Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance

FAMILY HEIRLOOM RECIPES

Illinois State Fair

August 13, 2021

 

 

Contestant:

Rosettes (Rosetbakkelser)
Diana Wara, Washington, Illinois

 

 

Light, sweet, flaky, delicate, deep fried, and just like Lays Potato Chip says – you can’t eat just one! What you are about to bite into, is none other than a Rosette. Most people think of a Rosette as a cookie some might even say a pastry, the whole Wara family knows them as Christmas!

 

 

Two feet of snow on the ground, sitting in a 6 year old, stick shift, banana yellow Honda civic. My boyfriend picked me up on Christmas Day 1980 to go to his family’s house and celebrate Christmas. I was 19 years old and we had only been dating for 9 months. It was time to meet his family for the first time. (You know that feeling you feel in your tummy when you might start to get sick, that was exactly what I was feeling.) After introductions, I was welcomed into the family. Soon after, we all moved into the Dining Room where the “Food Table” was located. This lady, who would be my mother-in-law 5 years later, had set up this big table full of food! It was what I would imagine a Food Table being served to a king would look like. On perusing the many food options, there was one platter, that just stuck out to me, not only because there were so many of them, but the unique shape just kind of had my eyes glued to them. These delicate looking things, glistening with sugar, piled high, that as of yet, didn’t have a name and I had never seen anything like them before. Rosettes!!!! Of course, I gravitated toward the Rosettes. It was like eating a crispy, air-filled sweet slice of heaven! Within 4 bites and licking my fingers, the cookie was gone only to leave me wanting more because I was not going to be satisfied with just one! My boyfriend watched me eat it and then said, “Wasn’t that good.” They were called Rossette Cookies and that his mom made them EVERY Christmas. “Go ahead and have another, you can’t stop at just one!”

 

 

My mom was of French ancestry and my dad had Black Foot Indian/Irish/Croation ancestry. Growing up with that mixed bag of wonderful nationalities, we certainly had many foods that were influenced from those backgrounds. But I also married into a wonderful family where my mother-in-law had a full Italian ancestry and my father-in-law had German/Welsh/Finlander ancestry. It was important to me to have my children know the family ancestry and traditions of both families and a great way to do that was through food. Rosettes was definitely a tradition that I wanted to keep in my family. So, I put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and went on a detective mission to find out more about these wonderful cookies.

 

 

I began by sitting down with my husband and asking him about the background of Rosette and he told me that his mom made them every Christmas. They were everyone’s favorite and he knew that she learned to make them from her mother-in-law (Grandma Wara) because they were a big part of his dads background. That was all he could remember about them. With my detective hat still on, I asked his sister about the cookie and wanted to know some more of the background.

 

 

Mrs. & Mrs. Wara (my husband’s mom & dad) were bom and raised in Lead, South Dakota. They lived about 2 miles apart from each other and went to school & played in the band together, all through high-school. Lead is a small town but a lot of immigrants migrated there to work at the Homestake Mine, which was a large underground gold mine. Jeffs dad graduated from The School of Mines in Rapid City, S.D. with a degree in Engineering and these two beautiful people married in 1955. Jeffs dad was offered a job with John Deere and they moved almost 900 miles away. Once they started having children, it got harder and harder to make the drive to South Dakota for Christmas. (I would imagine 4 small children and the fact that weather in Illinois at Christmas only gets worse as you make a 2-day drive to South Dakota.) The first year of not traveling for Christmas, my mother-in-law continued the tradition of making Rosette Cookies for her family. Because as she once told me, “they only get made at Christmas, it’s tradition.” As the children grew and Christmas break began, she didn’t want her children to get bored so she included them in the Rosette making process. Each child was given a job to do. And thus insuring that at least one of them (there were 4 children in total) would remember the tradition!

 

 

I once asked Mrs. Wara about the beautiful shape of the cookies and she told me that she picked that pattern of cookie because it closely resembled the one her mother-in-law made and also it reminded her of a snow flake and what happens in Illinois and South Dakota at Christmas time -it snows.

 

 

I also found out that Grandma Wara was quite the baker. One of the jobs she had was being a baker for a local bakery. I did tell you that Lead, South Dakota had a BIG gold mine. The original owners of the mine was the Hearst Family. George & Phoebe Hearst, George was the father of William Randolph Hearst. Grandma Wara baked for the Homestake Mine events that happened at “The Big House”. The Big House was what the town called the mansion/house that the mining manager stayed in as well as the Hearst family while visiting the mine. She was the baker for the events that happened there! That is SO cool!!! As a side note: Phoebe Hearst actually brought great programs to Lead. She opened a free kindergarten and a free library. She also gave money to the churches of Lead.

