Tag: dessert

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Summer Swirl

By Fran Hill

Recently, South Dakota Magazine conducted a very scientific and exacting Facebook poll. Zesto and B&G Milky Way were pitted against each other for favorite South Dakota summer ice cream stand. Write-in votes were welcomed for other options across the state.

Officially, 647 votes were cast with Zesto coming away the clear choice of Facebook voters. Perhaps this is due to Zesto’s expanded locations across the state. B&G is limited to just the Sioux Falls area. Both are excellent destinations for cool, summer ice cream treats. Personally, I almost always get the sherbet of the day when visiting Zesto in Pierre and love a strawberry twist cone from B&G Milky Way.

The 25 other write-in locations shouldn’t be ignored. I am keeping them all in mind for my jaunts back and forth across the state. There was a lot of love for Twist Cone in Aberdeen and Armadillos in Rapid City. Leone’s Creamery in Spearfish had a few mentions, and I can’t argue with the one vote for a vanilla cone at the Winner Drive-In Movie Theater.

I am also intrigued by the comment from Jim Schmidt recommending blending vanilla ice cream, mini Tootsie Rolls and a little milk at home. I vote that he should invite us over next time he fires up his blender.

In the meantime, I will happily whip up some Cherry Swirl Frozen Yogurt at home. A few years ago, we invested in the KitchenAid mixer ice cream maker attachment, and we love, love, love to make homemade ice cream and frozen yogurt all summer long. Adding fresh, seasonal fruits makes it even better. While strawberry is hard to beat, I can’t resist picking up fresh cherries when they come in season in July. If there are any that I don’t just pop into my mouth and devour as a snack, they add a perfect tartness to smooth and creamy frozen yogurt. Since I am not near B&G’s Milky Way or Zesto, this will get my vote, for now.

Cherry Swirl Frozen Yogurt

(adapted from Cooking Light)

1 1/2 cups fresh sweet cherries, pitted and coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups plain whole-milk yogurt (I have also used vanilla whole-milk Greek yogurt or homemade whole-milk yogurt.)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup (this really does wonders to help the creamy texture of the finished product)

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Bring cherries and brown sugar to a boil; cook until cherries begin to soften. Reduce heat to low and cook until syrupy, about 10 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Remove from heat and cool. Refrigerate at least an hour, until chilled through.

Place a loaf pan in the freezer to chill at least 30 minutes. Whisk yogurt, cream, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla bean paste until smooth. Chill 1 hour.

Pour yogurt mixture into the freezer can of an ice cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spread half of frozen yogurt into the chilled loaf pan. Dollop half of the cherry mixture over the top; swirl into frozen yogurt with a knife. Repeat with remaining frozen yogurt and cherry mixture. Press a piece of parchment paper directly on top of frozen yogurt and wrap entire loaf pan tightly in plastic wrap. Freeze 4 hours, or until firm. (Serves 8)

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In the Moment

By Fran Hill

The cicadas were singing last night. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, that means just six weeks until the first frost. I am not ready for that.

Here in South Dakota, it is a favorite pastime to complain about the weather. It is too dry, too wet, too cold, too hot, too humid, too windy, too sunny, too cloudy. The seasons are wished away by dreaming of heated summer days in the bitter below zeros of winter and begging for cool relief beneath the merciless August sun.

I try to buck this trend. I try to live in the moment and make the most of each and every glorious season. My only complaint is that none last long enough. I am simply not ready for cicadas to be singing while I roast my marshmallows over backyard fires.

I am going to hang on to summer as long as it allows. I’ll willingly spend days dripping with sweat as I weed the garden, and then savor the harvests of my work. I will wiggle my toes in the sandy banks of the Missouri River and take in every rainbow sunset I can. I will refresh with drinks on patios and picnics on tailgates in alfalfa fields. I will eat tomatoes and zucchini as quickly as the gardens can produce them, and snap fresh green beans with abandon. I will churn homemade ice cream and let the juices of fresh fruits and berries drip from my fingers.

