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Tag Archives: Great grandmother

Cherry Upside-down Cake – Twice

01 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by lewstories in Baking, Photography, Recipes, Recipes gone wrong, Uncategorized

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Antique forks, Cherry upside-down cake, Favorite recipe, Great grandmother, Vintage recipe, Wal-Mart

Cherry Upside-down CakeThis is my second attempt at this recipe. I tend to be in a rush whenever I do – well….anything. When I made the first cake, I used a can of cherry pie filling instead of just a can of cherries. Duh. It was in the baking aisle and I wasn’t paying attention.

So, back to the store I went. However, I could not find a 1 pound can of cherries, as the recipe calls for. I was only able to find 15 ounce cans of cherries. So, I bought two cans with the plan of doing the math later.

And yes, I forgot to do the math later. I used BOTH cans instead of 1 and a half. Of course, I did not figure that out until AFTER I placed the batter on top of ALL of the cherries. (Read here of another bone-head-recipe-misread here.)

Argh! The batter was flush with the edge of the cake pan. It had overflow written all over it. So I scooped out most of the batter, spooned out some of the cherries and then poured the batter back on top. I was sure it was ruined and that the cherries would be mixed in with the cake. But I was pleasantly surprised when I turned it upside down.

I do think I flipped it too soon, though. The recipe calls for waiting 5 minutes after taking it out of the oven, but perhaps you should wait a little longer so the cherry juice won’t slide over the sides. But, maybe it’s supposed to do that.

At any rate, it is really good. I’m guessing the better quality the cherries, the better the cake. Mine are from Wal-Mart, but still pretty good.

Cherry Upside-down Cake

Cherry mixture:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
1 pound can red sour pitted cherries
Several drops of red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Melt butter in 9x9x2 pan (I used a round cake pan). Place cornstarch and sugar in a saucepan and mix well. Drain cherries – keeping juice. Stir 3/4 cup of cherry juice into sugar mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture reaches boiling point. Reduce heat to very low and cook for 5 minutes – still stirring. Stir in food coloring, drained cherries and almond extract. Pour mixture over butter in baking pan and stir to blend.

Cake mixture:
2/3 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg – room temperature if possible
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk – and again, room temperature if possible. This helps make the cake more moist or fluffy. Something like that. I just read about that trick)

Cream butter; and then add sugar and cream until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Sift flour and baking powder together and add to creamed mixture alternately with milk – beginning and ending with flour. Spoon batter over cherry mixture in pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. Cool 5 minutes (I’d wait a little longer if I were you). Place a platter over cake pan and flip upside down. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or ice-cream.

Cherry Upside-down Cake with vintage recipeAbove is the original cake I made with cherry pie filling accidentally, as well as my great grandmother’s recipe. I think she was trying to be funny by writing the name of the recipe upside down. I can only assume she cut off the name of the recipe and needed to remind herself what it actually was. I love the fact she wrote it upside down. It always makes me smile whenever I see it.

Cherry Upside-down Cake
Cherry Upside-down Cake

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Larchmont Muffins

11 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by lewstories in Food, Photography, Recipes

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Cookbook, Great grandmother, Larchmont Muffins, Rumford Baking Powder, Vintage recipes

LarchmontMuffinWithMamaReadyThis is a photo of my great grandmother. One of her cookbooks that I am using for this photo project, “Rumford Complete Cookbook,” has a recipe that apparently was her very favorite muffin recipe. Larchmont Muffins.

Inside the cookbook was a hand-written note saying that they were the best muffins she ever ate. They must be good, then. . . if you make them correctly.

We’ll see.

Larchmont Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour (I used all purpose)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Rumford Baking Powder (I used Clabber Girl – sorry Rumford)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 eggs (separated)
ABOUT 1 1/2 cups milk (“About”) That kills me. I did not use quite that much, but I think I poured too much. Might want to start with 1 cup.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder; add the sugar, then the beaten yolks of eggs, milk and melted butter. Beat thoroughly and fold gently the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs. Half fill greased pans (muffin tins) and bake twenty minutes in a moderately hot oven. (I set it to 350 degrees)

LarchmontMuffinsReady

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Pearl Cookies

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by lewstories in Food, Photography

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Cookie cutter, Great grandmother, Pearl Cookies, Recipes

PearlCookies MainToned ReadyPearl cookies!

