Cranberry Christmas Canes (YM’s Xmas Morning Canes)
"Mmmm! Tender flaky cookie-buns crammed with cranberries, raisins, honey, nuts...bake 'em easy with Fleischmann's Yeast and this new no-kneading no-rising refrigerator recipe! Great for Christmas giving!" This is a quote from the original 1960s Fleischmann's Yeast recipe that assumes you are an experienced baker and don't need a lot of specifics. My more detailed procedures below are learned after many, many batches and many canes that became rolls.
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Time
Difficulty
Servings
Ingredients
Dough
1 cup milk
4 cups flour unsifted
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon peel grated
1 cup butter (two sticks)
1 package dry yeast
2 eggs beaten
Traditional Cranberry Filling
1 1/2 cups cranberries finely chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup raisins finely chopped
1/2 cup pecans finely chopped
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp. orange peel grated
Lemon Filling
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup water
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. lemon peel grated
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 drops yellow food color optional
Cinnamon Apple Filling
1 1/2 cups apple finely chopped
3/4 cup pecans finely chopped
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- Scald milk. The original 1960s recipe assumes you know what this means – bring the milk almost to a boil (180-190 degrees) and let it cool to lukewarm (about 100 degrees).
- Combine flour, sugar, salt and lemon peel in a large bowl.
- Cut in butter until it is like a coarse meal. This classic pastry technique of cutting cold butter into flour can be done with a strong arm and a pastry blender if you have one, or a food processor will do this nicely with very little effort if you are not proud (and don’t have a pastry blender).
- Dissolve yeast into 1/4 cup warm (105-115 degrees) water.
- Beat eggs and add to flour along with milk and yeast and combine lightly. Again, the original recipe gives you no further guidance here – mix well just until there are no more dry ingredients. Don’t overmix it.
- Cover dough tightly and put in refrigerator to rise for at least 2 hours (or can be left overnight). I recommend doing it the night before so as to save your strength for the rollout the next day. Doing several batches of making dough and rollout all in one day is a pretty daunting task.
- Whilst your dough is rising (or also the night before) you will want to make your filling. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook for about 5 minutes until it thickens. Cool until ready to fill your canes.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Divide dough in half. Roll it out on a very large floured board (keep lots of extra flour at hand, this is going to get sticky). Keep rolling dough until you have a 18×15 inch rectangle. Use a ruler here as the proper size is key to making this work.
- Put the dough with the long (18 inch) way going vertically so it is taller than it is wide. Mark the dough vertically into thirds (each section should be 6 inches high).
- Spread half of your filling evenly across the middle section, then fold the bottom and top sections over the middle overlapping each other (like a paper business letter fold for you older folks).
- Cut your 15 inch long (6 inches high) roll into 15 one-inch wide strips.
- Now, the tricky part. Hold the ends of each strip and twist in opposite directions whilst also shaping it into a cane. You will want to twist it fairly tight to keep the filling from falling out as it expands. This is where you will have difficulty if you have cut your strips too wide or if they are less than 6 inches long. If things are going sufficiently poorly, I suggest cutting your losses and turning this batch into circular rolls which are still delicious, if less pleasing to the eye. You can then start the second batch fresh with an actual ruler instead of the knuckle method or “eyeballing it” as the case may be.
- Leaving a fair amount of room between canes for growth, fill a greased or papered pan with your canes and bake for 10-15 minutes in your 400 degree oven. Place on wire rack to cool and do the whole process again with the other half of your dough and filling.
- After they have fully cooled (important!) drizzle with a nice frosting you have made with powdered sugar. Once again, your friends at Fleischmann’s in the 1960s offered no guidance on this frosting. If you need help here, maybe call YM or Google “powdered sugar frosting” if you can’t raise her.
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