Celebrating Martinmas

"The most common, and universal, harvest and thanksgiving celebration in medieval times was held on the Feast of St. Martin of Tours (Martinmas) on November 11. It was a holiday in Germany, France, Holland, England, and in central Europe. People first went to Mass and observed the rest of the day with games, dances, parades, and a festive dinner, the main feature of the meal being the traditional roast goose (Martin's goose). . ." 

- The Holyday Book: The Celebration of Holydays, Feastdays & Festivals

Here are a couple suggestions for today's feast from the archives: 

St. Martin Cookies for Martinmas

St. Martin's Bags

(you can download printable tags over at Shower of Roses) 

Scroll through the archives for even more recipes: 

St. Martin of Tours

Additional ideas can be found over at Shower of Roses: 

Celebrating the Saints :: St. Martin of Tours

O God, Who seest that we exist by no power of our own, mercifully grant that, by the intercession of blessed Martin, Thy confessor and bishop, we be strengthened against all adversities. 

St. Martin of Tours, Pray for us!

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Apple Slices with Cinnamon - Fall Harvest Treat for Feast Days

Autumn and apples - it is the consummate harvest food. So many delicious varieties. Because apples are harvested in the late summer and fall months and they keep well into the winter, they were a common feast day food inclusion for a number of fall saints. We see apples at Michaelmas (September 29), Martinmas (November 11), and also for this week's feast of St. Charles Borromeo (November 4 on the General Roman Calendar and November 5 on Traditional Calendar). St. Charles is the patron of apple orchards so has a special connection for anything apple in feast day celebrations.  Another saint associated with apples is St. Dorothea (Dorothy) of Caesarea (February 6). She is usually depicted holding a basket of apples and roses for a pious legend associated with her martyrdom and the conversion of one of her persecutors.  And in Eastern rite churches (like Ukrainian Catholic) the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6, August 19 for Orthodox) is traditionally called Apple Spas. Apples are blessed on that day.  The apple is also symbolic of Christ, the new Adam. When Christ is depicted holding an apple it symbolizes the fruit of salvation (as contrasted with the apple in Adam's hand, meaning sin). 

Simplicity is always helpful to me in feast day ideas and this apple treat is a very easy and healthy snack option. It consists of freshly cut apple slices, sprinkled with cinnamon.  It is delicious and it tastes like a treat but is so easy to make.  I find I prefer a crisp and sweet apple for this treat (Gala, Fuji, Cameo, Honeycrisp, Braeburn). Use as many or as few apples as you need. Since they will be sliced you will only want to make what will be eaten in a fairly short time so they don't brown. 

Core and slice (thinly) the apples. Place in bowl. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon. Mix apples to coat evenly. Add more cinnamon if needed to taste. Serve.  


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Cinnamon Toast St. Martin Snacks

I came up with this idea this morning not intending to blog it but my kids really liked it, so I'm sharing it with you. The story of St. Martin of Tours is that when he was a soldier, he came upon a beggar outside of the city gates who was in need of clothing and warmth. St. Martin, having nothing else to offer, took off his beautiful cloak and cut it in two giving half to the beggar to keep him warm. Later that night, St. Martin had a dream that the beggar man was really Jesus and he was commending St. Martin for his generosity to the angels in Heaven. In honor of that story, I made these cinnamon toast treats to look like gates and cloaks. My oldest daughter commented though that if you turn the gate upside down, it resembles a horseshoe, which is also one of St. Martin's symbols. Either way, it is simple to make.

First, make some cinnamon toast. We like to toast the bread in the toaster, butter it and then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar.

Then, I used the bottom edge of my cheese grater to cut out a rounded shape to look like a cloak. You could use just a knife though and cut out the shape by hand. 

Now you have a gate and a cloak.

Just serve it up, let the big kids cut the cloak in half themselves or score it for the little ones to tear in half and tell them the story of this most generous saint.

St. Martin of Tours, pray for us!

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St. Martin Cookies for Martinmas

After seeing the beautiful and amazing All-Saints Themed Cookies shared by Lynne last month I decided to order a cookie mold and see if I would be able to make them as well... Looking through all the links she shared I had a hard time deciding which mold(s) to order!  Since we have plans to celebrate Martinmas with friends this year I ended up choosing the St. Martin mold (as well as a St. Nicholas and a Christmas mold which I hope to use to create Christmas gifts for some of our friends and godchildren next month)! 

