ukrainian school holiday bazaar and mykolai show
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obarinky cookies

8/6/2015

 

OBARINKY COOKIES
ТІСТЕЧКА ОБАРІНКИ

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My Teta Baba's recipe collection included three different recipes for a type of cookie called "obarinky". These are old-fashioned cookies, and I don't think anyone makes them anymore in Ukraine or in the diaspora. These are delicate, not very sweet cookies, made of rolled-out dough cut into doughnut shapes, with almonds and sugar on top. The dough is crisp, like крухе тісто. Lemon zest gives it a hint of lemon flavor.

I tried out all three recipes in the collection. After diligent taste-testing by my family (including by some members old enough to remember what these cookies should taste like), I chose this recipe, and made some modifications to suit our tastes today. The other two recipes are summarized at the bottom of the blog entry.

Here's a photo of the winning Obarinky recipe (#26), as originally typed up by my Teta Baba. It is attributed to Ika Melnyk, who is also credited with another recipe I adapted in a previous blog entry - walnut torte (see that blog entry for details about the recipe collection itself):
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The recipe translates thus:

26. Obarinky from Ika

12 dkg flour,1 cooked egg yolk, 8 dkg butter, 4 dkg sugar, lemon zest. Mix and chill for an hour. Cut out obarinky, give them an egg-white wash, and sprinkle with sugar and 3 dkg chopped almonds.

Here's my updated version, with volume equivalencies for the weight measurements ("dkg" stands for dekagrams, or 10 grams). I add almond extract to punch up the flavor (or you can add vanilla). Instead of using chopped almonds as the topping, I prefer to arrange sliced almonds in a wreath or ring shape, as in the photo at the top, to increase the visual appeal.

Click HERE to download a printable version.

**Keep scrolling down for step-by-step instructions with photos.**

Obarinky recipe:
Dough:
12 dkg. flour (about 1 cup)
1 egg yolk, cooked
8 dkg. butter (about 5 1/2 Tbsp.), softened
4 dkg. sugar (less than 1/4 c)
zest from 1 lemon
optional: 1/4-1/2 tsp. almond extract or vanilla extract

Topping:
1 egg white
Almonds (sliced, slivered, or chopped)
Coarse sugar

To cook the egg yolk, separate the egg, save the egg white for the topping, slide the egg yolk into simmering water for about 2 minutes until cooked; you can press the cooked yolk through a sieve, or just put it in the mixing bowl with the other ingredients – it won’t be quite as evenly distributed, but will work just fine.
Mix flour, egg yolk, softened butter, sugar, lemon zest, and almond extract. Mix into a smooth dough.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Roll out dough about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Dough should be easy to work with. Reroll scraps and continue cutting out cookies until no dough is left.
Cut out doughnut-shaped cookies. (I used Wilton’s Round Cutter set, but a linzer cookie cutter would work well too).
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place cookies onto lined baking sheet. They don’t spread much at all, so you can position them fairly close together.
Use a pastry brush or other tool to give the cookie tops an egg-white wash.
Immediately place almonds on cookie surface as desired (for sliced almonds, you can do a wreath design; for slivered almonds, you could do a flower pattern).
Sprinkle cookie surface heavily with the coarse sugar. (If using chopped almonds, you can mix them with the sugar at about a 1:1 ratio before sprinkling).
Bake at 350 F for 10 min.
Cool briefly, remove to plate.
Cookies taste better the next day.

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STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS AND PHOTOS

Here are the ingredients you will need, already measured out:
cooked egg yolk, raw egg white, flour, sugar, butter, lemon zest, almond extract, and sliced almonds. You'll also need coarse sugar for the topping (which I forgot to put in the photo).

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Let's get started. The original recipe uses weights instead of volume measurements, so I'll show you how I made the conversion. You need a kitchen scale here (the King Arthur Flour website has a few different scales you can buy, or try other websites). You can use any bowl or other container for measuring (I'm using a quarter-cup  measure because I already have a good idea of what volume I'll need for the sugar). But you need to zero it out - this means you put the empty container on the scale, and then turn the scale on - this ensures that you're not including the container's weight when you weigh the ingredient itself.
In the left photo above, you can see I've zeroed out the scale, so that it says "O" when I turn it on with the container already on it. The little "g" shows the scale is set to grams instead of ounces. Then I start filling the container with sugar. The recipe calls for "4 dkg" of sugar, or 4 dekagrams, which is the same as 40 grams. So I fill the container until the scale indicates 40 grams, and this turns out to be a little less than a quarter cup.

Different ingredients will have different weights for the same volume, so I need to repeat the process for the flour. 12 dkg of flour (120 grams) turns out to be just about 1 cup of flour.

8 dkg of butter (80 grams) turns out to be about 5 1/2 Tablespoons. The paper wrapper is pretty light, so I didn't bother zeroing out the scale for this.

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Now we'll move on to the cooked egg yolk. Many Ukrainian recipes involve cooked egg yolks pressed through a sieve - cheese paska (сирна паска), crisp doughs (крухе тісто), etc. For these cooked egg yolks, you can just hard-boil whole eggs, and then discard the cooked whites. 

But since this recipe calls for one raw egg white for the topping, it's nice if you can just cook the yolk on its own and save the white uncooked (quicker, too!) 

To do that, separate the yolk from the white (try to keep the yolk whole), and save the white for later. Boil some water in a small pot, and slide in the yolk gently. Let it cook for about 2 minutes (or up to 3 minutes). Remove the cooked yolk with a spoon, and let it cool.
You can press the cooked yolk through a sieve, as in the first two pictures below - use a spoon, or anything else that's kind of broad and flat. 
Or you can just break the yolk up with your fingers into the other dough ingredients, as in the third photo below, and let the mixer break it up some more. The yolk bits will be more visible in the dough and won't seem to be mixed in as well, but for this recipe, the end product is the same.
Let's get started with the rest of the ingredients. The photo below left shows the flour with the egg yolk pressed through a sieve. Below right, I've added the softened butter and the sugar.
For the lemon zest, I like to use a microplane grater, but citrus zesters work great too. Be sure to use only the yellow part of the lemon skin, as the white pith is bitter. Zest the whole lemon, and add it to your mixer bowl. (You can save the lemon itself for another use - slice it and add it to your water glass, or squeeze it along with more lemons for lemonade; but you'll need to use it within a day or so since it will dry out more quickly than a lemon with an intact peel).
I definitely recommend adding almond extract (or vanilla extract) to increase the cookie's flavor. A half teaspoon of extract gives more flavor but can taste a bit alcoholy, while a quarter teaspoon is a bit too subtle, so choose an amount that suits your taste - probably 1/3 teaspoon is optimal. Use a good quality extract (like Neilsen-Massey).
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Now that we have all the dough ingredients in the bowl, we mix until it all starts to stick together. You can squeeze it in your fingers and it will stick together fairly well. The cooked egg yolk is visible in the dough (more so if you didn't use the sieve method).
We need to chill the dough for about an hour before rolling it out. Place it on some plastic wrap, spread it out a bit, wrap, and press it out some more. Chilling dough in a flattened form gives you a bit of a head start when you start rolling it out later.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and prepare some cookie sheets. I like to line the cookie sheets with parchment paper to prevent burning or sticking.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1/4 to 1/8 inch. The dough should be pretty easy to work with.
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To cut the dough into ring shapes, you could scrounge around your kitchen for a bigger circle and a smaller circle (a glass for the larger one, and a piping tip or a small bottle lid for the smaller?). Or just eyeball it, cutting it out with a knife.