Before that first frost, I am going to eat all the rhubarb I can handle. Right now, Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble is a weekly occurrence. I feel like I get bonus points for the strawberries also being from my garden. This basic recipe is so simple that I almost have it memorized. Fruit is macerated with sugar and lemon, and the simple crumble employs melted butter — I don’t even have to remember to bring it to room temperature earlier in the day. The hardest part is waiting the 40 minutes for it to bake, but I plan to spend that time enjoying my summer because, you know, the cicadas are already singing.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble is a good reminder to hold on to summer.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

(adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

2 cups of rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 cups of strawberries, halved, quartered, or not (the ones from my garden are tiny and I only hull them)

juice of a lemon

1/2 cup of sugar

3 tablespoons corn starch

1 cup of flour

1/3 cup old fashioned oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons honey

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl and set aside to macerate while prepping the crumble.

Combine the next 4 dry ingredients with a mixer (or by hand, if you want a little arm workout). Add the honey and melted butter. Mix until ingredients pull together and form coarse crumble.

Pour the fruit into an ungreased 8- or 9-inch baking dish, pie plate or cast iron skillet. Crumble the topping over the fruit. Place the filled baking dish on a rimmed cookie sheet that has been lined with foil (to catch drips in the oven and save cleaning later) and bake for 40-50 minutes until the filling is bubbly and the crumble is browned.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream for the best summer ever. (Serves 6-8)

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and their three dogs ranch near Colome.

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Citrus Success

By Fran Hill

A few years ago, a friend purchased an orange tree for her mother. South Dakota isn’t known for its citrus crops, but tending to the seedling indoors throughout the winter ultimately produced what she claims were the sweetest and most perfect oranges ever. She was sold, and this year, her mother is receiving both a lemon and a lime tree for Mother’s Day.

I have to admit that I am a bit jealous of their citrus success. Summer patio flowers and garden are my jam, but houseplants never make it for me. My vintage Craftsman-style home is just too dark. I adore its coziness, but there is not enough light to nurture indoor plantings. Homegrown oranges, limes and lemons are not in my future.

I do love a good lemon dessert, though. Lemon Cr’me Br˚lÈe relies on the tart juice of just a couple store-bought lemons for a light and refreshing tanginess. Even when paired with the rich custard and burnt sugar topping of cr’me br˚lÈe, the brightness of lemon still shines through. You can buy a lemon tree if you want, but you don’t need one to enjoy Lemon Cr’me Br˚lÈe.

Lemon Cr’me Br˚lÈe is a perfectly tart treat for Mother’s Day.

Lemon Cr’me Br˚lÈe

(adapted from Epicurious)

juice and zest of 2 large lemons

3 cups heavy cream

10 tablespoons sugar, divided

pinch of salt

6 egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Add the zest of two lemons and 7 tablespoons of the sugar with the pinch of salt to the cream in a heavy saucepan. Heat mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally, until almost boiling. Remove from heat.

Beat egg yolks in a large bowl and gradually whisk in hot cream. (Do this step slowly to temper the eggs; you want to incorporate them into the cream, not scramble them.) Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the zest and any possible egg”chunks.” (The zest has released its oils to flavor the cream and removing it now ensures a creamy finished product.) Stir in the vanilla and the juice of the lemons. Divide between 8 (4-ounce each) ramekins.

Arrange ramekins in a roasting pan and bake in a water bath until custards are set around the edge, but centers wobble, about 30-35 minutes. Remove ramekins and chill, uncovered, at least 4 hours.

To serve, sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of the remaining sugar over each custard. Using a blowtorch, move the flame evenly back and forth close to the sugar until it is caramelized. Let stand until caramel is hardened, about 2 to 3 minutes. (Serves 8)

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and their three dogs ranch near Colome.

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Quest for the Czech Kolache

By Laura Johnson Andrews

Ed and Carol Radack make fresh kolaches daily, but there are Bon Homme County natives scattered far and wide. That’s no problem, because the Radacks will ship them out of state.

When the first Czech immigrants came to South Dakota in 1869, they brought a pastry as round as the wagon wheels that rolled them here — the kolache. In fact, the name derives from kolo, the Czech word for wheel.

These circular sweet rolls filled with fruit, poppy seeds or cheese and topped with a sprinkle of streusel have a passionate following. Along with pivo (that’s Czech for beer) and traditional dancing, kolaches are a star attraction at Czech Days, held in the little Bon Homme County town of Tabor every June. But Czech Days only comes once a year. Luckily, businesses in Yankton and Tyndall fill the void for the rest of the year.

