The Homecook: Rosettes

If you trace my family genealogy it reads a bit like a tour across Europe. A liberal helping of German, a shake of Irish, a dab of a stiff-upper-lip Brit, a wee bit o' Scot all mixed with a bright swath of Bohemian/Czech. What's surprising is that up until five years ago there wasn't even a smidgen of Scandinavian...not a touch.

Christmas for us has always been celebrated on Christmas Eve, though if this is a throw back to my mother's Czech heritage, I have no idea. Hoska IS a throw back to that heritage and is made by my grandmother every year...though I have to admit, I don't care for it. All in all, that's about the extent of any culture based "tradition" in my family; for the most part we've been fully assimilated in to American Culture.



Then ELEVEN-ish (I know! My goodness it's been a long time!) years ago I met Tim. He claimed to be some unknown blend of German and Scandinavian and that was about all I thought about that until I celebrated Christmas with him for the first time. There was lefse...there were rosettes...pickle gifts (though I'm not sure that one actually has cultural roots)...there was a lot happening that I'd never even heard of before.

Since then I've become rather fond of the lefse...when Tim will share...and have a deep appreciation for the rosettes. Sadly the both the lefse and the rosettes have become a hit or miss treat because we do not always celebrate Christmas with Tim's grandparents (Why do grandma's always make the good stuff?), so two years ago Tim gave me my very own rosette set. I then did little more than put them in a drawer and forget about them...until this year. This year, I decided to see if this rather complicated looking process was something I could do. Turns out I can. There isn't much to a rosette recipe, it's more in the technique than anything else. That technique though, takes a little practice. I probably go about all this a little backwards, but after a trial and error batch, I finally developed a system that could go from chilled batter to crispy fried cookie with minimal heartache. All in all it's been a rather successful attempt at cultural diversification.

Rosettes
Based on the recipe from Epicurious.com

2 large Eggs
2 tablespoons Granulated Sugar
1 cup Whole Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 qt Vegetable or Canola Oil
1/4 cup Confectioners Sugar
Rosette Irons

Sift together flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry and beat until smooth. Refrigerate batter for at least 2 hours or overnight.

When ready to cook, heat oil in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan with rosette iron in it until thermometer registers 360 to 375°F. Carefully lift out iron, letting oil drip off into pan. Tap any excess oil onto a paper towel. Dip all but top edge of iron into batter 3 seconds, then submerge iron in oil and fry until batter releases and holds shape, approximately 15-20 seconds. Remove iron and place aside or back into the oil to reheat. Flip rosette over and allow to cook approximately 5-10 more seconds. Lift rosettes out with a fork or strainer, gently shake off oil and place on paper towel covered rack. Cooled rosettes should be very lightly browned and crisp. Let rosette drain, hollow side down, on paper towels, allow iron to reheat in oil for 10 seconds before dipping it into batter each time.

Dust rosettes with confectioners sugar before serving.