I find it much easier to use circle cutters. Wilton makes nice nesting circle cutter sets:
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=01876408-E7CA-9EAE-BCAF3B220E324D56&killnav=1
or you could use a linzer cookie cutter set.

I have an older Wilton circle cutter set that worked very well here - I used the biggest and smallest cutters:
Cut out as many of your larger circles as you can fit, and then center your smaller circle cutter as best you can. You can reroll the scraps and continue cutting. I got about 28 cookies out of each batch. Transfer them to your parchment-lined cookie sheet (by hand or with a spatula). You can space them fairly close together, since they don't really spread.
Time for the topping. Take out the egg white you saved earlier, and beat it lightly. You'll want a pastry brush, or something like it, to spread the egg white on the cookies. Have your almonds and your coarse sugar ready to go, so that you can place them on the cookies before the egg white dries.
Spread the egg white on 2-3 cookies at a time, arrange your almonds according to your preference, and sprinkle the coarse sugar on top liberally (be generous with the sugar, because the cookie is not very sweet at all). Work on only a few cookies at a time, because the egg white wash does dry out, and then the almonds and sugar don't stick very well.
You can be creative with the design - here are some designs that my helper and I came up with.
Bake at 350F for 10 minutes. Cool briefly, then remove to a plate.

The cookies taste better the next day, and they keep well. 

The flavor is very delicate, however, so I don't recommend serving these with other baked goods that are strong in flavor.


And there you have it - old-fashioned obarinky! Enjoy!
Alternate Obarinky recipes from my Teta Baba's collection:

-sour cream version: ¼ c. sour cream, ¼ c. softened butter, ¾ c. flour; Mix, chill overnight, proceed as above

-yeast version: 3 egg yolks, 2 Tbsp. sour cream, 1 Tbsp. softened butter, 1 packet yeast, ¾ c. flour; mix and proceed as above


MYKOLAI COOKIES (ST. NICHOLAS COOKIES)

12/25/2014

 
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I've been making these Mykolai gingerbread cookies for our Ukrainian School Bazaar for a few years now, and I've had some requests for instructions on how to make them. So here goes.

You could use any cut-out cookie recipe here, including Ukrainian medivnychky. I use a good gingerbread cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour, rolled 1/4 inch thick so that it stays soft and tasty to eat (often people roll out dough too thin in order to get more cookies out of a batch, but then the cookies turn out hard instead of soft).
Here's the link to the recipe:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gingerbread-cookies-recipe
This recipe will yield about 25 cookies using the cutter below. If I want double that number, I make the two batches of dough separately, since I have just the standard size KitchenAid mixer.
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In the photos above, I'm using roller boards, to make it easier to roll an even thickness. You could also use rolling pin rings. Use a small ruler too, to check - it's worth the trouble.
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The cookie cutter I use is from a wonderful website called stnicholascenter.org. They have a number of St. Nicholas cookie cutters, but scroll down to the one called "Ukrainian St. Nicholas Byzantine Cookie Cutter" at the bottom of the page. The reason you want this one instead of the others (all of which are lovely) is that Mykolai (the Ukrainian St. Nicholas) wears a rounded mitre, since he was a bishop in the Eastern rite. Western rite bishops, and the Western European St. Nicholas, wear a pointy mitre. Here's the link to the cookie-cutter page:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/cookie-cutters/

If you don't want to buy a cookie cutter, you can make yourself a stencil out of stiff paper and cut around it with a knife. But a cookie cutter is so much easier.

When using any cookie cutter, you should of course remember to press straight down, without squeezing the cutter, so that you don't distort the cookie's shape. Use a metal spatula or cake server to lift the cookie off your rolling surface onto your cookie sheet, or roll directly onto parchment and remove the excess dough around the cut cookies. Either way, I always use parchment, to prevent sticking or burning.


The cookies do spread a little, so I leave plenty of space - I put 9-12 of these on a standard cookie sheet.
Here they are on the cookie sheet and on the cooling rack.

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Once the cookies are cooled, I cover them in a white glaze. You can skip this if you like. The recipe I use is here:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/hard-glaze-for-cookies-recipe

I like this glaze recipe because you can dip the tops of the cookies into it and smooth with a metal spatula - this helps it go more quickly. The glaze dries smooth and hard enough to provide a good blank 'canvas' for your decorating. But it's soft enough that it's not unpleasant to bite through - this is, after all, a cookie for eating, not just for looking at!


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Next, we need to make Royal Icing for the actual decorating. You don't want to use buttercream icing here, because it dries too soft and will easily smudge.
I use Wilton's Royal Icing recipe:
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing

You will need meringue powder, which is available from Wilton (buy online or at Michael's, Joanne etc, some grocery and party stores).
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfmsku=pg_meringuepowder


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Coloring the icing: set aside a small amount of icing for the brown color. Then divide the rest into thirds: you'll need to leave 1/3 of it  white, and you'll need to color 1/3 blue, and 1/3 red.


To color icing, it's better to use a gel or powder rather than the liquid stuff you buy in a grocery store. Michael's and various other stores carry Wilton's icing gel colors, and cake supply stores carry CK, Americolor, and other brands of gel colors too. 
http://www.wilton.com/store/?i=1;q1=Shop;q2=Pops;q3=Icing;q4=Icing+Colors+%26+Sets;x1=tab.cat1;x2=tab.cat2;x3=tab.cat3;x4=tab.cat4

Don't bother with toothpicks for coloring your icing - you want fairly deep colors, not pastels, so I use plastic knives to remove a small glob of gel color at a time and mix it into the icing, then use a fresh plastic knife to get another glob etc (you never want to dip a dirty implement back into the gel color container, of course).

