Preparing traditionals, treats

Hattie Kemp

Welcome back, readers!

I hope everyone had happy holidays as I surely did. (Oops! I can hear my daughters now saying, "Don't call me Shirley," a line from the movie Airplane. It's one of our little inside jokes.)

One of my columns last semester recounted my family's Thanksgiving feast, which has become a much-anticipated annual affair. I even shared two of our must-have recipes.

Something I failed to mention is we prepare this same menu for Christmas Day as well.

We've been doing this for the past five or six years and no one has every complained since the menu is composed of all our favorite holiday dishes.  That is no one until my brother-in-law Richard.

He said he didn't mind keeping the menu for Thanksgiving, but was tired of eating the same old things one month later on Christmas.

His objections aroused the rest of us from our turkey comas and instigated a family discussion, resulting in a resolution to step outside the box and have a different menu each Christmas.

We decided our 2009 menu would be a Mexican-food feast, or, as I like to call it, "heartburn waiting to happen."

Our menu included beef fajitas with all the fixings; charro beans; Spanish rice; queso; guacamole and Richard's creation of an enchilada-type casserole. Authentic, homemade pork tamales, flour tortillas, salsa and tortilla chips were our only purchased items.

Desserts were plentiful, as they always are at these get-togethers. Most of them were American dishes, but I made three Mexican ones: Tres Leches Cake and two types of Mexican cookies, which were a big hit with my family.

I'm sharing all three recipes with you because they are quite yummy and I know you are going to love them as much as we did.

The cookies are so simple to prepare and made from ingredients you probably have on hand all the time.

You may scoff at the idea of making cookies from saltine crackers, but I guarantee they are fabulous!

The Tres Leches Cake is Spanish for "cake of three milks," and contains whole milk, sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream.

The recipe is from Delicious Disney Desserts, a cookbook my daughter Ashley and her husband Ron gave me as a souvenir from Disney World. Ron specifically chose it because he wanted me to make this cake for him.

I altered this recipe to make it more healthful by substituting fat-free Half-and-Half for the whole milk and the heavy cream and using fat-free sweetened condensed milk. The original version is topped with whipped cream, but I used fat-free Cool Whip instead.

My niece Amy said my version tasted just like the cakes she has eaten at Mexican restaurants, so you decide whether to make the original or my figure-friendly recipe.

Mexican Cookies

Yields 25-30 servings

Supplies needed:

Jellyroll pan (15" x 10") or any large rimmed baking pan (I used a roasting pan.)

Aluminum foil

Small to medium-sized nonstick saucepan

Wooden or heat-resistant spoon, such as silicone

Butter knife or offset spatula

1-cup dry measure

Ingredients:

Graham crackers

1 stick of butter

1 stick of margarine

½ cup sugar

½ - ¾ cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, or almonds)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line the bottom and sides of a large, rimmed baking pan with aluminum foil; cover with a single

layer of crackers.

Melt butter, margarine and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Boil for 2 minutes, making sure not to overcook.

Pour mixture over crackers and sprinkle with nuts; bake at 350 degrees for eight to 10 minutes. Don't let cookies get brown around the edges.

Remove from oven and set pan on top of stove to cool for about 10 minutes, then refrigerate for about 20 minutes.

Remove from refrigerator, break into small pieces and store in an airtight container.

Mexican Toffee Cookies

Yields 25-30 servings

This is basically the same recipe as the first, but with two exceptions.

Follow the same directions but substitute saltine crackers for the graham crackers.

Don't sprinkle with nuts after you pour the butter mixture on the crackers, just put the pan into the oven and bake.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips after you remove from oven; wait about 10 minutes and spread the melted chocolate with a butter knife or off-set spatula.

Now sprinkle with nuts and continue with the above directions.

Tres Leches Cake

Supplies needed:

13 x 9 x 2-inch cake pan

Whisk

Large, medium and small mixing bowls

1-cup liquid measure

1-cup dry measure

Measuring spoons

Fork

Can opener

Electric mixer

Cake ingredients:

1 ¼ cups cake or pastry flour (Don't use all-purpose flour.)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 large eggs

1 ¼ cups whole milk, divided

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon rum (I used ¼ teaspoon of rum flavoring.)

Whipped cream ingredients:

¾ cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon sugar

Cake directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small mixing bowl; set aside.

Combine oil, sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly; stir in ½ cup of milk and gently fold in the flour mixture until just combined, then whisk briefly to get the lumps out.

Pour batter into cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes; cake is done when it feels firm and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Don't let cake brown around the edges.

Let cake cool to room temperature, and then pierce with a fork 30 to 40 times.

Whisk together remaining ¾ cup of milk, sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup of cream and rum.

Slowly pour over cooked cake; refrigerate for at least one hour.

Top each serving of cake with whipped cream.

Cover cake and store in refrigerator.

Whipped cream directions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix on medium-high speed with electric mixer, beating until peaks form.

Do not spread on cake; top each serving as needed.

Store whipped cream in a covered dish in refrigerator.