The St. Martin Mold: A wondeful, dimensional, German depiction of the famous episode when Martin cut his cloak in two, giving half to a shivering beggar. St. Martin became a patron saint of France. Actual Size: 3.5 x 5.25 inches.

I used my new favorite sugar cookie recipe along with some awesome "rolling sticks" from a friend of mine. (Thank you Erica!)

Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Dough 

Mix the following:

• 3/4 c. butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine the following dry ingredients and combine with the wet (or add part of the flour and then the salt and powder followed by the rest of the flour):

• 2 1/3 c. flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder

Chill until hard. Roll out on floured surface to 3/8" inch thick. Cut out shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes (for 3 inch cookies) or 9 minutes (for 1 1/2 in cookies) OR until bottoms of cookies are barely browning.  

Note: I used the mold as a guide for cutting out the St. Martin cookies and baked them for approx. 15 minutes. 

After the cookies had been baked and cooled I started creating the fondant tops.

Next time I plan to make our own marshmallow fondant, but this time I kept it simple using a package of pastel yellow pre-made fondant.  

Rolling the fondant to the recommended ¼ inch thickness I was able to decorate nine large cookies with the St. Martin design.  

I followed Lynne's directions and it was just as easy as it sounded:  Lightly dust your mold with powdered sugar. Press the rolled out fondant into the mold starting from the center of the mold and working your way to the edges. Be sure to press the fondant into all of the deep areas of the design, you can feel the indentations as you press down on the fondant. Starting from the edge carefully peal the fondant from the mold. Trim the edges of the design then ‘glue’ the fondant to the cookie by brushing the top of the cookie with light corn syrup.

These cookies were so much fun to make and I can't wait to share them with all the children tomorrow after we read about St. Martin and decorate lanterns! 

Happy Martinmas! 

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Bishop's Cake

This afternoon our family had hoped to travel and attend The Ordination of Bishop Liam Cary, the priest that married my husband and I back in 1999.  Unfortunately, my husband had to work today after all, and we had to cancel our travel plans. Thanks to the internet and live streaming, we will still be able to watch the Ordination Mass online!

To celebrate this special occasion we decided to bake a "Bishop's Cake!" This is an old fashioned pound cake, which would also be suitable to make for any of the feasts of bishop saints.

Bishop's Cake

adapted from both The Silver Palate Cookbook and Catholic Culture

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound(2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 5 whole eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.

Cream the butter and sugar gradually in mixing bowl until fluffy.

Add the sifted flour to the butter mixture.  Add the lemon juice and vanilla, stir well.   Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  (After the first 30 minutes, cover loosely with Aluminum Foil) 

Cool in pan for 10 minutes.   Remove from pan and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

Note:  As a variation, sprinkle crushed blanched almonds over the top of the cake right before putting it in the oven to bake.

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Decorating with Heraldry

Heraldry has been defined as the art of blazoning, assigning, and marshalling a coat of arms. I mention it because I recently explored the website, World of Heraldry, which contains a wealth of images for coats-of-arms depicting St. Martin of Tours. Apparently St. Martin is one of the most popular saints used in heraldry. We used the shield images for several feast day crafts and decorations. Catholic Cuisine contributors in the past have used a coat-of-arms to make decorative picks for cupcakes or other treats (Pope Benedict's Coat of Arms Cupcakes).


We did the same today for our brownies, using the variety of images of St. Martin of Tours from the heraldry site. We thought that they really looked like heraldry banners. There are many other saints in the coats of arms on the site. It would be a great place to look when you want to liven up a cupcake or other treat for a feast day.

Upcoming November saints that have images on the heraldry site:

St. Elizabeth of Hungary (November 17)

St. Catherine of Alexandria (November 25)





St. Andrew (November 30)



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Saint Martin's Bags - Goodies for the Children

Il-Borża ta' San Martin, or St. Martin's Bags, are a festive tradition in Malta on the feast of St. Martin of Tours. Children are given these bags full of treats associated with the feast. The cloth bags have drawstrings at the top and are filled with fruits of the harvest.

Common contents of the bags include:
~almonds
~walnuts
~hazelnuts
~chestnuts
~oranges
~tangerines
~figs
~apples
~pomegranates

It might also contain St. Martin's bread (Weckmanner in Germany). We just used what we had on hand - peanuts, cashews, and dried fruit. The bags are easy to make. This one is a light muslin, decorated with a goose - symbol associated with St. Martin.

A poem about the bag of treats to recite:
Ġewż, Lewż, Qastan, Tin
Kemm inħobbu lil San Martin.

Walnuts, Almonds, Chestnuts, Figs
I very much love Saint Martin.

