I also wanted to go back to this specific time, because many of the attendants are no longer alive, one person in particular was my great grandmother from the Vonderau side of my family tree. Through my many years of cooking I have been told by my father how all of my bakery could never compare to his grandmothers. How most days, she would wake up at five in the morning and begin baking so that by seven when everyone else had woken up, they could have some type of pastry with their coffee. The after makeing a glorious breakfast, she would sneak away for barely even a period of five minutes and flawlessly make all of the beds and pick up all of the laundry.
For many years I had searched and searched for a recipe, or even a subtle hint at what my grandmother had used in her bakery. Unfortunately, like so many woman of the time, she had never placed a single one of her recipes on a piece of paper preffering to keep them in her mind. While a girl she had memorized what her mother had done in the kitchen so that she could recall every step without the need of a recipe card.
After years of searching and pleading with relatives, my grandmother finally remembered that on the day of her marriage to my grandfather, my great grandmother had given her five recipes to celebrate the wedding. I rmember the first time that I laid eyes on them. They were three pieces of paper that had been stained from ages of use. The scent of the ingredients had soaked into the paper almost as if my great grandmother was trying to give me a hint about what to do.
The one and only recipe that I intend to share with the rest of the world, is her recipe for lady locks. Known also as cream horns or clothes pin cookies the dessert comes from mid eastern European countries such as Germany and Poland. The cookie does bare some resemblance to the popular Italian "canoli" however the shape, preparation, and filling are very different. The cookie/pastry came to the United States with some of the first American settlers and has been a common treat in many of the Atlantic states, especially Pennsylvania since the countries founding.
Originally woman would use wooden clothes pins to give the cookie its hollow cone shape (hence the name clothes pin cookies), but today you can buy many different sized metal forms from a variety of different culinary stores such as the one pictured below from cakeandbakesupplies.com
Lady Locks
Dough
4 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 sticks margarine (trust me on this one)
2 tablespoons lard (Crisco butter flavor is best)
1 cup water
2 egg yolks
Filling
3 cups whole milk
9 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups margarine
1 1/2 cups cream cheese (use a 12 ounces from a 16 ounce container)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar (plus extra for dusting)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sift together the flour sugar and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the margarine and lard with either a pastry blender or two butter knives. Mix in the water and egg yolks. Form the mixture into two balls (of equal size); wrap the balls in plastic wrap; and place into your refrigerator to chill overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350*. Divide the two dough balls in half. Mix 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup powder sugar and sprinkle your board/work surface with enough to roll out the first dough ball. Roll out the first 1/4 of the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. cut the square into 6, 3/4 inch strips; then repeat the process with each of the dough balls. Next wrap one strip around each of the dough forms, and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake each batch for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove the finished cookies from the dough forms and place on a rack to cool. Meanwhile, mix the flour and milk, reserved for the filling, in a saucepan. Cook on medium heat until thick. Put the mixture in a bowl and place a piece plastic wrap over the bowl. Refrigerate until the mixture becomes cool.
When the mixture has cooled, beat the margarine, cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add the milk mixture and the vanilla. Beat the mixture until it has the appearance of whipped cream. Place the filling into a pastry bag with a large round tip. Pipe the filling into the middle of each of the baked cookies. Dust with the reserved powdered sugar and serve. (If you would like to make the cookies ahead of time, you may do so and freeze them in a single layer container. You may also do so with the filling, but do not pipe it into the cookie until you intend to serve it).
Makes 2 dozens
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