Czech Foods Recipes

I thought I would take time out to give everyone a refresher on baking with yeast dough. I tried making my annual houska before Christmas and received a painful reminder of what failed dough can create; flat doughy heavy bread that is inedible! This was my first failure with a houska and I am not proud of it, but I learn from my mistakes. The cause was the inability of my dough to adequately rise prior to baking. I assume most blog readers have the knack of proofing their yeast before kneading and raising. I will provide a refresher to the rest of us. Causes of yeast failing to Rise: Inadequate temperature of Yeast – If using fast acting dry yeast, make sure it is at room temperature before adding to warm water.   Ideal temperature for proofing yeast runs around 110 degrees Fahrenheit with a buffer of ten degrees below or above this temperature. Make sure to take the temperature of that small glass of water before introducing to yeast granules. This is very important. Keep yeast i...

Okay the real name is shrimp dill dip. I have nothing but fond memories of this family favorite snack served many moons ago. During the holidays when I was a kid, mom would prepare a big bowl of shrimp dilly dip as dad would lounge in his lazy boy chair watching unlimited college bowl games through the Christmas break well into New Years. My brothers and I were still abuzz enjoying our gifts from under the tree only to take several time outs to pay a visit to the chip and dip bowl in the family room. We all enjoyed this dip immensely as it was served with either Ruffles or Ritz crackers. It was always such a downer seeing the dip bowl eventually empty out with only a few specs of dill and a few busted chip crumbs remaining. Mom would yell out, “Alright……what happened to all the dip?” We would all stay silent and exchanged looks upon each other. (Cue in the sound of crickets in the forest). The bitter end of dip season was as disappointing as one feels when they have completed that last...

  So one of my British BFFs has come to visit me in America over the holidays.  The boy loves him some mint chocolate.  Hence, Ajay's Delight.  A dark chocolate cupcake with peppermint frosting, garnished with a holiday sprinkling of candy cane dust.  Yummers. Edit: Just adding desserts to the Christmas tag when I noticed this should be updated.  Ajay is not my bff, he is now my husband!  And he still loves these cupcakes, for the record.   You will need:  1 recipe dark chocolate cake batter yielding 24 cupcakes, prepared and baked. Mint Buttercream Frosting 1 cup butter (two sticks) - room temperature 4 cups powdered sugar 1/4 cup skim milk 1/2 tsp peppermint extract (or to taste) 1. With an electric mixer, cream the butter. 2. Add milk and peppermint extract. 3. Add powdered sugar and beat, one cup at a time, until smooth.

Several key sweet treats come to mind with Christmas. Czech baking is about as good as it gets when it comes to Christmas dessert trays or cookie platters. Several Czech sweets seem to be close cousins of some Christmas cookies, pastries, and breads of those sampled from German, Austrian, Polish, and Hungarian cookbooks.   They are all pretty darn good and I shall list those common Czech sweets one might find at a Czech Christmas table……at least in my family. 1.        Houska – There seems to be an ongoing debate on baking and Czech message boards about the Christmas bread that consists of braided sweet dough with dried fruits and slivered almonds. Some consider this bread a Houska while others call it Vanocka.   I cannot say yea or nay to what the actual name is. There are some that refer to smaller unsweetened table bread or roll as being a Houska while stating that Vanocka is the sweetened variety. My Czech grandparents and Teta referred to th...