At the Tyndall Bakery, Ed & Carol Radack honor local tastes and traditions with kolaches and other baked goods created from recipes that date back 70 to 80 years. The kolache dough is used in many of the bakery’s products, such as long johns, doughnuts, kuchen, buns and Carol’s original recipe, apple fritter bread. In November and December, the Radacks stir up peanut brittle, Klondike and anise-flavored Christmas candies using the bakery’s old copper pot and marble worktable.

The Radacks wanted to try something new when they bought the bakery from Bob and Judy Rueb in 2007. Ed had been with the state highway department for 11 years, and Carol worked at Chicago Rawhide in Springfield until it closed.”This is completely the opposite of what we were doing,” says Ed. The husband-wife team works 60 to 80 hours a week, with extra help provided by their sons, Tim and Ty, and local high school students who man the front counter while Ed and Carol bake in the kitchen.”You’re married to it,” Carol says.

Kolaches have a reputation for being difficult, but the Radacks make the process look easy. Using the bakery’s secret recipe, Carol mixes the dough until it reaches the right consistency.”It should be smooth like a baby’s bottom,” Carol says. It rests in a large wheeled tub for about 45 minutes before she pours the quivering, almost liquid mixture out onto a floured worktable. Carol then grabs a dough scraper, slices off a wide strip of dough and flours the top. To break down the dough’s plasticity, she rolls a spiked wheel called a docker over the surface, followed by a metal rolling pin. Ed uses a small, 3-inch round cutter to form the kolaches, then Carol arranges the pillowy circles on a metal pan, poking the center of each circle to create an indentation for the kolache filling.

Once the cutting is done, Ed and Carol gently press on the kolaches again to reinforce the hollow that will hold the filling. Working with swift, smooth motions, they then squeeze fruit, cream cheese or poppy seed filling into the indentations.”She’s faster than I am, but mine look better when they’re done,” jokes Ed.

The pans of kolaches then rest in a room called the proof box for 30 to 45 minutes. The proof box is like a sauna for baked goods. A water-filled pan placed over a burner provides heat and humidity, helping the kolaches and other yeasty desserts to rise.

After the kolaches have rested, they’re topped with a little streusel before entering the Tyndall Bakery’s enormous oven for 15 minutes. The propane-fueled behemoth contains six rotating racks, providing the Radacks with enough room to bake 30 full sheet pans or 120 kuchen at once. Once baked, the kolaches are allowed to cool before glaze is added. Then they’re ready for appreciative customers.

The Radacks have a time-honored system, but there are other methods of kolache-making. Drive east of Tabor, the Czech capital, on Highway 50 and you’ll soon arrive in Yankton where kolaches can be found at Czeckers Sports Bar and Grill, a joint venture of Matt and Kelsey Hunhoff and Matt’s parents, Dan and Jean Hunhoff.

Czech flair is evident at Czeckers in Yankton, both in its decor and its menu, which includes kolaches. Abbey Kokesh (left) was the restaurant’s kolache master before teaching the art to Kelsey Hunhoff, who owns the business with her husband, Matt, and Matt’s parents, Dan and Jean Hunhoff.

Czeckers, which opened in the former Elks Club in September 2013, blends the board game’s red and black colors with the family’s Czech pride.”Matt is very proud of his heritage, and Jean is as well,” Kelsey says.”He’d thought of the name and the theme several years ago.”

That pride extends to Czeckers’ menu. Since the Czech Republic is the birthplace of pilsner-style beer, Czeckers offers two varieties: Pilsner Urquell and Staropramen. Beer is also the key ingredient of their pivo-battered fries. On Friday and Saturday nights, the restaurant serves a Beseda meal: roast beef or duck, dumplings, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, rye bread, and of course, kolaches.

Matt’s sister, Abbey Kokesh, was the restaurant’s kolache maker in the early days.”My grandma made them my whole life. I enjoyed eating them, but never learned how to make them,” Kokesh said. After her grandmother, Amy Rokusek, developed Alzheimers, Kokesh turned to Ann Beran, a longtime kolache-making demonstrator at Tabor’s Czech Days, for guidance. Now, Abbey teaches the Saturday kolache demonstration for beginners during Czech Days.

Kokesh tells beginners that kolaches aren’t fast food.”You really can’t be in a hurry. I usually put aside a half day because it takes time.” She also recommends patience.”Mom has made them, and hers don’t turn out right but she just doesn’t have the passion to bake them like I do.”

