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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Pot Pie Soup for St. Francis

This post was written by Catholic Cuisine contributor, Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda. 

 Last year, I made Chicken Pot Pie Soup which is basically a cream of chicken soup with baked pie crust crumbled on top. I thought that using my mini animal cookie cutters I could make the pie crust represent the animals that St. Francis is patron of.

I made a basic pie crust recipe but you could just roll out a pre-made one. Cut out the shapes and bake them up on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle them over soup when ready to serve. The recipe for the soup is below but you can use your favorite recipe if you have one.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

2 tablespoons of butter

1 medium onion, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

1 large carrot, diced

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons of flour

4-6 cups of chicken stock  (depending on how thick or thin you like your soup)

4 cups of frozen shredded hash browns

4 cups of cooked, diced chicken

½ cup of heavy cream

1 cup of frozen peas

In a large soup pot, melt butter and cook onions, celery and carrots over medium heat until softened. Add garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Stir in the flour and cook for just another 30 seconds stirring constantly. Add chicken stock and increase heat. Once soup begins to simmer, add hash browns and simmer about 15 minutes until soup begins to thicken. Add chicken and simmer until heated through. Add cream and peas. Simmer 5 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Dear God, You enabled St. Francis to imitate Christ by his poverty and humility. Walking in St. Francis' footsteps, may we follow Your Son and be bound to You by a joyful love. Amen.

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Angel Kisses for the Feast of the Guardian Angels

This post was written by Catholic Cuisine contributor, Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda. 

I whipped up these little peppermint meringue cookies earlier today trying to beat the rain that is heading our way today. If you've ever made meringue cookies, you know that rain or humidity can kill all of your efforts turning what should be a delightfully crispy little melt-in-your-mouth treat into a chewy piece of cardboard. I wanted to add a little peppermint flavor to my cookies which some people do with crushed up candy canes but I still wanted them to be white for the feast day today so I used a little peppermint extract. Keep these in mind for Christmas too!

Angel Kisses

2 egg whites (room temperature… very important to let your egg whites come to room temperature)

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 C. sugar

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract (depends on how pepperminty you want them.

Preheat oven to 225 degrees and line pans with parchment paper. Place egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in a metal bowl and whip with electric mixer. You can't use a hand whisk. It doesn't put enough air into the egg whites.

When you have beaten the whites to form stiff peaks (tips of whites stand straight up in the air when you pull the beaters out) and the egg whites look glossy, gradually add your sugar. Add it slowly and beat well after each addition. Finally, using a clean spatula free of any kind of oil, quickly fold in the peppermint extract using a light hand. Scoop batter into a gallon size zip top bag with one corner cut off or use a piping bag with a decorative tip. Pipe out little dollops. Place pans in oven for 1.5 hours. Don't let the cookies brown. They should be completely dry when done. Turn off oven and leave door ajar while the cookies cool completely.

Enjoy!

I humbly salute you, O you faithful, heavenly Friends of my children! 

I give you heartfelt thanks for all the love and goodness you show them. 

At some future day I shall, with thanks more worthy than I can now give, 

repay your care for them, and before the whole heavenly court 

acknowledge their indebtedness to your guidance and protection. 

Continue to watch over them. Provide for all their needs of body and soul. 

Pray, likewise, for me, for my husband, and my whole family, 

that we may all one day rejoice in your blessed company. Amen

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Pumpkin Angel Food Cupcakes for Autumn Guardian Angels Feast

I am not intentionally getting Catholic Cuisine on the pumpkin bandwagon, but Fall brings many pumpkin flavored foods, which I love. Some people think that it goes a little overboard this time of year, but fall being harvest time and the time of pumpkins is part of God's natural cycle.  So to celebrate the fall season and the Feast of the Guardian Angels, a great combo cupcake.

Pumpkin Angel Food Cupcakes

1 box angel food cake mix
1 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup cold water

Heat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tin with 20 cupcake liners. In a mixing bowl beat cupcake ingredients on low for 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 1 minute and pour into the cupcake liners just under rim. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool. Frost with buttercream frosting or other frosting of choice.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here,
Ever this day, be at my side,
To light and guard,
Rule and guide.
~Amen.

