A Month of Christmas Baking: Coconut Lemon Crumble Bars #FoodwaysFriday

Coconut Lemon Crumble Bars. Photo courtesy Rock Recipes.

This is the final post for the month of Christmas baking series. My freezer is filled with cookies and Christmas is only two days away!

These squares are a twist on the classic date square which we all know and love. Lemon is something I had never really associated with Christmastime, but other people have told me a cookie like this is a staple in their homes for the holidays. So here is the recipe (from Rock Recipes):

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups dried coconut medium cut
• pinch salt
• 1 cup butter cut in small pieces

FOR THE LEMON FILLING

• 1/3 cup cake flour
• 1/3 cup corn starch
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 5 egg yolks slightly beaten
• Zest of 2 large or 3 small lemons, very finely chopped
• Juice of 2 large or 3 small lemons
• 2 cups water
• 3 tbsp butter
• pinch salt

Instructions

1. TO MAKE THE LEMON FILLING combine the corn starch, salt, cake flour, sugar and water in a medium saucepan.
2. Cook over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
3. Pour about 1/2 cup of the thickened mixture over the beaten egg yolks and whisk together quickly. This tempers the egg yolks so that they do not scramble.
4. Pour this mixture back into the pot and whisk it in quickly. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly for a few minutes until the mixture is thick and evenly smooth.
5. Whisk in the lemon juice and zest and remove from the heat.
6. Finally whisk in the butter and set aside to cool while you prepare the crumble mixture.
7. FOR THE CRUMBLE mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, coconut and salt.
8. Using your hands or a pastry blender cut in the butter until the it is completely incorporated into the dry ingredients.
9. Press half of the crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch well greased baking pan. Pour the lemon filling evenly over the bottom crumbs. Gently sprinkle the remaining crumbs over the lemon filling and press down gently.
10. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 40 - 45 minutes or until light golden brown in color. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into squares and serving.

Recipe Notes

If you plan to freeze these cookie bars, for all crumble type cookies, I always thaw them on a wire cake rack and never in a closed container. There's a lot of humidity in some freezers that gets trapped inside and can start to make baked goods soggy as they thaw. My method always avoids that problem for me.

Enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas!

-Katie Harvey

Hauling Wood in Newfoundland #FolklorePhoto

Hauling Wood, ca. 1907-1928. Photographer unknown. Photo courtesy of the Maritime History Archive.

Harvesting wood for the winter was imperative to the survival of Newfoundlanders in the past. Everyone had a woodstove, and that was how you kept warm in the winter months. In the early twentieth-century logs were hauled from the woods by horse drawn sled (as seen in this photo).

Do you have memories of cutting or hauling wood?

-Katie Harvey

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Stories of Port Blandford's Old Shops and Former Schools

Reg Penney in the Anglican Church in Port Blandford. 2017. Photo by Terra Barrett.

On August 10, 2017, as part of the Collective Memories project, I interviewed Reg Penney about growing up in Hant’s Harbour, moving to Port Blandford, his teaching career, the stores and shops of Port Blandford, and his time as mayor. This interview was also part of our Oral History Roadshow and sections of the interview were used in the booklet “Everything Was Wrapped in Brown Paper: The Old Shops of Port Blandford”. 

If you would like to listen to the full interview on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative click here or you can check out the pdf of our booklet on Port Blandford’s old shops here.


~Terra Barrett

A Month of Christmas Baking: Dark Fruitcake #FoodwaysFriday

Photo courtesy Newfoundland.ws

Fruitcake was a staple at Christmas time for my family. There was always a couple pieces in the freezer year-round, leftover from Christmas. Fruitcake was a topic that arose at the Heritage Foundation's recent Mummers Memory Mug-Up. Participants discussed how at Christmastime there was always dark fruitcake and light fruitcake. It was a treat that mummers would receive from their hosts when visiting from house to house.

