Dutch Treats. William Woys Weaver

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Baked Anise Dumplings for Festive Occasions

       Backgnepp fer Feschtdaage

      During the holidays years ago these dumplings were fairly common in Pennsylvania Dutch bakeries and farm markets, where they were sold under the local name fresh rusk. The dumplings do make excellent rusks because they dry out after a day or two, which is why they are best fresh from the oven. The unused dumplings were usually recycled in some manner, often sliced and baked in puddings or in a fruit Schlupper (see chapter xx). These particular dumplings are not extremely sweet because they were intended to be eaten with sauce or stewed fruit – such as peaches stewed with dried sour cherries, or currants when in season. In fact, the beaten egg and sugar topping can be omitted because the dumplings are just as good plain. This same basic dough recipe also can be used for making a braided Aniskranz (anise-flavored wreath bread) or it can be baked in a Bundt mold. Excellent when served with tea or coffee or with sweet wine.

       Yield: Approximately 20 Servings

       ½ cup (125ml) whole milk

       ¼ ounce (7g) yeast

       6 ounces (185g) unsalted butter

       4 ounces (125g) sugar

       4 large eggs

       6 ¼ cups (815g) bread flour

       2 teaspoons ground coriander

       1½ teaspoons ground cardamom

       Grated zest of 1 lemon

       1 tablespoon anise seeds (or more to taste)

       Topping:

       1 beaten egg white

       1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla sugar

       1 tablespoon sliced almonds or chopped hickory nuts

      Scald the milk and cool to lukewarm. Proof the yeast in it. Cream the butter and sugar and set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until lemon color, then combine with the proofed yeast. Add this to the reserved butter-and-sugar mixture. Sift together the flour and spices, then gradually sift in the flour to form soft dough; use only enough flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the fingers. Knead 10 minutes, then cover and let the dough rise in a warm place until double in bulk. Knock down and roll out in a rectangle ½ inch (1.25cm) thick. Scatter the anise seed and grated lemon over this, then fold the dough over twice and knead well until pliant. Form into 20 2-ounce (60g) balls and set them in a buttered Schales pan (see glossary, page 163) or in a shallow cake tin of similar proportions to rise in a warm place. Or roll into a wreath or circle and cover. Let the dough recover for 25 minutes. Brush with an egg white beaten until forming stiff peaks and scatter liberally with vanilla sugar and almonds (optional). Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 375F (190C). Or bake in a Bundt mold well greased and dusted with bread or cake crumbs for the same period of time. It should tap hollow when done.

Bean Day Bread

       Buhnedaag Brod

      Depending on which farmer you ask, Buhnedaag (Bean Day) is either June 4 or June 5 (St. Boniface Day). This is the critical date on the Pennsylvania Dutch garden calendar by which time most pole beans and lima beans should be in the ground if they are to produce seed for the next season. This is also the date when kitchen gardeners should start planting bush beans in 2-week successions so that there will be a fresh crop right up until frost. With so much hinging on this important date, we would have thought that some entrepreneurial Dutchman would have come up with a Bean Planting Festival, but the truth of the matter is, at that time of year everyone in the Dutch Country is too busy in the garden to bother with such distractions.

      Just the same, Bean Day has its advocates, not to mention its unofficial herb: Buhnegreidel (“bean plant”), otherwise known as summer savory. Eating beans with summer savory is an old-time preventive remedy for gas (you know the kind we mean), so it is not surprising that it also figures in Bean Day Bread. That said, some cooks prefer to add sage (or a combination of sage and savory), while others add calendula petals for good luck, calendulas being the Dutch national flower. No one knows exactly when Bean Day was first observed, although we suspect it existed in many tentative and perhaps purely pragmatic forms until the 1840s, when Pennsylvania Dutch soldiers brought back black beans from the Mexican War.

Mexican Black Turtle Beans were suddenly touted as the next best thing to turtle soup (only if you add enough Madeira!), and while black beans were not exactly a Pennsylvania Dutch ideal – they preferred white, brown or speckled varieties, since bread made with black beans looks like rye bread – thus a good idea was born. I have taken it a little further by adding garlic and sunflower seeds. I have baked the loaf shown in the picture in a traditional square bride cake tin. More on bride cake tins on page 18. Otherwise, this recipe will make two loaves when baked in bread pans.

       Yield: 2 loaves

       1⅓ cups (8 ounces/250g) black beans

       1½ tablespoons grated unsweetened baking chocolate

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