Pumpkin Pie Squares

I'm a pumpkin pie purist, but there's real appeal in these over-the-top Pumpkin Pie Squares.
For one, you needn't mess with a pie crust and for less work, you can serve a lot more hungry family members at Thanksgiving.  The recipe says this makes 12 portions, but you can easily feed 20 folks, it's so rich and sweet.  The three-layer dessert has a flour, butter and oatmeal crust; a pumpkin custard in the center, all covered with a praline-like topping. (That's the over-the-top part.)

I found this recipe in a large collection from Missouri -- I suspect it dates from the 1950s or so. Back when a can of pumpkin puree was 16 ounces.  Nowadays, most cans contain just 15 ounces.  So while the "supersize me" movement continues in fast food, the "shrink me and hope the consumer won't notice" movement is happening at the grocery store.  But don't worry, because at least in this case, 15 ounces of pumpkin is fine in this recipe.

Prepare the crust first -- I used a food processor to cut the butter (oleo, called for in the recipe, is short for oleomargarine, but I wouldn't use margarine in this) into the dry ingredients.  Press the crust into the pan (I lined it with foil for ease of clean-up -- thanks, Mom!), using your fingers.

While the crust is baking, prepare the pumpkin custard.

You can create mosaics with the sugar and spices (before dumping them in the liquid), if you feel that creative urge take over.

I baked the center about five minutes longer than called for in the recipe, removed the pan from the oven and then sprinkled the topping over the custard.  Don't cut when it's fresh from the oven.  Let it sit awhile.  And then, dig in.  Delish!

Cocoa Apple Cake

What a perfect, yet unusual, combination -- fresh apples, cocoa and chocolate.  And autumn is the perfect time to make this delicious cake, for apples are in season and chocolate always is.

Fresh apple cakes have been popular for decades -- I have about a dozen hand-written recipes in my collection, dating from about 1900 onward.  There are also a lot of applesauce cakes, a genre invented, I suppose, as a way to use the canned surplus from the apple harvest (and only recently co-opted as a way to bake with less fat, as in replace the butter with applesauce).

Out of all my recipes, I chose this one just out of curiosity: would this odd combo work?  The verdict: yes, and very well.  And even better the second day.

Let's get started.  Chop the apples into a small dice; don't worry if the the pieces aren't uniform.

This is a beautiful, smooth batter, until . . .

The chopped apples, nuts and chocolate chips are added.

The recipe, below, is unusual too.  In some ways, it's quite detailed (ingredient amounts, method) but then it fails to mention which cake pan to use (I used a 10" tube pan) or a baking time estimate (I baked it about 45 minutes).
Enjoy!

Biscuit Amnesia

You know you bake a lot when you can't recall making the exact same recipe for the same guests just a few months apart.

On Saturday, we had a last minute impromptu family (and children's friends) dinner, and I was delighted to come across a hand-typed recipe card for baking powder biscuits thinking I could whip these up for dinner (and later, my blog).

DD, left, and DS, right, enjoy some biscuits with DS's friend Ben (who just got into medical school -- congrats Ben!)

So I snapped a couple of pictures before these were gobbled up, but when I sat down to write the post I realized I had made these for DD and her boyfriend, the "evacuees" we sheltered during Hurricane Irene in August.   I called them Drizzle Biscuits, because the storm in Brooklyn was just that.

But since these are quite good biscuits and can be made while entertaining a kitchen full of guests, wine glass in hand, I thought I'd post them again. I have a dozen or so recipes for biscuits, but I guess this one keeps calling my name because it has the highest fat content (and that's a good thing).  Too bad it doesn't make them unforgettable!

Check out the vintage handmade biscuit cozy (top picture) I purchased at a stoop sale a while back.  What a clever and ingenious way to showcase biscuits (and keep them warm at the same time).

Grandmother's Ice Cream Cookies

I wish these were as marvelous as they sound.  But instead of being "lovely for afternoon tea" as described in the recipe, the cookies tasted like, well, a cow pasture.  And I know the culprit -- farm fresh butter that turned out to be a *bit* too assertive for the recipe.

I love butter to the point that in Paris, for example, I spend as much time in fromageries buying butter as in museums looking at art.

But this particular butter (purchased at the wonderful Saxelby's in the Essex Market) while delicious on bread, did not work in these shortbread-like cookies where butter is the star. I wanted to taste sunshine and cream; instead the flavor was of damp meadow grass.

Ironically, this is probably exactly what these cookies tasted like to Grandmother, who surely used farm fresh butter in baking.

The recipe is from Mrs. Osborn's Cakes of Quality, published in 1919.   Those who want to try this, using a mild but good butter (Plugra, for example), will find that the dough is too soft to knead.  I just formed it into a circle and placed between waxed paper in the fridge for a few minutes, before fitting it into a 9-inch cake pan and baking. Next, invite the grandchildren over for some cookies and ice cream.

Mom's Devils Food Cake with Chocolate Mocha Icing

After my last chocolate cake disaster, I decided to get right back on the horse. Plus, I was visiting my mother and wanted to make her something sweet.  And very chocolate-y.

