Grandmother Whitehead's Famous Texas Fudge Cake
Ingredients & Directions 1/3 c Cocoa 2 Sticks; (1 cup) butter or -margarine 2 c Flour 2 c Sugar 1 ts Baking soda 1/2 ts Salt 2 lg Eggs 1/2 c Sour cream or buttermilk; -(sour cream is richer) 1 ts Vanilla -ICING- 3/4 Stick; (3/8 cup) butter or -margarine 1/4 c Milk 3 tb Cocoa 3/4 Box powdered sugar 3/4 c Finely chopped nuts of your -choice 1 ts Vanilla 1. Preheat the oven to 350(F. Butter an 11×15-inch pan. Put cocoa in a medium saucepan; gradually stir in 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Add butter or margarine and let melt. Set aside. 2. Sift together onto wax paper the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt; add to the hot mixture. Lightly beat the eggs and add them to the mixture along with sour cream and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until it feels firm in the center. 3. While the cake is baking, prepare the icing. In a saucepan, combine butter or margarine, milk, and cocoa; bring to a boil. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add chopped nuts and vanilla. Spread over the hot cake. Cook before cutting. By Mary Olsen Kelly from Chicken Soup for the Soul Cookbook Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Diana von Welanetz Wentworth The Best Birthday I come from a family of great cooks. My grandmother is famous for her Texas Fudge Cake and pies of all kinds. My mother is an excellent cook who can make something from nothing, and whose Doomsday Cookies (see page 20) are a gift from the gods. My sister is a true culinary artist who delights in mastering the most challenging recipes she can find. Somehow, the great cooking gene was mutated in me, but I nonetheless appreciate the talents of the rest of my family. Food is really just an excuse to spend time together, in my mutant opinion. One of the best gatherings we have had in the name of food was my brother’s 26th birthday. For me, it changed forever the meaning of the annual celebration; it was The Best Birthday. All the family gathered at my sister’s beautiful Southwestern-style home in northern California for an evening of gourmet food and birthday cake. The meal was sumptuous – Barbara had outdone herself – and as we all reached for seconds, we suddenly realized that this meal, no matter how exquisite, was not going to be complete without hearing from the birthday boy. Bob started to give a little speech, then said, “I feel like I am pretty confused at this age. What I’d really like is to hear what each of you were doing when you were 26.” We all settled more deeply into our chairs, and there was silence as each person thought back to an earlier time: 26…not yet 30. Still so young yet truly an adult. One by one, we spoke of our thoughts and dreams at 26. I told of graduating with a master’s degree in theater, eschewing a comfortable teaching position in favor of moving to New York City and struggling to become an actress. Ah, the terrifying yet soulful life of a starving artist with so many dreams at 26. My sister spoke of hitchhiking around Europe for years, then coming home and turning her life around at that exact age. We all nodded, remembering what a dramatic change she had made in herself then. My dad talked softly and with great difficulty about the death of his first child. The baby boy was just six weeks old when he died of heart complications. My father was only 26 when he lost the son who would have been our older brother. One by one, we spoke. We celebrated birth, confusion, change and loss as the wheel of my brother’s life turned. Another birthday, the passing of yet another year. And yes, we ate the famous Texas Fudge Cake since it is my brother’s favorite. It tasted especially wonderful that night. Yields 12 Servings
Orange Butter Cakes
Ingredients & Directions 3 1/2 c Flour 2 ts Baking powder 1/4 ts Salt 1 c Butter; softened 1 1/3 c Sugar 2 ts Vanilla 2 Eggs 1 c Orange peel; candied Finely chopped Glaze: 3 c Powdered sugar 3/4 c Grand marnier 6 tb Orange peel candied strips DESCRIPTION: Dainty little cakes, glazed with Grand Marnier, baked in fancy tartlet tins, are beautiful as well as delicious. Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter 36, 2 1/2-inch tartlet tins. Combine flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla and egg, then add grand Marnier 1 TBL at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in flour mixture in 1/2-cup increments, blending after each addition. Stir in orange peel. Fill buttered tins 2/3 full. Use fingertips to press dough into tins so it conforms to sides, level off top of dough. Arrange tins on baking sheets and bake 15-18 minutes until golden. Let cakes rest 3 minutes, then turn out of molds onto a rack over waxed paper. If necessary, use the tip of a knife to loosen cakes from molds. Leave cakes upside down. The bottoms become the tops of cakes. GLAZE: While cakes are baking, prepare glaze. Combine suger and half the Grand Marnier. Add enough additional Grand Marnier to make a smooth creamy glaze of medium consistency. Spoon over warm cookies, covering tops and allowing glaze to drizzle down sides of cakes. Sprinkle a few strips of candied orange peel on top of glazed cookies. Cool completely on racks. Store in airtight container at room temperature 3-4 days, freeze for longer storage. From “The Joy of Cookies,” Yields 36 Servings
Easy But Good Bread
Ingredients & Directions Mix 2C flour with 1 t salt (I use 1/2 whole wheat flour and adjust water) Scald 1/2 C milk. Add in 1 1/2 C boiling water and let cool to lukewarm. Dissolve 1 package yeast in 1/4 C lukewarm water. Add the dissolved yeast to the milk/water and add to the dry ingredients, along with 1 T sugar and 1 1/2 T oil. Mix well but don’t knead. Cover and let rise until almost doubled in bulk. Punch down. Form into two sort of flat shapes. Roll each (sort of jellyroll like) into two loaves. They’ll be a little longer and thinner than average bread. Cover and let rise again until almost doubled in bulk, or until a finger indentation doesn’t disappear after a few minutes. Place on oiled cookie sheet. Place a pie pan with 1/2 ” of boiling water on the bottom of the oven. Bake 15 minutes at 400 and 30 minutes at 350. You know it’s done when it sounds hollow when tapped on crust. Yields 1 Servings
