Podkovy :: St. Stephen's Horseshoes

St. Stephen from Saints: Lives and Illuminations and Stephen's Feast

On December 26th we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christmas Martyr!  In honor of St. Stephen's patronage over horses, special breads filled with chopped nuts and sugar and shaped in the form of horseshoes are traditionally baked on this day in Poland and other Slavic countries.  The following recipe for Podkovy (St. Stephen's Horseshoes) is adapted from Cooking with the Saints.

Podkovy (St. Stephen's Horseshoes)

Dough Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• 1/2 cup milk, lukewarm
• 3 eggs, small
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons lemon rind, grated
• 1 cup butter
• 5 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening

Filling Ingredients

• 1 /2 cups walnuts, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• grated rind of 1 orange
• grated rind of 1 lemon

Directions

Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm milk and let stand for 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until light and fluffy.  Stir in the sour cream, yeast mixture, lemon juice and rind.

In another mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.  Cut the cold butter into small pieces.  Using either a pastry blender, two knives, or your hands, work the butter and shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.

Add the flour mixture to the moist ingredients and beat well.  You may need to add more flour, just enough to make a fairly soft and non-sticky dough, depending on the size of the eggs.

Knead dough briefly. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

While the dough is chilling prepare the filling.  Chop the nuts finely.  (We used walnuts, but hazelnuts or almonds would work great too!) Combine the brown sugar, egg, vanilla and rinds, then stir in the nuts.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness and cut into 4x6 inch rectangles.

Brush the rectangles with some melted butte (I actually skipped this step) and spread a thin layer of filling in the middle.  Starting on the long side, roll each rectangle and form into the shape of a horseshoe.  (Note: As you can see in my pictures above, the filling did ooze out of some of the horseshoes in my first batch.  On the following batches, I made sure the dough was pinched together to prevent this from happening again.)

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Bake at 375˚F for about 15 minutes or until the horseshoes are nicely browned.

Dust with powdered sugar or glaze with a mixture of lemon juice and powdered sugar if desired.

St. Stephen, Pray for us! 

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Footprint Cookies on St. Stephen's Day

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."

Having some cookie dough already made up in the fridge and knowing that tonight our Christmas book was Stephen's Feast, I decided to make some footprint cookies in honor of St. Wencenslaus and the miracle of his footprints on this special day. I used this template to cut out the shape of the cookies. My first thought was to fill them in with icing and topping them with red and yellow sprinkle sugar.

"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."

But then they looked less like footprints and more like sprinkled blobs. That was when I decided on the outline of the shoe print. The sprinkles represented the warmth felt in holy King's steps. I used a simple cookie icing recipe that called for light corn syrup. I was out of light corn syrup so I substituted with honey.

In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.

Cookie Icing

1 cup confectioner's sugar
3 tsp. milk
2 tsp. honey
1/4 tsp. almond extract

Stir together sugar and milk. Add honey and extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick add more honey or milk.

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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