Pennsylvania Dutch Recipes

Authentic Pennsylvania Dutch Dessert Recipes For Dessert

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The Pennsylvania Germans are a thrifty, honest, and industrious class of people, many of whom have held high offices. The first Germans to come to America as colonists in Pennsylvania were, as a rule, well to do...

Their dialect, the so-called "Pennsylvania German" or "Dutch," as it is erroneously called by many, is a dialect which we find from the Tauber Grund to Frankfurt am Main. As the German language preponderated among the early settlers, the language of different elements, becoming amalgamated, formed a class of people frequently called "Pennsylvania Dutch."

Fritz Schmidt, who had been listening intently to Mary, gravely remarked, "An oriole built a nest on a tall tree outside my bedroom window, and early every morning, before the family arise, I hear it sing over and over again what sounds exactly like 'Lais Die Beevil!' which translated means 'Read your Bible'."

"Even the birds are 'Dutch,' I believe, in Bucks County," said Fritz. --An excerpt from Mary At The Farm by Edith M. Thomas

Apyl Kuklein (Apple Fritters Recipe)

Pare and core 4 large tart apples. Cut each apple into about 4 round slices and allow the sliced apples to lie a couple of hours in a dish containing 2 tablespoonfuls of brandy, mixed with a half teaspoonful of cinnamon and a half teaspoonful of sugar. Drain the sliced apples, then a few at a time should be dropped in the following batter, composed of: 1 cup of flour sifted with 1/2 teaspoonful of Royal baking powder, 1/4 teaspoonful of salt, add the yolks of 2 eggs and 1 cup of milk to form a smooth batter, then add the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs.

Fry light brown, in deep, hot fat, and sift over powdered sugar. "Fried Apples" are an appetizing garnish for pork chops; the apples should be cored, not pared, but should be sliced, and when cut the slices should resemble round circles, with holes in the centre. Allow the sliced apples to remain a short time in a mixture of cinnamon and brandy, dry on a napkin, and fry in a pan, containing a couple of tablespoonfuls of sweet drippings and butter.

Delicious "Chocolate Cream" Candy

Place in an agate stew-pan 2 cups of granulated sugar, 1 cup of sweet milk, butter size of an egg. Cook all together until it forms a soft ball when a small quantity is dropped into cold water. Then beat until creamy. Add half a cup of any kind of chopped nut meats. Spread on an agate pie-tin and stand aside to cool.

For the top layer take 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup milk, butter size of an egg, and 2 small squares of a cake of Baker's unsweetened chocolate. Cook together until it forms a soft ball in water. Beat until creamy. Add half a teaspoonful of vanilla, spread over top of first layer of candy and stand away until it hardens and is quite cold.

Aunt Sarah's Strawberry Pie Recipe

Make a rich crust, line a pie-tin and fill with clean, hulled strawberries. Allow one quart to each pie. Sweeten to taste; sprinkle a generous handful of flour over the berries, having plenty of flour around the inside edge of pie. Use 1/2 cup of flour all together. Cut a teaspoonful of butter into small bits over top of berries, cover with top crust with vents cut in to allow steam to escape, pinch edges of crust together to prevent juice escaping from pie, and bake.

Florendine Pie Recipe

To 2 apples, cooked soft and mashed fine (after having been pared and cored) add the yolk of one egg (well-beaten) one minute before removing the cooked apple from the range. Then add 1 small cup of sugar, a piece of butter the size of a hickory nut, 1 teaspoonful of flour; flavor with either lemon or vanilla. Line a pie tin with rich pastry crust. Pour in the mixture and bake in a quick oven. This makes a delicious old-fashioned dessert.

Country "Molasses" Pie Recipe

No Pennsylvania Dutch recipe collection would be complete without a good molasses pie recipe; this is one of the best.

Place in a mixing bowl 3/4 cup flour (generous measure), 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1 generous tablespoonful of butter.

Crumble all together with the hands until quite fine. Then to 1/4 cup of New Orleans (baking) molasses add 1/4 cup of boiling water and 1/4 teaspoonful of soda. Beat together the molasses, water and soda until the mixture is foamy and rises to top of cup. Then pour into a medium-sized pie tin, lined with pie crust (the pie tin should not be small or the mixture, when baking, will rise over top of pan). Sprinkle the prepared crumbs thickly over the molasses mixture and with a spoon distribute the crumbs well through the mixture.

Bake in a moderate oven from 25 to 30 minutes and you will have the old-fashioned pie your Grandmother used to bake.

When her baking finished, she had dough remaining for an extra crust. Children always called this "molasses candy pie," as 'twas quite different from the "molasses cake batter" usually baked in crusts.

Aunt Sarah's Little Lemon Cakes

2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs (not separated, but added one at a time to the sugar and shortening which had been creamed together)
1 scant cup butter and lard, mixed
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoonful sweet milk
Grated rind of 2 lemons and juice of one

Stiffen the dough with about 3-1/2 cups flour and use about 1 extra cup of flour to dredge the bake-board when rolling out dough and for sifting over the greased baking sheets so the cakes will come off readily. Roll dough very thin and cut in any desired shape. From this recipe may be made 100 small cakes. The baking sheet (17 inches by 16 inches) holds 20 of these small round cakes.

Do all young housewives know that if dough for small cakes be mixed the day before baking and stood in a cool place, the cakes can be cut out more easily and the dough may be rolled thinner, and as less flour may then be used, the cakes will be richer?

Aunt Sarah always cut these cakes with a small round or heart-shaped cutter and when all were on the baking sheet she either placed a half of an English walnut meat in the centre of each cake or cut out the centre of each small cake with the top of a pepper box lid before baking them.

Old Tip Top Cake Recipe

1 pound granulated sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1 pound chopped raisins (Citron may be used instead of raisins)
1/2 a nutmeg, grated
5 scant cups of flour
5 teaspoonfuls baking powder

Mix together same as ordinary cake and bake in a loaf. This Aunt Sarah considered one of her finest cake recipes. She had used it for years in her family. The friend who gave this Pennsylvania Dutch recipe to Aunt Sarah said: "A couple of tablespoonfuls of brandy will improve the cake."

Fine "Krum Kuchen" (Crumb Cake Recipe)

One cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter and lard, mixed; 2 cups flour and 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sweet milk.

Crumb together with the hands the sugar, butter, flour and baking powder sifted together. Take out 1/2 cup of these crumbs to be scattered over top of cake. To the remainder add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten, and the sweet milk, and lastly the stiffly beaten whites of eggs.

Put the mixture in a well-greased pan (a deep custard pie tin will answer), scatter the half cup of crumbs reserved over top of cake and bake about 3/4 of an hour in a rather quick oven. When cake is baked, sprinkle over 1 teaspoonful of melted butter and dust top with cinnamon.