Snow White Trackers Withdrawal Club

[Mrs. Shimmer]

Honey Lebkuchen is a German cookie that my grandma used to make. In true German fashion, they even have a bit of vinegar.

[Bindidog]

Originally Posted by Mrs. Shimmer

Honey Lebkuchen is a German cookie that my grandma used to make. In true German fashion, they even have a bit of vinegar.

That sounds good. I'm Czech/Bohemian, and I was raised in the Czechoslovakian capitol of the US, (a tiny little town in northern Wisconsin) and we always had very good traditional pastries, like hoska and kolaces. So lebkuchen sounds like something they might have had there too!

[Mrs. Shimmer]

The cookies are different enough that they make a nice addition to the traditional holiday cookies. I'm taking some to Thanksgiving, and then sending some with a college student who is taking German this semester. He will be at our house Saturday for supper. One nice thing about these cookies is they taste better the longer they sit. The trouble is keeping them in the cookie jar!

[My Escape]

Originally Posted by Mrs. Shimmer

Honey Lebkuchen is a German cookie that my grandma used to make. In true German fashion, they even have a bit of vinegar.

And they're delicious! I have two very good friends in Germany and one year I received some Lebkuchen. They didn't last long.

Originally Posted by Bindidog

That sounds good. I'm Czech/Bohemian, and I was raised in the Czechoslovakian capitol of the US, (a tiny little town in northern Wisconsin) and we always had very good traditional pastries, like hoska and kolaces. So lebkuchen sounds like something they might have had there too!

I never knew that was how you spelled kolaces. I love those things. I can't think for the life of me what town in northern WI would be the Czech capitol of the US. You had one huge move across the country!

[Bindidog]

Originally Posted by My Escape

And they're delicious! I have two very good friends in Germany and one year I received some Lebkuchen. They didn't last long.



I never knew that was how you spelled kolaces. I love those things. I can't think for the life of me what town in northern WI would be the Czech capitol of the US. You had one huge move across the country!

NO WAY!!! You know what Kolaces are????? Whoa! I'm seriously impressed! How on earth do you know what they are???

Yes, our little town had a very high percentage of Czech/Bohemian/Slovak immigrants, including my family early last century. I had a huge move, and a huge culture shock. I was raised with sled dogs, and ended up in the suburbs of Seattle. I suppose that's why I don't live there anymore! (I live in the cold and snowy mountains, away from the hub of the emerald city!)

[unsoclbuttrfly]

Okay, this will be a long one. Sorry !

Hello to everyone. It's busy here today. Always a good thing .

50ish - I hope your husband has recovered well and is in good health now. That must have been a very difficult time for your family. Best wishes for good health to you and yours.

Originally Posted by My Escape

Buttrfly - that's excellent info, thank you! What source was that because I haven't seen anything that definitive on the internet. Someone actually committed to a temperature. The only thing is it's mentioning rib roasts. Do you think a boneless roast would be similar? I'm going to print off that post. I love this thread, the help and support on here is amazing. ..........