Here is the recipe for a dark fruitcake, sure to please any guests, including mummers, over the holidays (from Newfoundland.ws):

Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups hot water
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup dates, chopped
1 box raisins
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp mace
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 beaten egg
2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped cherries
1 cup mixed fruit
1 capful rum or brandy
1 capful lemon almond extract
1 capful vanilla

In a large saucepan, combine brown sugar, hot water, butter, chopped dates, raisins, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, mace, nutmeg. Bring to boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; let cool. Add egg, baking soda, flour, cherries, mixed fruit, rum, lemon almond extract and vanilla. Combine together. Place in 9 or 10 inch greased tube pan at 300F for 2 hours.

Do you have any memories of fruitcake?

-Katie Harvey

Salmon Cove Booklet Launch

Booklet contributors with editor at the booklet launch. Left to right: Jim Parsons, Don Case, Katie Harvey, Berk Reynolds, Art Kelloway. Photo courtesy The Compass. 

On Tuesday I travelled to Salmon Cove to launch the latest booklet in our Oral History Roadshow Series titled Down in the Sands: Boyhood Memories of Salmon Cove. This is the fourth booklet in this series and it focuses on the memories of five men who grew up in Salmon Cove. The booklet was well-received, and copies are flying off the shelves. 

If you would like to download a PDF copy of the booklet, click here.

-Katie Harvey

Living Heritage Podcast Ep093 Aviation Heritage and Tourism with Abby Moss

Abby Moss was born and raised in Gander, NL. She has studied Communications and History at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She began her career as a seasonal worker at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum in 2013, and she has just finished her fifth summer with the museum. Doing work from creating exhibits to digitizing archives, she now holds the role as Tour Coordinator with Beyond Words Tour, a 9/11 tour of Gander. She has represented the museum at a local level with on the Gander Heritage Advisory Committee, and most recently on an international level in Azores, Portugal where she was the sole Canadian participant in the academic conference, where she presented on behalf of the North Atlantic Aviation Museum. We chat about her work, the tours, and her recent trip.

Download the mp3

Heritage Update Dec 2017 - exploring NL's tangible and intangible heritage

PF-357.0072 Richard Stoker Slide Collection 26 July 1960

In the September-December issue of the Heritage Update: a look at the Romanesque churches of Bishop Ronald MacDonald; two generations of memories from downtown St. John's collected as part of the Collective Memories program; notes on the Pilley's Island United Church graveyard; an invitation to the Basic Folklore and Oral History course we'll be running in January; the Booklet Launch of  "Down in the Sands: Boyhood Memories of Salmon Cove"; our 13th Annual Heritage Places Poster Contest; notes on a birch broom made by Nigola “Nickly” Jeddore, of Conne River; Czech gingerbread for St. Nicolas Day; and an invite to learn cross stitching!

Download the pdf here.

Man With Seal #FolklorePhoto

Sealing has always been an essential part of Newfoundland and Labrador's culture. The aboriginal peoples were the first to hunt seal; the fat rendered into oil for heat and light, their skin and fur used for clothing, and the meat consumed. Here we have a photo of a man with a white coat seal, photo courtesy of the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum. 

-Katie Harvey

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Spaniard's Bay Folk Cures with Jeanette Russell

Spaniard's Bay. 30-E. Rev. Edwin Hunt photographs. Geography Collection of historical photographs of Newfoundland and Labrador. Courtesy of Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative.

On August 8th, 2017, as part of the Collective Memories project and our work with the Spaniard's Bay Heritage Society, I interviewed Jeanette Russell about growing up in Spaniard’s Bay and her recollections of folk cures and home remedies including memories of midwives and the health benefits of May snow.

Jeanette grew up with four siblings in the 1950s and 1960s on Bishop’s Cove Shore in Spaniard’s Bay. She described children’s games like tiddley and red rover and how she would would play and create a cobbyhouses [copyhouses or cubbies]. Jeannette also discusses the folk cures from her childhood and remedies she learned from her in-laws. She even describes having the warts charmed off her hands and explains how to make bread poultices.

If you would like to listen to the full interview on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative click here or you can check out the pdf of our folk cures booklet here.

~Terra Barrett