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Mennonite Heritage and

Agricultural Museum

New Years cookies

Traditionally, these raisin fritters or Porzelke, were made especially for New Year's Day; today they will hit the spot any time of the year.  The term Porzelke means "tumbling over"; these treats turn over by themselves (when they are done on one side) after being dropped into hot oil.

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Low-German rhyme about New Years cookies

New Years cookie recipe | Goessel Museum

Eck sach dem Shornshstein Roacka.

Eck visst voll vaut ya moacke,

Ya backte Niejoash koaka.

Yave ye me eane

Dann bliev eck stoane

Yave ye me twea

Dann fang eck aun to goane

Yave ye me drea, fea, feef toaglick

Donn vensch eck you daut gaunse Himmelrick. 

Frying New Years cookies | Goessel Museum

English:

I saw your chimney smoking.  

I knew what you were making. 

You were baking New Year's cookies.  

Give me one - I stand still.

Give me two - I start walking.

Give me three, four, five at once,

Then I wish you the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

Volunteers got up very early to 

produce over 1,200 New Years cookies for 2016 Country Threshing Days in August.   They were sold out by 3:00 p.m. on Sat.

2017 Lois and Shasta H. making NewYears cookies / Goessel Museum
 New Years cookies rolled in sugar while still warm
Volunteers making New Years cookies | Goessel Museum
New Years cookies cooling | Goessel Museum
Dipping dough for New Years cookies | Goessel Museum

Rullcoka ( Crullers )

Rolling out the dough.

Rolling out the dough.

Denise Woelk rolls out the cruller dough.

Cutting the dough.

Cutting the dough.

Frying the rullcoka.

Frying the rullcoka.

Watermelon a wonderful summer treat

Watermelon a wonderful summer treat

Rullcoka and watermelon

Rullcoka and watermelon

Rullcoka (Crullers)

1/2 C. cream

1/2 C. milk

2 eggs

2t. baking powder

1t. salt

Flour, enough for soft dough

 

Mix cream, milk, and eggs.  Add baking powder, salt, and flour.  Knead in flour till soft dough. Roll out thin.  Cut in 2x4" pieces.  Fry in deep fat till brown.

 

Rullcoka are best when eaten warm and are usually served with watermelon.

Cookbook FROM PLUMA MOOS to PIE | Goessel Museum

Agatha Schmidt Duerksen

From the Mennonite Heritage Museum cookbook FROM PLUMA MOOS to PIE

Rullcoka means roll "cookies".  They are made much as doughnuts are.  The dough, however, is different and the finished product is much lighter and crisper than doughnuts are.  The dough is rolled out quite thin and cut into rectangular pieces, perhaps 2 by 5 inches or 1 by 3 inches.  Some cooks also cut a one-inch lengthwise slit along the center.  The crullers are then dropped into hot deep fat and fried until they are a rich golden brown.  They come out crisp with big holes from air bubbles in the inside.  

Fresh crullers eaten with waternelon are considered an especially good combination.

 

This disscription of "Rullcoka" is taken from the Mennonite cookbook OFF THE MOUNTAIN LAKE RANGE published in 1958.  ( No longer in print ).

These Low-German Mennonite immigrants came from the same Colony (area) of Russia (Ukraine) as the Goessel area Mennonites, but settled in Mountain Lake, Minnesota.

Verenika (cottage cheese filled dough pockets)

verenika 2018.jpg

Verenika (there are many different spellings of this type of Russian Mennonite food).  Verenika came into the Mennonite diet from their time in Ukraine.  Their Russian neighbors used many different fillings for these dumpling but the one that caught on with the Low=German 

Mennonites was cottage cheese.

Verenika on a griddle | Goessel Museum
  • 5 cups flour

  • 1 t. salt 

  • 5 t. baking powder

  • 5 eggs

  • 1 to 1 1/2 c. milk

  • 5 T. shortening (oil or melted butter)

 

Add enough milk to eggs to make 1 1/2 cups. 

Beat. ( Measure before beating.)  Mix dry ingredients, add egg, milk and shortening mixture.  (More flour may be needed to make a soft rollable dough.)  

Filling

  • 4 cartons dry cottage cheese, made fine 

  • 2 eggs

  • salt and pepper

Ham gravy poured over verenika | Goessel Museum

Roll out a portion of dough at a time on floured board.  Put about 2 T. filling about 2 in. from the edge, fold over and cut with a large doughnut cutter, pinch edges well.  Make sure they are sealed.  Fry in deep fat (turning once) until well browned.  Makes about 24.

Selma Duerksen

From the Mennonite Heritage Museum cookbook FROM PLUMA MOOS to PIE 

Here you see the verenika being covered with a ham gravy.  Or they can be simply doused with pancake syrup.

2014-2024 Mennonite Heritage

and Agricultural Museum

Created by Fern Bartel nee Schmidt

 

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