5 eggs
2 1/2 cup flour, all-purpose
2 cup sugar, icing
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped fine
2/3 cup raisins
4 oz orange peel, chopped fine
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 tbsp lemon peel, grated
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp vodka or brandy
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat eggs with sugar using an electric
mixer for 5 minutes at high speed.
Mix chopped nuts, raisins and orange peel with 2 tablespoons of
flour. Mix remaining flour with baking powder and salt.
Cream together the butter, lemon peel and vanilla extract until
fluffy. Beat in vodka, then add egg mixture gradually, beating
constantly. Add the flour mixture and beat for 5 minutes. Fold
fruit-nut mixture into the batter. Turn into a greased and floured
9x5x3-inch pan or a 1 1/2 quart ring mold.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 1 hour. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for
ten minutes, then turn cake out onto rack and cool completely. Wrap
in plastic wrap and set aside to mellow for a couple of days.
NOTES:
* Christmas Bread -- This recipe could be used as part of a
12-course meal known in Polish as Wigilia, or on its own. Wigilia is
eaten after sundown on Christmas Eve.
: Difficulty: easy.
: Time: 1/2 hour preparation, 1 1/2 hours cooking and cooling, 2 days
aging.
: Precision: Approximate measurement OK.
: Original recipe passed down through the generations and translated
from Polish into English (with a few mods) by Edward Chrzanowski
: MFCF, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
: echrzanowski@watmath.waterloo.edu or
{ihnp4,allegra,utzoo}!watmath!echrzanowski
: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Servings: 1 loaf
Placek Swiateczny Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Polish
The History of Recipes
Transcribed cooking instructions as a concept can be tracked back into history, certainly as far into history as pharonic Egypt, and quite possibly further than that. In practice though, sadly, these old cookbooks were just basic hieroglyphic instructions for preparing meals.
In an interesting twist, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to historians is a series of ancient tablets in Sumerian describing the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making people feel blissful. Continuing our culinary historical journey, there are a couple of interesting recipe books which were published in the fourteenth century ; one book called `Forme of Cury`, and another titled `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are a little misleading though, they are unconnected to the curry that appears on menues today, but instead accounts of the types of meals on the tables of the upper classes of those days. Over the succeeding few centuries, the wealthy families of Wesstern Europe competed with each other to lay on the most extravagent meals, and because of this the best chefs and their recipe collections were greatly in demand. Notwithstanding that, it was during the 19th century that formal cookery and recipe publications reached a high level of popularity. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, dedicated their lives to collating, verifying, and recording recipes of the day. When we get to the 20th century, recipe publications are in high demand, as a result of higher levels of literacy, people having increased free time and having more money. |
We hope you enjoy this Placek Swiateczny recipe.