 

 

So, it started with Mary Sampila-Wara many, many years ago! She gave the recipe to her daughter-in-law, Cecilia Whetter-Wara. She passed the recipe down to her daughter-in-law, Rose Marie Smith-Wara and Rose passed the recipe to me. Myself being a 4^th generation Rosette  maker along with my 2 sister-in-laws, we all have carried on the tradition of making Rosette cookies for Christmas. We have since discovered that the original (1^st Generation recipe) did not have vanilla in it. The Wara family believe that’s because Grandma Wara (2nd Generation) was a baker, that she probably made these cookies for the Homestake Mine/Hearst Family events and vanilla was added in for flavor.

 

 

Today, we all use Cecilia Wara (2^nd Generation), version recipe and we all use the same “snowflake pattern” iron. I do have to admit, I once made them for my son’s graduation, which was on a HOT June day. I used the same recipe & kind of chuckled as I made them with the snowflake patterned iron because, after all that’s tradition!

 

 

If you’re not familiar or ever had a rosette cookie, you truly are missing out on a very special treat. The batter is VERY thin and you look at it and think “this is NEVER going to work”. When I was given the recipe from my mother-in-law, she also gave me a list of rules/hints that have helped her over the years, to make these cookies. Things like you never want to get the batter over the top opening of the iron, the cookies will never release. Grease your iron with hot oil in between every dip of the cookie. An assembly line process works the best. Drain the rosettes on paper towels really well and immediately after it comes out of the oil, etc…

 

 

Also, there is an amazing huge riff in the world as how to top them. The Wara original recipe states to dip them in granulated sugar. But people will argue that it’s best dipped in a cinnamon/sugar mixture, powdered sugar or chocolate drizzled. The Wara’s keep to the original recipe – just like glistening snow, granulated sugar is the way we top them.

 

 

In my display, you will take a generational journey with the Rossette Cookies. Pictures of 3 generations of Wara women. I have what is believed to be the actual “Original Recipe”. I also received a VERY old family Rosette Iron and no one knows who it belonged to. It was either owned by the 1^st or 2^nd Generation Wara family. My guess would be that it was Cecilia Whetter-Wara’s (2^nd Generation) iron. Attached to this, is the recipe that has been in the Wara family since the addition of vanilla.

 

 

 

Side Note: I just LOVE trying to find a recipe for the Heirloom Contest. Sometimes, I take a recipe for granted and just label it as “traditional” but not really knowing the who/what/when/why other than everybody expecting to have that dish/food. I get my magnifying glass out, put on my detective hat and start digging into the “whys” of the recipes. So, thank you for that. Now, I as try to de-mystify some of my families heirloom recipes, I keep notes on each recipe so that it can be passed down to other family member. To think that we had a baker in the family that baked for The Hearst Family – that is SO cool!!!

 

 

 

Contestant:

Rosettes (Rosetbakkelser)
Diana Wara, Washington, Illinois

 

Mom Wara’s Old Rosette Batter Recipe

 

2 eggs

2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 C milk

1 Cup flour

½  tsp vanilla extract

 

In a small bowl, beat eggs and sugar; stir in milk and vanilla. Combine flour and salt; gradually add to batter until smooth.

 

I know that this is probably a 1920’s method. I’m sure you have some easier, neater and updated methods to do this but here is what I do:

 

Set up your work area. 1) bowl of batter 2) skillet with heated oil 3) plate with numerous paper towels on it 4) Another plate with paper towels to put the rosettes on after coming out of the oil 5) bowl of sugar to dip the rosettes in (if do it while a little warm then it will help the sugar stick) 6) final platter/box

 

-Heat the oil to about 350 (adjust by 5-10 degrees if need).

 

-Put the batter laden iron in oil. It will bubble. Leave it on the iron for a few seconds then use a fork to gently push off the sides that stick, (if everything is hot it should come off easily)

 

-If you are using an electric skillet, you could probably get about 3 rosettes in the pan. Always replace iron in oil after use to keep it hot. Cook until the underside is slightly tan then flip over and cook the other side. It takes about 60-70 seconds per rosette.

 

-Note: If it cooks too fast, the rosettes will be greasy.

 

-Put the finished rosettes on the paper towel plates and let cool.

 

-Between putting rosettes in the oil, take the cooled rosettes put in sugar and then on tray.

 

Note: Best to make/use no more than 2 batches of batter at one time because a little oil will come off the iron every time you dip it. At the end of the batter, the batter will no longer stick to the iron (too much oil in the batter)