Okay, I found some more bits of information and will post them all here. It's from a number of different sources, but at least it'll give something to work from:
------------------------------------------
The rule of thumb for cooking with a convection oven is to decrease the temperature about 25 degrees from what a recipe calls for.
------------------------------------------
Be aware that Convection Roast and Convection Bake are 2 horses of a different color, so to speak.
Conv. Roast heats and cooks from the top or broiler - it is electric and Conv. Bake heats and cooks from the bottom. For that reason when you Conv. Roast the food is placed as low in the oven as you can get it. Conv. Bake - put a rack in the middle of the oven.
Meat is best with conv roast, and anything you don't want really browned well use conv. bake.
The fan goes on and cooks everything just the way you want it but at 25 deg. F cooler than the recipe states for reg. roast and it will cook faster so be sure to use a meat thermometer - VERY IMPORTANT - if roasting meat.
--------------------------------------------
If you have instructions for conventional ovens you should reduce the time by a quarter on average (15min off for every hour so cook 45min instead of 1 hour) and/or reduce the heat by 25F to 50F. (One commenter said: Depends what I'm roasting. A Prime Rib, I roast slowly at 250.)
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....roasted a 8.5 lb. rib roast with bones in our convection oven. We have 2 convection settings, "roast" (top element heats), "bake" (bottom element heats). I seasoned the roast with a dry rub of kosher salt, Montreal steak seasoning, freshly chopped garlic and chopped rosemary about 2 hours prior to roasting and let it sit on kitchen counter to bring to room temp. Used convection roast (top element heating) all the way through. Preheated oven to 500, roasted for 20 min, turned down meat to 275, continued roasting for approx 90 min afterward. I like the high heat roast, as yes the air circulates in a convection oven, but the blast of high heat will make a better crust than at 225.
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… For the record, here is how mine turned out. 13 lb dry aged rib roast - I took it out of the fridge about 2 hours before roasting time. Rubbed with canola oil, kosher salt and pepper. At roast time, I heated to 500F using convection roast. Cooked roast for about 15 minutes, then dropped the temperature to 225 convection roast and put in the meat thermometer. After a total of 3 hours (high and low heat cooking), the roast was done to a perfect rare-medium rare throughout (thermometer set to 120F). Rested under a foil cover for about 20 minutes in an opened oven (not a lot of counter space!), and carve. My carnivor friends flipped for it! Looks like it is about 12-14min/lb at 225. I look forward to the next roasting adventure!
--------------------------------------------

Convection Oven Recipe Conversion Guides
Cooking is not an exact science, due to many variables such as size and
quantity of food, temperature of food when first put in the oven, etc.
Convection cooking takes place due to the forced flow of hot air, thus saving
energy by cooking approximately 25-30% more quickly than conventional ovens.
Foods lose less moisture and retain nutrients.
The internal temperature in the convection oven is easily regulated since
the fan keeps the hot air constantly circulating so the food cooks uniformly.

The following are general guidelines for converting conventional recipes
for use in a convection oven. *

Option one: Bake at the same temperature that the
conventional recipe recommends, but for less time.
Option two: Bake for the amount of time that the conventional recipe calls for,
but reduce the temperature of the oven by about 25 degrees F.
Option three:(Best) Bake for a little less time than the conventional recipe
calls for, and also reduce the temperature of the oven.

[* OR, For the mathematically inclined:
Use either of 2 versions of the “25-30” Rule.
Either option is OK, and neither is better than the other
(exception: recipes with conventional baking times of less than 15 minutes,
see Tip 2 below.) For example, if a recipe calls for you to bake a cake
at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes in a conventional oven:,

• Option one:Bake at the same temperature that the conventional recipe recommends, but for about 25-30% less time. So the cake will bake at
  350 degrees for about 21-23 minutes.
  (100% - 30% = 70%; 30 minutes x .70 = 21 minutes;
  100% - 25% = 75%; 30 minutes x .75 = 22.5 minutes.)
• Option two: Bake for the amount of time that the conventional recipe calls for, but reduce the temperature of the oven by 25-30 degrees F.
  So in the cake example, bake at 320-325 degrees (350 – 30 = 320 degrees;
  350 – 25 = 325 degrees) for 30 minutes.]

Originally Posted by Bindidog

That sounds good. I'm Czech/Bohemian, and I was raised in the Czechoslovakian capitol of the US, (a tiny little town in northern Wisconsin) and we always had very good traditional pastries, like hoska and kolaces. So lebkuchen sounds like something they might have had there too!

I have a coworker who is Czech, and she has a part-time baking business on the side, specializing in European pastry/cookies. Every year she brings me a goodie platter (because I always give her a gift bag filled with old-school candies from a special local candy shop). OMGosh, the delicate cookies and pastries she produces are incredible, and soooo delicious. They are almost too beautiful to eat. Almost...but they are MM MM GOOD, so who can resist?

[Bindidog]

I have a coworker who is Czech, and she has a part-time baking business on the side, specializing in European pastry/cookies. Every year she brings me a goodie platter (because I always give her a gift bag filled with old-school candies from a special local candy shop). OMGosh, the delicate cookies and pastries she produces are incredible, and soooo delicious. They are almost too beautiful to eat. Almost...but they are MM MM GOOD, so who can resist?[/QUOTE]

We joke that we have a second stomach for sweets! I was raised that you have dessert after every meal, even if the meal, (like breakfast) is already sweet! I would love to have my own bakery someday....but I'm afraid I would eat all the profits!