-brown: you only need a small amount of this. I use Wilton's Chocolate Brown (see it being mixed in the bowl below).
-white:  1/3 of the remaining icing - just leave it white
-blue: 1/3 - I like Wilton's Sky Blue icing color
-red:  1/3; red is a notoriously difficult color for icing, as every shade out there tends to turn out pink rather than actually red. You'll need a lot of gel color to actually get to red, and the trouble is that the red coloring can have a bitter taste. For this reason, use Wilton's No-Taste Red - a lot of it, and add in some Burgundy to deepen the color. **It will still look somewhat in the pink range, but the color will deepen as it sits.**


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Now for the serious stuff: you will need real decorating equipment. I don't recommend using a plastic bag with a corner cut off for decorating, as you won't have enough control to pipe what you want to pipe. Get these items instead:

-decorating bags: these come in reusable or disposable kinds. I like the clear plastic disposable kind, since you can see the color of your icing, and you can discard the bag when done (I dislike washing out icing bags). Here's a 12-pack, but you can get larger packs too.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E31410F-475A-BAC0-53FC31951015E8CB&killnav=1

-decorating tips: you want some round tips, like Wilton's Tip 5. I recommend getting 4 of the same tip, so that you don't have to switch between colors and wash out tips constantly. Don't worry, you'll use them for another project!
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E311404-475A-BAC0-5BD51B02BF02A8C8&killnav=1

You can also get tips in sets.

-couplers: since you're not switching between different size and shapes of tips for this project, you can skip this element and just drop the decorating tip inside the bag before filling the bag with icing. But normally these couplers are how you attach the tip to the outside of the bag (you drop the coupler inside the bag, trim the tip of the bag to the threads, then put the tip on the outside of the bag, and secure it with the coupler ring).
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30E785-475A-BAC0-5C1DB4FF70303E17&killnav=1

-tip covers: these help keep the icing from drying out in the tip while you're working with another color or take a break. Royal icing dries out much more easily than buttercream icing, so I definitely recommend using these.
Wilton now carries a silicone type of cover, but I have the older hard plastic type in the photo above.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=69172804-1E0B-C910-EAB930A2EF6612C0&killnav=1

There are lots of other fun and useful gadgets once you get into the world of cake and cookie decorating - just browse through the Wilton site or the decorating aisle at your local Michael's or other store. But these are the basics.


Now for the fun part: the actual decorating!


Pick your red or your blue icing color. Put a cookie (or two - I like to work with 2 or even 3 at a time) on a plate, put some clean paper towels to either side of your work space, have a small knife or metal spatula at hand to use as a mistake tool, have a cake tester or bent paper clip at hand to clean your tip out.
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You'll be going from the top of the cookie down. While it's tempting to just do all of the red (or blue) icing in one go, I find I mess up my spacing if I don't go top-down.

Mitre: Start by piping a horizontal line fairly low on the head - farther down than you would initially think the mitre needs to start. You can put a bit of curvature in this line if you like. Then in one continuous line, pipe the sides and top of the mitre - try to keep the sides fairly vertical (this helps it look less like a beanie). Pipe a dot at the top of the mitre (I've tried piping that dot so that it hangs off the top edge, and that looks nice initially, but it tends to break off very easily).

Next pipe a small cross in the middle of the mitre.

With a clean fingertip, gently pat down the points on your dot, on joining lines, on the cross tips. You want to do this before the royal icing hardens (which is fairly quickly)
If your royal icing is a bit watery and is sticking to your finger when you try this, the trick is to dip your clean fingertip in cornstarch, tap off the excess on a paper towel, and then try patting down the points on the icing. Don't worry about excess cornstarch - you can gently blow it off, and anything left will be absorbed by the icing. Keep a small bowl of cornstarch and a clean paper towel near your work area.
You can also take this opportunity to gently nudge your lines of icing a little straighter or to adjust symmetry as needed - use a small knife or metal spatula as your 'mistake tool'. Sometimes you can make these adjustments with a fingertip (dip in cornstarch as needed).
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Cap your red (or blue) icing, and pull out your brown icing. Pipe two dots for eyes. Pat the points down with a clean fingertip (dip in cornstarch as needed).
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Cap your brown icing, and pull out your white icing next. (In the pictures, I've switched to a blue Mykolai, but you get the idea).

Pipe small white dots in an arc, dipping from one bottom corner of the mitre to the other. Dip down far enough that you'll have room for the mustache later.
When you've finished the first row, pipe in a second, positioning the dots below and in between the dots of the first row.
For the third row, just pipe 3 dots in the center. Follow that by just one dot in the center for the fourth row.
With a clean fingertip, gently press down the tips of the dots, so that now the white icing looks like cotton balls.
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Now the mustache.You want a kozak-style handlebar or walrus mustache. Starting where the nose would be, pipe out, down, and curl up, so that you make a sort of backwards "S" shape. Then go back to the starting point, and pipe the mirror image in the other direction. Try to make it fairly symmetric; you can try to gently adjust it with the tip of your knife if needed, but be careful.
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Cap the white icing, and go back to your blue or red icing - whichever you used for the mitre.
The royal icing probably hardened just a bit inside the tip, even if you had it capped. Insert your cake tester or bent paperclip, wiggle it around to clean out the hard parts, pull it out, and wipe on your paper towel.

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Now outline the robe. If you like, you can do this in one continuous line, but I find it hard to maintain symmetry that way. I pipe one side, starting from the beard, curving out and in a bit where the arms/elbows would be, and continuing down to the bottom. Then I do the other side, again starting from the beard and moving down, and then I continue across the bottom in a gentle curve. If your cookie icing isn't quite perfect, your robe outline can improve the general appearance. 


With a clean fingertip, pat down the join between the icing lines, and also pat down the starting points. Use your small knife or spatula 'mistake tool' to adjust the symmetry of the lines as needed.
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Next we'll pipe the stole (I think it's called the epitrachelion).
Start on one shoulder. Move diagonally below the beard, past the cookie's midpoint (imagine a vertical center line from the mitre's point through the beard's point and continuing down - you want to move past that vertical line, so that the thickness of the stole will be centered).
Now move down towards the bottom of the robe (but not all the way to the bottom). Make a right angle turn (towards the side you started from). Move up and then diagonally, parallel to the stole lines you've already piped. Make sure the stole is wide enough that you'll have room to pipe the crosses.
You can pipe the stole in one continuous piping motion, or in sections. Gently pat with your finger to smooth the joins.

Now pipe the other side of the stole. Start on the opposite shoulder, and pipe diagonally down to meet the already-piped part of the stole, trying to match the angle, more or less. Pipe the lower edge next, parallel to the line you just piped. 

Crosses: pipe two crosses in the center, vertical part of the stole, and one cross each on the shoulder parts of the stole. Pat down the tips with your finger. The stole is now done.

All that's left is the bottom row of dots: pipe 5 dots along the bottom hem of the robe. Pat down the points with your finger tip.
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In this picture, I'm adjusting the join at a corner of the stole. I have a 'mistake tool' that I purchased at a cake supply store years ago (unfortunately I can't find an online link to a similar tool for you).
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Your Mykolai cookies are done!
Notice that these cookies in the picture are far from perfect. But the eye skims over the imperfections, and focuses on the bold details. So don't stress - it's only a cookie!

Let the cookies air-dry for about half an hour or so, to make sure the royal icing hardens completely. 
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Now you can put the cookies in an airtight container (layer with parchment or wax paper), or put them in individual treat bags secured with twisty ties or bands - that makes a lovely presentation for gift-giving or a bake sale.
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Enjoy!