Potato Bread Or Rolls
Ingredients & Directions 2 pk Yeast 2 c Mashed potatoes 1 c Warm water 2 c Hot potato water 1 1/3 c Crisco 3 Eggs 1 1/2 c Sugar Bread flour 3 ts Salt 1 Stick melted butter or -margarine Put on 4 to 5 potatoes to boil in salted water until tender. Be sure you have at least 3 cups of water to boil them in, because you will need 2 cups of the hot water in the recipe. Pour off 2 cups of potato water and set aside. Pour out the rest and mash the potatoes. Dissolve 2 pkgs. yeast in 1 cup warm water and set aside. Mix together Crisco, sugar, salt, mashed potatoes, and potato water. Let cool. Add yeast and eggs. Gradually add flour to make stiff dough. It will be several cups. Raise dough in greased bowl (I use a big stainless steel bowl that I coat with cooking oil. Be sure to cover bowl with dishtowel or something to keep dough out of draft. Works best in a warm place). When doubled in size, punch down and separate into either greased loaf pans or make rolls in muffin tins. Brush with melted butter. Let rise again (be sure to cover). When doubled, bake in 350 oven for 30 to 45 minutes depending on whether your making loafs or rolls and also how your oven bakes – until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with butter again and enjoy some of the best bread you ever ate! When cool, I store in large ziploc bags. Yields 1 Servings
Iced Molasses Cookies
Ingredients & Directions 1 c Molasses 1 c White sugar 1 c Shortening 1 c Hot water 3 ts Baking soda 1 ts Ground ginger 2 ts Cinnamon 6 c (approx.) flour, sifted FROSTING 2 Egg whites 3 c Confectioners sugar 1/2 ts Vanilla Food coloring (optional) Children love these because the ginger and molasses flavors are not overwhelming. In a large bowl, mix molasses, sugar, shortening and hot water. Stir to combine thoroughly, although shortening doesn’t need to melt completely. In a separate bowl, mix baking soda, ginger and cinnamon with 4 cups of flour. Mix into liquids, stirring to blend well. Gradually add enough of the additional flour to make a dough stiff enough to roll. Chill 1-2 hours before baking. Preheat oven to 350?. Grease cookie sheets. Roll out dough to about 1/6-inch thick and cut shapes with your favorite cookie cutter. Bake 8-11 minutes at 350? until done. Cool completely and frost with decorative frosting. Cookies can also be dusted with decorative sugar or sprinkles prior to baking. To make frosting, beat egg whites until frothy, then beat in sugar and vanilla. If you like, separate the icing into several bowls and add a drop or two of food coloring. To yellow, add 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract. Yield: 7-10 dozen, depending on size of cookie cutters. Martina Boudreau, St. Louis, MO Randy Shearer From Yields 1 Servings
Tyropittakia (cheese Pies)
Ingredients & Directions 8 oz Feta cheese 2 oz Gruyere cheese or cottage Cheese (see note) 2 Eggs (lightly beaten) – 2 tb Fresh mint or dill, finely Chopped 8 To 10 sheets of fillo pastry 3 oz Melted butter Oil for greasing Preheat the oven to 350 F/ 180 C/ gas mark 4. To make the filling, drain the feta of its salty water and crumble into a bowl with a fork or fingers. Add the Gruyere/cottage cheese, eggs and dill/mint to the Feta and mix well. Cut the whole stack of fillo pastry into 3/4 long strips about 3 inches wide. Brush each sheet with melted butter, place a (quite heaped) teaspoon of filling at one end (in the corner). Fold over diagonally to cover and keep folding into triangular pies – making sure that all sides have as many layers as possible to avoid spillage. Place the pies on an oiled baking sheet, brush the tops with butter and bake for 20 minutes or until crisp and light golden. Good when warm – can keep for a few days in an airtight container. You could also use more spinach instead of the herbs and decrease the amount of cheese used proportionally. (note: Here in the UK Feta is saltier than in Greece so this is why these ingredients are added) Time: 50 minutes Yields 25 Pies
Minted Summer Fruit Spongecakes
Ingredients & Directions === SPONGECAKES === 2 lg Eggs 1/3 c Sugar 1/3 c All-purpose flour 1 tb Cornstarch 3 tb Unsalted butter; melted, and Cooled slightly === FRUIT === 1 pt Blackberries; washed, shaken -dry 1 Mango; pitted, and Cut into 3/4″ chunks 2 tb Fresh lemon juice 3 tb Sugar -; (to 4 tbspns) 1/4 c Mint leaves -; (packed), -thinly ; sliced Sour cream; for garnish Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line eight 1/2-cup muffin tins with paper liners. In a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water whisk together eggs and sugar until sguar is dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and with a hand-held mixer beat mixture at moderately-high speed until doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Sift flour, cornstarch, and a pinch of salt over egg mixtrue and fold in gently but thoroughly. Drizzle butter over batter and fold in gently but thoroughly. Divide batter among muffin tins and bake in middle of oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Cool spongecakes in tins on a rack 10 minutes. Remove spongecakes from tins and cool completely. In a bowl combine the strawberries, mango, lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of sugar and mint and toss to combine. Let fruit stand for 20 minutes, taste and add more sugar if necessary. Peel off paper liners from spongecakes and halve horizontally. Serve halved spongecakes with fruit and juices, garnishing with sour cream. This recipe yields 8 servings. Yields 8 servings
