Shrove Tuesday

George Hirsch February 12, 2024

aka…Pancake Tuesday. Since approximately the 12th century, this celebration marks the days preceding lent by using valuable ingredients like eggs, milk, and sugar; hence cooking up pancakes or the thin pancake, the crepe.

Pancakes are one of the earliest forms of bread and are served geographically in many ways. You can be all traditional with baking powder or try prospecting with sourdough pancakes like the early pioneers. Flip them with oatmeal or buckwheat when in Vermont, or for a Dutch-style treat, serve with lemon, powdered sugar, and jam. Substitute the flour for cornmeal, and you’ll enjoy it as a Native American specialty.

Go Pollack by designing your pancake creations with sliced apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, chocolate chips, and chopped nuts.

Berry Crepes

Makes four servings

chefgeorgehirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

2 cups mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)

¼ cup raspberry jam

1 cup all-purpose flour

Pinch salt

1 cup milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

2-3 drops of vanilla extract

2 egg whites

1 Tablespoon granulated cane sugar

Confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup freshly whipped cream

8 Fresh mint leaves

Place the flour and salt in a medium bowl and slowly add the milk and egg yolks, using a whisk to avoid lumps. Stir in the cream, melted butter, and vanilla.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Before making the crepes, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the flour mixture.

Preheat a 6-inch nonstick skillet & spray with vegetable spray. When the pan is very hot, pour in 2 Tablespoons of the batter and swirl it around. Cook for 1 minute, turn and cook another minute on the other side. Remove and set aside.

Continue making crepes with the remaining batter.

Spread two teaspoons of raspberry jam in the middle of each crepe, and add a few mixed berries.

Roll up and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

Serve two crepes per serving with a dollop of fresh whipped cream, and top off the crepes with fresh mint leaves.

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Toad in a Hole

George Hirsch February 3, 2024

Here's a fun all-in-one-pan kind of breakfast combo - the egg in the hole, aka egg in a basket, or cowboy breakfast, amongst other names. I enjoyed this growing up during family camping trips, but we called it "toad in a hole," which is quite different than the English dish with the same name of sausage links in Yorkshire pudding.

All you need here is one slice of good bread + one good *pastured egg. Make a hole in the center of the bread. Add a small amount of butter, olive oil, or a little fat from cooked bacon or breakfast sausage in a pre-heated egg pan. Crack an egg in the center of the hole, cook for one minute, and flip (or turn with a spatula). Cook both sides. Top with fresh herbs such as chives, thyme & parsley. Serve immediately; toad optional!

*Benefit of pastured eggs vs. factory eggs:

1⁄3 less cholesterol + 1⁄4 less saturated fat + 2⁄3 more vitamin A + 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids + 3 times more vitamin E + 7 times more beta carotene + 4 to 6 times more vitamin D

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Granula

George Hirsch January 30, 2024

Granola is a popular healthy breakfast cereal + snack with a nuttier history than the pile of pecans and almonds in its recipe.

Here's a bit of granola history: Briefly, granola's roots trace back to the mid-1800s beginning with an American physician and minister named Dr. Sylvester Graham (preaching temperance & nutrition), who created the Graham Cracker. Then, in 1863, Dr. Jackson took Dr. Graham’s cracker one step further by grinding up this whole wheat biscuit into smaller pieces and then baking it, which became known as “Granula.” Sound familiar?

That was when Dr. Kellogg’s whole-wheat breakfast food was renamed “Granola” because of a pending lawsuit initiated by Dr. Graham regarding his trademark rights to the Granula name. BTW, Dr. Kellogg’s Granola cereal never really caught on commercially. But, in 1898, granola inspired Charles Post’s Grape Nuts Cereal.

Not all healthier cereal was Kellogg's inspired, though. A similar cereal by the Swiss Dr. Bircher-Benner created the popular Swiss cereal Muesli in the 1900s after hiking in the Swiss Alps. Birchermüsli Complet is still a popular food served, especially on hot summer evenings. It's a combo of whole grains, fruits, and nuts, topped with good Swiss cream and yogurt.

Like Dr. Bircher-Benner’s Muesli, granola is delicious beyond the breakfast table. It is a great midday snack and is good topped on ice cream. Granola makes a taste baking topper on fresh summer fruits like peaches. Just bake as you would a cobbler. Prepare a fresh berry parfait or Creamy Rice Pudding from George Hirsch Lifestyle TV Series as an elegant dessert!