The name evokes images of beauty and ultimate taste. At least it did for me when I first saw the recipe.

They’re ok. I think their name built them up too much for me. And Joe’s reaction was, “That’s a cookie.”

Sometimes it takes a day or two for cookies to taste their best. We’ll see how they do today.

The most unusual thing about them is how you cut them out. You mix the dough, roll it out very thin and bake on a cookie sheet. Only after they are done, and you take them out of the oven, do you cut them with a cookie cutter. . . which heats up, by the way. I had to keep stopping to wait for the cookie cutter to cool off. I guess I should have waited a bit longer to cut them, but I was afraid they would cool off too soon.

My only criticism of this method is there seems to be a lot of waste of dough after the cookies are cut out.

Pearl Cookies On PanTonedReady

Pearl Cookies

1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 pound butter (2 sticks)
1 egg yolk
1 egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream butter, add sugar and cream well. Add sifted flour, egg yolk and vanilla.

(I was out of all purpose flour, so I used my gluten-free all purpose flour. Oh, shoot. I forgot the xanthan gum. I just realized that. Hmmm. And, I did not have quite 2 cups, so I added a couple of tablespoons of self-rising flour. It was either that or whole wheat flour. I don’t think they rose too much due to my substitution. I think I’m beginning to realize why the pearl cookies did not wow us. I may have to try again. DARN!)

Mix thoroughly. Divide dough and spread very thinly on greased cookie sheets. (I used parchment paper) Paint top of dough with unbeaten egg white, sprinkle with nuts.

Nuts? This is the first time they are mentioned in the recipe. Typical.

I used chopped walnuts.

Bake at 375 degrees until light brown. (about 10 minutes) Cut while hot, but do not remove from cookie sheet until cold. But like I said, be careful holding the cookie cutter. It gets hot.

These came from my great grandmother’s cookbook, “Southern Cooking,” by Mrs. S.R. Dull. An Atlanta native.

CookieAlone TonedReady

 

 

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Breaking the Canines

26 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by lewstories in Food, Photography

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Baking, Cinnamon rolls, cooking failures, Great grandmother, Rollemups

RolledupdoughwithKnifeB TonedWell, strike two. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Instead of a cinnamon roll type dessert, I created……….

………..doorstops.

I thought it might be my using Almond Milk instead of regular cow’s milk; but the internet tells me it should not make a difference. And it knows everything!

I supposed I could try again with regular milk just to see.

Again, following the recipe precisely, I did not have “dough” to roll out. I had liquid. And this is a different recipe, so it must be me. Adding enough flour to make it dough made it too tough to eat. Even my dog, Murray, had trouble getting these down – and he eats tin cans.

Oh well. My main objective in this project are the photographs – but with food you, want them to at least LOOK like they taste good. These fall short of that goal, I’m afraid.

I also used regular all purpose flour this time, vs. the gluten-free flour I have been using. Still screwed it up.

RollAloneWithShadowToned CloseupofCARDToned

Rollemups

2 cups flour
1/3 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
1 cup milk (I bet that’s too much)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in butter and then add sugar and mix until soft.

(Maybe I should have beaten this with the kitchen aid mixer. Hmmm. I just cut in the butter and stirred in the sugar)

Add milk and egg. Roll 1/2 inch thick on floured board or wax paper. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. (Extra brown sugar??? The card does not specify. . . so I did.)

Roll into a long roll, press edges tightly together and cut into 3/4 inch slices. Lay slices cut side down on greased pan. (I used parchment paper)

Bake about 20 minutes in a “quick oven.”

I did finally look up what, “Cook in a quick oven vs. slow oven,” means.

Here’s Wikipedia’s chart on oven temperatures:

Cool oven – 200F / 90C
Very slow oven – 250F / 120C
Slow oven – 300-325F / 150-160C
Moderately slow oven – 325-350F / 160-180C
Moderate oven – 350-375F / 180-190C
Moderately hot oven – 375-400 / 190-200C
Hot oven – 400-450F / 200-230C
Very hot oven – 450-500F / 230-260C
Fast oven – 450-500F / 230-260C

Anyway, I know it’s possible to do. My great grandmother wrote this one out on an index card – so I KNOW she used this recipe.