Addendum to Varenyk recipe

8/19/2014

 
If you like pretty edges on your varenyky, there is a short video here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1395890540634949/permalink/1549563591934309/
(wish I could repost it here...)

The video is on a Facebook group called "Ukrainian recipes". This group is very interesting and useful, with a growing collection of posted recipes:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1395890540634949/

mushroom filling for vushka

11/6/2013

 
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Vushka (or ushka) are mushroom-filled dumplings that look like ravioli or tortellini. They are served in a bowl of borshch, especially on holidays like Christmas Eve (Sviat Vechir) or Epiphany (Schedryi Vechir). They are a great favorite among many kids, as well as adults!

The 11/4/13 blog entry shows how to make the dough and put the vushka together. In this blog, we'll focus on the filling.

This is my own recipe - you can tweak as needed, depending on what you have available, and how much you want to spend (it can get pricey, especially with the dried mushrooms!) It is "pisne" (vegan) for Sviat Vechir, so it uses olive oil, but you can use butter if you prefer.

1/2 oz dried mushrooms
2 x 4-6-oz containers fresh mushrooms
1 exotic mushroom blend container
3-4 oz chopped onions
1 packet McCormick Mushroom Sauce mix
salt and pepper
olive oil for sauteeing



This makes enough for about 75 good-sized vushka, or about 100 smaller vushka.

For printable recipe, click here.
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Let's start with the dried mushrooms, since you will need to leave time to reconstitute them. You can skip the dried mushrooms altogether, but they add a deeper, richer flavor, as well as a wonderful fragrance, to your filling. I like to choose more European mushroom types, as the Asian dried mushrooms can have a touch of bitterness (although they can be much less expensive!).

Here, I'm going to use half Chanterelles and half Morels; I'll save the rest for next time. I like to use a mixture of mushroom types, to make the flavor more complex.
Usually, you would use boiling water to reconstitute dried mushrooms - pour it over them and let them soak for a while.

But this brand of dried mushrooms has instructions to use lukewarm water, so I am following those directions. In the picture on the left, above, you see the mushrooms as they started out, in their dried form. Over the course of half an hour, soaking in the lukewarm water, the mushrooms are increasing in size as they reconstitute. The fragrance is wonderful - I wish I could add a scratch-and-sniff feature!
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In the picture above right, you might be able to see that the soaking water has turned dark. It has absorbed a lot of mushroom flavor and fragrance too, so I like to save it and freeze it for my holiday borshch.

At left, I have a small strainer on top of a soup container. I line the strainer with cheesecloth, because dried mushrooms can have some grit and dirt that I don't want to hang onto.



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Pour the mushrooms and the soaking water into the cheesecloth-lined strainer. 

Then pour some fresh water over the mushrooms to rinse, and let the rinse water go into the soup container too - you don't want to let any of that wonderful dried mushroom flavor go to waste!

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And there are the reconstituted mushrooms - aren't they beautiful?

Mmm... I love that smell!

At right is the dark, mushroom-flavored soaking and rinsing liquid which I am saving for borshch. It freezes very well - just be sure to label it so that you don't forget what it is.

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Now the rest of the ingredients: I'm using button mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms this time, as well as a 'gourmet blend'. You can use just a single kind of mushroom if you like; I like to use a mix for complexity of flavor

You also need chopped onions. Like many people, I am not fond of chopping onions, so I just buy a container of pre-chopped onion at the grocery store, in the produce section - it's a great step-saver. You can also buy frozen chopped onion - I've never tried that. About 3 to 4 oz. is good, but you can use more or less as you like. You could also use onion powder instead.

Because some of my family members are not overly fond of onions, and don't like visible chunks of onion in their food, I am running the chopped onions through the food processor to make the pieces smaller (this is still much easier than starting from a whole onion, in my opinion).

Use a large frying or saute pan. Heat up about 2 Tbsp. of olive oil (you can use butter if you're not concerned about strictly "pisne" filling). Saute until the onion is starting to get translucent.
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Chop up the mushrooms in the food processor, in batches (the button mushrooms are being processed in the photo above; I find it easiest to just do one mushroom type at a time, container by container). 

I like to leave some larger bits, so you can see them in the filling as you're eating the vushka.

Add the chopped mushrooms to the onions in the saute pan, in batches, letting each batch brown a bit and decrease in volume before you add the next batch (this will let you actually fit all those mushrooms into one pan!)

Some people saute the mushrooms first, and then run them through the food processor. I prefer to chop then saute, as I think the fresh mushrooms can be chopped more easily when they're firm.

In the pictures above, I'm chopping up the exotic mushroom blend, and adding it to the mixture in the pan. Keep doing that until all of your fresh mushrooms are chopped and cooking.
For seasoning, I like to use a packet of McCormick's Mushroom Gravy mix. Of course you can use your own seasoning - whatever herbs and spices you like. You could also chop a couple of gloves of garlic and add them in; much as I like garlic, though, I don't like my vushka to be garlicky.

I like to add the mushroom gravy mix right after I put in the button mushrooms, as they have the weakest mushroom flavor. But you can add seasonings at any point in the cooking process. Taste and adjust as you go along too - I usually add more salt and pepper.
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I wait until the end to add the reconstituted dried mushrooms. Chop them up in the food processor just like the fresh mushrooms, add them to the pan, and keep cooking.

Your finished filling shouldn't be liquidy, and the mushroom mixture should be a medium brown, and well-sauteed. And fragrant! It'll get your tummy rumbling. 

Let it cool in the pan.

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Once cool, you can transfer the mushroom mixture to a bowl, and immediately start filling your dough.

You can also refrigerate it, until you're ready to start making vushka.

Or bring it to a varenyk- and vushka-making party!

Taste for seasoning again and adjust as needed before you start making your vushka.


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The dough recipe is in the previous blog here - it's the same as the dough for varenyky, but you cut it in squares instead of circles. 

About 1 1/2 inches square is good, but you can go smaller or bigger if you like.

Put a spoonful of filling in the center of your dough square, fold diagonally in half to make a triangle, and pinch the edges shut as you would with varenyky, to seal the filling inside.

Then pinch two of the corners together - you want the corners by the folded side of the triangle, not the "top" corner. Now your vushko will look like a ravioli or tortellini.

To make a "shchastia" (good luck), take one finished vushko and one whose corners have not yet been pinched. Push one corner of the second vushko through the loop of the first (finished) one - you may need to elongate the dough at that corner slightly to make this easier. Then pinch the two corners of the second vushko closed, so that the two vushka are intertwined. The person who finds this "shchastia" in their bowl of borshch on Sviat Vechir will have good fortune in the coming year!

Cook the finished vushka in boiling water until they float. You can serve them right away with borshch. Or cool them, oil or spray them so they don't stick, put them into freezer bags, and freeze until holiday time. Then thaw in boiling water as you would varenyky, and serve in borshch.

Smachnoho!

