Babos Receptai (Part 13)

My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, prepared simple, daily meals. The food usually was somewhat bland because Lithuanians avoid assertively seasoned dishes. We rarely, for example, had garlic in the house, and my family shunned green bell peppers because the adults found them "spicy." Mr. Irene and I sometimes joke that Lithuanians season their food with bacon and dill.

Sicilian immigrants populated the suburb in which we lived, and I grew to love Italian food. My Best Friend's father, Dolfo, was from Genoa, and he taught me to appreciate northern Italian preparations like pesto and Genoese pizza (foccacia). I often ate dinner at my Best Friend's house and then went home to pick at the dull plate Tatjana had prepared.

Tatjana sought to please my adventurous palate by preparing Spaghetti and Meatballs. I don't think she made the dish more than once each year.

Here is the recipe Tatjana used; she likely adapted it from the 1956 edition of Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook:

Here is how I translated the recipe:

Meatballs (Italian)

To make the meatballs:

one pound mixed ground meats
a little bit of garlic
3 eggs
fine, dry breadcrumbs
parsley
Italian cheese

Fry the meatballs in a pan. When the meatballs brown, pour them into the sauce.

For the Sauce:

1 large can tomato puree
1 large can tomato paste
some bay leaves or a leaf of basil
parlsey
1/2 clove garlic
a pinch of allspice
1-1/2 cans water

Cook until the sauce thickens.

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There! You can see how bold this recipe was for our household: Tatjana used garlic and even suggested adding a basil leaf.

Make one at home.

I started baking in the early 1970s. I don't recall what sparked my interest, but I grew curious about trying new recipes. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, did not venture much beyond her own repertoire. My Mom worked full time, so she never cooked, and she only occasionally baked for the holidays. We also had few cookbooks. Besides the 1956 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Book, I remember the German-language edition of this book, and a copy of European Desserts for American Kitchens.

I started experimenting with some of the recipes in European Desserts for American Kitchens. I first made a Dobos Torte, and then I moved on to a dessert—Crepes Saint Martin—that featured a delicious, rice-pudding-like filling. I finally saw that the book contained a recipe for one of the "triple crowns" of Lithuanian baking: "Baumkuchenas" (the other two "crowns" would be "Napoleonas" and Nut Torte ... at least at our house).

A homemade Baumkuchenas, of course, would not feature the typical "branches" or dough spikes created by baking the cake on a turning rotisserie over an open flame. If  you want a Baumkuchenas with the typical appearance, then order one (the mail-order cakes are quite good). The recipe in European Desserts for American Kitchens, however, tastes almost identical to the traditional, branched cake, and I've been making it since 1972. A few years had passed since I made one, so yesterday I got ambitious.

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Here's how I adapted the recipe:

Baumkuchenas

1-1/2 cups (7.2 ounces) potato or cornstarch
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8.4 ounces) granulated sugar
9 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
9 egg yolks, room temperature
1-1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons freshly-squeeze lemon juice


Adjust the oven rack to about six inches below the broiler element. Preheat the oven—on the broiler setting—to 475 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and the sides of the springform pan with butter. Dust the pan with flour and shake out the excess.

Sift the potato or cornstarch and set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, begin mixing the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt and low to medium speed until the egg whites begin to get foamy. Gradually increase the speed to medium-high and then high. While beating, add about 4 tablespoons of the granulated sugar to the egg whites. Continue beating until the meringue is stiff and holds its shape. Set the bowl with the meringue aside.

In another bowl of the electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the remaining sugar. This should take about 5 to 6 minutes, and the mixture should be very light and pale in color. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the lemon rind and the vanilla extract.

On low speed (or by hand, using a spatula), mix in about one-third of the potato starch. Gently fold in half the meringue. Then, add one-half of the remaining potato starch and the rest of the meringue. Finally, fold in the remainder of the potato starch.

Before beginning to bake, place the bowl with the batter, a trivet, and a large spoon or ladle near the oven. Using the spoon or ladle (or a small, offset spatula), spread about 1/4 cup of the batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Place in the preheated oven and bake until the layer is lightly browned. The first layer may take about 2-1/2 to 3 minutes. When the first layer is done, remove the pan from the oven, set it on the trivet, and spread another 1/4 cup batter over the first layer. Continue in this manner until you have used up all of the batter. In our oven, the layers take about 2 to 2-1/2 minutes each, and you should end up with about 14 or 15 layers. The baking process is tedious.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it rest, in the pan, on a wire rack for about one hour. Run a knife around the sides of the pan and remove the springform. Let the cake rest until it is completely cool, about two hours.

Before serving, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice and spread it on top of the cake.

Ready for Errands

Suburban Chicago, January 1962. Ha! I see the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook on the shelf.

Babos Receptai (Part 1)

"Babos Receptai" means "Grandma's Recipes." My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, copied her favorite recipes into a Mead composition notebook. Most of those recipes are ones she used for entertaining; her everyday cooking was not remarkable. There were, however, two "noncompany" items for which Tatjana jotted the "prescription" (as we sometimes call "recipes") into the notebook. Both were sweets Tatjana regularly baked for the family.

The first treat was "Babos Pyragas," or "Grandma's Cake." Whether this was really Tatjana's own recipe, we don't know. Tatjana often called something "her" recipe if she considered it one of her signature dishes. Babos Pyragas resembles a large jam crostata. Tatjana prepared a cookie-like dough. She patted two-thirds of the dough into a rimmed cookie sheet. She covered the surface of the dough with strawberry jam. Tatjana then rolled the remaining portion and cut out leaf shapes out of the dough. She placed the shapes on top of the jam at curved angles so the leaves looked like fronds bending in the wind. Tatjana usually overbaked this treat because the strawberry jam would have burnt, chewy specks in the corner pieces.

Here's the notebook page for the recipe. Tatjana was a messy cook; most of her recipe pages are smattered with batter, just like this one. Tatjana must have dictated this recipe because the ingredients appear in my Mom's handwriting. (I don't remember anyone making the "Šarlotka" recipe that appears on the same page in blue ink):

Here's how I wrote up the recipe:

Babos Pyragas

4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 to 4 tablespoons sour cream (recipe called for 2 heaping tablespoons)
2 tablespoons grain alcohol 
1-1/2 cups strawberry jam

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and adjust the oven rack to the center position.Butter a 15-by-10-inch rimmed cookie sheet ("jelly roll pan"). Sift the flour and set aside.

Use an electric mixer to cream the butter with the sugar for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is very light in color. Add the vanilla extract and grain alcohol. Stir in enough sour cream to make a soft dough. Using a spatula, fold in the flour, mixing only until the flour disappears.

Gather the dough into a ball. Divide the dough into thirds. Wrap one third is plastic wrap and refrigerate. Press the remaining two-thirds of the dough evenly into the prepared pan. The dough should be about one-third inch thick.

Spread the strawberry jam over the dough. Roll the remaining, chilled dough on a well floured surface until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Using a sharp knife or pastry wheel, cut out decorative leaf shapes. Arrange these over the jam in bent shapes.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool before slicing into about 36 wedges.

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What was the second treat Tatjana often baked for us? It was a Banana Cake. The recipe appeared in the 1956 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book. Tatjana baked the cake in a 10-inch tube pan (she called that pan her "Babka Form"). Tatjana also overbaked this cake; I remember the smell of the slightly burnt crumbs.

Here's how Tatjana copied the recipe for the Banana Cake. The recipe on the lower half of the page is for a Poppy Seed Torte: