Simply Divine: Holiday Cookies from the Monastery Immaculate Conception
A holiday tradition is a trip to the Monastery Immaculate
Conception, a wonderful Romanesque building sitting high on a hill overlooking
Ferdinand in Dubois County. For it is here that the sisters make wonderful
cookies in their Simply Divine Bakery which they sell at the monastery’s For
Heaven’s Sake Gift Shop and online ( the sisters are very modern these days).
Their big selling Christmas cookie is the springerle and they make and sell
about 2700 dozen during their peak months – October through February. That may
not sound like a lot, but the cookies are handmade by a group of the sisters
using presses brought by one of the Benedictine order from Germany over a
century ago.
“It’s a very time consuming process,” Sister Jean Marie Ballard
told me. “They take a long time to make and five of us often work on them at a
time.”
Traditionally, springerles are made with anise oil but for
those who don’t like the licorice
flavor, the sisters created almerles
using the same recipe but substituting almond oil for the anise.”
Leading the baking of the springerles is Sister Barbara Jean
who grew up in the predominantly German area of Ferdinand and nearby Jasper who
has been making them since she was young.
The baking sisters, juried as Indiana Artisans, grow their own peppermint on the
extensive monastery grounds and use that for their buttermint cookies. And they also bake a cookie they call the
Hildegard after Saint Hildegard who lived in the 1100s and besides being saint
sounds like a most remarkable woman.
A Benedictine abbess, she was a scholar who corresponded
with popes and royalty and wrote books on natural science, medicine, theology,
metaphysics and music. Besides that, as
a composer and lyricist, Hildegard created the earliest recorded music by a
woman. All this in a time when most women – and men – didn’t even know how to
read. And when she wasn’t doing all
that, Hildegard practiced natural medicine and in one of her writings, “Physica:
Liber Simplicis Medicine,” she recommended the frequent consumption of a health
cookie. It has long been a tradition in the monastery to make these cookies
using Hildegard’s recipe which was recorded in 1157.
A Google search quickly led me to the recipe which calls for
spelt flour, often available at health food stores, but whole wheat flour can
be substituted. Besides that, all of the ingredients except for kelp, which is
optional, are probably already in your pantry.
Saint Hildegard’s Cookie
Cream together:
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
In separate bowl, mix together:
2 cups flour (spelt, whole wheat, or 1/2 cup garbanzo flour
plus 1 1/2 cups wheat)
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tsp dulse or kelp (optional, but this adds valuable trace
minerals)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 tablespoon ground fenugreek (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts (optional)
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour
liquid ingredients in well and mix into dry ingredients.
Chill in refrigerator to cool, to make it easier to work
with (optional). Form into walnut sized balls.
Place on greased and floured cookie sheet. Bake at 350
degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.
To order cookies, call 812 367-1411 or visit www.thedome.org
We found these great recipes on the Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort Red Nose Blog and couldn't wait to share them.
Rudy’s Recipe: ‘Bama Fire Crackers
1 2/3 cups
vegetable oil
1 teaspoon garlic
powder
1 teaspoon onion
powder
1/2 teaspoon black
pepper
2 (1 ounce)
envelopes ranch dressing mix
3 tablespoons
crushed red pepper flakes
1 (16.5 ounce)
package multigrain saltine crackers
Make ‘Em:
Place vegetable oil, garlic powder, onion powder, black
pepper, ranch dressing mix, and crushed red pepper flakes in a 2-gallon plastic
zipper bag. Seal the bag and squish it with your hands to really combine the
oil and spices.
Mix well. Place the crackers into the bag, seal, and turn the
bag over and over to cover crackers with the spice mix. Let the bag sit for
about 1 hour, then turn again. Repeat several more times until the crackers are
well coated with spice mix, and allow the bag to sit overnight. Remove crackers
and serve.
Rudy’s Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Cobbler
1 – 29oz. can of
pumpkin
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
2 Tbs. pumpkin pie
spice
2 – 12oz. cans
evaporated milk
1 box yellow cake
mix
1 stick of
margarine or butter
Make It:
Mix all ingredients ‘cept for cake mix and butter in large
bowl with whisk.
Line inside of dutch oven with foil. Pour liquid into dutch
oven. Carefully sprinkle dry cake mix on top of pie filling. Slice the stick of
butter and spread slices onto top of cake mix.
Cover Dutch oven and begin the heating process. Cooking will
depend on the amount of coals you have and your Dutch oven. Cook until cake mix
turns golden brown.
http://lakerudolph.wordpress.com/2011
The
desserts at the Spring Mill Inn are not only scrumptious; many of them come
with their own special story. The unique – and very tasty – cornmeal pie is
made from cornmeal freshly ground at the restored 1816 gristmill at Spring Mill
Pioneer Village. Persimmons are revered in Lawrence County
and for the last 65 years each fall the county hosts a persimmon festival which
includes a persimmon cooking contest hence the persimmon puddings served there
made from freshly fallen persimmons -- they’re not ripe if they don’t fall from
the tree and trust me, you don’t want to bite into an unripened persimmon.
But my favorite
dessert story may be the one about Granny White Orchard Cake. Sally Cummins White,
known in later years as Granny White, was the type of woman who took in orphans
and fed the poor. She lived to a great age even for now but was ancient back,
dying at 94. And what she survived.
Coming back to America from Canadian at age 35, her first husband died on the
journey leaving her with six small children. She continued on, burying him in
Vevay and making her way to Vallonia, Indiana, marrying David White. According
to the commemorative sign in the dogtrot style two story house that her husband
built in 1824 and is now part of the village, they rode to Canada on horseback
for their honeymoon. Three more children came along and White, the mother of
nine now, also tended to the destitute and ill as well as inviting the Native
Americans who made their way along the Indian trail nearby into her home.
Though the waitress
at the Spring Mill Inn tells me that the cake is not from one of Granny White’s
recipes, it’s still fun to take a taste to celebrate this true pioneer woman.
The following recipes
are from the Spring Mill Inn.
Spring
Mill Corn Meal Pie
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated (white) sugar
½ cup milk (the richer the better)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
4-6 tablespoons butter (melted)
2-3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons yellow corn meal (white OK)
4 tablespoons sliced almonds (I used chopped hickory nut meats)
2 tablespoons shredded coconut (optional)
1 9-inch pie shell
1 cup granulated (white) sugar
½ cup milk (the richer the better)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
4-6 tablespoons butter (melted)
2-3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons yellow corn meal (white OK)
4 tablespoons sliced almonds (I used chopped hickory nut meats)
2 tablespoons shredded coconut (optional)
1 9-inch pie shell
In one small bowl, mix (gently but
well) the two cups of sugar (white and brown), milk, vanilla and eggs. In
another small bowl mix melted butter, flour, and corn meal.
Stir the two mixtures together and pour
the combined mixtures into the pie shell. Sprinkle nuts and coconut lightly on
top of pie and place in preheated (350 degrees) oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
Pie will have a well rounded surface
when taken from oven, but this will fall some as it cools. Allow pie to cool
before consuming.
A Tip or Two: If the filling of your first
effort is not as thick as you would like it, add a little more flour . .
. Place pie on cookie sheet
while baking in case it boils over. Watch pie crust and call it done
when the crust has reached the desired brownness. 
|
Persimmons Rule!
We have the
winning recipes from this year’s Persimmon Festival so pick up some persimmon
pulp at one of Southern Indiana’s fruit stands and start cooking.
First place:
65th Persimmon Fest Persimmon Pudding Contest
Jonna
Pemberton's Persimmon Pudding
2 cups
persimmon pulp
2 cups sugar
1 1⁄2 cups
flour
1 teaspoon
baking powder
1 1⁄2 cups
buttermilk
1 cup Milnot
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon
cinnamon
1⁄4 cup
margarine
1 teaspoon
baking powder
1 teaspoon
vanilla
Directions: Mix
persimmon pulp and sugar add beaten eggs and mix well. Add soda to buttermilk
and stir. Set aside and sift dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder).
Add buttermilk to pulp mixture and mix well. Then add flour mixture and beat
well.
Add Milnot and cinnamon. Melt margarine in 9x13 glass cake pan. Pour into
batter, leaving enough to grease pan. Beat well and bake one hour at 325
degrees.
First Place:
Novelty Dessert Contest
Mary Jo Losey’s
Praline-Persimmon Mousse Cornucopias
6 sugar ice
cream cones
Vegetable
cooking spray
1⁄2 of a 17.3
ounce package puff pastry sheets (1 sheet thawed)
2 tablespoons
sugar
1⁄2 cup milk
1 package
(about 3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
3⁄4 cup
persimmon pulp
3⁄4 teaspoon
ground cinnamon
1⁄2 cup heavy
cream
1 cup caramel topping,
warmed
1⁄2 cup toasted
chopped pecans
Directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Wrap each cone
tightly in aluminum foil, covering it completely and tucking any excess foil
into the cone cavity. Spray the foil cones with the cooking spray.