DOUGH for varenyky and vushka - with step-by-step photos

11/4/2013

 
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It's November - time for varenyk-making parties! Some parents who live near our school location volunteer their homes for us to gather in during school hours, so that we can make varenyky and vushka for sale at our holiday bazaar.

Some of our Ukrainian school's varenyk party hostesses use the dough recipe from UkraiVin (see below). We like this recipe because it turns out soft, tender dough. It also has the advantage of being vegan, or "pisne", for Sviat Vechir (for those who adhere to the no-dairy, no-egg definition of "pisne" - some families are more liberal in defining that word). 

This recipe is made in a food processor, rather than a mixer.  I took photos at one of our parties, for those who would like to try it at home.

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UkraiVin – Cooking Ukrainian: Dough for Vushka and Varenyky (mushroom-, potato- or cabbage-filled dumplings)

Prep time: 5 minutes

Yield: 72 vushka (using half of the dough);

OR

50-55 varenyky (using all of the dough)

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup cold tap water



- In food processor (with serrated blade), combine flour, salt and vegetable oil.

- Slowly add the water through the feeder until a ball of dough is formed (takes approximately 4 minutes).

- Take dough out of food processor and transfer to a bowl.

- Cover and let stand for approximately 20 minutes.

Note: if weather is humid, you may add a bit more flour.

Note: dough may be refrigerated overnight; let come to room temperature on kitchen counter several hours before rolling out dough for making vushka or varenyky.



For printable recipe, click here.

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Our hostess has the dough ingredients ready to go, above. She has already made a couple of batches that are resting and will be ready for us to start rolling out soon.

Note the King Arthur flour bag - many people are big fans of this brand, for varenyk dough as well as for other cooking and baking.

Here, 3 cups of flour are measured into the food processor bowl.

1/2 tsp. of salt is added to the flour.

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Next, add the 3 Tbsp. of vegetable oil.

Close the lid of the food processor.

Measure out 1 cup of cold tap water. 


Turn on the processor, and pour the water through the feed tube, with the processor running, as in the photo below.

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The dough will start off lumpy and uneven, and after a few minutes will eventually come together into a ball.
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Put the dough into a bowl, and cover with something to keep it from drying out - plastic wrap or a dishcloth works just fine.

Let it rest for 20 minutes - this gives the gluten time to develop.

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You can use a smooth tabletop for rolling out the dough, or a board with a lip that won't slide around on the table. A large cutting board with a dishcloth underneath (to keep it from sliding) will work well too.

A marble rolling pin is nice, because you can use the weight of it to do some of the work for you.

In this picture above, you can also see some of the yummy brunch that our hostess provided us :)

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You DEFINITELY want a bowl of flour nearby - you will need to flour your rolling surface liberally, so that the dough doesn't stick and tear. 

Also flour your rolling pin.

In this picture is a nifty little gadget called a flour wand. You'll be just fine without it - just use your hand to strew the flour where you need it to go. But the flour wand is handy because it distributes the flour more precisely and evenly. I got mine at the King Arthur Flour website: 
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/flour-wand

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Roll about half of the dough batch at a time - leave the other half covered in the bowl.

Don't be afraid of flouring a LOT - the dough is fresh and tender and will stick to the board and the rolling pin, given half a chance! Put flour on your rolling surface, and on your rolling pin. Start rolling, flip the dough, and flour your rolling surface again.

It's best to roll from the center out, away from you, moving your dough around as needed. Moving the dough around also allows you to make sure that the dough isn't sticking to the board.

Roll until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick (or about the thickness of two credit cards :) - you want the varenyky to be delicate and tender, not too thick. The dough in the photo above is almost there.

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For varenyky, you want to cut the dough in a round shape. A glass from your kitchen works just fine - pick one that has the size you want (we're using a glass that's about 3 inches in diameter), and an edge that isn't too rounded, so that it cuts well. An empty can works well too, and has sharper edges to cut more smoothly.

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Put your filling (we're using potato here) in the center of the dough circle. Don't put in too much - you don't want it leaking out during cooking. We're using about 1 1/2 - 2 Tablespoons.

Fold the dough in half over the filling, and pinch the dough closed around the edges, so that the filling is sealed well inside.

If the dough has gotten dried out, you can dip your fingers in water and then pinch. Alternatively, flip the dough circle so that the underside is up, and then fill and pinch closed - the surface that was face-down on the plate will probably be more moist. Make sure the edges are securely sealed.
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Put the finished varenyky on something they won't stick to - we're using cookie sheets covered with dish cloths.

You may want to cover them with another dish cloth, or plastic wrap, so that they don't dry out too much before you're ready to cook them.

Don't stack them on top of each other, as they will tend to stick.

Making vushka? These are mushroom-filled dumplings that look like ravioli, and they are put into borshch on Sviat Vechir (Christmas Eve) and Shchedryi Vechir (Epiphany). This is a great favorite in many families, especially among the kids. The name "vushka" or "ushka" means little ears (presumably because they look vaguely like ears).

Use the same dough you use for varenyky, and roll it out the same way. But instead of circles, cut it into squares (about 1 1/2 inches square is good). 
(Some people use smaller circles for vushka, but to me that just looks like small varenyky instead of vushka).
Vushka use a mushroom filling - and that filling will be the subject of the next blog entry.

Put the mushroom filling in the center of your dough square.

Fold the square in half diagonally, so that you make a triangle, as in the right-most photo above. Pinch the edges shut, just as you would for a varenyk. You may want to keep a napkin or paper towel ready to wipe your fingertips, so that you don't get too many specks of the filling on the exterior of your dough (but it's no big deal if you do - it will just wash away when you cook it).

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Bring two corners of your vushko together and pinch them together, so that it looks like a ravioli. (You want the two corners adjacent to the folded edge, by the way).

See the joined pair of vushka in the picture at right? That's called a "shchastia" - good fortune. If you find that in your bowl of borshch on Christmas Eve, you will have good luck in the coming year.

Want to make a "shchastia"? Take one completed vushko, and one whose corners have not yet been pinched together. Thread one corner of the second vushko (you may want to elongate it a little to make this easier) through the "loop" of the first vushko. Now bring together the corners of the second vushko and pinch together. That's all there is to it.

Ready to cook the varenyky or vushka?
Boil a large pot of water, with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of oil. Put in the varenyky or vushka, and simmer for 5 minutes or so, until they float. Lift out with a strainer or slotted spoon, and let them rest and cool down a bit. Spray or oil them so that they don't stick together (to oil them, put some oil in the glass pan or whatever you're using, put in the varenyky, then flip them to coat the other side).

You can now eat them fresh - yum!

Or you can freeze them for later. This is what we are doing, since we want to sell them at our bazaar so that people can put them in their home freezers and have them ready for the holidays. Our varenyk-party volunteers usually buy most of what they make and take them home for their own holiday table (a good reason to volunteer!)

If you're freezing the varenyky or vushka, make sure they're completely cooled. Then place about 2 dozen in a large freezer bag (arrange neatly in rows), label, and put in your freezer. We put 25 in each bag, and sell them for $15.

