Tag: featured

Summer Strawberry Short Cake

Major Project

The last few months got away from me. I (Anna) had a major project to finish up, but it’s done now. I’m back. And will try to post recipes regularly again. Sorry about that!

Local Wisconsin Strawberry Farms are common in our neck of the woods. Every June, we order 5 or 6 huge boxes of strawberries that we preserve for our guests for the whole rest of the year. We use these preserves for our Summer Strawberry Shortcake recipe!

Strawberry Preserves

Helen and the ladies take a whole day to clean, dice, and prepare the fresh-from-the-field strawberries for the fall and winter season.

While it’s a little late in the season, if you are interested in putting up your own strawberries, here is the recipe:

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Frozen Strawberry Preserves

This is a great way to freeze strawberries for use year round.
Total Time1 hour

Ingredients

For Storing

  • 8 cups diced, fresh strawberries
  • ½-¾ cup white sugar

For Sauce from Stored berries

  • 8 cups frozen, preserved berries
  • 2 tbsp strawberry Jell-O
  • 2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in ¼ cup water
  • water

Instructions

Preserving the Strawberries

  • Wash, de-stem, and dice the strawberries
  • Put the strawberries in a large bowl
  • Sprinkle the strawberries with sugar. Start with ½ cup. Mix well and let the berries sit
  • The sugar acts as the preservative, so it's important to have enough to keep the berries from losing their flavor and coloring. If you added enough sugar, the berries should release a lot of juice and turn a deep shade of red. If that doesn't happen after 5 minutes or so, add more sugar. You can try tasting the juice from the berries, and if it's moderately sweet, then that should be enough sugar.
  • Once the berries have changed color, dump all the berries and the juice into a freezer-safe container.
  • Add a date and freeze!

Strawberry Sauce

  • Thaw strawberries in strainer over bowl to reserve juice 
  • Once strawberries are thawed, measure out juice. You will need 1½ cups juice. If you don’t have enough juice, add water to juice to make a combined mixture equaling 1½ cups liquid.
  • In a medium saucepan, whisk together Jell-O and strawberry liquid until combined.
  • Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook the strawberry mixture until it comes to a boil, about 2 minutes. 
  • Once it's boiling, whisk in the corn starch and water mixture. Bring back to a boil.
  • Once it's boiling, stir in strawberries and bring it back up to a boil. Then take off heat. 
  • Serve right away or let sit if you want it cooler. 

SUMMER STRAWBERRY SHORT CAKE

From Helen: This cake recipe came from a magazine that Grandma Toinie found. It’s actually a jellyroll recipe, but we always made it as a cake, using flan pans. You can use a regular cake pan or make a layer cake with it. It’s the only cake that I have that uses no fat, and it freezes well.

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Summer Strawberry Short Cake

Total Time1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 16 people

Equipment

  • flan pan x 2

Ingredients

  • 5 eggs
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ tp baking powder
  • 1 tp almond extract
  • ¼ tp salt
  • ¾ cup sifted flour

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
  • Place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes. The eggs must be warm for this recipe so they will be light and fluffy when beaten.
  • In a mixing bowl, crack the eggs, and then add the sugar. Beat the eggs and sugar on high until fluffy, about 5 to 10 minutes.
  • Reduce speed to low, and add baking powder, almond extract, and salt until well blended.
  • Add the flour slowly, one tablespoon at a time, until just blended. Be careful not to over mix the batter or the cake may collapse when baking.
  • Grease two flan pans and divide batter evenly between the two. 
  • Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cake is browned and springy to the touch. 
  • Let cool for 5 minutes. Then invert onto serving platter.
  • Top with Strawberry Sauce and vanilla ice cream!

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Finnish Wheat Bread

My grandparents actually found the above mixer in a snow bank outside a business that was selling it. The bowl was full of ice. They bought it for about $50, and it’s going strong to this day!