Sprinkle flour
on the work surface. Unfold the pastry sheet on the work surface. Cut the
pastry sheet along the fold marks to form 3 rectangles. Cut each rectangle
lengthwise into 4 strips, making 12 strips in all.
Press the ends
of 2 pastry strips together. Starting at the pointed end of the cone, wind the
pastry strips around one cone, slightly overlapping edges of the pastry (strip
will not reach the bottom of the cone). Spray the pastry cone with cooking
spray and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of sugar. Place the pastry cone on its side,
with the end of the strip facing down, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with the
remaining cones and pastry strips.
Bake for 15
minutes or until the pastries are golden brown. Let the pastries cool
completely on the baking sheet on a wire rack. Carefully remove the foil cones
from the baked pastry.
Beat the milk,
pudding mix, persimmon and cinnamon in a medium bowl with a whisk until the
mixture is thickened.
Beat the heavy
cream in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks
form. Fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture. Spoon or pipe the
mixture into the pastry cones.
Stir the
caramel topping and pecans in a small bowl. Place the pastries onto serving
plates and drizzle with the caramel mixture.
Second place:
Novelty Dessert Contest
Sherry
Hillenburg’s Persimmon Dessert Bars
1 3⁄4 cups
Graham cracker crumbs
1 1/3 cups
sugar, divided
1⁄2 cup butter,
melted
1 package (8
ounces) cream cheese, softened
5 eggs
2 cups
persimmon pulp
1⁄2 cup packed
brown sugar
1⁄2 cup milk
1⁄2 teaspoon
each salt and ground cinnamon
1 envelope of
unflavored gelatin
1⁄4 cold water
Directions: In
a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and 1/3 cup sugar, stir in butter.
Press into a greased 9x13 pan.
In a small
bowl, beat cream cheese and 2/3 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in two eggs just
until blended. Pour over crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until
set. Cool on wire rack.
Meanwhile,
separate the remaining eggs and set whites aside. In a large saucepan, combine
the yolks, persimmon pulp, brown sugar, milk, salt, and cinnamon. Cook and stir
over low heat for 10-12 minutes or until mixture is thickened and reaches 160
degrees. Remove from heat.
In a small
saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over cold water, let stand for 1 minute. Heat over
low heat, stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir into persimmon
mixture, set aside.
In a large,
heavy saucepan, combine reserved egg whites and remaining sugar. With a
portable mixer, beat on low speed for 1 minute. Continue beating over low heat
until mixture reaches 160 degrees, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat, beat
until stiff and glossy peaks form and sugar is dissolved. Fold into persimmon
mixture, spread evenly over cream cheese layer. Cover and refrigerate for 4
hours or until set.
Third place:
Novelty Dessert Contest
Marcy Staley’s
Persimmon Cream Cheese Cake
Press into 9x13
pan:
1 yellow cake
mix
1 softened
stick of margarine
1 beaten egg
Mix together:
11⁄2 cup
persimmon pulp
1 pound
powdered sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 8 ounce
package softened cream cheese
Pour over cake
mix and bake 45 to 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Serve with Cool
Whip if desired.
Fourth place:
Novelty Dessert Contest
Judy Darnell’s
Persimmon Dessert
1 package
Hostess Twinkies (10)
1 package cream
cheese (8 oz.)
1 cup sugar
1 8-ounce
container of Cool Whip
2 small instant
vanilla puddings
2 cups
persimmon pulp
11⁄2 teaspoon
cinnamon
1 cup milk
Directions:
Slice Twinkies lengthwise and layer in 9x13 pan. Blend together cream cheese,
sugar and 1⁄2 of Cool Whip and spread over Twinkies.
Combine
pudding, persimmons, cinnamon and milk. Layer over cheese mixture. Spread
remaining Cool Whip over persimmon mixture. Sprinkle more cinnamon over all if
desired. Refrigerate until set.