To thaw, you can either put them in boiling water until they float, or use a vegetable steamer for about 3 minutes (as they're already cooked). Serve varenyky with sour cream, or if you're serving them for Christmas Eve dinner and want to keep it vegan ("pisne"), serve with mushroom sauce. To serve vushka, thaw them and then place into a bowl of borshch.

Some people ask why we bother cooking the varenyky or vushka before freezing them. If you're doing this at home, you can get away with freezing them raw. But make sure they don't start thawing before you get them into the cooking water, or they will stick like crazy, and then tear open as you try to separate them - you'll end up with kasha instead of varenyky!
Since we are selling these varenyky and vushka at a bazaar, that means they have to be transported to the bazaar site and then to the buyer's home before they make it into the freezer. So cooking them before freezing helps make sure that they will make it onto the dinner table in good shape.

Smachnoho!
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walnut torte with chocolate-praline filling (with step-by-step photos)

10/2/2013

 
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Filled and frosted 4-layer Walnut Torte with Chocolate-Praline filling, before decorating.
I've had friends ask if they could come and bake a torte with me, to see step by step how to do it. But distances are long in our Ukrainian community, schedules are tight, and we've never been able to make it happen. So I thought I would do a blog entry on one of the tortes I've often made for pre-order for our Ukrainian School Bake Sale, with step-by-step photos.

I chose this Walnut Torte with Chocolate-Praline filling because it is based on an old recipe I received from my Teta Lesia Khraplyva (the childrens' book author). Teta Lesia's mother, my Teta Baba, was named Evhenia Petryk Khraplyva. As an immigrant living in New York City in the 1950s, Evhenia put together a collection of baked-goods recipes as a name-day gift for her own mother, Maria Hankevych Petryk (my great-grandmother). She collected recipes from numerous friends and acquaintances and typed them up, in the brief recipe style of the time. When I received the collection in 2002, the carbon-copied pages were already falling apart, with pieces missing. I retyped everything into a computer file, filled in missing text where I could, and translated into English. I've tried only a fraction of the recipes in the collection so far, but this one is my favorite.
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Original recipe typed by my Teta Baba.
Above is a photograph of the original page. The recipe is attributed to "Ika", and Teta Lesia identifies Ika as Sofia Fedak-Melnyk, wife of Andriy Melnyk.

Here is the recipe in Ukrainian (translation is further down):

Торт Оріховий (Іка)
4 жовтки втерти з 12 дкг цукру, додати піну з 5 білок (......) оріхів, 1/4 шкл. тертої булки. Виложити на дві тортівниці ви(мащені маслом і?) папером і печи в недуже гарячій рурі 1/2 години.
Маса: Втерти 12 дкг цукру, 12 дкг мелених оріхів, ван(ілію?...) шклянки сметани. Полюкрувати.


Some key quantities are missing. I've assumed that the quantity of nuts should equal that of the sugar, as that is a frequent pattern in recipes from this era. I've also made my best guess for the sour cream in the filling.

Other notes: "оріхи", "оріховий" would today be written as "горіхи", "горіховий". "Дкг" is the abbreviation for dekagrams, which of course are 10 grams. Many recipes from this time use dekagrams, or simply "deka", as the unit of measurement.

Here's the recipe translated into English, with my best guesses about missing quantities, and in the formatting used in the US these days:

Walnut Torte (Ika)
4 eggs, separated
120 gr sugar (4.2 oz, or about 1/2 c)
120 gr ground walnuts (4.2 oz, or about 1 c)
1/4 c breadcrumbs
(I like to add 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract too)

filling:
120 gr sugar (4.2 oz, or about 1/2 c)
120 gr ground walnuts (4.2 oz, or about 1 c)
dash of vanilla
1/2 c sour cream

Preheat oven to 285 F (can probably go up to 300 F). 

Line two 9-inch springform pans with parchment; butter or spray the parchment and the sides of the pans.
Separate eggs. Beat yolks lightly with a fork and set aside.

Beat whites until stiff, adding sugar when the whites are starting to foam. 
Fold in yolks. Fold in the ground walnuts, breadcrumbs, and vanilla.

Pour batter into the two prepared pans, and bake for 30 min.


Filling: mix all ingredients and spread between the torte layers and over the top layer.

My modifications: I like to make two batches of the torte, for a total of 4 layers. Instead of doubling the recipe, I make it in two actual batches, so that the layers bake evenly (while I've done my best to make sure my oven is level, the rack inside appears to slope a bit at the periphery). I add the sugar at a different point in the recipe (as explained further down).

I've also developed my own Chocolate-Praline filling and topping to use with this torte; I like the multiple nut flavors that play together in this combination.

Chocolate-Praline  Filling:
11 oz. praline paste (one can of the Love-n-Bake brand)
8 1/4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 c. heavy cream, divided

Place praline paste in a large glass bowl, along with the chopped chocolate. Microwave in 30 sec. increments, stirring until smooth. Let cool while making the whipped cream.
Beat 2 cups of the heavy cream to stiff peaks. Fold into praline paste-chocolate mixture.
Divide into quarters. Spread appr. 1/4 between each of the 4 torte layers. Set aside remaining 1/4.
Beat remaining 1 cup of heavy cream to stiff peaks. Fold into remaining 1/4 of the filling mixture. Spread over top and sides of torte. Chill.


For printable recipe, click here.

I'm going to walk you through the recipe (using my filling) with photos now. 
Note that I usually spread out the process of making this torte over 2 or 3 days - it breaks up the work, allows everything to cool and set, and the torte tastes better if it's allowed to sit for a day in the refrigerator before serving. But it'll still be good if you have only a day to make it.


Preheat the oven to 285 F.

Spray the bottom of two 9" springform pans (I use regular Pam spray; you can use special baking sprays too). Put a 9" parchment circle on the bottom of each (or cut parchment to fit), and then spray the parchment and the sides of the pan.
(Buying parchment rounds is a step-saver. I buy mine at the King Arthur Flour website:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/round-parchment-paper#8550#85509INCH
Don't skip the parchment - it keeps baked goods from burning on the bottom, makes it easier to remove the baked good without tearing, and gives you a better end result (I always use it for baking cookies too).
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Putting a 9-inch parchment round into my springform pan - don't skip this step!
Separate your 4 eggs into whites and yolks. 
Since we'll be whipping the whites into a meringue, it's important that not a speck of yolk gets into the whites (and no, cleaning out the yolk really well just won't do the trick - your whites won't whip up well). So I use three bowls. Let the white drip into the first bowl, drop the intact yolk into the second bowl, then pour the white into the third bowl; then start again with the first bowl. This way, if your yolk breaks on your third egg, you've only ruined one egg instead of three - just save that egg for an omelet or something, get a clean bowl and another egg, and start again.
Break up the yolks with a fork, and stir until fairly smooth. Set aside.

