A fan of flan

This summer we hosted 2 teen aged girls from Belgium who came with their dance and flag throwing group www.vredon.be to the International Dance and Music Festival. Soetkin turned 16 while she stayed with us. I asked her what her favorite cake was and she said flan. 

I immediately thought of the flan shells my Mother always made and made it for her birthday. It's also what I made when I was in college and won a cooking contest with.  I won a Hamilton Beach mixette with this recipe and I still use it today.  It turns out Belgian Flan isn't the same. Oops! Just goes to show you how our environment shapes our perceptions. I would have googled "Belgian Flan" had I not had this perception in my head, which I did later that night and found http://www.recipezaar.com/304379, but alas, it was the thought that counts, I guess.

I'll have to email her and ask for her Mother's Belgian Flan recipe.  Here are my Mother's recipes:

Flan Shell #1

Crumble together:
1/2 lb. margarine
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Add:
3 beaten eggs
1 can evaporated milk
2 tsp. almond or lemon extract

For a lower fat and sugar version try:   

1 cube margarine

1 envelope Butter Buds mixed with 1/2 cup hot milk 

1 small pkg. instant vanilla pudding

1 1/2 cups sugar

Blend well then add:

3 beaten eggs

1 can evaporated skim milk

2 tsp. almond or lemon extract

Now add the 

3 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt.

Beat well. Grease and flour Flan pan. This recipe makes 2 large or 3 small Flan shells plus 12 muffins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  These freeze well and are nice to have on hand.

Flan Shell #2

1 yellow cake mix (or chocolate)
1/3 cup flour
2 eggs
Use milk instead of water in the amount the mix calls for.

Divide the batter between 2 large Flans that have been well greased and floured. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Let set only for 1 minute, then take out of the pan to cool.

Filling #1

1 c. whipping cream
1 8 oz. pkg. softened cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
Mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar well.
Add the whipped cream.
Pour into 2 prepared Flan shells. Let set.
Top with one of the toppings.

For a less fat version try:

Prepare 1 small instant vanilla pudding

Add 4 ounces softened, light cream cheese

and 1 cup cottage cheese finely blended.

Filling #2

1 pkg. instant pudding
1 c. milk
1 c. sour cream
Mix as directed on box.
Top with one of the toppings.

Topping #1

2-3 cups fresh strawberries
Arrange these on the Flan. Make 1 pkg. Junket Danish Strawberry Dessert as directed on box for PIE, but adding 1/4 c. sugar more. Cool some and pour over strawberries. Enough for 2 flans.

Topping #2

2-3 pkgs. frozen raspberries thawed and drained. Mash some of the raspberries and add the liquid, thicken with cornstarch. When cool, pour over the rest of the raspberries Danish dessert.

Rich Chocolate Filling

3/4 large Hershey bar
20 large marshmallows
1/3 c. milk
Melt together in a double boiler or microwave. Cool.
Whip 2 cups whipping cream until stiff.
Add to chocolate mixture.
Then mix in 2-3 Heath bars that have been crumbled. Fills 2 flan shells.

You can fill the flan shells with anything your heart desires, like fresh fruits, whipped cream or maybe your favorite pie filling.

Family Favorites:

1 1 lb. 4 oz. can of pineapple (crushed or tidbits or chunks), well drained
1 c. whipping cream, whipped and sweetened or light cool whip or dream whip
Fold together and pour into Flan shell. Top with shaved chocolate.

Fill flan with wilderness pie cherry filling and top with sweetened whipping cream.

Chocolate flan filled with banana cream pudding and sliced bananas. Top with whipped cream.

Anita's Favorite-- Fresh Peach Flan:

Crust:  flan shell #1 (bundt cake)

Bottom layer: cream cheese and sugar

Top: layer of fresh peaches (or 5.5 oz. can, lower sugar amount some)

Glaze: 1 c. apricot nectar, 1/4 c. lemon juice, 3/4 c. sugar, 3 T corn starch, a little lemon jello powder

Boil until thickened.  Cool. Spread on top of the peach layer.  Serve!

Tuula's Chocolate Flan 

1 cube margarine

3/4 cup powdered sugar

cream together

add 1 oz melted chocolate

vanilla sugar -- liquid vanilla extract makes it runny

2 eggs, one at a time

beat 4-5 minutes each

Scrape bowl often.  Decorate with whipped cream and chocolate shavings and sliced almonds.

A good Finnish Hostess offers 7 varieties

We had our Home Teacher and his family over for dessert this week. He is such a great home teacher who always come prepared to teach our children and offer them a new physical challenge, which he ties into teaching the gospel, they love and we appreciate as parents.

