1 cup (250g) superfine sugar (also called caster sugar)
3 large eggs
5½ cups (690g) bread flour 1 egg white
Vanilla sugar
Proof the yeast in the potato water. Once the yeast is foaming vigorously, combine this with the mashed potatoes and whip smooth. Cream the butter and sugar. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until lemon color and frothy, then combine with the creamed butter and sugar. Add this to the mashed potatoes and beat vigorously. Gradually sift in 4 cups (500g) of flour and work the batter into soft, sticky dough. Cover and allow to double in bulk in a warm place (1 ½ to 2 ½ hours, depending on the weather). Knock down and gently knead in the remaining 1 ½ cups (190g) of flour.
Butter the hands and mold out 30 balls of dough, each weighing 2 ounces (60g). Place the balls close together and evenly spaced in two greased spring-form cake pans without center tubes – the dough balls must “kiss” in all directions. Keep in mind that when baked in cake tins rusks rise up very high, so the pans must be at least 4 inches (10cm) deep; otherwise, the dough will overflow. Cover and allow the dough to rise again until over double in bulk (roughly 1 hour or more) or until the rusks reach the rim of the cake tin or rusk pan (if you are using one).
Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Beat the egg white until stiff and forming peaks, then brush it over the surface of the rusks. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar (or lacking that, granulated sugar). Then bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, if you prefer a dark crust. If you prefer a lighter crust, preheat the oven to 325F (165C) and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Once the rusks are done and tap hollow, remove from the oven and cake tins and cool on racks. Sprinkle again with sugar “to fill the valleys with snow,” as an old cook once told me. Best when served the same day they are baked.
The Traditional Rusk Pan
Fresh rusks, Schnecken – even Philadelphia Sticky Buns – were commonly baked in a specific type of pan called a rusk pan. The standard dimensions were 7½ by 16½ by 2 inches (19 by 41 by 5 cm). The best sorts were made of heavy gauge Russia iron, an imported metal with a bluish-gray tinge on the surface. Antique rusk pans are now extremely rare, because once their usefulness as baking utensils passed, they could be sold for good money as scrap metal. The rusks in the photograph on the previous page have been baked in a traditional pan dating from the 1860s.
New Year’s “Boys”
Neijohrsbuwe
Just as Christmas had its Mummeli (breads shaped like little men), New Year’s featured its own special bread made from similar dough (or you can use the dough for Butter Semmels, page 9). These distinctive rolls or buns were produced mostly by small-town bakers for Silvester Night Balls (December 31st) held in local hotels and taverns, and one of them always contained a lucky coin. A huge eight-foot deep brick bake oven for making just such large-batch pastries survived well into the 1960s at the historic 1840s Quentin House Hotel in Quentin, near Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
We know from the field work of late Pennsylvania Dutch folklorist Alfred L. Shoemaker that due to their connection with Silvester Night (New Year’s Eve), the rolls were also called Silvester Buns (Silvesterweck), although the rural Dutch seem to have preferred the more euphemistic Neijohrsbuwe (New Year’s Boys) in reference to the fact that the rolls have knobs or “heads” on the opposite ends, one for the old year and one for the new. This two-headed design appears to be traditional; however, the manner in which the rolls were decorated was a matter of personal fancy: some people preferred the so-called “two-headed fish” design shown in the picture. Others braided them to resemble heads of wheat or ornamented them with stars, swirling hex signs, or three X’s. Dr. Shoemaker also discovered that New Year’s Boys were given out to Belschnicklers when they went mumming house to house on Second Christmas (December 26). Otherwise, cookies and sweet pretzels were distributed instead like the orange pretzels on page 75.
Our original recipe comes from Fannie Coble (1870-1954) of Elizabethtown in Lancaster County. If you have leftover Neijohrsbuwe you can always slice them, dip them in beaten eggs and cook like French toast.
Yield: Six 7-inch (18cm) “Boys”
1 cup (225g) warm mashed potatoes
1 cup (250g) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
½ ounce (15g) dry active yeast
1 cup lukewarm potato water or milk
6 tablespoons (90g) melted butter
2 large eggs
5 cups (625g) bread flour
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons (30ml) milk
Beat the mashed potatoes and sugar together to form a smooth batter. Add the salt and set aside. Proof the yeast in the potato water or milk, and once it is foaming vigorously, add it to the mashed potato mixture. Then sift in 1½ cups (190g) of flour to make a sponge. Cover and set in a warm place to double in bulk. Once double in bulk, stir down and add the melted butter. Beat the eggs until lemon color and frothy and add them to the sponge. Gradually sift in the remaining flour one cup at a time, kneading as you add until a soft spongy dough forms that no longer sticks to the fingers.
Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and shape each piece to form a small oblong roll with knobs or “heads” on each end (see picture). Using sharp scissors or a knife, cut three X marks on the body of each roll (or create a design of your own), and set them on a greased baking sheet to rise. Cover with a cloth and let the rolls recover for about 20 to 25 minutes. While they are rising, preheat the oven to 375F (190C). Before putting the rolls in the oven, make a wash with one egg yolk and 2 tablespoons (30ml) of milk. Take a soft brush and paint each loaf with this mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 35 minutes or until they tap done. Cool on racks.
New Year’s Pretzel
(Neijohrsbrezel)
The pretzel is imbued with a great deal of colorful folklore in Pennsylvania Dutch culture, not surprising given the pretzel’s ancient origins. When there was fog on the Blue Hills of Pennsylvania, parents used to tell their children that rabbits were baking pretzels in the woods; the fog was the smoke from their
