Socially Distant Cuisine

Another great family recipe... currently rising in the oven! 2 cakes compressed yeast (you MUST find the "active" yeast bricks next to the butter in the grocery store. Active dry packets do NOT taste the same) 1 cup milk 1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 1/2 cup butter 1 tsp salt Crumble yeast cakes in a little bowl. Add 1 tsp sugar and a little of the milk (warmed, but not too hot). Cream butter, sugar and salt. Add well-beaten eggs and yeast mixture. Add half of the sifted flour and remaining milk, and beat well. Mix in the rest of the flour with your hands. Knead gently in bowl until smooth Place in a well-greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Remove dough from bowl to a floured board, and cut in two. Roll out each piece to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut like a pie into 16 pieces. Roll up each into a croissant shape, beginning at wide end of triangle. Roll tightly, and pull each roll out longer by gently tugging on the ends. Let rise about 1/2

After looking all over the web, I haven't found this particular recipe, so I decided to share it after a nice evening of baking. It is my grandmother's recipe, and one of my dad's favorite Christmas cookies. They are very best after they've aged a few weeks (up to a month) in an airtight container... the icing gets really nice and hard, and the cookies are awesome dunked in tea or coffee. They're so good, though, it's hard to make them last that long! Pfeffernuesse-- Makes about 4 1/2 dozen 1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temp 2 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar 4 eggs Zest of one lemon 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 1/2 cup finely chopped candied lemon peel 1/2 cup finely chopped candied citron 1/4 cup finely chopped candied orange peel 1/2 tsp almond extract 4 cups sifted flour 1 Tbsp cardamom 1 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp allspice 1 tsp black pepper 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ground aniseed 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda Lemon Icing 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar 4 to 4 1/2 ts