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2004

TODAY's CASES:

Baked Blooming Onion

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bernadette" 
To: phaedrus
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 9:04 PM
Subject: blooming onions

> Hello phaedrus, 
> I hope you can help me.  I once had a recipe for a booming onion that 
> was battered and dipped in fine bread crumbs and baked in the oven 
> instead of being deep fried.  I have searched for it but have not 
> been able to find it. Can you help me? 
> Thank you,
> Bernadette 
>

Hello Bernadette,

See below.

Phaed

Baked Blooming Onion

2 large red onions -- about. 1 1/2 lb
1/2 cup bread crumbs -- or Panko
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 large egg whites

Preheat the oven to 375* F. Lightly spray a baking sheet with olive oil
spray.

Peel the skin from the onions and trim the bottoms so that the onions sit
flat. Starting at the center of the top of each onion and working around it,
cut 20 to 30 slits, cutting only three-quarters into the onion for a
"flower" effect. Transfer to the baking sheet.

In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, garlic powder and paprika.

Set aside. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites lightly with a fork.

Pour the whites over the onion to cover thoroughly and then sprinkle evenly
with the seasoned crumbs. Spray lightly with olive oil spray and bake for 40
to 50 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Serve Immediately.

Fannie Mae Caramels

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna" 
To: phaedrus
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 3:48 PM
Subject: Fannie Mae Carmels

Do you have the recipe for fannie mae carmels. I hope so.
Thanks,
Donna

Hi Donna,

See below.

Phaed

Fannie Mae Caramels

4 cups granulated sugar
2 cups light corn syrup
1(14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups walnuts
Tempered dipping chocolate or wax paper cut into rectangles

Butter a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

In a heavy 6-quart Dutch oven, combine sugar, corn syrup, sweetened
condensed milk, milk, whipping cream and butter. Place over medium heat and
stir occasionally with wooden spoon until comes to boil. Clip on candy
thermometer. Cook, stirring constantly, until candy reaches 240 degrees F or
soft ball stage.

Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla extract and nuts. Pour without
scraping into pan. Allow to stand overnight.

Cut into 1-inch squares. Wrap in wax paper or dip in chocolate.

Yield: about 110 pieces

Lobster Tail Pastry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brandy" 
To: phaedrus
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 6:30 PM
Subject: recipe request

> Hi,
>
> I am trying to locate a recipe for an Italian dessert called Lobster
tails.  The pastry is like that of sfogliatelli, the inside has some type of
italian pastry cream.  I had these once from a bakery in New York and would
love to make them.
>
> Thanks,
> Brandy 
>

Hello Brandy,

See below.

Phaed

Sfogllatella (lobstertail) Italian Pastry
Source: Immigrant's Kitchen Italian by Cassandra Vivian

Pastry
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup semolina flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lard or better, melted

Combine flours, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well. Add butter,
cutting it into the dough until blended. Slowly add water. Knead until firm.
Form into a ball, cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Filling
1 cup milk
1/4 cup semolina flour
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of either
candied orange peel
lemon zest
candied fruit of choice
pinch of cinnamon
confectioners sugar
parchment paper, optional

Place a saucepan over medium heat. Add milk. Bring to a boil and slowly add
semolina flour. Stir constantly so as to avoid lumps. Simmer three to four
minutes, remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and allow to cool.

After five minutes add ricotta (which has been passed through a sieve), egg,
sugar, candied fruit, and sugar to semolina. Beat well. Set aside.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Divided it into two equal parts. Place on a
dusted pastry board and roll with a rolling pin into an 18 inch square. It
will become very, very, thin.

Brush the thin pastry with butter. Begin at one end and roll it like a jelly
roll. Cut the roll into a number of 3-4 inch pieces. Pick up one piece of
the dough in your hand. Press your thumb in the center of the pastry and
push it down to form a hole like a cup.

Fill the cup with 2 tablespoons of filling. Fold the cup until the open
edges touch. Gently press the edges together to seal the pastry. Set it in
front of you. Gently pull out the sides of the front to form a shell. Brush
the top with beaten egg yolk.