Here are some other tricks:

  • Keep the kitchen warm. That helps the dough to rise.
  • Use bread flour. They’re not sure why but that’s what the bakers do.
  • Be creative with fillings. Try chocolate, peanut butter, jelly or anything that might make a pie.
  • Pair dark fillings with dark and light with light so they cook evenly.
  • Find a mentor. Otherwise it may be frustrating.
  • Kolaches are best served hot but they will keep a week, or you can freeze the dough or the baked kolaches.
  • There’s no right or wrong way. Find out what works for you.

Czechoslovakian immigrants brought kolaches – round sweet rolls filled with fruit, poppy seeds or cheese and topped with streusel – to southeastern South Dakota when they began settling there in 1869.

Czeckers’ Kolache Recipe

2 packages or 2 tablespoons dry yeast

3/4 cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups warmed milk

3/4 cup potato flakes

1 tablespoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup vegetable oil

5-6 cups bread flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar. Set aside.

Heat milk and pour into mixing bowl. Using a mixer, add potato flakes, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, oil and slightly beaten eggs and mix well. Stir in 2 cups flour, then add yeast mixture. Continue adding flour until it’s a soft dough. Switch to dough hooks and add the rest of the flour. Move dough to floured surface and knead slightly until the dough is no longer sticky. Move to a greased bowl, cover and let rise until dough doubles in size and the dough no longer pops up when poked with a finger.

Shape dough into small, smooth balls about 2 inches in diameter. Thomas’ method involves manipulating spoonfuls of dough by flattening them into a disc, folding the edges into the center and popping them through her thumb and forefinger to create an uncreased dough ball. Place the balls on a greased pan, brush with oil and let rise for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a stamper (the Hunhoffs use the bottom of a plastic bottle) or your fingers, flatten the dough ball into a circle by making an indentation in the center and fill with kolache filling. Sprinkle streusel on top of filling.

Bake at 400 degrees for 11 to 12 minutes. After baking, brush with melted margarine or butter or a combination of 1 tablespoon sugar and 3 tablespoons hot water. Yields 4 dozen kolaches.

Poppy Seed Filling

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 can Solo brand poppy seed filling

3/4 cup half and half

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix sugar and flour together. Add poppy seed filling, half and half and vanilla. Microwave on high 3 minutes and stir. Heat 3 more minutes, stir, then heat one more minute. May also heat on stovetop.

Prune Filling

12 ounces prunes

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cover prunes with water and cook until tender. Mash prunes and combine with other ingredients.

Streusel

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup finely-chopped coconut, optional

Use pastry blender to blend flour, butter and sugar together until crumbly. Add coconut, if desired. Sprinkle the mixture over kolache filling before baking.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the January/February 2015 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Tis the Season: Peppermint Fudge

By Fran Hill

‘Tis the season for sweets, treats and treasures. Kitchens are busy with baking, and break rooms in workplaces across the state are groaning with plates of sugary delicacies. It is a holiday tradition to share our love and appreciation with food … or at least give a shout out to good cheer with some cookies.

If you follow my blog, you may already know that I am not a baker. I used to spend days baking and decorating and arranging countless varieties of cookies on platters for every friend, neighbor and family member in sight. It stressed me. A lot. My Christmas spirit suffered, and I (wisely) gave it up. Baking isn’t my thing.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t like to share something delicious. Food is my thing. Baking may turn me into the Grinch, but Christmas is absolutely the season to show up on your neighbor’s doorstep with little, candied gifts. Thankfully, I found fudge. A few years back, I started making trays with an array of different flavored fudges. Butter Pecan has become a favorite to tuck alongside the rich and creamy Dark Chocolate Fudge and the melt-in-your-mouth Milk Chocolate Cream Cheese Fudge. But a flavor that has surprised me with its lightness and freshness is the Peppermint Fudge.

Light and fresh? Fudge? Yes. Peppermint Fudge is the perfect palate cleanser after all the sugary binges. The essence of each little square is crisp and clean and wonderfully yummy. ‘Tis the season for me to share some luscious, confectionery love with Peppermint Fudge.