At our St. Martin feast day celebration with our local support group today, a friend of mine made "beggar bags" for all the kids. They were crumpled, brown paper bags signifying simplicity and poverty. The picture on the bag shows St. Martin with the beggar. They contained nuts, fruit and a cookie.

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The Cloak of St Martin Cake

St Martin of Tours is a well known European saint whose feast day is known simply as Martinmas Day. Wikipedia has this to say:

"St. Martin's Day (or Martinstag or Martinmas) is November 11th the feast day of St Martin of Tours who started out as a Roman soldier. He was baptized as an adult and became a monk. It is understood that he was a kind man who led a quiet and simple life. The most famous legend of his life is that he once cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save the beggar from dying of the cold. That night he dreamed that Jesus was wearing the half-cloak Martin had given away. Martin heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clothed me."

The cake I made above was inspired by this little image below from Heraldry of the World.

I used a simple recipe for a plain loaf cake:

PLAIN LOAF CAKE

2/3 c. butter

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. flavoring extract

2 eggs, beaten

1 2/3 c. plain flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 c. milk

Cream butter, sugar, and flavoring together until light; beat the eggs and add to mixture. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together; add alternately with the milk. Beat 1/2 minute or about 30 strokes. Bake in an oiled and floured loaf-cake pan 40 minutes at 350-375 degrees.

I added a few drops of red colouring to the cake as well.

Here it is, straight out of the oven.


Notice how I have cut the cake, each piece is thinner at one end, wider at the other.




I then proceeded to ice the cake with icing, made from icing sugar, a little butter and boiling water, I added a few drops of red colouring. I iced both pieces, top and sides.

Here is the cake iced. I've used licorice straps, ($2 a bag) cut thinner with scissors, I just copied the pattern in the image further above, very simple. I used wider straps for the cloaks cords on either side, once again, just being guided by the image.

A close up of the licorice straps.

The sword I made from cookie dough, using the recipe below. Eitherwise, to save time, just find a toy sword amongst the children's toys and use that instead, or even just a nice, big kitchen knife.

PLAIN COOKIE RECIPE

1/2 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

Pinch salt

65g butter (2.29oz)

1/4 cup sugar

1 small egg ~ milk (if too dry)

Method: 1.Mix butter and sugar till light and fluffy 2.Add egg, flour and salt, mix well. If mixture is too dry then add some milk. 3.Knead lightly and roll out on a floured board as thinly as possible. 4. Cut out into the shape of a sword, use a ruler for the sides. 5. Bake in a moderate oven 350°f (180°c) for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

I just used some of the left over icing for the sword and used a few lollies and some licorice for suitable decoration.

Editing to add Leslie's (The Vine and the Branches) beautiful Cloak of St Martin cake, a beautiful creation!

Wishing everyone a blessed Martinmas!

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Horseshoe Cookies for Martinmas

St. Martin of Tours is also represented with a horse (in addition to a goose). That being the case, horseshoe cookies, or cakes, are another great food to incorporate into your Martinmas celebration!

"In Poland, rich cookies shaped like horseshoes were baked for St. Martin's snow-white horse, on which he "comes riding through the snow" when one least expects him." The Cook's Blessings

There are lots of recipes for horseshoe cookies and cakes. If you have a Horseshoe Cookie Cutter or Horseshoe Cake Pan, you could use that with a recipe of your choice. Catholic Culture recommends St. Martin's Horseshoes, Horseshoe Cookies, Hobby Horse Cake, or Almond Horseshoe Cakes. The following recipe, from Martha Stewart, is the one I am hoping to make:

Vanilla Horseshoe Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 vanilla bean
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, very cold

Directions:

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar and the almonds. Process until finely ground. Add flour and salt, and pulse to combine.

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod. Add seeds to the flour mixture. (Reserve bean for the dusting sugar.) Add butter a few pieces at a time. Quickly pulse to combine. Do not over process. The mixture should resemble coarse meal.

Place the reserved vanilla bean on the prepared baking sheet, and let dry out in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes. Set aside.

Remove dough to a clean work surface. Blend dough by pushing it away from you with the heel of your hand. Gather it up with a bench scraper, and continue process until dough will peel easily from the work surface in one piece.

Divide dough into four equal pieces. Roll each piece into a cylinder 5/8 inch in diameter and about 22 inches long. Cut each log into pieces about 3 inches long. Curve each piece into a horseshoe, and place on the prepared baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.