Because I was in Akron, with no bodega nearby for last minute supplies, I ended up combining two recipes (found in the cookbook below):  Mom's Chocolate Cake and Devil's Food Cake, taking the best of each (based, of course, on what was in the pantry).   Both were easy -- and very, very good.  As an added bonus, there wasn't a "cake slide," i.e., the cake stayed put on the plate.

 

Even though the cake batter at first will seem too crumbly, it will smooth out after the liquid is added. (When adding liquid and dry ingredients alternately, always start and finish with the dry ingredients.)

This is a very thick cake batter, and once you spoon it into the pan, you'll need to spread it using a knife or offset spatula until the batter covers the bottom of the pan.  Don't worry if it's not perfect -- the heat of the oven will smooth it out.

The frosting is so old-fashioned as to have a raw egg yolk as an ingredient.  Be not afraid.  Use the yolk, as it adds a certain richness that can't be achieved any other way.  I only use organic eggs, from chickens that are named on the carton (only kidding about that last one, but do buy local eggs laid by non-caged birds, for both safety and taste reasons).  I made the frosting as directed, and left the cake unrefrigerated for a few days; no one felt any ill effects, other than pants fitting a bit too snugly.

The best thing about baking a cake is sharing it with friends and family.  Below, from left, Aunt Toots, Cousin Debbie, Mother Bee and Debbie's Friend Jay.

Mom's Devils Food Cake
1/2 c. butter
2 c. flour
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Sift together cocoa, flour, salt and baking soda; add alternately with milk to creamed mixture.  Add vanilla extract.
Pour into 2 greased and floured eight or nine inch pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.  Cool and remove from pans.

Chocolate Icing
1 box powdered sugar
2 sq. bitter (unsweetened) chocolate
1/3 stick butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
cold coffee

Melt chocolate and butter together.  Add to all other ingredients.  Add coffee until desired thickness.

Loaf Bread Apple Pie

Curious about this unusual recipe?  I was too, and wondered:  Was this something brand new, an alternate to the usual crisps, crumbles, cobblers and pandowdys, bettys, buckles and grunts?  The answer: Yes.   But, to my mind (and taste buds) although perhaps not *quite* as good as the other batter-topped fruit desserts, the ingenuity behind this creation is impressive.

The good news is, you probably have everything you need to make this; the entire mise en place for the recipe is pictured above.  The better news is, it's easy and delicious and does taste like apple pie.  The most time-consuming part of it was melting the butter.  And for those who think pie is too much trouble, Loaf Bread Pie isn't -- so long as you can cut a slice of bread.

Slice up the apples, and sprinkle them with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Arrange the bread slices on the apples, and pour the mixture of melted butter, egg and sugar over the whole "pie."

It doesn't look great when it emerges from the oven, but cut a piece -- I used two bread "slices" per serving -- and it looks fine when plated.  And no one will ever mistake your dessert for store bought.

DS's friend Andrew, a very enthusiastic eater, took a break from playing pool in our basement to sample a slice.  He really liked it, especially the contrast between the crunchy bread topping and the cooked apples.  After Andrew had his fill and, not wanting to devour the entire dessert myself, I called on my neighbor Elizabeth, mother of two teenage boys, who happily took the *pie*  off my hands.

I suspect the recipe, below, was one of those created by a housewife who wanted to make an apple pie, but lacked either the time or ingredients and so came up with this gem, proving once again that necessity (and a sweet tooth) is the mother of invention.

Slip Sliding Away: Chocolate Soldier Cake

The past few weeks have not been easy.  I've had some bad news, some uncertain news and no news (which I don't think is good news).  So to lift my spirits, I decided to make what promised to be a fail-proof three-layer chocolate cake.  After all, the recipe is called Soldier Cake (implying a certain reliability, right?) and is from a 1935 cooking school (meaning it's tested, right?)  Let's just say that next time I'll be having the wine, thank you.

This was a bit of a disaster from the get-go.  The frosting turned to hard (albeit delicious) fudge, burning out the motor on my trusty hand-mixer.  To salvage it (as the three cake layers were waiting patiently on the counter), I heated the mixture, transferred it to my Kitchenaid mixer and began adding butter.  Only I wasn't as patient as the cake layers and too late realized that the butter was simply melting into the frosting and not adding the texture it needed.

Forging ahead, I simply frosted the cake with this mixture and crossed my fingers.  That's when the fun began.  The layers starting shifting, such that DH urged me to videotape the movement, which culminated with a section of the cake sliding off the cake stand, falling to the counter below.

Undeterred, I cut a slice.  And lo and behold (not that I should have been surprised), something happened such that the cake had several white spots where some chemical reaction (which I'll investigate) occurred, marring the pure chocolate surface.

In the end, DS and his friends each had a big slice.  There were no complaints (not that I expected any from a bunch of 22-year-old hungry young men)  Of course, I too had a slice, and it was pretty tasty.  Although this cake was the triumph I'd imagined, it made me laugh out loud.  And what's better than that?  

The Chocolate Soldier Cake class was taught on April 1.  Hmmm....
Anyway, this goes to show that things aren't always as they appear and that published recipes are not necessarily better than those hand-written by housewives.