Peppermint Fudge

  • 18 oz white chocolate chips (I used a mix of white chocolate chips (12 ounces) and a partial bag of white almond bark candy wafers.)
  • 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons pure peppermint extract
  • 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1 cup crushed peppermint candies (I only had the candy canes decorating my tree and made a quick dash to the convenience store for Starlite Mints.)
  • sprinkles


In a heatproof bowl over simmering water, melt chips, condensed milk, cream and baking soda. (I actually just use my heavy Le Creuset pan and keep the heat very low.) Stir frequently; heat until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in extracts; sift in powdered sugar. (Don’t skimp on sifting. Lumps in the powdered sugar are not fun.) Add crushed candies. Pour into a parchment or foil-lined 8◊8 inch pan. (I sprayed my foil with Pam.) Top with sprinkles. Refrigerate for 3 hours, or until set. Lift lining and fudge from pan to cut into 1-inch cubes. (Yields about 64 pieces)

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and two dogs reside near Colome.

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Cake in Moderation

By Fran Hill

A few weeks ago, I was attending an event and ran into some friends. We gleefully chatted the evening away covering recent events in our lives and happenings around the state. Unfortunately, as is often the case with women, our conversation turned to our bodies. Two of us cited recent weight gain, and both expressed a desire to make some changes. My friend asked if I wanted to go on a diet with her. I did not hesitate with my emphatic,”No.”

I don’t want to diet. Ever. I desire my life to be about balance, not restriction. Sure, my jean size is a little larger than I would prefer and my arms wiggle more than I like, but that doesn’t mean I am willing to start a cycle of deprivation.

I wish that my female friends and I could stop beating ourselves up about our bodies. We are absolutely worth more than thin thighs. But since I don’t see that change happening any time soon, my more important wish is that you don’t ask me to go on a diet. Ask me to go for a hike, or a bike ride or kayaking. Let’s get active together. Share with me your favorite salad and ask me for tips to change up your vegetable routine. Call me when you bought a case of fruit that you can’t possibly eat on your own. Let’s be about positive health changes and let our bodies follow along.

In the meantime, for the sake of balance, let’s have a piece of cake. Strawberry Cream Cheese Ice Box Cake. We will add a few more steps to our activity tracker and all will be fine.

You might need to take a few extra steps during the day, but don’t deny yourself Strawberry Cream Cheese Ice Box Cake.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Ice Box Cake

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 box (9 ounces) Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers

Whip cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla.

Gradually pour in the heavy cream a bit at a time while mixer is running. Beat until light, fluffy and approximately doubled in size. The cream will be forming stiff peaks.

Arrange a layer of cookie wafers in a circular pattern on a plate or serving platter with one cookie in the center.

Scoop a portion of the whipped cream cheese over the cookies and spread to cover.

Layer sliced strawberries over the cream.

Add another layer of cookies, more cream and strawberries. Continue until you have used all the cookies, ending with an arrangement of strawberries on top.

Refrigerate cake for at least 4 hours or overnight. (Don’t skip this step. It IS an icebox cake.)

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and their three dogs ranch near Colome.

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A Sweet Treat for Mom

By Fran Hill

I have a sweet tooth. Doughnuts, pie, cake, and chocolate bars tempt me. When dining out, I always take a peek at the dessert menu. Yet, dessert is not a regular feature of our daily meals.

In our home, a sweet finish to the meal is usually reserved for celebrating guests or special occasions. I bake towering layer cakes for birthdays, churn homemade ice cream for casual dinners, and char sugar over cr’me br˚lÈe for a holiday meal. However, on a daily basis, such indulgences are only dreams.

Thankfully, there is a holiday approaching. I can’t think of a day that deserves dessert more than Mother’s Day. This year, simple is best. I am combining sweet, end-of-the-season apples with fresh, new season rhubarb in a bracingly tart dessert with a nutty oat crust. Rhubarb Apple Crisp is indulgent with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, yet has a wholesomeness that totally suits a Mother’s Day dessert, or any day.

Rhubarb Apple Crisp is a sweet, yet tart, finish to your Mother’s Day meal.

Rhubarb Apple Crisp

(adapted from Cooking Light)

5 cups rhubarb, chopped

3-4 Honeycrisp or Gala apples, peeled, cored and diced

2/3 cup sugar

6 tablespoons flour, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2/3 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375F.

Toss rhubarb and apples with sugar, flour, vanilla and cinnamon. Place in 6-cup baking dish that has been coated with cooking spray.

In a separate bowl, combine remaining 4 tablespoons flour, oats and brown sugar; mix well. Add butter and knead into the oat mixture. Crisp topping is properly mixed if it clumps between your fingers. Sprinkle evenly over rhubarb mixture in baking dish.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until topping is golden brown and filling is thick and bubbly. Cool 15 minutes before serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and their three dogs ranch near Colome.