We served cookies and hot chocolate. An "Old World" Finnish hostess must serve 7 varieties at her "hot chocolate" table. My Mother always had quite a spread. The 7 varieties we ended up serving include:

1. The traditional American Butter Spritz Cookies
My Mother said she just used the recipe included with her Spritzer, so since I don't know what it is, I googled Spritz, read several and chose this one found at
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1910,157180-228196,00.html
Yield approximately 4 dozen.

Cream 1 cup butter. Add 1/2 cup sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla extract. Blend in 2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour. Divide dough into thirds.Add a few drops red food coloring to one third. Green coloring to one third.

Leave one third plain. Fill cookie press with each color or combine colors for rainbow effect. Form into desired shapes and decorate. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Finnish Joulu Torttuja -- you'll find my Mother's recipe posted here under December
2006
3. Six Layer Cookie Bars -- my sister-in-law's version you'll find posted as FHE Baked Bars here November 2007. My husband likes her version better because it's not so gooey!
4. Belgian Speculaas Cookies -- Sunset magazine's recipe is posted December 2006. My husband's family and our guests each have special ties there.
5. Pull aparts -- bread dough rolled in melted butter, then dipped in brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. They are then arranged in a bundt pan and baked at 350 degrees. I also remember these from my childhood, but hadn't had them in years.
6. I ran out of time to make Finnish gingerbread, so so I served Anna's from IKEA.)
I was just sending this recipe to another Mom who is making them for me for our kids' School Christmas party, so here's My Mother's recipe.

Title: Piparkakut (Finnish Christmas Gingerbread Cookies)

Description:
My Mother says, "The aroma of these cookies baking takes me back to my childhood in Finland." We make various large to small sizes of these in heart shape and hang them in the kitchen window during Christmas. Heart is the symbol of Christmas in Finland. We also had plenty of other shapes to eat as well.

Ingredients:
3/4 c margarine or butter
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
2 T dark Karo syrup
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
1 t ground cardamom
1/2 t baking soda
2 1/2 c flour

Directions:
Cream margarine and sugar. Add egg, spices and syrup. Then add flour and soda sifted together. Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Roll out on floured surface very thin and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake on a very lightly greased cookie sheet about 5 min at 375 degrees. Do not overbake! Store in an airtight tin and they will keep "forever".

7. And our guests brought Oreo cookies dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candy -- her trademark for dressing up any cookie! She says she just melts chocolate chips in the microwave, dips any cookie halfway and either adds sprinkles or drizzles chocolate on it.

Speculaas Cookies from Belgium

Title: Speculaas Cookies from Belgium

Description:
In the Low Countries of northern Europe, St. Nicholas traditionally rewards good children with flat cinnamon-spiced cookies called speculaas. These crisp, sculpted-looking cookies were once commonly made in elaborately carved wooden molds, often handed down from one generation to the next. Today, speculaas are commerically sold year-round in Belgian, Dutch and German bakeries, usually as thin rolled cookies cut in simple shapes. Here is a quickly assembled speculaas dough from Sunset Magazine December 1980.

*Note: They were great! They disappeared very quickly--and some people we shared them with were delighted with the flavor--saying they preferred them over the gingerbread they were accustomed to eating at christmas. The cookies tasted alot like the kind we're used to, although I thought maybe they needed a little more cinnamon, and maybe a dash of nutmeg. Texture-wise they were more dense, and more crispy--yet-chewy than the commercial Lotus brand to which we've become accustomed. (Kind of like commercial chocolate chip cookies vs. homemade) After this year, I don't think I could go back to the commercial kind. This kind held up much better in the way we have come to love them: crumbled up in a bowl with cold milk poured over them and eaten with a spoon!


Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1/4 lb.) butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (*note: a dash more, and a dash of nutmeg if desired)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar until creamy. Beat in egg until fluffy. In another bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, and baking powder. Gradually add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing at low speed until well blended. (note: The mixture will seem quite dry and crumbly, hard to keep together--almost like pie dough mix without any liquid added. If you let it set at all uncovered, or if it seems just too dry, add a teaspoon of water or so, if you must.) Cover and chill at least 2 hours.

To cut out with cookie cutters, roll well-chilled dough on a generously floured board to 1/16-inch thickness. Dip standard cutter in flour (or dust interior of molded cutter), then press into dough. With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to a well-greased cookie sheet, placing them about 1/2 inch apart.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until edges begin to turn dark, about 6 to 8 minutes for thin, rolled cookies. Cool cookies on baking sheet 1 minute before removing them with a spatula to a wire rack. Cool completely: store airtight at room temperature up to 2 weeks or freeze.

Number Of Servings:Makes about 4 dozen thin, 3-inch-square cookies.