Your information for the convection oven is great! I don't need it, but I'm sure those who do will be appreciative of the time you spent on it!

[My Escape]

Originally Posted by Bindidog

NO WAY!!! You know what Kolaces are????? Whoa! I'm seriously impressed! How on earth do you know what they are???

Yes, our little town had a very high percentage of Czech/Bohemian/Slovak immigrants, including my family early last century. I had a huge move, and a huge culture shock. I was raised with sled dogs, and ended up in the suburbs of Seattle. I suppose that's why I don't live there anymore! (I live in the cold and snowy mountains, away from the hub of the emerald city!)

Oops, maybe I don't know what they are then, because I thought they were popular. Isn't a kolace a pastry, often with a cream cheese dough, filled with fruit or poppyseeds? If so, it's because my husband's family is all Polish and I've eaten many. The spellings seem to be different by culture. I think they spell it kolache. Am I wrong?

Originally Posted by Bindidog

I have a coworker who is Czech, and she has a part-time baking business on the side, specializing in European pastry/cookies. Every year she brings me a goodie platter (because I always give her a gift bag filled with old-school candies from a special local candy shop). OMGosh, the delicate cookies and pastries she produces are incredible, and soooo delicious. They are almost too beautiful to eat. Almost...but they are MM MM GOOD, so who can resist?

We joke that we have a second stomach for sweets! I was raised that you have dessert after every meal, even if the meal, (like breakfast) is already sweet! I would love to have my own bakery someday....but I'm afraid I would eat all the profits!

Your information for the convection oven is great! I don't need it, but I'm sure those who do will be appreciative of the time you spent on it![/QUOTE]

I am, I'll get back to her info in a minute. But if my book doesn't get published, my next dream is to open a bakery! I think we'd both get tired of eating the profits rather quick, though. I hope, at least.

[Bindidog]

Originally Posted by My Escape

Oops, maybe I don't know what they are then, because I thought they were popular. Isn't a kolace a pastry, often with a cream cheese dough, filled with fruit or poppyseeds? If so, it's because my husband's family is all Polish and I've eaten many. The spellings seem to be different by culture. I think they spell it kolache. Am I wrong?

No, I think you are totally right! Perhaps it depends on what part of the country you are from. Out here in WA I've only met one person who knew what they were, and they were Czech too. Mmmmm....they are making me hungry now!!!

[My Escape]

Buttrfly - I'm still reading through, I'm browsing in spurts. One tidbit isn't making sense, though, because it totally contradicts the point of a convection. I'm confuddled...

Be aware that Convection Roast and Convection Bake are 2 horses of a different color, so to speak.
Conv. Roast heats and cooks from the top or broiler - it is electric and Conv. Bake heats and cooks from the bottom. For that reason when you Conv. Roast the food is placed as low in the oven as you can get it. Conv. Bake - put a rack in the middle of the oven.

A convection blows hot air around the oven, so all three racks can be used successfully for baking. That's the point of it and why it's popular for baking. In a standard oven, the heat comes from the bottom and just rises. The bottoms trays gets done, the top don't. With convection, the hot air circulates between all the racks. For roasting, though, I'm not sure where the element heats. I think I'll see if I have a roast setting when I'm down in the kitchen next. Going back to reading again. You found way more sources than I did, and you have no idea how much I'm piecing together! I'm so grateful at the moment!

Okay, the rest of this looks good and I'm seeing the consistent drop temp by 25 degrees, which is what you do for baking, too. And that works. I'm going to use a meat thermometer, definitely, just because I'm not sure how fast my oven is. Sheesh, Bindi and I are going to be glassy-eyed from checking the temperatures all afternoon!

Originally Posted by Bindidog

No, I think you are totally right! Perhaps it depends on what part of the country you are from. Out here in WA I've only met one person who knew what they were, and they were Czech too. Mmmmm....they are making me hungry now!!!

Where I used to live in Ohio, there was an amazing Jewish bakery with owners from somewhere in eastern Europe. Their kolachkys (how they spelled it...) were always the first thing gone when the store opened. Oh my gosh, I want some now! And they mail order...hmmm... Do you make them often?