#4: Svoolyard for the soul
A piece on the holidays and my favorite family recipe. Welcome back to the GRIEF AND MEDIA PROJECT!
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I've made svoolyard every holiday season since my mom passed away.
It's an Italian pastry, though I'm not sure if other Italian-American families make it, too. It's one of my grandma's recipes that my dad recorded into his cookbook filled with stories of his upbringing and her recipes. We used to make it every Christmas growing up, and everyone would fight over it. Sometimes if there were extra, we would ship them to other family members. I spent hours in the kitchen with my dad and sister making them, and I'd always ask if I could put more chocolate than the recipe calls for in each one. My dad said absolutely not; I remember thinking I would add more chocolate to my own when I grew up. The svoolyard-making was always a fun part of the holidays, my way of helping with the cooking and getting to spend time with my dad in a way that connected him with his mom who had passed away. When my dad died, so did our holiday tradition. So did my holiday spirit, really.
The last holiday I got to spend with my dad was Thanksgiving 2013. I was working at an AMC movie theater, and I had a four hour shift in the morning. I remember staring at one of those giant cardboard movie posters, the one for Interstellar, and waiting for my shift to end so I could get home to my family. As soon as I got home, I put on a turkey hat I got from Target. Our Christmas tree was already up—my dad loved putting it up immediately after Halloween—and the house was filled with Christmas lights. After dinner, I’m certain my dad and I napped while my mom cleaned up. We always napped; she always loved to immediately clean up. God, I wish it wasn’t the last holiday with them both, but at least it was a good one.
Holidays used to be so grand, so full of life and family. It seemed like I had the most people around when I was really young, then the number kept dwindling with each year and relatives passing away, then my dad died, then the pandemic happened, then my mom died, and we lived so far from everyone, and last year was just me and Jack and my sister. I needed the svoolyard, because my need for svoolyard was me being able to put my need for my parents into something productive, something I could actually act on. It took a few tries to perfect, my svoolyard wonky or too doughy or just not right, like my holiday spirit.
Being back in California, my holiday felt less lonely this year. For the first time in three years, my svoolyard was delicious. I took it to Thanksgiving with my in-laws, and it was a hit—and I got to proudly tell people it was a family recipe, knowing exactly what that means to me.
I’m still figuring out what the holidays are without my parents. Maybe it’s for spending time with family, family that I’m continuing to build now that they’re not here, and taking time to cry on the way home. And svoolyard. Lots of svoolyard. (Recipe below <3)
Svoolyard recipe, from my dad’s book Pasta Fazool for the Soul
Ingredients
12 ounce jar of orange marmalade
Jar of apricot marmalade
8 ounce can of drained crushed pineapple
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1 pound of brushed almonds
2 cups of sugar
6 ounces of Mazola oil
2 ½ pounds of flour
1 giant Hersey’s chocolate bar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of salt
12 ounces of white wine
10 or more drops of rum
Tools
Large mixing bowl or top of counter
Large cookie sheet for baking
Yield
20 pastries
Procedure
dough mixture
If using the counter (Editor’s note: This is my preferred method!), take the flour and dry ingredients, making a large circle with the center open like a well. As you add the liquid ingredients in the center, slowly mix in the flour with your hands. If using a large mixing bowl, add the liquid ingredients, then add flour a little at a time until all is mixed.
Mix 2 ½ pounds of flour
3 eggs
6 ounces of oil
12 ounces of white wine
2 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
Mix all together until the dough is smooth. Roll out each piece of sough into the size of a golf ball. Place in a bowl and refrigerate overnight.
inside of pastry mixture
The next day, take orange marmalade, apricot marmalade and crushed pineapple, plus 10 drops of rum, and mix into a bowl. Put each of the following into their own bowl: crushed almonds; sugar and cinnamon; crushed chocolate; 8 ounces of oil.
Take each piece of dough and spread out with a rolling pin. They should be around 6 inches by 4-5 inches. Make the rolled out dough very thin. Sprinkle the counter and pieces of dough with flour along the way.
On the spread out piece of dough, spread marmalade mixture all over. Sprinkle crushed almonds. Sprinkle chocolate. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon.
Circle with oil then fold over and seal the dough. Curve the sough into a half moon shape, and place on an oiled cookie sheet.
After the cookie sheet is filled with svoolyards, sprinkle tops with sugar and cinnamon, then drip oil on tops.
After they’re out of the oven, place on parchment paper to cool and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top.
Oven Temperature/Time
Bake for 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees, or until all are browned.
Special Hints/Tips
When mixing crushed pineapple—be sure to drain liquid from can before adding to mix
When spreading marmalade mix on dough, scoop up with a spoon and try to let all liquid part of mix drain before placing on the dough. This will keep mixture in the pastry and not leak as much onto the cookie sheet in the oven.
Place parchment paper on cookie sheet to make easy removal
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