Easy Maple Apple Bread
Ingredients & Directions 1/4 c Brown sugar 2 tb All-purpose flour 1 ts WATKINS Cinnamon 1 ts WATKINS Maple Flavor 1 lg Egg, beaten 1/2 c Finely chopped apple 1/4 c Chopped walnuts 2 cn (8 ounces each) refrigerated -crescent roll dough 1/2 c Powdered sugar 1 tb Milk 1/2 ts WATKINS Vanilla Extract From : JACK DECKER Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl, add apple and nuts, toss. Unroll dough and separate into 8 rectangles. Press perforations on dough firmly to seal. Spread each rectangle with apple mixture, roll up starting at narrow end. Place each roll lengthwise with seams toward center of loaf in greased 8-1/2 inch loaf pan, making 2 layers of 4 rolls each. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, cover pan with foil and bake 30 minutes longer removing foil last 5 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes; remove and cool thoroughly. Combine remaining ingredients, drizzle over loaf. Makes 12 slices. Yields 12 Servings
Baked Hush Puppies
Ingredients & Directions Nonstick cooking spray 1/2 c Yellow cornmeal 1/4 c Unbleached all purpose flour 3/4 ts Baking powder 1/2 ts Granulated sugar 1/4 ts Salt (optional) 1/2 ts Celery flakes 1/4 ts Cayenne pepper 1 Egg white; beaten 1/4 c Skim milk 1 tb Vegetable oil 1/4 c Finely chopped scallion; -including green top Heat oven to 425 degrees. Using nonstick cooking spray, coat miniature muffin pan ( 1 3/4 inch cups). In medium sized bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, celery flakes, and cayenne pepper; stir until well blended. In a small bowl, combine egg white, milk, and vegetable oil; stir well. Add liquids to dry ingredients; stir just until blended. Stir in scallion. Spoon about 1 tablespoon batter into each muffin cup. Bake until hush puppies are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove immediately; serve warm. Yield: 12 servings Per Serving: Calories – 42 Fat – 1 gram Sodium – 30 milligrams Yields 1 Servings
Cultivating A Taste For Ground Cherry Pie
Ingredients & Directions 4 c Ground cherries 1/2 c Sugar 2 ts Quick cooking tapioca Handful all-purpose flour Juice of 1 large lemon Pastry for a double-crust -9-inch pie 2 tb Butter BY JEFF COX One of the joys of making a kitchen garden is getting to grow and taste new and unusual varieties of vegetables. Unfamiliar vegetables are like unfamiliar people. They take time to get to know. Lack of understanding can lead to mistakes takes. So I put most of my energy into growing my own garden tested favorites, and limit the number of unfamiliar varieties in each garden to just one or two. Elusive Habits: One year I tried ground cherries, Physalis pruinosa, which produce tiny tomato-like fruits in papery husks on low, lanky, herbaceous bushes. I planted them in a corner of the garden that didn’t get much traffic, and never did see them sprout, or see them growing during the summer, either. I thought they died from neglect. When things thinned out later in the year, I discovered that the whole area was covered with the trailing vines of the ground cherries, and there were enough fruits to make an intensely-flavored and very wigged-out ground cherry pie. Ground cherries also are known as husk tomatoes, and are a smaller, more flavorful cousin of the tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa) used in Mexican salsa verde. They’re also related to the Hawaiian poha (Physalis peru viana). They like the same conditions as tomatoes, and thus will do best in the portions of the Bay Area that stay warmest at night. However, if you can grow tomatoes, you can grow ground cherries, and they’re worth a try. They always pull their disappearing act if grown among other plants. They like to drape their long trailing branches over their neighbors’ leaves, and run down among long grasses. Only becoming visible when the other plants die back late in the year. The plants are sprawling and grow about 18 inches tall. Their flowers are inconspicuous little bells less than a half-inch long, whitish yellow with brown spots. They set fruit sparingly until mid- season, when they finally produce large clusters of fruit that develop inside green ish husks. These dry when ripe to a lacy brown paper. The fruits are green and unpalatable until ripe, when they turn a rich golden yellowish brown. Small But Sweet: The fruits are the size of blueberries, and are intensely sweet with a low acid finish. They’re surprisingly savory and good for preserves, although I prefer them in a once-every-five-years version of ground cherry pie. More often than that, and I get squeamish. Order ground cherry seed from Nichols Garden Nursery, 1190 North Pacific Highway, Albany, Oregon 97321. A packet plus handling charge is $1.65. You’ll enjoy having the Nichols catalog of herbs and rare seeds, too. [This info may be dated++the article is three years old. S.C.] Plant the seeds in the spring in an out-of-the-way part of the garden and make sure the area is not allowed to undergo severe water stress. Ground cherries are hardy, but not drought-proof. They’ll grow in any good garden soil. If you can avoid eating them all out of hand, try the pie. Jeff Cox, a Bay Area resident, an editor and writer for Rodale Press and author of several gardening books. Directions Gently mix together. ground cherries, sugar, tapioca, flour and lemon juice. Let stand for 15 minutes while you line a 9-inch pie pan with half of the pastry. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Turn the fruit, mixture into the pastry- lined pan, and dot the top with the butter. Cover with a well-pricked top crust or lattice work of dough. Bake at 450F for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350F and bake for another 40 minutes, or until golden brown. San Francisco Chronicle, 12/7/88. Yields 1 servings