Growing up, I thought every family owned an industrial-size mixer that their mom and grandma made bread with. Homemade bread was so standard in my home that I looked forward to having store bought white bread, the pre-sliced kind, at friend’s houses. Now that I’m old, I fully understand how special that was, especially when it comes to this Finnish Wheat Bread recipe.

From Helen

This bread recipe is something that has been handed down from generation to generation here on The Farm. Every person who is Finnish and lives in this community makes the same type of bread with a few variations according to the taste their family prefers, whether that is a crunchier or a heavier texture, more cracked wheat or more white flour. No one here remembers where it got started, but I’m sure it came from the old country. It’s very similar to the bread we saw in Finland when we visited Jim’s relatives.

Recipe

This was one I really wanted to make myself with the pictures and steps, but the week got away from me with other tasks. So here is the recipe, and maybe I’ll come back to it and add step-by-step pictures.

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Finnish Wheat Bread

Total Time3 hours
Servings: 3 loaves

Ingredients

Starter

  • 1½ tbsp yeast
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar

Dough

  • 2 cups water
  • ¼ cup dry milk
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2½ tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp canola oil
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 4 to 4¼ cups white flour

Instructions

  • In a small bowl, whisk together the yeast, sugar, and water. The water should be warm to the touch. Set aside until yeast begins to bubble.
  • In a mixer bowl with a bread hook, add the water, sugar, canola oil, dry milk, and salt. Blend together. 
  • Add the starter. It should have bubbled up if it is active. 
  • Now start to slowly add the wheat flour a little at a time. The dough will be pretty runny in this step.
  • Then start to add the white flour until the dough starts to crawl up the dough hook and pull away from the sides of the bowl. You want it to be firm to the touch and not very sticky when it’s ready. 
  • Let sit in a warm place covered with a cloth for 30-45 minutes or until it rises over the bowl. 
  • Once it has risen, form the dough into three rounded loaves. Either poke them with a fork or slit them twice across the top with a knife. 
  • Set on a greased cookie sheet and let rise for about 20 minutes. 
  • In a 350° oven, bake for 45 minutes or until they are quite brown on both top and bottom and make a hollow noise when you tap them. 
  • Let cool and enjoy!

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Egg and Bacon Scramble Bake

This egg bake is a great recipe to have in your back pocket because it is as versatile as the omelet and is great for using up fresh herbs, vegetables or cheese that’s hanging around in your fridge.

I like to sauté the bacon with green peppers, onions, and mushrooms, if I have them. One time I made this dish using Velveeta, blue cheese, and mozzarella!  

From Helen

On The Farm, we usually keep it simple by only adding bacon, cheddar cheese, and chives. My variation is diced ham, onions, green/red peppers and tomatoes. It’s very good with fresh tomatoes. 

This recipe came from a guest. Grandma Toinie used to make it with cream of mushroom soup instead of cream cheese. A long time ago, it was highlighted in a country music magazine that did an article about country farm breakfasts. They liked this recipe but didn’t want cream of mushroom soup in it so their chef did some experiments and ended up substituting cream cheese and chives for the soup. We’ve done it that way ever since, and it’s better for it.

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STEPS: EXPLAINED, WITH TIDBITS AND ADVICE

In these steps, we’re going to be making my favorite version of this recipe.

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut up 4 strips of bacon in a large cast iron frying pan over medium heat. This little trick saves you a cutting board and goes a lot quicker than with a knife.

2. Cook the bacon until it’s almost done and has released most of its grease, about 10 minutes. It should look like this.

3. Pour all the grease out into a heat safe mug except for about 1-2 tablespoons, shown below.

NOTE: It’s a good idea to have a paper towel ready to wipe the side of the pan. If the grease runs down the underside of your pan, it can start on fire when you put your pan back on the heat.

Keep the extra grease handy. You might need to add it later if your pan gets dry when you are sautéing your vegetables.