Carrying on a Fourth Generation of Sorghum Making
Wander the country roads of Southern Indiana and you’ll
sometimes see signs advertising freshly made sorghum, the sight of a pony
pulling a rope round and round in a circle attached to a machine or an odd
piece of farm machinery that looks like a long forgotten antique laying out in
a field. These are the remains of a once
thriving agricultural endeavor but now an almost forgotten foodway – sorghum
making.
The popularity of sorghum surged in the U.S. during the 1850s
and by 1888, some 20,000,000 gallons were being produced. A major crop in Indiana, according to an
encyclopedia article from 1896, Indiana lead the way in sorghum production, Sometimes referred to as molasses, sorghum
comes from crushing long stalks of cane and then cooking it down to produce a
thick rich syrup used for baking and pouring over biscuits and pancakes.
Laborious to make, sorghum lost its allure when sweeteners like
honey and sugar were easy to buy at the store. But in Southern Indiana, with
its rich country style food traditions (think pork tenderloins, sugar cream
pies, maple syrup and persimmon pudding), sorghum is still celebrated and fall,
as the golden yellows spread over the fields, is the time when those old
sorghum mills start spinning, turning the cane into juice which the, like maple
syrup, is cooked into syrup. And one
such celebration is the annual the Sorghum Festival in Crawford County held on the 3rd Saturday of October.
During the festival visitors can
stop by the Bye Family Sorghum Mill on Knights Road and watch Charlie Bye, his
wife Tina and some of his siblings continue their family tradition that
stretches back to the 1800s, of making sorghum from the cut cane, stacked on its sides to keep from
getting bitter before being fed into a mill extracting the juice and then
simmer outdoors in a wide flat container before being bottled into syrup.
Bye is the fourth generation sorghum maker in his family.
“I’ve been helping make sorghum ever since I could walk,” he
says noting that he is now 51. “My great grandfather used to make it. Back in
the 1930s when my father made it, there were a lot of other sorghum farmers in
Southern Indiana. Now we’re one of the
few.”
He also remembers his father traveling with horse and wagon
to deliver sorghum and the syrup’s popularity. There was a little town in
Kentucky, not far away, just a wide spot in the road, where his father
delivered some 300 pounds of sorghum each year. He remembers packing it into
tin pails and covering it with tin lids but then the company that manufactured
those items went out of business and he switched to jars. The demand was so high, that Bye often
crushed other farmers’ canes, keeping some of the sorghum as payment. Now, no
one else nearby grows the cane.
“We would get so busy when I was young that my dad would have
to stack the cane because it doesn’t like the cold so you have to harvest it
before the frost,” says Bye. “We would make sorghum starting in September and
keep going until December.”
It’s no longer that way but despite these changes or maybe
because of them, Bye continues to make sorghum to carry on the family tradition.
A collector of antique sorghum mills, Bye thinks about how it
was made in his great grandfather’s day with a mule or horse pulling the mill
wheel around to crush the juice. Now, he uses an old car motor to get the mill
working.
“It’s our family heritage,” he says. “It is something I have
to keep doing.”
Growing up with 19 other siblings, Bye remembers his mother
making biscuits three times a day on her wood burning stove and serving them
with the family sorghum on top. Indeed,
his mother, who had five sets of twins, often cooked with sorghum and the
siblings put together the Bye
Family Recipe Book, a collection of their mother’s recipes.
For more information
about the Sorghum Festival which is held on Saturday, October 15th
at the Crawford
County High School, 1130 South State Road 66. Marengo, IN, call 812-739-4254.
Charlie Bye sells sorghum from his house on E. Knight Road in Milltown while
his supplies last. Anyone interested
should give him a call at (812) 739-4573.
The
following recipes are from the Bye Family Recipe Book that sells for $15.00 and
is available at the festival or through the Byes.
The Best Ever Sorghum Cookies
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening melted
1 egg
1/2 cup sorghum
The Best Ever Sorghum Cookies
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening melted
1 egg
1/2 cup sorghum
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream sugar and melted shortening. Add egg and sorghum beat well. Add flour, and soda; mix well. Add vanilla.
Cream sugar and melted shortening. Add egg and sorghum beat well. Add flour, and soda; mix well. Add vanilla.
Drop on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 about 12 minutes.
Surprise Carmels
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1.2 cups light cream
3/4 cup sorghum
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sorghum
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1teaspoon salted almonds
1teaspoon salted almonds
Mix first five ingredients in saucepan. Stir
to dissolve sugar. Cook over medium heat until syrup when dropped in very cold
water to form a firm ball (or hard ball stage on thermometer) Remove from heat
and add vanilla. Pour into a battered cookie pan. Cool until candy can be
handled. Cut in squares, place almond in center of square. Roll into balls
keeping almond in center. Wrap in wax paper.
