New Year’s Cookies (Portzelky)

The reason that I started this blog is to share my foster mother’s recipes and other Mennonite family recipes that you can’t find on the internet. Now that she has passed, there are times when I would like to call her up for one of her recipes that I can’t find in her recipe books, but can’t. And from the comments and emails that I have received, there are other people out there who face the same problem. Thankfully, my wife comes from a Mennonite family that are more than happy to share their recipes with us. Anyway, on to the New Year’s Cookies, or Portzelky as they are referred to in low German.

I really wanted to do a blog about New Year’s Cookies because I enjoy eating them, and it is almost New Year’s. But as I sat down to write this, I realized that I don’t actually remember eating them as a kid. In my entire adulthood I think I’ve only had New Year’s Cookies 5 times. I first received them by someone when I lived in La Crete, Alberta and unfortunately I do not remember who made them, or who gave them to me. And thinking back to my childhood years in a Mennonite home, in a Mennonite town, I remember eating New Year’s Cookies most years, and looked forward to eating them leading up to New Year’s Eve. But I can’t remember who made them or where I got them from. I’m almost certain that my foster mom had made them, but don’t remember seeing her make them. New Year’s Eve wasn’t a big deal for my foster mother. My sisters and I really wanted to partake in New Year’s Eve festivities (whatever that would be), but she didn’t see the point in it. But I do remember hanging out at the CMC church in Grunthal, MB and the Abundant Life Fellowship Church in Grunthal, MB for New Year’s Eve a few years. And once again, I am certain that I ate New Year’s Cookies there, but I can’t remember.

Because my Foster Mother was the first family member to arrive in Canada from Paraguay, and was responsible for helping the rest of her family members immigrate to Canada, she was obligated to attend these mass family gatherings that were held sometime between Christmas and New Year’s. My siblings and I never wanted to attend these, and when it was held in Winnipeg, she didn’t want to attend neither, but did anyway. (These were the only times she would drive in the city, and every time she would get lost. After an hour of panic and frustration, with no map and a lot of prayer, she always managed to find her way out.) Sorry for going off topic, but once again, I know I ate New Year’s Cookies at these gatherings, but don’t actually remember it.

Anyway, I have tried to make New Year’s Cookies 4 times in total. This is the only time that I was successful. And I think that the reason the other 3 times didn’t work out for me is because I was trying random recipes off of the internet, and they just weren’t good. And I am positive that this recipe was so successful because it was given to me by an actual Mennonite grandma. The best grandma out there! So after searching the Mennonite Treasury Cookbook, and the internet for a recipe that would be the best, my wife decided to just call up her grandma to ask for the family recipe. Duh! Why didn’t we think of that first? Of course grandma would have the best recipe!

Now on to the recipe. These are not cookies at all. They are more like fried dough balls. Like fritters. So you can either fry them in a deep fryer (we own a Master Chef, but I found this similar one on Amazon), or if you don’t have one, you can use a pot of oil.

For this you will need: 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk, 2 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 3 or 4 cups of raisins, 4 1/4 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 cup of warm water, and 1 package of quick rise yeast. And icing sugar for on top.

Before you start, rinse your raisins in a colander and set them aside to partially dry off. The recipe calls for 4 cups of raisins, but our family doesn’t like as much, so I only did 3 cups.

Next mix together 1/2 cup of warm water, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and 1 package of yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons). Let it sit until it gets foamy on top.

Now in a mixing bowl, sift together 4 cups of flour with 2 rounded teaspoons of baking powder. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar, 3/4 teaspoons of salt, 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 4 eggs (already beaten), and 2 cups of warm milk (I microwaved it for 1 minute). Mix it altogether. Your batter will not be thick, this is a good thing. Do not add more flour or your fritters will not be as fluffy.

By now your raisins should be pretty much dry, but still a bit damp. Add them to a separate bowl, add 1/4 cup of flour for 3 cups of raisins, and a bit more if you have 4 cups of raisins. Mix it up so that the raisins are coated with the flour. This is to help the raisins stay in their place in the batter and help them to not sink to the the bottom of the bowl.

Add the raisins into the batter and mix it all up.

Cover your batter and let it rise for 1 hour, or until it has doubled.

If you are using a deep fryer, set your temperature to 340 degrees, or if you’re using a pot of oil, set it to medium (temperature should reach 340 degrees).

Once your oil is ready, use a teaspoon to drop dough into the oil. The balls will not be round, or pretty, but that doesn’t matter. I forgot to take a picture of this part, but what you want to do is use one teaspoon to scoop the batter up, and then another teaspoon to push the batter off the first spoon into the oil.

Fry for 5 minutes on each side, flipping them in between.

Put some paper towel on down, and after 10 minutes place the New Year’s Cookies on the paper towel to absorb some of the oil. After they have cooled for a few minutes, sprinkle some icing sugar on them, flip them over, and sprinkle icing sugar on the other side.

Enjoy!!