4. Add 1/2 cup diced onions and 1/2 cup diced red pepper to your pan.

Cook over medium heat until the onions become transparent and the peppers soften, about 10 minutes. If your vegetables are sticking, add a little of the bacon grease back into the pan. When your vegetables are ready, they should look like this:

5. While your vegetables are cooking, dice 1/4 cup tomatoes. For this recipe, choose a really dense, meaty tomato. Lay the diced tomato out on a paper towel to soak up the extra water. You can pat them a little if your tomatoes are extra runny.

6. It’s time to make the cream cheese sauce.

Soften 3 tablespoons of whipped cream cheese in microwave. If you are using regular cream cheese, do half this amount. Once the cream cheese is soft, add it to a bowl with 1 tablespoon chives, 2 tablespoons milk, and 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt.

7. With a whisk, beat together the mixture. It should be runny enough to be a sauce.

Taste it! Add more salt and chives if it needs more. If it’s too runny, add more cream cheese. If it’s not runny enough, add more milk.

8. Once the sauce is ready, it’s time to scramble the eggs. Break six eggs into a bowl.

Mix them together with about a tablespoon of either milk or water. Add enough liquid so that eggs take on a lemony color.

NOTE: Anna uses milk. Helen uses water. Whose team are you on?? 😉

9. Pan spray a large skillet or melt 1/2 tablespoon of butter in the pan.

Soft-scramble the eggs over medium-low heat.

It’s important that you don’t cook them all the way. They should look a little wet but be mostly done.

 As soon as you get them to the prefect amount of almost done, get the eggs out of the hot pan and onto a plate immediately, especially if you are using cast iron. Even if you turn the heat off, they will keep cooking from the heat of the pan.

10. Gather all your ingredients together along with a greased 2-quart square baking dish.

Place half of the eggs in a the dish. Top with half of the cream cheese mixture, half the bacon and vegetable mixture, half the tomatoes, and half of 1/3 cup of cheddar cheese.

Repeat the layers once more and top with extra chives, about 1 tablespoon.

11. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or till heated through and cheese is melted. 

Helen’s Advice: You don’t want to heat this egg dish in the oven any longer than specified or your eggs are going to turn gray or green. It won’t be spoiled but the dish won’t look nice, and the eggs will taste dry. 

12. Serve with fresh fruit!

What veggie, herb, cheese or meat combinations will you come up with? Share!

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Egg and Bacon Scramble

Total Time45 minutes

Ingredients

Scramble Mix-ins

  • 4 strips bacon, pan-fried, drained, and crumbled
  • 1 cup sautéed vegetables of your choice optional
  • ¼ cup tomatoes or fresh herbs optional
  • ⅓ cup shredded cheddar cheese or cheese of your choice
  • 1 tbsp chives, dice, for topping

Cream Cheese Sauce

  • 2 tbsp chives, minced
  • 3 tbsp whipped cream cheese use half for regular cream cheese
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • ¼ tsp seasoned salt

Egg Mixture

  • 6 eggs
  • 1 tbsp milk or water
  • ½ tbsp butter or pan spray

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 250 degrees. 
  • Prepare the bacon and other vegetables. If you are using something with a lot of liquid, like tomatoes, try to remove as much liquid as possible.
  • Soften cream cheese in microwave. 
  • With a whisk, beat together the cream cheese, milk, chives and dash of seasoned salt. Make sure to reserve some chives to sprinkle on top when dish is complete.
  • Pan spray a large skillet or melt butter in pan. Soft-scramble the eggs so they are still a little wet but mostly done. 
  • Place half of the eggs in a greased 2-quart square baking dish. Top with half of the cream cheese mixture, half the bacon, half your other toppings, and half the cheddar cheese. Repeat once more. 
  • Top with extra chives.
  • Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or till heated through and cheese is melted. 

