Great Aunt Helen's May Basket Jelly Roll

My Great Aunt Helen, who started the Norske Nook in Osseo, gave me a recipe many years ago for a May Basket Jelly Roll.   I was invited to a potluck affair this weekend, found the recipe and decided to whip it up since I had the ingredients and I did not want to go to the store.  Not only was it super simple, quick, cheap and delicious - but it was also very pretty.  This week I plan on making a few more so the kids can do a surprise "May Day" drop-off but I plan on trying poppyseed and lemon next.

Here's the recipe:

May Day Jelly Roll

4 eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
7 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
1 1/3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
Enough powdered sugar to lightly cover a small dish towel

1.  Preheat the oven to 375.  In a large bowl bet the eggs until thick, then gradually beat in the sugar.

2.  Beat in the water and the vanilla all at once.  Then add the flour, baking powder, and salt at once and beat just until smooth.

3.  Prepare the jelly roll pan by lining the sides and bottom with wax paper.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

4.  Cover the dish towel with powdered sugar and flow the jelly roll from the cookie sheet upside down onto the towel.  Peel off the wax paper, spread the cake with jelly (I used strawberry jam I made last year), and rolled it up.    Slice and serve.

May Basket Jelly Roll

May Basket Jelly Roll - Beautiful Once Sliced

And we are still skiing in Northern Wisconsin.  Greta got in another kilometer on the Birkie Trail yesterday.

Greta out for a ski 4/27 - through the mud puddles and all!

Oh, I am so happy with the recent shift in weather.  I'm finally blogging, reading, and putting together puzzles, outside in the screened in porch where I feel most at home.  And best of all I finally got out running and on my road bike.  Wooohooo!

Thanks for reading and Happy May Day (Wednesday)!

Kristin

Apple Favorites

My Great Aunt Helen is a famous cook, quite literally. She started the Norske Nook, has a few published cookbooks and has been on the Letterman show. For my wedding shower, she gave me a recipe for this delicious and easy Pecan Caramel Apple Pie.

Pecan Caramel Apple Pie

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup pecan halves

5 cups of apples

2 T flour

1 tsp cinnamon

2/3 cup sugar

Pie crust for double pie

Pat melted butter in bottom of pie tin. Sprinkle brown sugar over bottom and sides and then pecans. Roll pie crust and lay on top of this. Place apples, sugar, cinnamon and flour over apples. Place pie crust on top, flute edges and bake at 350 for 1 hour till done.

Remember to use a large pie tin and also put a baking sheet underneath the pie because it tends to bubble over.  When I serve the pie, I like to flip it over so the caramel goodness is on top.  Delicious!!!

Caramel Pecan Apple Pie

I finally mastered apple butter.  The first time I attempted to make it I totally failed because I added apple cider vinegar instead of apple cider - duh!  All that time and all those apples wasted.  Luckily, my friend Heather Harrington shared some apples from her orchard and I tried a different recipe then the original apple cider recipe.  Here's the one I used:

Peel and core 30 apples
1 - 2 cups of sugar (I used 1 cup sugar and 1 cup of honey)
1/2 cup apple cider
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Add apples to a crockpot.  Add sugar cinnamon and salt on top.  Cook on low in the crockpot for approximately 10 hours on low.  Continuously cook down until the apple mixture looks and tastes like apple butter.  Once it's done, either jar and add to your fridge or use the canning process (water bath canner - 10 minutes).

Apple Butter

Lucky me, I was able to spend some time at one of my favorite places on earth - the American Club.

 

 

American Club - the room

 

American Club

And I ate at my favorite Italian place EVER - Il Ritrovo's (if you visit Sheybogan it's a MUST).

Il Ritrovo's Pizza - to die for

I need to wrap this up because I'm on my way to a class reunion.

What's your favorite apple recipe? 

Thanks,

Kristin