Apricot Amaretto Cake
Ingredients & Directions 1/2 c Almonds; sliced 1 c Coconut; flaked, toasted 1/3 c Brown sugar; packed 3 ts Butter, softened 1 3/4 c Flour 1 ts Baking soda 1/4 ts Salt 1/2 c Butter 3/4 c Brown sugar; packed 3 Eggs 1/2 c Apricot preserves 1/4 c Sour cream 1/4 c Amaretto 2/3 c Dried apricots; snipped Grease a 10″ microwave-safe fluted tube dish. Sprinkle almonds over sides. Combine coconut, 1/3 cup brown sugar and 3 tbsp butter. Press into bottom of dish. Set aside. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat 1/2 cup butter. Add 3/4 cup brown sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs, preserves and sour cream. Beat well. Add flour mixture and Amaretto, alternately, to beaten mixture, beating well after each addition. Fold in apricots. Transfer batter to prepared dish. Micro cook, uncovered, on 50 % power (medium) for 12 minutes, giving dish a quarter turn every 5 minutes. To test for doneness, scratch the slightly wet surface with a wooden toothpick. The cake should be cooked underneath. If not done, cook on 100 % (high) for 30 seconds to 2 minutes or until done. Cool on rack for 5 minutes. Invert and cool on a platter. From Yields 12 Servings
Buttermilk Chive Biscuits
Ingredients & Directions 2 c All-purpose flour 2 ts Baking powder 1/2 ts Baking soda 1/2 ts Salt 1/2 c Chilled butter; (1 stick) -cut into Small pieces 3/4 c Buttermilk 2 tb Chopped chives Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir with a fork to blend and mix well. Add the butter and, using you fingers as a pastry blender, work the butter and flour together until the mixture looks like irregular crumbs. Add the buttermilk and the chives. Mix only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Gather the dough into a ball, pressing it to hold together and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly about 12 times. Pat the dough into a circle, keeping it about 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick. Use a 2-inch cookie cutter to cut rounds and place on a baking sheet. Bake about 10 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned. Serve warm. Yield: 15 biscuits Yields 15 Servings
Tesque Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients & Directions 2 c Sugar 2 ts Baking soda 2 c Vegetable shortening 1 ts Salt 2 c Cooked pumpkin 1 ts Grated nutmeg 2 Eggs, beaten 1/2 ts Ground allspice 2 ts Vanilla extract 2 c Raisins 4 c All purpose flour 1 c Chopped walnuts Most of the pueblos in New Mexico are relatively close to one another. As I traveled throughout these pueblos I began to notice how similar some of the recipes were that were being shared with me. I then learned that many of the women bring prepared foods over to other pueblos as an act of graciousness during Feast Days or other celebrations. As a result, each pueblo has developed its own version of certain recipes. I learned this particular recipe from the women of the Tesuque Pueblo just north of Santa Fe. The recipe yields seven dozen cookies, and if you choose, you can cut the recipe in half. But I advise you to bake the full amount. The cookies are delicious and not too sweet and will disappear faster than you could imagine. ***** Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a large cookie sheet. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and shortening. Add the pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla and beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and allspice. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture, small amounts at a time, until completely mi8xed together. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. Drop tablespoonfuls of the dough roughly 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. From “Native American Cooking,” by Lois Ellen Frank Yields 7 dozen
Best Cake
Ingredients & Directions 2 c Flour 2 c Sugar 2 Eggs 1 ts Vanilla 2 ts Baking soda 1 c Chopped walnuts 1 cn (20 Oz.) crushed pineapple; -with juice FROSTING 8 oz Cream cheese 1 Stick margarine 1 1/2 c Dark brown sugar 1 ts Vanilla Put all ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a spoon until well blended, pour into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 deg. for 35 min. While it’s baking, mix the frosting. “Frosting” Beat with electric mixer until smooth and creamy, Pour over warm cake and poke with a fork to let some of the frosting seep down into the cake. Serve warm or cold, equally good.This is the most popular recipe I’ve ever used. It came from the “Kalamazoo Gazette” in Kalamazoo Michigan. Yields 1 Servings
