I don’t do a lot of labor intensive stuff, but I do love to make Pastitisio. It messes up the kitchen quite thoroughly as well. For deserts, ATK’s cheesecake takes quite a lot of work to get right. I like to marble in huckleberry jam right before I bake it. So good.
Then there’s all the home made candy I make. Toffee takes the longest but it’s so worth it. I don’t do peanut brittle, because although I have a good recipe, I’m not so fond of the stuff so it’s not worth the time. I love to make fudge. It’s much less hands on than the other candies even if it does have to sit and cool and then get whipped.
I think growing “Herman” the special sourdough/mold proof and starter that made the best, and most moist, fruit and nut, Christmascake was the longest operation for a single cake that I was party to… but honestly, it was worth it. But you gotta pass it down or find the original culture… it is passed on among generations… Anydody still got a “Herman” culture, out there?
I remember people would travel with Herman on planes or even mail him to other parts of the country. Maybe even take him across borders… Just in the name of Cake. Might even be considered a terroristic act in today’s climate, who knows?
I mean, Herman is a pet. You have to take care of him and love him or else he dies A yeasty little commitment, gotta nurture this cake.
It’s like keeping bugs in a jar, almost literally…
Actually, I am informed that you must use margarine, and not butter. It’s the only recipe in existence that I know of that specifically asks for margarine and explicitly is not to use butter instead; we don’t know why, but that’s how it’s been passed down.
glowacks, my dad makes similar cookies every Christmas (except he uses butter ) and we call them Cold Dough Cakes. He got the recipe from his mom, who was of Yugoslavian descent and cooked a lot of food from that area of the world. His nut filling is actually cooked and he also does a batch with an apricot filling (my favorite).
My uncle by marriage owned a Polish deli in Chicago and I have his recipe for galumpkis, stuffed cabbage rolls. They take the better part of an afternoon to make and are worth it.
I serve them with a peasant-y onion bread which rises three times or it’s pretty dense. It’s definitely a day in the kitchen when I decide to cook this.
Today I mixed up the dough for kringla, a Scandinavian treat with cardamom or nutmeg somewhere between a sweet roll and a cooky. Tomorrow it will take me many hours to roll them out, shape them and bake them. So I rarely make them at any time other than Christmas.
My family always feels shortchanged because so many people ask for them for their Christmas gift from me. So this time I’m tripling the recipe. Certain I’ll be tired of them by the time I’m done.
Most of my Christmas confections are time-consuming, as others mention - rosettes, krumkake, the spritz cookies glowacks describes.
Another recipe which I haven’t made for quite a while is wonton soup which requires quite a bit of chopping and fooling around. On my father’s birthday I used to make a seven course Asian dinner from scratch which took me several days to prepare.
) and we call them Cold Dough Cakes. He got the recipe from his mom, who was of Yugoslavian descent and cooked a lot of food from that area of the world. His nut filling is actually cooked and he also does a batch with an apricot filling (my favorite).