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The Legend of Springerle

The Benson family of Brookings likes their Christmas cookies picture perfect. Every year, Leah Benson rolls out an embossed cookie called springerle, which means”little knight” or”jumping horse,” using a special rolling pin carved with pictures.

Springerle originated in southwestern Germany.”The legend is that back then, the peasants were so poor that they could not afford to give gifts. To celebrate the winter solstice they would carve the gift they wanted to give into a piece of dough, let it dry, bake it and give it to their loved one. Most carvings were things of nature because they worshipped Mother Earth,” says Benson, who has researched the ancient cookie and teaches classes about it at medieval re-enactment fairs.”The dough was leavened with hartshorn, which is a powder that comes from inside a deer’s antler. Today we use baking powder.”

Benson learned about springerle from her grandmother.”She always made these cookies with a special rolling pin that was handed down through the generations. I started collecting these rolling pins when I was 40,” Benson says. Rolling the dough with a springerle pin or pressing it with a carved mold creates pictures on the cookies — some more intricate than others.”Most of the modern rolling pins have simple nature designs, although I do have one very expensive one with the life of Christ carved into its 24 panels,” Benson says.

Her grandmother’s recipe creates thick, mixer-challenging dough. Benson recommends draping a kitchen towel over the back of the mixer to avoid spraying flour and powdered sugar. After mixing and rolling, the unbaked cookies must dry for 24 hours to preserve the pictures through baking. The cookies bake at a low temperature, resulting in hard, pale-colored treats perfect for dunking in coffee.

Many families bake springerle at Thanksgiving and save them until Christmas to allow the flavor to develop, but Benson’s family eats them right away because they prefer a softer texture. Rolling thicker cookies or baking for less time results in a softer cookie as well, but beware of rolling them too thick. You’ll get cookies that are”humped up and cracked and kind of ugly,” Benson says.

Springerle is a German tradition that became a staple of Christmas for many South Dakota families.

Springerle

4 medium eggs, separated

1 pound powdered sugar

3 cups flour with 1/4 teaspoon baking powder added

1/8 teaspoon anise oil extract, or flavoring of your choice

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks for five minutes until light and lemon-colored. Add beaten yolks to egg whites and whip for three minutes. Gradually sift powdered sugar into egg mixture and add anise oil. Slowly add flour and baking powder until dough is stiff, smooth and velvety. You may need to knead in the last of the flour by hand.

Divide the dough into 3 or 4 pieces. On a well-floured surface, roll out each piece 3/8-inch thick using a regular rolling pin. Using a springerle pin, roll across the dough to create imprints. Cut cookies apart and place onto ungreased cookie sheets close together but not touching. Cover with a light kitchen towel. Allow them to dry for 12 hours, then flip to let the undersides dry for another 12 hours.

Flip cookies right side up and bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes. They may turn tan on the bottom, but should not brown.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the November/December 2013 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Walnut Pie Among the Pines

By Bernie Hunhoff

Desperados proprietor Dan Dickey (center) and Carrie Brown serve walnut pie to a hungry diner.

Hear an early-morning clamor in the kitchen of Desperados? Don’t be alarmed. It’s just Connie Heddles, the baker, crushing walnuts for a favorite Southern Hills pie.

“She beats the walnuts with a mallet,” laughs restaurant owner Dan Dickey.”She says she can take out her frustrations while she’s working.”

Not a bad recipe for venting, but Heddles is obviously joking because Desperados is one of those restaurants where everybody ≠– locals, tourists or the staff — seem happy. Dickey and his wife Pat sensed that good energy, at the restaurant and all along Main Street, six years ago when they were looking for a business to buy.

“The town is perfectly located between Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse,” says Dan, who worked as a pension consultant in Minneapolis before he and Pat became enamored with the Southern Black Hills.”But it’s more than that. There’s lots of good leadership in town and everybody is pulling together. It’s been great. This is our sixth season and every year has been a little better.”

Give the walnut pie a slice of the credit. It was devised by Laurel Schaub, the previous owner, and perfected by Heddles over the past several years. The taste is similar to pecan pie, but not as sweet and rich.

Desperados is also gaining a reputation for buffalo.”We only use grass fed buffalo meat from Wild Idea Buffalo Company,” says Dan. Wild Idea is run by well-known Black Hills author Dan O’Brien. Dickey started serving a buffalo roast dinner this summer that quickly became a staple on a big menu with steaks, salads, muleskinner chili dogs and cornbread muffins baked daily by Heddles. The walleye is also popular. Desperados has a special process of seasoning, breading and grilling the fillets.