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Finnish Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

Here’s another requested recipe from our social media followers. Both of these recipes are delicious and simple, but the best thing about both of them: these pancakes reheat great and so does this sauce! So you’ll have breakfast and ice cream toppings covered for days.

Raspberry Sauce with Fresh raspberries

Let’s start with making the raspberry sauce since it can be made ahead of time and can sit while you make the pancakes. This recipe will use fresh raspberries, but if all you have are frozen, I have put those directions on the recipe card below.

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From Helen

Our Raspberry Sauce recipe is one of the most popular recipes at The Farm. We serve it for breakfast, but it’s actually a traditional Finnish dessert. Finnish people generally don’t like sweet things in the morning. They ate this around Christmas time, and instead of raspberries, they used apples, raisins, and dates to make a sort of fruit soup that was served over the rice. Finnish Americans made the switch to raspberries because they were more readily available, and Grandma Toinie started serving it in the morning because she felt it was too heavy to be an American dessert. 

STEPS: EXPLAINED, WITH TIDBITS AND ADVICE

1. Add 1 ¼ cup water to medium sauce pan, ¼ cup raspberries, and 2 tablespoons raspberry Jell-O to the water and whisk together. Bring to boil over high heat.

2. Once boiling, turn the burner down to medium heat so the liquid maintains a slow boil. Then, whisk in ¼ cup sugar.  

3. Dissolve 2 tablespoons cornstarch in ¼ cup water. Then, slowly whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Once combined, bring your sauce back to boil until it’s thick and bubbly, about 2 minutes.

NOTE: I’ve never made this recipe by myself, and I forgot to mix my cornstarch with water and just dumped it in. It clumped aggressively. I was able to fix it with a combination of immersion blender and picking out the big chunks! The only issue was that the blender couldn’t quite “immerse” because there was’t enough sauce, so it splattered all over the wall. Haha! But it still tasted great!

5. Once it’s nice and thick, take your sauce off the heat and fold in the rest of the pint of raspberries. This recipe stores great in the refrigerator and is lovely on top of rice pudding or ice cream.

Finnish Pancakes

When my mom Helen gave me this pancake recipe years ago, she didn’t tell me about the blending steps. I just threw everything in the blender at once and then immediately started frying up the pancakes. They did not taste the same. Actually, they tasted pretty bad. So follow the blending steps and don’t forget to whisk the batter before EVERY pour onto the griddle. I also made that mistake. Don’t worry! I’ll remind you in the steps.

From Helen

This is a traditional Finnish recipe that makes very light, thin pancakes. Grandma Toinie taught me how to make these, and this recipe has been passed down through the family since we settled on The Farm in the 1900’s. The most important tip when making these pancakes is to have a very hot surface so they cook fast or they won’t turn out right. You want them to be a little crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. Left over pancakes can be topped with jam and then rolled.

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STEPS: EXPLAINED, WITH TIDBITS AND ADVICE

1. In a blender or in a bowl with a whisk, combine eggs, sugar, butter, and salt until thoroughly mixed, about 30 seconds with the blender. Both Helen and I use a blender. Follow these blending steps exactly!

2. Blend in half of the milk for another 30 seconds.

3. Slowly add the flour, ¼ cup at a time while still blending or mixing until all flour is added.

4. Keep stirring or blending while slowly pouring in the rest of the milk. Your blender is going to be pretty full at this point.

5. Once everything is blended well, it’s important to let the batter rest for 2-5 minutes. I pour mine in a Pyrex 8-cup glass measuring cup to rest. The batter will need to be whisked every single time you pour pancakes onto the griddle, and it’s too hard to whisk it if it’s still in the blender. If you don’t have a measuring cup that will fit all the batter, you can use a smaller one. Just remember to mix up the batter when you add to your smaller cup because it separates when it sits, which will ruin your pancakes.

6. If you use a skillet, choose a small to medium size. You need to keep it really hot. Use a cooking spray at least for the first batch to season the pan. The butter in the batter should be good enough for the rest. If you use a griddle, heat it to 400 degrees. I use a griddle.  

