New Year's Traditions - continued

One of my daughters wanted to start her own tradition of Christmas mornings with cinnamon rolls. I have to tell you making any type of bread without a bread machine is an art and I didn't have enough faith in my daughter's ability to make a good cinnamon roll. Boy!!! was I wrong!!!! First time she made the recipe, she nailed it and I was so proud of her. She even said they tasted very good. That's when I knew I needed to post one more final "Traditions" recipe.

The recipe was called Poertzelki or New Year's cookies. My grandmother would make the dough and then would add either raisins or chopped apples to her mixture. I know I've talked about my grandmother a lot but she had a lot of recipes from the "old country" and never hesitated to talk about our roots in Prussia. I guess that's why traditions are so important for me to hand down from generation to generation some of those "old country" recipes and stories told by my parents and grandparents.

One of my children has a blog and talked about her own grandparents who instilled the idea of traditions and the importance in her life. Both of her grandparents passed away last year and her blog touched my heart because she is starting her own family traditions of telling her children what's important in families. Her newly found recipe of cinnamon rolls and making them for Christmas morning will be something her husband and children will remember and think of traditions in their own family. I'm very proud of this daughter and her wonderful sense of traditions.

I hope you have enjoyed the German (Mennonite) recipes as much as I have. Enjoy and remember if you haven't started any traditions in your family, its never too late to make those memories.

Poertzelk - New Year's Cookies

3-4 cups flour - this should be a medium to slight stiff batter
3 cups raisins
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
6 eggs
2 packages of yeast
Pinch of Nutmeg
2 cups scalded milk

Mix all the ingredients and let rise 2 hours in a warm place. Then drop by spoon into hot oil. (350-375)

I don't know how many "cookies" this makes. If you want to make a modern version, use a cinnamon sugar and roll the "cookies" into this after frying.