Today, granola recipes are as varied as our imagination and are so easy to make your own. Start with rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats).

Spices may include cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, orange zest, and crystallized ginger.

Nuts or seeds; may include almonds, cashews, pecans, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and pecans.

Other additions may include coconut, cranberries, raisins, dates, peanut butter, pure maple syrup, honey, or brown sugar. I almost hate to say it - even chocolate chips. Just use very good quality chocolate.

George's Granola

About 12 servings

chefgeorgehirsch.com | from George Hirsch Living it UP! cookbook

2 cups of rice cereal

2 cups bran cereal

2 cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking or instant)

1 cup raisins or any combination of dried fruit

1/2 cup pecans chopped

1/2 cup honey

Optional for flavor: 2 Tablespoons butter, melted

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Vegetable spray

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Spray vegetable spray on a nonstick roasting pan or use parchment paper.

Combine the rice cereal, bran, rolled oats, pecans, cinnamon, melted butter, and honey.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from the oven. Granola should brown evenly; the browner it becomes, the crunchier and nuttier the granola will taste. Use caution not to burn. Mix in the raisins. Cool completely and store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

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Muffin Mondays

George Hirsch January 7, 2024

I look forward to my Muffin Mondays to kick off a chilly winter week. It's a perfect way to take the chill out of the air. It'll inspire you to keep on baking with fresh muffin inspiration. So let's get started—here's my seasonal spin on the average apple muffin - add pumpkin and crumb. My muffins are great to take on the go, too. Enjoy!

Apple Pumpkin Crumb Muffins

recipe by Chef George Hirsch | Makes 18 muffins or one 9 x 13 coffee cake

For the crumb topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup oats, not quick cooking

1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/2 cup melted butter

Mix all sugars, flour, oats, and nuts. Pour in butter and mix until the topping looks like wet sand. Do not over-mix; the topping should have a lumpy consistency. Reserve crumb topping and prepare the muffin batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Lightly grease 18 muffin cups or use paper liners.

For the muffins:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; or 50/50 whole wheat flour

2 cups pure cane granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ginger

Pinch allspice & fresh grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup applesauce, or vegetable oil

2 cups Green or baking apples, peeled, core, and chopped into small pieces

In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, pumpkin, and oil. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until flour is absorbed. Add chopped apples.

Add batter into prepared muffin cups 3/4 filled. Top each muffin with crumb mixture and bake.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

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Angel Wings

George Hirsch April 6, 2023

Galani is also known as fried ribbons, bow ties, or angel wings in the U.S. The ribbons of sweet pasta dough are fried and covered with sugar or honey. It takes on different names throughout central Europe including; chrusciki, krusczyk, frappe, frappole, sfrappole, flappe, cenci, crustci, donzelli, crostoli, galani in Veneto, lattughe, nastri delle suore, bugie, and gigi. No matter what you call them - they are addictive.

Angel Wings

chefgeorgehirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons butter, room temperature

6 egg yolks

pinch of salt

grated zest of 1 lemon

6 Tablespoons sour cream or plain yogurt

2 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon Sambuca, whiskey, or rum

frying oil

approximately 3/4 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar to pastries

By Mixer:

Place the flour in a mixing bowl with a dough hook, add all ingredients except the confectioners sugar, blend well at low speed, then mix for fifteen minutes.

By Hand:

If kneading by hand, make a well in the center. Add the egg yolks and rub in with the fingers until combined. Add all the other ingredients except the confectioner sugar. Blend well and keep kneading by repeating a pattern of folding the dough, flattening it, folding again, and flattening it for at least half an hour.

Divide the dough into four pieces and cover it in plastic wrap. Allow to rest in the refrigerator for one hour or overnight.

When ready to fry, roll out dough with a rolling stick 1/16th inch thick. Slice into one-and-a-half-inch wide strips. Cut the strips diagonally, preferably with a fluted pastry wheel, into 5-inch lengths. In each strip, cut a one-inch slit the long way in the middle. Pull one end of the strip through the slit so that it looks like a bowtie shape.

Preheat frying oil to 375F. Test a small piece first; it should become golden in about 45 seconds, then turn over. Fry the strips in small batches until they turn light golden, turning once. Drain on wire screens and allow to cool. When cool, move to a serving platter and dust with confectioners sugar.

Tip: The long mixing will create air pockets in the dough; you will want the air pockets to make the pastry puff when frying.