To test if your surface is ready, throw a little water on it. When it hisses, steams, and bubbles like this, it’s ready.

8. Whisk your batter, and then pour your pancakes onto the cooking surface. Make the pancakes about 2-3 inches in diameter or the size of a tuna can. 

9. Once you pour out the pancakes, let them cook for about 1 minute on each side or until you see little bubbles start to form on the pancake. 

Then flip and cook for another minute or two. They should be a golden brown but not too dark. The bottom middle one maybe needed a little longer.

They start to bubble a bit like this when they are close to done on the second side.

When you think they are done, flip them a third time to check. They should look like this. If they do, take them off the heat right away.

It takes practice to judge the cooking time, and it can shift on you. My trick is to taste one right off the griddle to see how I’m doing. They will be VERY hot so be careful. My husband says I have an asbestos mouth, so I can get away with this.

They should taste kind of crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside. After sitting on the plate, they lose the crunch which is another reason to eat them right off the grill. But don’t do that in Helen’s kitchen. You’ll get in trouble…if you get caught that is 😉

Serve immediately with maple syrup, jam and butter, or Raspberry Sauce!

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Finnish Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients

Raspberry Sauce (Fresh Raspberries)

  • 1 pint fresh raspberries
  • 1¼ cups water
  • 2 tbsps raspberry Jell-O
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tbsps cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water

Raspberry Sauce (Frozen Raspberries)

  • 1 10 oz. frozen package of raspberries
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tbsps raspberry Jell-O
  • 2 tbsps cornstarch
  • water

Pancakes

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tbsps sugar
  • 6 tbsps melted butter
  • 1 tp salt
  • 1½ cups flour
  • 3 cups milk
  • maple syrup, jam, butter for toppings

Instructions

Raspberry Sauce made with fresh raspberries

  • Add 1 ¼ cup water to medium sauce pan. 
  • Add ¼ cup raspberries and Jell-O to water. Bring to boil over high heat. Once boiling, turn to medium heat so the liquid maintains a slow boil. Stir in sugar.  
  • Slowly whisk in cornstarch mixture and bring back to boil until thick and bubbly, about 2 minutes.  
  • Take off heat and fold in the rest of the raspberries. 

Raspberry Sauce made with frozen raspberries

  • Thaw raspberries in strainer over a bowl, which will catch the juice.
  • Once raspberries are thawed, measure out collected juice. You’ll need 1 ½ cups total liquid. If you don’t have enough juice, add water to make up the difference. 
  • In a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk together sugar, Jell-O, corn starch, and raspberry liquid.
  • Cook raspberry liquid stirring continuously until thickened and bubbly, about 2 minutes. 
  • Take off heat and fold in raspberries.

Finnish Pancakes

  • In a blender or in a bowl with a whisk, combine eggs, sugar, butter, and salt until thoroughly mixed, about 30 seconds with the blender.
  • Blend in half of the milk for another 30 seconds.
  • Slowly add the flour, ¼ cup at a time while still blending or mixing until all flour is added.
  • Keep stirring or blending while slowly pouring in the rest of the milk.  
  • Let rest for 2-5 minutes.
  • If you use a skillet, choose a small to medium size. You need to keep it really hot. Use a cooking spray at least for the first batch to season the pan. The butter in the batter should be good enough for the rest. If you use a griddle, heat it to 400 degrees. I use a griddle.  
  • Keep a whisk in the batter and stir it every time before pouring because the batter does separate. 
  • Make the pancakes about 2-3 inches in diameter or the size of a tuna can. 
  • Once you pour out the pancakes, let them cook for about 1 minute on each side or until you see little bubbles start to form on the pancake. Then flip and cook for another minute. They should be a golden brown but not too dark. Serve immediately with maple syrup or jam and butter. Raspberry Sauce is also good on top of these pancakes.

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