Grandma Forstrom's Pastry

5 c flour
Sift into the flour: 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking powder
Cut in 1 lb lard

Take a 1-cup liquid measuing cup:
Lightly beat 1 egg in the cup
fill with water to 2/3 c
add vinegar to 3/4 c

Combine and roll out.
Makes about 5 single crusts.

Grandma’s filling for Butter Tarts

3 ¼ c brown sugar
½ c butter
1 tbsp flour
5 eggs
1 2/3 c raisins or currants or combination of fruit and nuts.

Mix sugar, butter, salt, flour and vanilla.
Add eggs (2 at a time) and milk, beating smooth after each addition.
Add fruit and nuts.
Bake at 400 for ten (plus) minutes
Makes 3 ½ dozen.


Deb's variation Butter Tart Filling
(not as runny, more like the ones at Tim’s on John St.)

2 eggs
2/3 c coconut
1 tbsp flour
¼ c butter
1 ½ c brown sugar
½ c currants
Makes about 2 dozen, depending on the size.

Thin Bread

This recipe was first written out by Catherine Nickerson for a school project about Sweden. Grandma Olga Forstrom didn’t have a recipe, so Cathy watched her make thin bread. She measured the ingredients Grandma used and wrote down her method.

Suggested Equipment:

• Regular rolling pin and notched rolling pin
• Dough scraper
• Pizza cutter
• containers
• Mary’s suggestions: pizza stone and thin wooden pizza peel

 

Thin Bread (Tunnbröd)

Ingredients:

2 c. Graham flour

2 c. White Flour

½ c. Butter / Margarine

½ c. Corn syrup

1 c. Buttermilk

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. soda

Combine Graham Flour, White Flour and salt in mixing bowl. Add margarine in thin slices. Rub in butter/margarine, until no large lumps remain. Make a well in the mixture. Pour Corn Syrup in. Dissolve Soda in Buttermilk and add to mixture. In a circular motion, stir the liquids in, making a dough. Be sure it is all moistened by kneading slightly. Flour your rolling pin and board and roll small portions of the dough (about the size of a large meatball, up to 2 inches) very thin, as thin as possible without making a hole. Pierce the bread with the notched rolling pin. The edges may be trimmed square or round for special occasions. Bake at 350°. To bake, place on a cookie sheet close to the bottom of the oven. After about 4 or 5 minutes (the time it takes to roll the next piece) place the baking dough higher in the oven, just on the racks. Place the next piece in the pan at the bottom of the oven. When the first piece is golden brown, remove. Cut immediately with pizza cutter.

Mary de Bakker’s suggestion: A lot of heat is lost in putting cold cookie sheets in the oven each time. Mary suggests preheating a pizza stone in the oven and sliding the thin bread onto the hot pizza stone using a thin wooden pizza peel/paddle.