A creative kitchen keeps customers coming back, but first-timers are often attracted to Desperados by history. The log structure was built of Black Hills pine in 1885 as a saloon and then converted into newspaper offices for the Harney Peak Mining News. It has also served as a book and gun store, fly-fishing headquarters and fix-it shop.

Dickey believes it is the oldest hand-hewn log commercial building in South Dakota. The exterior was charred by disastrous fires that crippled Hill City in 1891 and 1902, so the exterior walls are sided with clapboard. But the old logs create an authentic Old West atmosphere inside. Some of the pines are crooked, the gaps evened by kinking and correction logs. They were kilned from trees killed by mountain pine beetles, again a scourge of the Black Hills.

“They say the trees were still standing when the logs were cut,” Dickey says.”The logger probably liked the bug wood because the tree was already dead, so the logs were lighter and easier to square cut.”

The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, more than 25 years before anyone hammered out a walnut pie in the back room. That’s one of the charms of Hill City, population 962. The history just keeps getting better.

Desperados opens daily for lunch and dinner from May through September.

Desperados’ Walnut Pie

12 eggs

4 c sugar

1/2 c flour

4 c corn syrup

8 tbsp melted butter

4 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

6-7 cups walnuts

4 pie crusts

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together eggs, sugar, flour, corn syrup, butter and vanilla. Gently place walnuts on crust. Pour sugar mix over walnuts arranging nuts as necessary. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 35 to 45 minutes. Makes 4 walnut pies.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the September/October 2013 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Kolache Making

By Genevieve Arntz

All my life I have enjoyed kolaches. My mother, an immigrant from Moravia (then Austria-Hungary) made them every Christmas and Easter. As she grew older, she would tell me what ingredients to use and how much and I became adept at making them.

Alas, when she died she took the recipe with her. So I went to my cousin, Mary Palank, who was then living in Aberdeen. Mary was famous for her kolaches. She had learned to make them from her mother, my aunt. “Come,” she said. “We’ll make some in the morning.”

When I came into the kitchen she had everything ready. “See this little blue bowl? I fill it up to here with flour for the sponge.”

I objected. “But Mary, when I get back home I won’t have your little blue bowl.”

So she measured out the ingredients in her time-tried way and I reduced the measurements to standard cups, teaspoons and tablespoons. In the course of the morning I covered two sheets of paper with notes and in the afternoon we visited over oven-warm kolaches and coffee.

When I got home I reduced the notes to one succinct page, which is my standard recipe. I’ve shared the recipe with many friends who have followed it successfully, too.

Kolaches

Recipe from Mary Palank and Genevieve Arntz

Dough

2 packages active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups warm milk, divided

7-8 cups flour, divided

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs (room temperature)

2 tablespoons salt

1 cup vegetable oil or shortening

Using a large mixing bowl, dissolve 2 packages of yeast in 1 cup warm water. Add 1 cup warm milk, 2 cups flour, and stir until smooth. Let stand in a warm place until it triples in size.

To this mixture, add 3/4 cup sugar, 3 eggs, salt, 1 cup warm milk and vegetable oil or shortening. Mix well, then gradually add 6-7 cups of flour, until a very soft dough is formed. On a board, knead in flour until dough does not stick to hands. Grease top with vegetable oil and let rise. Punch down and let rise again.

Cottage Cheese Filling

2 pounds low fat, small curd cottage cheese, wrapped in a cloth and squeezed to remove whey, or baker’s cheese

2 egg yolks

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups raisins

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Mix cottage cheese or baker’s cheese with egg yolks, sugar, butter and raisins.

Note: plum or other thick jams also make good fillings.

Streusel

1 cup flour

1 stick margarine

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together.

To form kolaches: Grease hands. Spoon out about 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of dough, or divide dough into 30-32 portions. Using your hands, roll each piece of dough into a small ball, then flatten it. Place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of the dough; draw the sides of the dough up over the filling, overlapping. Place on greased baking tin and pat flat. Oil top with salad oil. Place about 1 teaspoon of streusel topping on each oiled bun.

Let kolaches rise until doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes. Oil the sides of the bun and the topping with salad oil and cool. Store in cool place.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the March/April 1993 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.