Coming December 4, 2004 at 2:00 PM,  "C" is for Celebrations
It's time once again for PBS 39 Cooks! All new chefs have prepared festive new dishes for your holiday entertaining!
See the featured recipe: Three Finger Almond Cookies

           A is for All-American
Luscious baby back ribs, decadent chocolate cake and a patriotic pastry are all on the menu as PBS 39 premieres its newest local production – PBS 39 COOKS: A Is For All-American. Home cooks and prominent chefs gathered in the PBS 39 studio for a day of cooking and conversation with program host Amy Burkett. Featured recipes:

Baby back ribs with beer-battered onion rings by Joseph Garvey, Executive Chef and owner of the Brick Hotel & Restaurant, Bucks County
Balsamic Flank Steak with Spinach and shaved Parmesan from Sharon Sanders of Center Valley, PA
Sauteed Crab cakes in a Cope’s Sweet Corn Sauce from Edward Galgon, Executive Chef and Owner of Cab Frye’s Tavern, Palm, PA
Macaroni Heaven, an extra cheesy home-made version of Macaroni and Cheese from Diane Stoneback, food and travel editor of The Morning Call
All-American Cheese Stollen by Marji Ackerman of South Whitehall Township, PA
Triple Chocolate Cake by James-Ryan Lundy, pastry chef at the Apollo Grille, Bethlehem, PA

All-American Cheese Stollen
Contributed by Marji Ackerman of South Whitehall Township, PA

Servings: 2 Stollens-each will serve 12-16

Prep Time: 1 hour
Pans: 2 large cookie sheets with sides
Other equipment: tin foil, large mixer with bowls, kitchen scissors, pastry brush
Baking Time: 20-25 minutes for each stolen
Temp: 325 degrees

 Dough:
2 packages of yeast
¼ cup of warm water
¾ cup of lukewarm milk
½ cup of sugar
teaspoon of salt
½ cup of soften margarine
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
5 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of vanilla
2 tablespoons of margarine (to grease foil-covered cookie sheets)

Using large mixer, mix milk, sugar, margarine, salt, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. In cup, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add egg and yeast mixture to the large bowl and mix. Gradually add flour, mixing on slow, until the soft dough is fully formed. Remove bowl from mixer and let dough rise in a warm area until it doubles in size, (this dough rises quickly). Line cookie sheets with foil and grease with margarine. Make cheese fillings.

Cheese Filling:
4 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
¾ cup of sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of vanilla

Place all cheese filling ingredients in bowl and whip on high in mixer until fluffy.

All American Toppings:
1 3.5-ounce can of coconut
1 can of cherry or raspberry pie filling (you wont use it all)
1 can of blueberry pie filling (you won’t use it all)

Divide the dough into tow equal pieces and fill each cookie sheet with one part of the dough. Cover the entire bottoms of the trays as you would to make pizzas. On one long edge of the first dough, evenly distributed, cut 7-2 inch cuts (with kitchen scissors). Repeat this on the adjacent side matching up the cuts with the first side. Repeat for second stolen.

Filling stollens by spreading ½ of cheese filling, in a 4-inch vertical strip, down the center of each dough. Leave 1 ½ inch at each end free of filling.

 Top the cheese filling with a horizontal red, white, and blue striped pattern using the cherries, coconut and blueberries. Try to spoon pieces of fruit on while using as little as possible of the starch party of the filling. (Too much filling will cause the cheese and fruit to overflow from the dough while baking.” Turn the filling free ends in, over the end of he filling.  

Garnish:
1 beaten egg white
½ cup sliced almonds 

Fold the dough stripes, (made from the cuts you made earlier), so they meet in the center and pinch the ends together. Lightly brush all dough surfaces with the beaten egg white and scatter the sliced almonds evenly over the top. Let stollens rise in warm area until almost double in size. Bake each stolen separately in the middle of pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes. Cool the stollens thoroughly before transferring to your serving tray.

Glaze:
1 cup of powdered sugar
1-3 tablespoon of milk
¼ teaspoon of vanilla 

Close to serving time, pour powdered sugar into a small bowl. Add a small amount of milk and vanilla to the powdered sugar, stir and add milk until you get the desired consistence. Drizzle the desired amount of glaze across the stollens in a zigzag pattern.