Darcie Hossack: Zwieback questions and answers
Zwieback buns are delicious!
Author Darcie Hossack provides a great recipe for Zwieback buns.
By Darcie Hossack
Hi Darcy:
I read your column every week along with the recipes but I no longer do much cooking or baking as old age and ailments deem it better for my hubby and me to skip desserts and rich foods. Anyway, I get a kick out of your work, so thank you for the entertainment.
Back in Manitoba when we lived there, I gave my mother a copy of the Mennonite Village Museum Cookbook (Steinbach, Manitoba) and when she died I inherited it. I’ve made a few things from it, one of them being Rhubarb Platz (there are two versions in the book) and we really liked it.
I was wondering if you would be interested in having the book. The book also contains household hints and common sense thoughts that would no doubt give you some interesting tidbits for your column. I could drop it off at the paper office someday (wouldn’t promise which day) if you would like it.
Vivian Lynes
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Dear Vivian,
As I write this, a batch of Zwieback buns are rising in my kitchen. Next to me sits your mother’s Mennonite Village Museum Cookbook, and I have spent a wonderful morning reading, and remembering my grandmother.
I don’t know how to thank you for this. Together with the Low German Bible I lately bought so I could once more hear my grandfather’s voice as he read at the breakfast table, this cookbook will be treasured.
Besides the buns, I’ve re-discovered familiar recipes for homemade noodles, Sweet White Sauce for Waffles, Peppernuts and Vereniki. There’s a page describing four o’clock Faspa. A menu for barn raising feasts, garden tips and instructions on how to make soap from lard.
My mother’s Cooked Play Dough is there, too. Along with a previously unknown-to-me method of mending broken glassware by soaking it in milk. I’m tempted to break a plate, just to see if it will work, but that would be very un-Mennonite of me!
Thank you and thank you.
Zwieback
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp salt
1 large egg, beaten
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Dissolve yeast and 1 tsp sugar in water. Scald milk and add butter, salt and remaining sugar. Cool until lukewarm, place in a large mixing bowl, then combine with yeast mixture and egg.
Gradually add flour, mixing until ingredients come together. Turn onto a floured surface. Knead about five minutes, incorporating more flour if necessary, to form a soft dough.
Cover and set in a warm place to rise until doubled. Punch down. Pinch off balls of dough the size of large walnuts. Place on a greased pan, 1-inch apart. Pinch off slightly smaller balls, set on top of larger ones, and press down through both balls with thumb. Cover to rise until doubled. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes. Traditionally served for Faspa, with cheese and preserves.
Hi Darci, I really enjoy your columns…..and I’m wondering if
you could tell me – does white cranberry juice have same benefit as
the red for our urinary tract? I like it better, so I’m hoping it
does! Thanks….Mary….
Dear Mary,
While I’d never suggest taking our second-hand answer over that of your own physician, according to doctors and the Cranberry Institute, you can drink white cranberry juice without worry of any substantial difference to urinary tract benefits.
Cranberry juice, which is recognized as a preventative measure, but not a cure for UT infections, was previously thought to help by acidifying the urine.
Wrong!
Rather, cranberry juice prevents bacteria from attaching itself to the bladder wall. It accomplishes this little miracle by way of chemicals called proanthocyanidins, which are present in both red and white berries and their juice.
The one difference is that the antioxidants present in the ripe, red berries, is not there in the picked-earlier white ones. But raspberries are red, too, and sweeter.
Now if you’ll excuse me, all this talk about UTIs is making me need to visit the little columnist’s room.
Category: Food
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