Repeat above until all pastry and filling are used. Preheat over to 425
degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place the shells on
the paper and bake for 15 minutes or until brown. Let the pastry cool on the
cookie sheet for five minutes. It will harden a bit. Then place on a rack.
When ready to serve and completely cool, sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
-------------------------------------
Sfogliatella Riccia
Shell-shaped Flaky Ricotta Pastries

1 cup water
1/2 cup ricotta
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup semolina
1 cup, 2 oz. flour
6 oz. butter
2 oz. strutto
1 pinch cinnamon
3 oz. candied orange peel, diced
1 egg yolk

Bring the water to a boil, add a pinch of salt and pour in the semolina,
stirring so as not to form lumps. Cook, stirring for about 8 mins., stirring
constantly. Let cool. Make a fontana with the flour. Put half of the butter,
a pinch of salt and as much water as necessary to knead the dough to a
smooth and elastic consistency. Wrap the dough in a towel and let rest for
an hour.
Sift the ricotta; mix with the semolina, 6 tbs. sugar, a pinch of cinnamon
and the candied peel. Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin to obtain a
25x18-in. rectangle, 1/16-in. thick. Cut the pastry vertically into 4 strips
and place one on top of the other, brushing each one with melted butter. Let
rest for half an hour, and then roll up the stack of dough.

Slice the roll into 10 equal pieces with a very sharp, floured knife. Place
the pieces on the pastry board and roll them gently with the rolling pin,
first vertically, in an upward direction, and then in a downwards direction,
to give them an oval shape.

Turn the ovals over, place a bit of ricotta filling in the middle of each
one, brush the edges with egg yolk, then fold the dough over and press to
seal. Brush the sfogliatelle with melted strutto and place on a paper
greased with butter. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 425ºF for 20 mins. Remove
from the oven. Brush with melted butter again, lower the temperature to
350ºF and bake for another 20 mins. Let cool, sprinkle with confectioner's
sugar and serve.

---
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brandy"
To: phaedrus
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 6:30 PM
Subject: recipe request

> Hi,
>
> It's not sfogliatelli, the inside has some type of
> italian pastry cream.  I had these once from a bakery in New York. 
>
> Thanks,
> Brandy 
>

Hi Brandy,

Well, your request is complicated. You say that you don't want sfogliatelli, which is what I sent you the first time, but sfogliatelli are the real "lobster tails" pastry.

The original ancestor of the lobster tail pastry was called La Santarosa named after a convent. Its filling was a creamy white, and it was typically served hot. In the 19th century, La Santarosa became what was then and is now known as "La Sfogliatella". "Shell-shaped pastry" is a loose (very loose) translation of "sfogliatelli." (It more closely translates as "little sheets.") See: lobster

The "lobster tails" sold in some Italian-American bakeries are an Italian-American creation, unknown in Italy. They are a hybrid of sfogliatelle pastry that's filled with a ricotta-based cannoli-type filling instead of the traditional sfagliotelli filling. In some bakeries it doesn't even have the ricotta filling, but has a Bavarian cream filling.

I can give you an Italian pastry cream filling recipe and a cannoli filling recipe, and there are Bavarian cream filling recipes on my site at:
Bavarian Cream
But I have no idea which of these, if any, is what you want, because bakeries don't all use the same filling for "lobster tails".

Phaed

Pasticciera Cream (Italian Pastry Cream )

This is a basic recipe for Italian pastry cream which is used as a filling
for many cakes and pastries. The chocolate pastry cream is made from this
same base, with the addition of the chocolate. Depending on the recipe you
are going to use the pastry cream for, you may prefer to omit the lemon
rind. Here are the recipes for the basic and chocolate variety. Prep/Cook
times do not include chilling time.

Basic Recipe
3    tablespoons sugar (or confectioner's sugar)
3    egg yolks
3    tablespoons flour
1/2    teaspoon grated fresh lemon rind (omit for chocolate pasticciera
cream) (optional)
1/2    teaspoon vanilla
2    cups whole milk
1    tablespoon butter
Chocolate Pasticciera Cream
2    ounces baking chocolate, grated

Place sugar, egg yolks flour, lemon rind (if using it), and vanilla in a
sauce pan and mix together well.
2.  In a separate sauce pan, scald milk.
3.  Very slowly pour milk over egg yolk mixture, in a thin stream, beating
constantly with rotary beater.
4.  Continue cooking on low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until
mixture reaches the boiling point.
5.  Cook 4 minutes longer, stirring constantly.
6.  (**At this point, if making chocolate pasticciera cream, add chocolate
and while stirring, cook 1 minute longer.) Remove pan from heat, add butter
and mix well.
7.  Pour into bowl and let cool, stir occasionally to prevent skin from
forming over the top.
8.  If using as a cake/pastry filling, chill (with plastic wrap pressed onto
the surface to prevent a skin from forming) until very thick at least 3-4 hours.
9.  For Chocolate Pasticciera Cream: **Add grated chocolate to cooked pasticciera 
cream and cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly, until chocolate is blended well.
10.  Cool/chill before using as a cake/pastry filling.
--------------------------------------------------------
Cannoli Filling
  Categories: Desserts, Italian, Cheese/eggs
       Yield: 25 servings