Note: I've received a suggestion that the yolks could be beaten until light in color at this point, to lighten the texture of the torte layers. I plan to try that next time I make this recipe.
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Egg yolks, beaten lightly with a fork.
It's a good idea to get your other ingredients measured out at this point, so that you have them ready to go later on.

You'll notice that the original recipe here provides measurements by weight, instead of by volume - this is the norm in many parts of the world, and it is widely considered to be more precise. I've provided rough equivalencies by volume, for those who do not have a kitchen scale, but purchasing a kitchen scale is not a bad investment if you're going to be cooking and baking a lot, even if it's just at holiday time. My own scale is a Salter, purchased at King Arthur Flour (my favorite online resource, both for shopping and for recipes and baking advice). They no longer carry that particular brand, but they have others: http://search.kingarthurflour.com/search?p=Q&asug=&af=type%3Aproducts&w=scale
To use a kitchen scale, you need to "zero it out" first. Put the empty bowl onto the scale and then turn the scale on - that way you're not including the bowl's weight with the sugar's weight.

My scale switches easily from ounces to grams. The original recipe says 12 dekagrams, which is 120 grams (if your scale only measures ounces, it's about 4.2 oz here). Add sugar to the bowl until the display reads 120 grams. 

Set the bowl aside.
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Grind up your walnuts in a food processor, and then measure them on your scale the same way - 120 grams.
(Remember to repeat the zeroing out process!)

Set that bowl aside too.

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Measure out your breadcrumbs now - 1/4 cup. Use plain, unseasoned breadcrumbs. Set aside.

Breadcrumbs frequently appear as an ingredient in Eastern European tortes. I'm not sure if this is because of lack of access to flour in wartime, or for another reason.

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You can get your vanilla ready to measure out too now - 1 Tbsp. - but I wouldn't actually pour it yet.

Good quality vanilla extract is a worthwhile investment - it really adds depth of flavor to anything you're baking.

 I like Nielsen-Massey's Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, and I purchase it (of course!) at King Arthur Flour:
 http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/madagascar-bourbon-vanilla-extract#1258#1258


Now we'll get back to those egg whites!
Transfer the egg whites to a mixing bowl. Put a whisk attachment on your mixer. Beat the whites at medium-high speed for about 1 1/2 minutes - the whites will be frothy, getting whiter, thicker, and increased in volume.
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Add the sugar now.
Cook's Illustrated explains that this is the optimal point in the process to add sugar to egg whites, to avoid graininess. This is why I no longer add the sugar to the yolks, as in our original recipe.
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/
recipes/article.asp?docid=12432


Pour the sugar in a steady stream, continuing to beat. Keep whipping. You'll see the egg whites getting whiter, glossier, and thicker. In the third photo above, you see that they're still a bit drippy. But in the fourth picture, you can see that the egg whites can stand up a bit on their own, before flopping over - this is called "soft peak stage". We don't need to go all the way to "stiff peak stage" because we're not making meringue cookies - we'll be folding in the other ingredients for the torte, and that actually works better at soft peak than at stiff peak. I got to soft peak at about 3 1/2 minutes.

Now you can add those bowls of egg yolks, ground walnuts, and breadcrumbs, as well as the vanilla extract. 
Either fold in by hand, or just use the very lowest speed on your mixer. You don't want to mix too much, so that you don't lose too much volume from the air that you just whipped into the egg whites - that's why we say "fold" instead of "mix".
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Because we folded instead of mixed, we still have a good amount of volume left in the batter, from the air whipped into the egg whites. This will help the completed torte from tasting too heavy and dense.

Now you can go ahead and pour the batter into your two prepared pans. You'll need to tilt the pans a bit to get the batter evenly distributed.
Try to get even amounts of batter in the two pans. No biggie if they're not exactly even, but you want the layers to come out fairly similar.

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Bake at 285 F (you can go as high as 300 F if you like) for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven to cool on racks.

Here are my two baked layers - I've removed the collars of the springform pans. You can remove the bases too - the parchment rounds will keep the torte layers intact.

Did you want a 4-layer torte? Repeat the process for 2 more layers now!






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FILLING
Ready to move on to the filling? I usually wait until the next day, just to break up the work. But you'll be able to fill the torte as soon as the layers are cool. If you're waiting until the next day, cover the layers with plastic wrap so that they don't dry out. The parchment rounds on the bottom will protect the undersides of the layers too.


For the Chocolate Praline filling, you need some praline paste. I really like this Love'n Bake brand, which comes in an 11 oz. size (and I've modified my recipe so that I use up the whole can). 

I buy this online at - you guessed it! - King Arthur Flour:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/all-natural-hazelnut-praline-paste-11-oz


Chop up your bittersweet chocolate, or use chocolate disks or wafers (King Arthur has a good selection). I'm using a combination of two different brands/shapes in the pictures below - I think it adds a bit of complexity of flavor.

Put the chocolate and the praline paste in a microwaveable glass bowl (I should have used a larger one here). Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring each time.

The chocolate will melt much more quickly than the praline paste - see picture 3 above. You'll need to use your spoon to press chunks of the praline paste against the side of the bowl to get to a smooth state, as in picture 4 above. Keep stirring without microwaving any more - you don't want to burn the chocolate.


You can let the mixture cool while you whip the heavy cream.
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Measure out about 2 cups of the heavy cream (not all 3 cups). It should be cold - temperature is important when you're whipping cream.

Put it in the bowl of your mixer, with a whisk attachment.
(If it's a hot and humid day, you may want to chill your bowl and whisk before starting.)


Start whipping at a medium-high speed (if you're using a KitchenAid mixer, you may want to put on the pouring shield for the beginning so that you don't get splashed).


Knowing how long it takes to get to soft-peak and stiff-peak stage with whipping cream takes practice, so I've put some photos below. Photo 4 is soft-peak, but we want stiff peak here, which we have in Photo 6. It took about 1 min 45 sec in this case, but a lot depends on your mixer speed, temperature, etc.

So now you have some lovely whipped cream, and you need to blend it with the chocolate-praline mixture that you made earlier. You don't want to lose the air that you just beat into the cream, so be sure to fold, not mix.
(Cook's Illustrated has nice drawings explaining the technique of folding: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/howto/detail.asp?docid=19803)

Now you're ready to start assembling the torte!

I recommend using a little cake decorating turntable here - it makes things easier. If you don't have one, don't worry about it - you'll manage. The one I'm using is an old model, but Wilton.com has a newer model here (you can probably find it in your local Michael's, JoAnn's, or other craft store):
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=93495B56-423B-522D-FDFBD34DCAFFB07C&killnav=1

Put your cake plate or cake board on the turntable. I'm using a cardboard cake board here because this is a pre-ordered torte and I don't want to have to make arrangements to retrieve a cake plate from the customer.
I bought this cake board at my local cake supply store, but Wilton now sells a number of different kinds too.
Choose your sturdiest torte layer to be the bottom layer. Flip it upside down onto the cake board (this isn't as scary as it may seem - put the cake board upside down on top of the torte layer, keep one hand on top, slip the other hand under the cooling rack and torte layer, and flip). 
Try to center the torte on the board as you do this; you can adjust the centering a little after flipping, if needed. 


