Dents de Loup - Wolf's Teeth Cookies

When I saw these cookies last year, suggested on Pinterest by a super creative French friend of mine for the Feast of St. Francis (HT: Mattie Nelson), I knew they would be a perfect addition to Catholic Cuisine ideas. These specialty shaped cookies go by various names. Known as Dents de loup in France or Wolfszähne in Germany, they are Wolf's Teeth Cookies. One of the most famous stories of St. Francis of Assisi is that of his coming to the aid of the town of Gubbio, when it was terrorized by the ferocious wolf. These fun cookies can remind us of the Wolf of Gubbio on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

Wolf's Teeth Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 cup butter, room temp or slightly softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 3/4 cups flour + 2 tablespoons
2 teaspoons vanilla (+ optional 2 teaspoons Cognac, brandy, etc.)

Cream the butter and sugar with hand mixer until light colored, fluffy. Add flavoring, mix. Add eggs one at a time and mix. Mix in flour, a little at a time, about 1/4 cup of the flour each time.

Butter/grease the pan* ridges. Drop a walnut sized balls of dough off a spoon into the ridged form. Keep well spaced so they don't run together. I cut the recipe to one third when I made them and it made 20 cookies.

Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown on top.

*Special Note in the Spirit of St. Francis - Make your own baking pan
I didn't have a Dents de loup or Wolfszähne pan, and didn't want to buy one as it is not likely something I would use very often. So in the austere spirit of St. Francis, I decided I could improvise with a simple disposable and inexpensive option. Using a large, flat-ish disposable aluminum pan, I made a modified baking pan.

I cut off the ridged edges all around, clipped the corners to flatten and spread flat. I rolled a rolling pin over it to take out the indentations and get it as flat and smooth as possible. Then I folded over approximately 1 1/2 inch, flipped and folded again (fan fold style) until I had a makeshift "dents de loup" pan.

As I figure most of you don't have a specialty pan like this or the desire to purchase one, I hope this is helpful and manageable alternative.

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Agnesenplätzchen (St. Agnes Cookies)

In honor of today's feast of St. Agnes I finally had the opportunity to bake Agnesenplätzchen (St. Agnes Cookies), with lots of help from our six year old, adapting the recipe found in Cooking with the Saints.  The recipe for these delicious jam filled shortbread cookies was originally from an old German cookbook first published in 1924.

Agnesenplätzchen (St. Agnes Cookies) 

adapted from Cooking with the Saints 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 cups flour
• 1 jar apricot jam
• powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

Cream the butter with the sugar. Gradually incorporate the flour until it becomes a smooth dough. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

On a clean work surface, roll out the dough to ¼-inch thick. Cut out an even number of circles about 2 inches in diameter.

Let the dough rest for about 30 to 60 minutes.  

Place on a cookie sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350˚F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely. Spread apricot jam on the top of one cookie and cover with a second cookie.

Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.  

You can find additional pictures and ideas over at Shower of Roses. 

St. Agnes, Ora Pro Nobis!

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German Pancake for the Pope

This post was written by past Catholic Cuisine contributor Amy.

Saturday, April 16th, is Pope Benedict XVI's birthday!  So in order to fully appreciate our German pontiff's special day we are going all German.  Other than Brats for dinner we are going to have a German pancake for breakfast!

I adapted this from a recipe I found at Food Network a gazillion years ago.  I, of course, double it too since there are so many of us.

German Pancake

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons maple syrup ( you can also use sugar, but since we have someone who gave up refined sugar for Lent this works!)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 cup of unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons shortening
• Powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.  Place cast iron skillet in oven while preheating.

In a saucepan or in the microwave warm milk with butter over medium heat till butter melts (or almost, don't let the milk boil!).  Whisk together eggs, salt, syrup, warm milk, melted butter and vanilla.  Sift flour over wet mixture and whisk till smooth.

Remove cast iron from oven and place shortening in pan.  Using a brush cover all the sides and bottom with the shortening as it melts.  Pour in batter and bake for about 12 minutes.

Lower the heat to 350 degrees F and continue to bake till nice and golden brown, about 10 to 15 more minutes.

There it is in the oven, poofing away

When you take out of the oven run a knife along the edge of skillet and serve immediately.

You can serve it with fresh fruit syrup, jam or jelly, or maple syrup.  If desired shift powered sugar over the top!

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"Saintly" Hot Cocoa to Warm Your December Celebrations

Yesterday we had our first signficant snowfall, and the children's thoughts immediately went to sledding ... and hot cocoa! It got me thinking -- with three of our favorite saint feast days coming up this month, why not celebrate with a little twist on hot cocoa?

First, here's a basic hot cocoa recipe, if you don't already have one. I have this long-since memorized, but it's my variation of the one I'm pretty sure you'll find on any can of Hershey's cocoa.

Basic Hot Cocoa Recipe

Pour 4 c milk into a 1-qt measuring cup. Add 1 capful (about 1/2 t) vanilla, and set aside.

Place in a medium saucepan:

1/4 c cocoa powder
1/2 c sugar
pinch of salt

(Save yourself some trouble, as well as the juggling of multiple small measuring cups, by making several individual batches of these dry ingredients and storing each in a small zip style plastic bag. You'll be amazed at what a time saver this can be!)

Whisk in 1/3 c hot tap water, and place over medium heat. Watch carefully and stir frequently until the mixture comes to a full boil; then continue to boil, stirring constantly, for two minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in the reserved vanilla milk. Return to the stove at a low to medium setting, until heated through.

Serve as is, or topped with marshmallows or whippped cream. Guaranteed to "warm the toe bones," as we say at our house! :) Makes four (8 oz.) servings of hot cocoa.


Now then, for the "Saintly" variations:

German Chocolate Hot Cocoa for St. Nicholas (Dec. 6)

Substitute 1/2 c. brown sugar for the granulated white sugar.

Substitute 2 c. of coconut milk for half (2 c.) of the milk in the recipe.


You can use a 15.5 oz can of coconut milk, or use this recipe for Coconut-Infused Milk:

Place 2 cups of shredded coconut in a heat-safe bowl.

Bring 2 cups of milk to a boil in a small saucepan. It will foam, then boil over very quickly, so watch carefully!

Pour over the reserved coconut, and let stand for about one hour.

Place the coconut and milk mixture into a blender, and process for about 30 seconds.

Strain into a 1-qt measuring cup, pressing the coconut to extract as much milk as possible. Discard the coconut.

Fill the measuring cup to the 4 cup mark with additional milk, then continue the basic recipe as written.

Tastes great with gingerbread cookies!



Mexican Hot Cocoa for St. Juan Diego (Dec 9) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec. 12)

Prepare basic recipe as written; whisk in 2 t cinnamon and 1/2 t chili powder with the milk.

If desired, top with sweetened whipped cream and a few shavings of dark, sweet chocolate.

Serve with Mexican Wedding Cakes for a special treat!


Scandinavian Orange Chocolate Hot Cocoa for St. Lucy (Dec. 13)

Prepare hot cocoa as directed in the basic recipe above.

Whip 1 cup heavy cream until soft peaks form.

Gently fold 2 T orange marmalade into the whipped cream.

Place a large dollop of the orange whipped cream on each serving of the hot cocoa; top with freshly-grated orange zest, if desired.

Goes exceptionally well with your favorite St. Lucy's Bread recipe! Pin It