The challenge is on to figure out what I’m doing wrong.

MurrayToned

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Orange Nut Bread

24 Saturday May 2014

Posted by lewstories in Food

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Tags

Cooking, Food, Great grandmother, Orange Nut Bread, Photography

OrangeNutBread OnStoneREADyOrange Nut Bread
(I altered this one a bit for two reasons: 1. I wanted to start using gluten-free flour to possibly curb the number of migraines I’ve been having, and 2. I didn’t have all of the ingredients, as usual.)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I used gluten-free plus 3/4 teaspoons Xanthan Gum for every cup of flour. This helps keep the bread firm)
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds because I didn’t have any walnuts)
1 tablespoon grated orange peel ( I used lemon. No oranges in the house)
I beaten egg
3/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons salad oil (I assumed this meant canola oil)

I also added 1 cup craisins soaked in boiling water to plump them up.

Sift together dry ingredients. Stir in nuts and orange peel. Mix egg, juice and oil. Stir into dry ingredients until just moist, then fold in craisins. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes or until done. Remove from pan and cool on rack. Wrap and store overnight.

It turned out pretty good. It’s really good with coffee.

OrangeNutBatterREADY

OrangeNutBread RecipeCard READY

 

 

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Mama’s Recipes – a tribute to my great grandmother

28 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by lewstories in Food, Photography

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Great grandmother, Oatmeal Cake Squares, Old fashioned recipes

MamasBroachReadyThis is a photo of my great grandmother, Louise Putnam Wilcox. It’s actually a pin with her photo on it, and I’ve always thought I favored her when looking at it. She is the only other family member – that I know of – who is small like I am. She lived with us when we were kids, and I loved her very much. She taught me how to play solitaire and poker, and I remember sitting in her lap in her rocking chair eating candied orange slices. Funny what you remember from so long ago.

Anyway, I really remember she was a great cook. Her angel biscuits were what I remember the most. Hot out of the oven, slathered with melted butter and honey. I always ate them at the end of the meal because I considered them the best part and I wanted to savor them.

I went through her recipes recently and have decided to pay homage to Mama for a little while. I’m going to attempt to make some of the recipes she found to be worth cutting out of the newspaper or writing down on her index cards to kind of keep her with me again for a while.

My first attempt did not turn out so hot. Oatmeal Cake Squares. How can a person undercook AND burn something all at the same time? Well, I’m not sure, but I did accomplish it. Part of the problem was there was little explanation in the directions. And our oven cooks too slow, so when it said to cook the cake for 15 minutes, it actually should have been 25 to 30. I did cook it 7 minutes longer, but it still was not enough. It was still liquid in the middle. To my defense, I thought cooking it 10 minutes more after the topping was put on there was going to cook it the rest of the way. No. Still soggy in the middle after the additional 10 minutes. So back in the oven for a couple of minutes……when I thought to myself, “What’s that burning smell?” The coconut topping burned a bit – but, in the end – the cake was really good – the done parts, that is.

Anyway, my great grandmother died in 1976 when she was 92. I hope you enjoy her recipes and the stories, I’m sure, I’ll have to tell in trying to prepare them. I will always include the recipes for those who are interested in trying them yourselves.

OatmealCakeSquaresREADYOatmealCakeSquareWForkReadyWhitePlateReadyOatmeal Cake Squares

1 1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 stick butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
2 whole eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Pour boiling water over oats and let stand for 20 minutes. Cream together butter, white and brown sugars. Add unbeaten eggs, cinnamon and vanilla. Mix well; add oats and combined flour and soda mixture. Pour batter in greased 8″x16″ pan or two 8″x8″ pans and bake in preheated 350-degree F oven for 15 minutes. (Just make sure the cake is actually done in the middle, so it may take your oven a little longer)

Then spread with topping:

3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 can coconut (Ok. Here is another problem. What size can? I happened to have some shredded coconut, so I just used 2 cups of it. It seemed to work)
1 cup chopped nuts
3 or 4 tablespoons cream ( I used Half and Half because that’s all I had)
2 egg yolks

Mix well and spread over hot cake. Return to oven and bake for about 10 minutes. Let cool and cut into squares.

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