While cookies are baking, cut reserved dried vanilla bean into small pieces. Place the remaining cup confectioners' sugar in the bowl of the food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process until well mixed, about 1 minute. Sift sugar into a small mixing bowl to remove any large pieces of the vanilla bean.

Remove cookies to a rack to cool. After cookies have cooled a little, about 5 minutes, gently toss warm cookies in vanilla sugar to coat. Remove to rack to cool completely. Once cooled, dust again with remaining vanilla sugar. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

*These can also be made for the feast of St. Stephen on December 26th. Pin It

Martinshornchecn (St. Martin's Day Croissants)

Another traditional recipe for the feast of St. Martin, is Martinshornchecn (St. Martin's Day Croissants). These sugared croissants were given out as a special treat to children for Martinmas.

The following recipe is found in Cooking With the Saints:

Martinshornchen

(St. Martin's Day Croissants)

3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. dry yeast
4 c. flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
3/4 c. butter
2 egg yolks
1/2 c. coarse sugar

Heat milk to lukewarm and dissolve the yeast. Sift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle and add the yeast mixture and sugar and salt. Work to a smooth dough and let rest for 1 hour in a warm place.

Add the eggs and half the butter and work it back into a smooth dough. Some flour may have to be added if the dough is too sticky. Melt remaining butter.

If you cannot get coarse sugar, crush sugar cubes with a rolling pin. On a floured surface roll out dough to a tickness of about 1/8 inch. Cut into 8-inch squares. Brush with butter and sprinkle with the coarse sugar.

Starting from one corner, roll up each square and turn in the ends to make croissant shapes. Brush with egg yolks and sprinkle with more sugar. Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Transfer croissants to a buttered baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes.

Makes 12 to 16 large croissants.

** For a simplified version, pick up a package of crescent roll dough from the store (as well as the coarse sugar if you need it) and follow the last two steps.

Serve with some Hot Apple Cider, Hot Cocoa or Coffee after a St. Martin's Day lantern procession. Pin It

Goose with Apple Stuffing for Martinmas

On November 11th we celebrate the feast of St. Martin of Tours, also known as Martinmas!

In A Continual Feast, author Evelyn Berge Vitz tells us that "his feast, called Martinmas, became a major one in Europe, largely no doubt because it took on the character of an in-gathering festival: a thanksgiving celebration. On this day it has been traditional to eat young goose and to taste the new wine of the season. In Germany, they make a cake in a special mold, showing St. Martin on horseback. In Holland, they roast chestnuts and apples and give them to the children; In Italy, they make a Pizza di San Martino (actually a coffeecake), wit trinkets hidden inside."

The goose is actually a symbol for St. Martin himself since it is said that a honking goose revealed his hiding place, after he hid to avoid being made bishop of Tours!

If you are able to get your hands on a goose to celebrate this feast, here is a great recipe for Goose with Apple Stuffing from The German Embassy. Since I have no idea where I could find a goose, I think I may try this recipe with a chicken or turkey instead:

Goose with Apple Stuffing
(Martinsgans mit Apfelfüllung)

1 ready-to-cook goose (8 to 10 pounds)

2 cups water

1 small onion, sliced

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

6 cups soft bread crumbs

3 tart apples, chopped

2 stalks celery (with leaves), chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 teaspoon ground thyme

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Trim excess fat from goose. Heat giblets, water, sliced onion and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until giblets are done, about 1 hour. Strain broth; cover and refrigerate. Chop giblets; toss with remaining ingredients except 1 teaspoon salt and the flour. Rub cavity of goose with 1 teaspoon salt. Fold wings across back with tips touching. Fill neck and body cavities of goose lightly with stuffing. Fasten neck skin of goose to back with skewers. Fasten opening with skewers; lace with string. Tie drumsticks to tail. Prick skin all over with fork. Place goose breast side up on rack in shallow roasting pan. Roast uncovered in 350° oven until done, 3 to 3 1/2 hours, removing excess fat from pan occasionally. Place a tent of aluminum foil loosely over goose during last hour to prevent excessive browning. Goose is done when drumstick meat feels very soft. Place goose on heated platter. Let stand 15 minutes for easier carving. Meanwhile, pour drippings from pan into bowl. Return 1/4 cup drippings to pan. Stir in flour. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat. If necessary, add enough water to reserved broth to measure 2 cups. Stir into flour mixture. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Serve goose with apple stuffing and gravy. Guten Appetit! Serves 6 to 8

And don't forget to pick up a bottle of new wine to go along with your goose! Happy Martinmas! Pin It