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The Angel's Share

Last year while visiting a local winery for a field trip, I learned about "the angel's share." The winery we visited still stores the fermenting wine in oak barrels even though many wineries have gone to plastic barrels. The guide explained that the expression "the angel's share" refers to the quantity of the wine (or whiskey) which is lost to evaporation during the aging process for alcohol in oak barrels.  The angel's share phenomenon can reduce the amount of alcohol enough to allow the wine's more subtle flavors and textures to emerge - or in the case of whiskey to reduce the proof to mellow it and make it more palatable. It is estimated that the amount of alcohol lost annually is around two percent per barrel.

The evaporating alcohol is called "the angel's share," alluding to an old belief that guardian angels watch over the product as it ages and take their share. Ironically the day of the field trip was October 2 - the Feast of the Guardian Angels and we all thought is was fun to think of angels enjoying a "share" on their feast day.  So this year on the Feast of the Guardian Angels I am recalling this fun bit of vintners lore and toasting the angels tonight with a glass of wine. 

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St. Therese Cupcakes

The end of September marks the beginning of a full week of very popular saint feast days. While it's not very healthy to enjoy dessert every night, there are a few weeks where I make an exception and this is one. For St. Therese of the Child Jesus I always make white cupcakes with roses on top. At least with cupcakes, you can easily share with the neighbors, right?

“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens, I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.” -- Thérèse de Lisieux

~~~~~

Just a note -- there are many more ways to top a cupcake with roses than by creating them with decorator frosting. If decorating just isn't your thing, try the baking aisle at the grocery store to see if they have candy roses for cake decorating. There is a candy store near my home that carries rose-shaped butter mints -- I think those will top my cupcakes this year. Wilton makes a rose mold for molding melted chocolate, and that's a great option. You can also make roses from fruit roll-ups, so there are lots of options and you are not to be put off by the roses!

White Cupcakes

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a 12-cup muffin pan and a 6-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
Finally stir in the milk and beat until batter is smooth.
Pour or spoon batter into the liners (I like to use an ice cream scoop filled about 2/3).
Bake 15-20 minutes or until they test done with a toothpick.
Cool and frost with desired frosting.

For the St. Therese cupcakes I used a traditional decorator frosting to frost the cupcakes and then make the roses (clear vanilla is not necessary, just use ordinary vanilla extract -- most of the other ingredients you probably have on-hand).

Makes 18 cupcakes.

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Our Lady of La Salette - Mini Blueberry Galettes

Mid-September brings one of the Marian feasts of an apparition in France. The Blessed Virgin appeared to two young shepherds, Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat, on the mountain of La Salette, France on September 19, 1846.  After thorough investigation the Church approved the message and secret of La Salette as written by Melanie. The account was published in Lecce in 1879. Mary's message in La Salette was similar to that of Fatima, "If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much I can no longer keep hold of it." Our lady cried and expressed her sadness at those who do not keep Sunday holy and who take the name of the Lord in vain.

I saw the idea for mini blueberry galettes on The Pioneer Woman’s blog. They seemed a perfect dessert for French Marian apparition feast days – galettes because they have a French connection and blueberries because the color is associated with Our Lady.

Galette is a French culinary term referring to a variety of flat, round cakes, made with a flaky pastry dough. It is a broad term and can include a wide variety of different desserts, but most often galette refers to a free form tart that is made with a flaky pasty crust. The tarts are not molded in tart pans. Instead, filling is placed directly on top of a circle of rolled pastry and the edges are folded up and around the filling and baked until crisp. 

Galette Pastry Dough

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup ice water

In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in half of the butter with pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Cut in the remaining butter until the largest pieces are the size of peas. Drizzle the water over the dough and mix until moistened. Knead together 2 or 3 times. Flatten dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Mini Blueberry Galettes

1 cup blueberries
1/8 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch Of salt
1 egg
1 Tbsp Water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Stir together blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, 1 tsp lemon zest, juice quarter of the lemon, vanilla, and salt in a bowl.

Roll out dough. Using a 5-inch round pastry cutter cut rounds of pastry. Rerolling and cutting until dough is used. Makes 6 mini galettes. Place rounds on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Evenly distribute the blueberry mixture between the six discs.

Gently fold over the edges of each crust, folding the dough in on itself to create a small rim of crust.

Make an egg wash by beating together the egg and water. Brush edges of each pie with the egg wash. Sprinkle the crust with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes until golden and filling is bubbly. Remove from the oven and allow pies to sit on the pan for 5 minutes. Remove and cool.  Serve warm or at room temp.

~There are several apparitions of Our Lady in France, so these mini treats could be used several times around the year. 

Our Lady of Pontmain (OL of Hope) - January 17

Our Lady of Lourdes - February 11

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (Rue du Bac) - November 27

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