Sorghum
Pop Corn Balls
1
3/4 cup sorghum
2
cups sugar
2/3
cup water
2
teaspoons vinegar
½ teaspoon
baking soda
3
1/2 quarts salted popcorn
Combine
sorghum, sugar, water, and vinegar and cook to hard ball stage (250° degree).
Remove
from heat and add soda. Stir to mix well and pour over popcorn, mixing it well.
Shape into balls. Makes 12 popcorn
balls.
Peanut
Brittle
2 tablespoons
butter
1
cup sugar
1
cup sorghum
1
teaspoon soda
2
cups roasted peanuts
Melt
butter in a sauce pan. Add sugar and sorghum. Mix well. Cook over medium heat
stirring frequently until syrup when dipped in cold water becomes brittle. Add
peanuts. Pour into 2 large greased cookie pans. Lift edges and stretch candy as
thin as possible. When cool enough to handle, break into pieces. Store in
tightly closed jar or tin box. Yield 1
1/4 pounds.
All Things Orange
One
of the things I love best about Southern Indiana in the fall is the
proliferation of the bright orange persimmons, a fruit that is so common down
there that you frequently see signs at roadside markets advertising persimmon
pulp for sale. Now this is important as
a persimmon is quite tart if you bite into one, but once you turn it into pulp
and add a sweetener, it makes a dense, rich and lush dessert.
And
because persimmons are so revered, Mitchell, Indiana has been celebrating the
fruit for the last 65 years at their annual Persimmon Festival making it one of
the longest running festivals in the state and so popular that it now runs for
eight days, this year from September 19th to 24th. There are lots of events during the festival
but the Persimmon Pudding Contest was so popular that it was spun off and a
Persimmon Novelty Dessert Contest as well. 
I am
including two winning recipes but though you can get persimmons here at the
grocery stores, they’re most likely not Indiana persimmons but rather Japanese
persimmons or those grown in California. Now persimmon purists will insist –
and I intend to agree with them – that those persimmons just aren’t as good.
But unless you get down to Southern Indiana this fall, they’ll do. For more information on the festival, visit www.persimmonfestival.org
Eva
Powell’s 2009 Winning Persimmon Pudding Recipe
2
cups persimmon pulp
2
cups sugar
1
1/2 cups flour
1
teaspoon baking soda
1
1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4
cup cream
1/8
teaspoon salt
2
large eggs
1/2 teaspoon
cinnamon
1/8
pound butter
1
teaspoon baking powder
Mix
pulp and sugar. Add two large beaten eggs and stir well. Add soda to buttermilk
and stir until foaming stops. Add to first mixture and stir.
Sift
dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder). Sift into first mixture and
beat
well.
Add cinnamon and cream.
Put
butter in pan and melt. Pour all into batter, leaving just enough to grease
pan.
Beat
well and bake about one hour in slow oven.
Bake
at 350°
F. for 50 minutes. Let cool and serve.
Yancy
Unger’s 2009 Winning Novelty Recipe Persimmon Custard in Shortbread Crust
Crust:
1
single package Lorna Doone shortbread cookies
3
tablespoons butter,
1/2
cup chopped pecans
1
handful butterscotch chips
Cream
cheese filling:
8
ounces cream cheese
1
egg
1/2
cup sugar
1
teaspoon vanilla
Persimmon
custard:
2
cups persimmon pulp
2
eggs
3/4
cup sugar
1/4
cup maple syrup
5
ounces evaporated milk
3
tablespoons flour
Crumble
shortbread cookies and combine with pecans. Melt butter and mix together, then
press crust mixture in bottom of spring form pan. Top with butterscotch chips
and bake for a few minutes in 425°F.
oven.
Mix
the cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Mix in the egg, sugar and
vanilla. Pour into crust. Combine persimmons, eggs and sugar. Mix in flour,
maple syrup and evaporated milk. Be careful to mix in all the flour. Pour
persimmon custard on top of cream cheese mixture already in the crust.
Bake
at 425°
F. for 15 minutes.
Lower
the temperature to 350°
F. and bake for another 40 minutes. Let the dessert cool slowly before
chilling.
Chill
and top with vanilla bean whipped cream.
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