(If you tear the torte layer a bit in the process, just try to patch it together as best you can - it'll all be covered by filling and topping by the end of the process anyway!)

The parchment round is still attached to the base of the torte layer - it helps keep the torte layer intact, in this case. Once you have the torte layer where you want it on the board, gently peel back the parchment round and discard.

Now you can start putting in the filling.
Put about 1/4 of your filling mixture onto the torte layer. Try to spread the filling as level as you can (you can correct any slight slope in the torte layer this way; this torte can't easily be cut to level it, the way cake layers can be).

I'm using a long, straight icing spatula in the first picture above, and that tool makes things easier: 
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E31009B-475A-BAC0-5893DEA7B09E2C5D&killnav=1


Take the next torte layer and flip it onto the filling. 
(You can't use the cake base this time, so either flip it just using your hands - it's sturdy enough! - or you can use a small cake round, thin cutting board, giant spatula, or something else large and flat and thin to do the flipping, and then gently ease the torte layer from whatever you're using onto the filling).

Adjust your centering as needed. Peel off the parchment round.

Put another 1/4 filling onto the second torte layer, spread evenly, repeat with the third torte layer and another 1/4 of the filling. Put the fourth torte layer on top, and stop. 

You can clean up any filling spilling over the sides now. If you like, you can put the torte into the refrigerator to chill while you make the topping (if it's hot and the torte layers are slip-sliding around, insert some toothpicks from the top to hold the layers in place, and chill to set the filling).

Now you can move on to putting together the topping.
You should have about a quarter of your filling left (first photo above).

Take the remaining 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, and whip it to stiff peak stage. Gently mix in the remaining filling (you can use your mixer at the very lowest speed). The final result is lighter in color and texture than the filling, but still has that chocolate-praline flavor.

The next step is covering, or "icing" your torte. You can apply the topping simply, maybe swirl it with the back of a spoon, and then decorate.

I like a smooth and even effect, and I'm including the photos of the process below. You may also want to look at Wilton's video on icing a cake: http://www.wilton.com/decorating/icing/using-a-spatula.cfm
Apply topping to the torte top first, spread and smooth it out. Then use a short icing spatula to apply topping to the sides, and smooth. Go back to the top, add topping where needed to make it level (usually it slopes down along the periphery), smooth again. 
Icing a cake is a bit like spackling - apply more than you need, and take away excess with your spatula to achieve that straight and level effect. 
Smooth the sides again. Keep going until you're satisfied. 

Then use a paper towel to clean up the cake board surface. 
Finally, you have a smooth canvas to decorate as you like.

I like to use borders around the top and bottom edges of my tortes. Here I'm using chocolate buttercream in a rope border (you can make this border using stabilized whipped cream too). 
You can look at the Wilton website for the rope technique: 
http://www.wilton.com/technique/Rope
but it really helps to take a Wilton cake decorating class (at a craft shop like Michael's or JoAnn's; also, Wilton just started introducing Craftsy classes, which you can take online for a fee).
The decoration I made for this customer is a "Luk i Strila"  (bow and arrow) insignia of the Plast group Pershi Stezhi. I used buttercream here, but another possibility would have been coloring and cutting out marzipan (or fondant, but I don't like the taste).

Good luck with your own torte! It's worth the effort!

But if it's too overwhelming, you can pre-order a torte from us! Don't wait too long, though - our tortes sell out quickly!

BASIC RECIPE FOR VARENYKY DOUGH AND FILLING

9/16/2013

 
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Everyone loves eating varenyky, but making them requires a special effort! Our Ukrainian School varenyk- and vushka- making parties are a fun way to do the work together, exchanging tips and tricks, or learning how to do this for the first time. We ask our volunteers to bring a batch of dough or a batch of filling, if they can. Here is one recipe - I'll provide more in future blog entries. See our slideshow on the Varenyky i Vushka page!

(makes 150 - 175 varenyky, or about 7 bags of 24)

DOUGH
- 3 cups flour

- 1 cup self-rising flour

- 1 egg, beaten and mixed with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

 -1 cup or more warm water (amount varies--use judgment)


Put flour in bowl.  Make a well.
Put in egg, mixed with oil, in center.
Start to mix, and then add warm (can be very warm) water to center of flour as you mix.  Knead till flour forms a ball. (Machine mixing is fine).
Take out of bowl and knead on floured board until satiny smooth.
Cover with a cloth and let dough rest--this is important as it will give a soft dough.
Roll out and cut into circles about 2 ½ inches in diameter
          -you can use round cookie or biscuit cutters, or inverted small empty cans (as from baking powder), or an inverted glass (cans cut better than glass)
Cover the circles of dough and the completed varenyky prior to boiling, with moistened paper towel or clean dish towel, to keep dough from drying out.

FILLING (Potato and cheese)
Peel and chop a few onions and saute until transparent and starting to lightly brown (in butter or oil--or a little of both).  You can add a tiny bit of water to the fry pan so the onions are really soft.
Set aside
Peel 5lbs. Idaho potatoes, cut up, and boil in salted water. Cook thoroughly.
(Some people add a little onion soup mix to the water.)
Drain well.
Mash, leaving no lumps.
Add about a cup of grated cheddar cheese (sharp).
(the filling will have a slightly yellowish tinge after being mashed with the cheese, but it shouldn’t be too cheesy)
Mix in sauteed onions.
Add salt and pepper to taste (enough that the filling isn’t too bland).

FILLING THE DOUGH
Fill varenyk circles with filling, fold into a half-moon shape, and press edges with fingers to seal well (dip fingers in flour, or in water, as needed, to get a good seal). Don't put in too much, because if you can't seal the edges well, the filling will leak out when you cook the varenyk.

COOKING
Boil water in a big, wide pot with a teaspoon of oil in it.
Drop in about 20 varenyky at a time and gently stir.
Simmer (gently boil) for 5 minutes.
Lift out with strainer or slotted spoon and let "rest" in glass pan, spread out so that the varenyky don’t stick to each other.
If desired, you can gently rinse them under cool water to get away the sticky starch. 

The varenyky can be served fresh now, with sour cream. If desired, sauté more onions and serve with the varenyky.


FREEZING
The varenyky may be frozen now for later use: after you’ve removed them from boiling water, when the varenyky are little cooler, add oil so they won't stick (you can spread some oil on a cookie sheet, put the varenyky on it, then flip them to get the other side). 

Transfer to another holding platter to cool more thoroughly, before placing  2 dozen in ziplock freezer bags. 

THAWING
A vegetable steamer does a good job of heating frozen varenyky thoroughly in about 3 minutes.
Boiling is also ok, but steaming is less messy and less hazardous.

Alternate fillings: mushrooms, cabbage, cheese, cherries or other fruit.



Enjoy!

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