as loaves or roll into log shape and bake…cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake for about 10 minutes, reduce to 350 degrees and bake another 10 minutes..brush the tops with butter and bake 5 more minutes…always check to be sure it’s cooking properly as depending on which way you decide to make it it may take a little longer to cook.

author unknown

easy_anise_cookies

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon anise seed

Beat the eggs until lemon color. Add the sugar. Beat. Grind up the anise seed with a mortar and pestle. Sift in the flour and add the ground anise seed. Drop by spoonful or use a (cookie press) onto a cookie sheet. Refrigerate overnight. Bake in a 300 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes (until cookies are firm, but not brown.) Store in a tin for several days before serving.

Source: Pathwalkers.net

holiday-rum-eggnog-bread-recipezaar-l
A festive, sweet, and light-colored bread, celebrating the return of the Sun, and the promise of next season’s harvest.

  • 4 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 3 tbs. butter
  • 1 6 oz. packet Sun Maid Sun Ripened Dried Fruit Bits
  • Equal amount chopped pecans
  • 1 1/2 cup egg nog
  • 1 pkg. dry yeast, in 1/2 cup warm water

Warm everything to room temperature. Pitch yeast in warm water, with a pinch of sugar. Mix flour, sugar, and salt; cut in softened butter. Mix in fruit and nuts. When yeast is good and frothy, mix in egg nog and yeast mixture and knead, adding flour as necessary. Let rise about an hour, punch down dough, form into a ball, and let rise again; preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake approximately 30-45 minutes until done.

source

A popular snack all over China, glutinous rice balls (tang yuan) are filled with red bean, sesame, peanut, and other sweet fillings that ooze out from mochi-like dumplings skins. The dumpling skins owe their pleasantly gummy texture to glutinous rice flour, which produces a chewier dough.

You’ll find packets of frozen tang yuan at most Chinese supermarkets, and these days the fillings not only come in the standard assortment, but have branched out into fancy-sounding ones like “sweet osmanthanus” and “chestnut and sesame seed.”

The dough for tang yuan is a simple combination of glutinous rice flour, regular rice flour, and water. Once you get the hang of enclosing the dough around nuggets of sweet filling, you’ll find that making your own tang yuan takes no more than half an hour.

The best part about making your own is that you can experiment with all kinds of nuts and pastes. The filling is a simple combination of sugar, lard, and a filling of nuts and/or beans. Instead of ground peanut or sesame, you can use almonds, cashews, and pecans. (To prepare the nuts: roast them, chop them up, and grind them in a mortar and pestle before mixing with lard and sugar.)

Or, if you’ve always found the red bean filling in supermarket tang yuan to be bland, you can make your own from dried adzuki beans. Coconut flakes are a great addition to fillings of any kind.

You can even vary the fat, substituting coconut oil for the traditional lard. I like to use the lard that I confit with for a filling that’s extra meaty and mildly savory. You could also play around with smoky bacon fat.

Really, you can’t go wrong with the filling. Who would turn down chewy rice balls that release a lava-like concoction that’s sweet, nutty, and porky? Even the water in which tang yuan simmers is surprisingly soothing and tasty to sip between rice ball bites. Make the balls in large batches and freeze them for a quick breakfast or dessert.

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image_thumb31

The Ides of March is the name of the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar.

The word Ides comes from the Latin word “idus“, a word that was used widely in the Roman calendar indicating the approximate day that was the middle of the month. The term ides was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held.

In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.

Another point which arises is Shakespeare’s use of the Ides of March and (the lack of doubt in) Marcus Brutus’ decision to assassinate Caesar to portray an atmosphere of madness, pleasure, and pandemonium. It is said that on ides of March the sea succumbs to chaos and the full moon brings high tides. All these points give the Ides of March a very mysterious quality.

The ides were originally meant to mark the full Moon (the “halfway point” of a lunar month), but because the Roman calendar months and actual lunar months were of different lengths, they quickly got out of step. The ancient Romans considered the day after the calends (first of the month), nones (ninth day before the ides, inclusive), or ides of any month as unfavorable. These were called dies atri.

According to Plutarch, a seer had foreseen that Caesar would be harmed not later than the Ides of March; and on his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar met the seer and joked, “The ides of March have come”, meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.” This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to “beware the Ides of March.” Furthermore, Suetonius writes that the haruspex Spurinna warns Caesar of his death which will come “not beyond the Ides of March” as he is crossing the river Rubicon.

In Canada, the Ides of March is celebrated with the drinking of Bloody Caesars.
Here’s a recipe:

  • 6 oz. Clamato Juice
  • 1–1½ oz. Vodka
  • 2 Dashes hot sauce
  • 4 Dashes Worcestershire sauce
  • Celery salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Lime wedge
  • 1 Crisp celery stalk

Rim the glass (usually a high ball glass) with celery salt, and a lime wedge.

Found at Wikipedia

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