I live alone, in a tiny house with a kitchen for which the term “galley” is a compliment. I rarely cook; dinner is usually a salad or a bowl of ramen.
But if I have a holiday tradition, it’s thoroughly covering my counter (and often my floor) with flour and sugar, cocoa and cracker crumbs, bringing back memories of all my matriarchs.
As I mix and bake and chill, in the scent of chocolate and cinnamon and pastry, it’s as if these women are all in my kitchen for a little while.
Most years, I will make my grandmother’s Moravian Stretched Apple Strudel. It isn’t what you get when you order strudel at the bakery. Grandma grew up in a hill village in central Moravia; she learned to bake while housekeeping for the local priest, her cooking a marvelous mix of potato farmer and Viennese matron. There wasn’t a Saturday visit to her house that didn’t include strudel, and she taught the recipe to my mom, who passed it on to me.
It’s a project; I once spent an entire lunar eclipse baking loaves for my friends. The sugary, buttery layers never fail to make me feel like the 8-year-old at my grandmother’s breakfast table.
A simpler dessert is Nanaimo bars, three-layer concoctions of delectable flavor improbably named after a coastal Canadian city; I make them every year. I learned the recipe from Shirley Hvalsoe, a college boyfriend’s mom when I showed up at her house, unannounced. (She might have been a little desperate to do something with me, I know now as a mother of young men.) Their big house breathed comfort, in the damp shade of Washington cedars, a lake lapping close by.
But the peak holiday baking accomplishment for any Czech housewife, and one that my mom has made for most of her life, are Ischl Torte cookies. The fact that these are a Czech traditional cookie says a lot about Central European history; Ischl Tortes were reportedly invented in 1849 to celebrate the new Austro-Hungarian empress, Elisabeth (Sisi), in Bad Ischl, Austria, where she stole her sister’s intended, the Emperor Franz Josef.
Mom and my ex-husband didn’t get along, but he adored (and was willing to behave for) her Ischl Tortes. I suppose you could say they contributed to peace on Earth.
Moravian Stretched Apple Strudel
This dessert is so named because the dough is actually stretched, similar to pizza dough. I’m hoping to persuade my 96-year-old mom to make her strudel at least once this year, so her great-granddaughters can have the memory of watching her create this family favorite.
INGREDIENTS
For the dough:
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups flour, divided
Warm water
For the filling:
4 cups butter, melted and divided
2 cups raisins, divided
2 cups walnuts, chopped and divided
4-5 apples, sliced (mom likes Golden Delicious the best) and divided
1 cup sugar, divided
1 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon, divided
1 cup powdered sugar, divided
2 cups plain breadcrumbs, divided
For serving:
Whipped cream (Optional)
DIRECTIONS
- In a large coffee mug, put the egg, vegetable oil, vinegar, salt and enough warm water to almost fill the container. Mix with a fork.
2. Put 3 cups of flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the wet mixture in the well, then mix with a wooden spoon until you’ve got a cohesive dough.
3. With floury fingers, gather the very sticky mixture into a ball, knead a little, incorporating more flour as needed. Then slam the dough repeatedly against a heavily floured board, until it’s almost rubbery.
4. Divide the dough into four sections, wrap them in plastic, and let them rest overnight.
5. Roll each section out onto a floured cloth (necessary for a step below), then gently stretch the edges with your fingertips until the dough is so thin that you can almost read a newspaper through it.
6. Top each section of rolled-out dough, almost to the edge, with 3-4 tablespoons of melted butter, ¼ cup of breadcrumbs, ½ cup walnuts, ½ cup raisins, 1 sliced apple, 3-4 tablespoons of sugar and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Repeat with another layer of breadcrumbs and butter.
7. Roll into loaves (the floured cloth works to scoot the dough as you roll it), and onto a greased banking sheet, with the edge down.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Check frequently; take out when golden brown. Cool, and slice into 2-inch sections. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, top with whipped cream (optional) and serve.
Nanaimo Bars
These are the simplest holiday treat to make (the anti-strudel, if you will), with no baking and basic pantry ingredients. But my boys pretty much demand them. Although I lost touch with Shirley Hvalsoe after I moved for my first job, I like to think she lives through these bars. (Note: If you make these on a cold winter’s night, you can chill each layer outside or in an unheated room rather than fight for fridge space.)
Ingredients
For the bottom layer:
½ cup salted butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
For the middle layer:
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons instant vanilla pudding mix
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the top layer:
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
DIRECTIONS
- In a double boiler, or a metal bowl perched atop a pot of simmering water, melt the butter. Add sugar, cocoa and vanilla. When it is all melted, quickly whisk in an egg (it will take on the texture of custard).
2. Remove from heat and add graham crackers, coconut flakes and chopped nuts.
3. Press the mixture into a 9 x13 baking sheet; chill until solid.
4. For the center layer, cream the butter, then mix in powdered sugar, instant vanilla pudding mix, vanilla and milk. Pour on top of the bottom layer evenly and chill.
5. For the top layer, melt the chocolate in the double boiler, then pour on top of chilled bars. Again, chill until solid.
6. Cut into bars. They’ll keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator, unless the kids get to them sooner.
Ischl Torte Cookies
My mother taught me how to make these delicate beauties when I was a new mom. But back then, I hadn’t the skill, patience or focus to replicate her seemingly effortless creations. Most of the time, my clumsy fingers broke the fragile cookies before I could fill them. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I looked up the recipe on an expat website, modified it slightly and made a batch. I will warn you that there are a lot of steps and it’s quite messy. But my goodness, Ischl Tortes are rich, delicious and impressive.
Makes about 12 cookie sandwiches.
Ingredients
For the cookies:
¾ cup unsalted butter
½ cup ground almonds
¾ cup powdered sugar
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 ½ cup flour
For the filling:
3 tablespoons raspberry jam
½ cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
For the topping:
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate
12 walnut halves
DIRECTIONS
- Grind almonds in a blender.
2. Soften the butter slightly, then make a dough out of the butter, flour, almonds, powdered sugar, cinnamon, salt, lemon zest, and cocoa powder.
3. Refrigerate dough overnight.
4. The next day, roll the dough on a floured board to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out rounds with a floured cookie cutter. (Re-rolling the unused dough doesn’t work well in this recipe.)
5. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet, for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Note: Monitor closely, because the cookies burn easily with all the cocoa. Cool.
6. Make the buttercream by mixing butter, vanilla and powdered sugar. Spread the buttercream on the undersides of one-half of the cookies, and the other half with raspberry jam. Put the sticky sides together. Cool enough to allow fillings to solidify.
7. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Spoon a little of it on top of each cookie sandwich, and top with a walnut half. Chill. Store in a cool, dry place.
Eva Syrovy is a freelance writer in Colorado Springs.
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