       2 lb Ricotta
   1 1/2 c  Powdered sugar
       4 ts Vanilla
     1/2 c  Citron
     1/2 c  Orange peel;candied
       4 oz Chocolate;sweet

   Process ricotta, powdered sugar and vanilla in food processor until
   smooth. Add citron, peel, and broken up chocolate and process with
   short bursts just until chopped. Use to fill cannoli shells,
   garnishing ends with finely chopped almonds or other nuts.
   Variations: Fluffy Ricotta Filling: Fold in 1 cup heavy cream, beaten
   until stiff. Pistachio Filling: To either of the above fillings add a
   few drops of green food coloring to tint pale green. Garnish ends of
   filled shells with chopped pistachio nuts.

White Mountain Pound Cake

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "lois"
To: phaedrus
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 6:18 PM
Subject: pound cake recipe

I am looking for a pound cake recipe that my Mother made called--White
Mountain Pound Cake.  The eggs were separated and the white beaten and
folded in. Hope you can help me. Lois ----lois

Hello Lois,

See below.

Phaed

White  Mountain  Pound  Cake

 Ingredients :
 1 c. shortening
 2 c. sugar
 1 1/2 c. milk
 3 tsp. baking powder
 4 c. flour
 1/4 tsp. salt
 6 egg whites, beaten stiff
 2 tsp. almond flavoring

 Preparation :
    Cream shortening and sugar.  Add almond extract and beat well.
 Mix dry ingredients.  Add alternately with milk.  Fold in egg
 whites.  Bake in greased tube pan for 55-60 minutes at 350 degrees.
 Halve the recipe to bake in loaf pan.

Pancake Starter

----- Original Message ----- 
From: carla
To: Phaedrus
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 5:49 PM
Subject: Pancake starter

> Many years ago when I was a child a friend of my fathers gave him some
> pancake batter in a container and they called it Monster Mix. It obviously
> came from a starter of some kind which we never knew the recipe for. 
> Everytime you took some of the batter out you would add ingredients to 
> it to make the pancakes right then and then feed the monster by adding 
> ingredients to it and put back in the fridge where the monster would 
> grow for the next time After many many years and feeding a family of 8 
> zillions of pancakes everyone eventually moved away and no one was left 
> to feed the monster and needless to say it died.
> These were without a doubt the lightest best pancakes in the whole world. 
> I would love to make them for my father since they were his absolute 
> favorites while I still have a chance and pass it along to the rest of the 
> family so they can make them for their families too. I have tried other 
> starters but none of them quite so light and good Your help would be greatly 
> appreciated
> Sincerely,
> Carla
>

Hello Carla,

I cannot find anything called "monster mix", but below is a recipe for sourdough pancake starter and pancakes.

Phaed

Sourdough Pancakes  Starter

1 c. reg. homogenized milk
1 c. all purpose flour

Let milk stand in an open bowl or crock for 12-24 hours. In the summertime
it is a good idea to cover the bowl with cheesecloth and let the milk stand
outdoors. After strained, mix in flour, cover lightly and let stand until
the mixture bubbles up and has a pleasant sweet sour odor. When the mixture
has soured (3-4 days) it is ready for use. After each use, save a "seed"
from the soured batch. It will become progressively more "sour". If you
don't use it for more than 2 weeks at a time, simply remove some of the
seed, add equal parts of flour and water or milk (so that you always have
about 1 cup of starter), let it bubble up at room temperature, cover and
refrigerate again. You may freeze the starter. Always remember to use
non-metallic containers for the starter and sourdough bread doughs while
rising.

Method 2:
Add to the above mixture 1 teaspoon to 1 package yeast, also a couple
tablespoons of sugar and a half teaspoon salt. Stir. In about 2 or 3 days,
it will have sour odor. The mixture may have completely liquefied. If it
has, simply stir in enough flour to make a doughy consistency again and let
sour at room temperature.

Sourdough Pancakes Or Waffles:

1 c. starter
2 c. milk
2 c. flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. salad or cooking oil
2 eggs
Mix the starter, milk, and flour in a non-metallic bowl. Cover lightly and
let stand overnight or until mixture has a very coarse bubbly texture. When
you are ready to bake pancakes or waffles, stir in the soda, salt, sugar,
oil, and eggs until well blended. Bake in a hot waffle iron or on a hot
griddle as you would pancakes or waffles. Makes about 8 servings.

""


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