Roasted Turkey

This had to go in before it's too late.  I've been asked the recipe for so many times and because I have only written it on a piece of newspaper clipping, I really need to write it down. I have to...although I didn't like the picture but... oh well.  This recipe is a mixture of a recipe I got from my dear friend F and a recipe I saw in a cooking magazine that I don't know anymore which magazine it was.  I have made this for every Christmas last three years and it's the best roasted turkey recipe I tried.  Most of all, the turkey tastes really good, very tender and juicy.   It can be served with some rice or roasted potatoes and you can use the vegetables as a side dish.

Roasted Turkey

(Serves 6-8)

1 big turkey (about 4 kg)

3-4 leeks - chopped 

4 medium sized carrots - peeled and chopped

1 apple - peeled and chopped

300 ml apple cider or white wine

1 cube of vegetable or chicken stock

salt& pepper

olive oil

Filling:

2-3 slices of day old bread -  crumbled

300 g minced beef

1 apple - peeled and chopped into little pieces

2-3 leaves of sage - roughly chopped

1 medium onion - chopped

1/2 teaspoon of grounded cumin

salt & pepper

A roasting tin 

Aluminum foil

Start, with rubbing the turkey inside and outside with some salt, pepper and olive oil.  You can use some other spices too if you prefer.  Set it aside and and start to prepare your filling. 

Mix the ingredients for the filling altogether and stuff the turkey with this delicious mixture. The juices will mix with the turkey and you can take out the filling later on and serve as a side dish as well.

Next, take out the roasting tin and place the chopped leeks, carrots and apples.  Take a measuring cup and pour the wine or cider that you will use.  Put the vegetable or chicken stock in the wine and try to dissolve it as much as you can.  Then pour it over the vegetables in the roasting tin.  

Put your turkey on top of the vegetables.  You can use a roasting grill if your roasting tin has one but I prefer to put it directly on the vegetables. 

When it's ready, cover it with an aluminum foil and put it in a preheated oven 190° C (375° F) - without fan 170° C (325° F) - with fan on.  Give about 40 minutes of cooking time for each kg of turkey.  Then take out the foil and give another 30-40 minutes to roast without the foil so it gets all nice and brown. 

If you are not sure and want to check if the turkey is cooked, just stab it with a knife then you should see a clear juice coming out. 

Spitzbuben

I have never been much of a baker.  Especially when it comes to cakes.  Fortunately, my friend V has gave me a cake book few years ago as a gift, which improved my baking skills very much.  I still fail to bake a nice looking cake sometimes, although according to my husband they all taste good.  I have been baking some Christmas cookies around this time last few years.  There is no risk of messing them up too bad so I love baking them.  While looking for the recipes of my favorite cookies, and believe me there are quite a few, I decided to write this one.  It absolutely tastes the best with the butter and the jam.  It's really a shame to bake them only at this time of the year but given the amount of butter in them, maybe that's a good cycle. 

Spitzbuben -  Swiss Christmas cookies

(Makes about 40-50 pieces with 4-5 cm diameter cookie cutters)

250 g Butter (about 1 1/4 cups) - softened

125 g powder sugar (about 1/2 cup)

pinch of salt

1/2 tablespoon of vanille sugar

1 egg white (lightly beaten)

350 g white flour (a little less than 3 cups)

For filling:

3-4 tablespoons of quince jelly or any other jam, jelly or marmalade you prefer.

To sprinkle:

2 tablespoons of powdered sugar

Here are the steps:

1.  Start with mixing the softened butter and sugar in a bowl. 

2.  Stir vanille sugar, a pinch of salt and the egg white into the mix.

3. Mix in the flour to the dough. 

4. When the dough is formed, wrap it up with a folio and put it into the fridge to chill for 1 hour. 

5. Take the dough out of the fridge 30 minutes before you start rolling it out.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).

7. Roll out the dough to 2mm (a bit less than 0.1 inch) and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. 

8. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.  Make sure you have 2 of each shape. 

9. By using a miniature cookie cutter make a shape in the middle of the cookies you'll put on top. 

10. Place the cookies on a baking sheets and bake in the middle rack for about 6-8 minutes.  

11. After they are done, leave them on the baking sheets for about 1-2 minutes to cool down and then transfer them on a wire rack to cool completely.  I normally leave them to cool over the night. 

12. To assemble the cookies, put some some jelly on the bottom half with the help of a teaspoon, then place the top part over.  Try not to put too much jelly, otherwise it will look a little messy.  You can also melt the jelly in a pan before you do this.  I normally just do it without but a lot of recipes call for melting the jelly before making the little sandwich.

13. Sprinkle some powder sugar over the cookies.  

These cookies can be stored in an airtight cookie tin or a jar and they are best when eaten fresh.