Meteņi

When the days start getting longer and spring is just around the corner, Latvians celebrate Meteņi. Seven weeks before Easter, it is celebrated the day before Catholic Ash Wednesday. In other countries this day is called  Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, Pancake Day, Mardi Gras, and Fat Tuesday. The coming of spring is associated with old fertility rituals to promote and enrich the new growing season, and one of these rituals is sledding. During meteņi the higher the hill and the faster the sled, the higher and faster your crops will grow. Lauris and Mikus have already commenced with the growing, no sledding necessary; yesterday came the moment I put away a good portion of Mikus's 0-3 month clothes and sorted through Lauris's old clothes for all the 3-6 month outfits.

Baby boot camp: Mikus doing his daily pushups

We celebrated Meteņi with the traditional foods, Latvian pancakes and Meteņa maizītes, or as called in my family, štopkūkas, and a few guests to help eat them (instead of going sledding). The ladies came over with Lauris’s best buddies, and in no time the living room was transformed into a crèche, with toys spread evenly over the floor like a carpet, the decibel reading at levels just under “earplugs needed”, and unbelievably, only one ice-pack required over the course of the afternoon.

The three amigos reunited

So back to the štopkūkas*... Our adventure with whipped cream continued as we bought several varieties of cream and did some research. A comment left on the Bizet day post mirrored what my friend Evdoxia had advised, to use a powder with the cream to help it whip better, while another friend recommended buying cream over a 30% fat content (whipping cream in the US I believe is 36%). So we searched our local stores but didn’t find the powder, and we now have at least five different types of cream in the refrigerator. Our luck turned when Evdoxia showed up Thursday with a bottle of the needed cream (crème fluide with a fat content of 30%) and a box of the Chantifix (Vahiné brand in this case), and we were able to finish the štopkūkas without using the back-up bottle of onctuesuse (Reddi-wip in the US) I had found. 

This recipe is my mother’s, and I’ve noted the minor modifications we made to utilize it here in France.

Ingredients for Latvian Meteņu maizītes:

            ¾ cups milk

            ¼ cup sugar

            1 tsp. salt

            ¼ cup butter (unsalted)

            1 tsp. lemon zest

            ¼ cup warm water

            1/3 of a 2 ounce cake of fresh yeast (we used 1 envelope of dry yeast)

            1 egg + egg for brushing the tops

            3 ½ cups sifted flour (we used only about 3 as the flour is finer)

            1-2 tbsp. chopped or sliced almonds

            1 cup whipping cream (we used 20 cl crème fluide  + 1 packet Chantifix)

            3 tbsp. powdered sugar + more for final decoration

            vanilla is optional

           

1. Preheat oven to 400º.

2. Heat milk to almost boiling, then add sugar, salt, butter and lemon zest. Stir until sugar has melted and then set aside to cool.

3. Proof the yeast in the warm water with a little sugar.

4. Beat the egg, and once the milk mixture has cooled add the egg and the yeast. Slowly, and mixing the entire time, add the flour until it becomes too stiff to mix, then knead with hands. Be careful not to add too much flour.

5. Once the dough is smooth, place in a greased bowl with a towel covering it and let rise in a warm spot until doubled. Lightly knead, then let rise another half an hour.

6. Divide the dough into 12-15 pieces. Stretch each piece into a square, then fold corners under to form a sort of ball before placing on a greased cookie sheet. Brush lightly with egg yolk, sprinkle with almonds and let rise another thirty minutes.

7. Cook in preheated oven 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

8. Whip cream with powdered sugar and vanilla.

9. When the little breads have cooled, cut the very top off with a sharp knife and scoop out the insides. Fill with whipped cream, place the top back on and decorate with powdered sugar.

Labu apetīti!

Un daudz laimes dzimšanas dienā manai mīļai māšelei Annai Pannai!!! Ieēdīšu štopkūku tev par godu!

* My French friend Marion informed me that there is something similar in look (but is in fact a pastry, more than a bread) to the štopkūka here in France, the choux à la crème.