baking

60-minute rolls to the rescue!

~ nancyruth ~ 1 Comment

Here’s the setting: Thanksgiving Eve afternoon Granddaughter and I are making bread rolls. I had found a recipe that makes three dozen which is the amount needed, a dozen for our annual Thanksgiving Eve Birthday Feast (for Granddaughter and Son-in-Law) and two dozen to take with us to Step-daughter’s house on Thanksgiving Day. Granddaughter and I were enjoying watching the dough being kneaded in the KitchenAid mixer and admiring how it pulled away from the sides. We enjoyed poking at the dough and were pleased with its elasticity. We divided the dough after the first rise into three sections. I showed her how to divide her section up into twelve “equal” pieces and she set about making cloverleaf rolls in the muffin tin. I arranged two dozen rolls in the 9 x 13-inch pan for overnight rise and baking in the morning. All was good.

Except…for some reason I decided to actually paint the rolls with egg wash. Granddaughter painted her rolls with the brush and then I had her paint mine. We let her rolls rise and then baked them for our dinner feast and they were delicious. No leftovers. The larger pan was covered loosely with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for overnight.

Thanksgiving morning arrives. We have our breakfast of eggs, bacon, juice and of course coffee. I have let the overnight rolls sit on the counter for at least an hour to take the chill off. They look okay. I figure they will have an oven rise and puff up nicely. They bake and when I pull them out of the oven they look sad. They are done but they look very sad.

What to do? We are trying to leave the house by 10:00 AM to drive 3 1/2 hours to New Jersey for dinner today.

I have a reputation as a baker to maintain in this family. I don’t think I can take these and present them in good conscience. It’s 9:10 AM at this point. This is where 60-minute rolls come in. I have them in the Fleischmann’s Bake-it-easy Yeast Book, which is more of a booklet. The one I have was published and printed in 1971. This has been a standard roll recipe through the years and I am relieved to have thought of this. I’m making the bread dough and am at the second rising when Hubby starts shooing folks on their way saying we are wanting to leave at 10:00 and it was now 9:50 AM. I have to tell him we are slightly delayed because the rolls are not baked yet. Daughter reports she remembers using this recipe for our Christmas Eve dinner and half for Cinnamon Rolls for Christmas morning when it was just her, Son, and me. We say our goodbyes to the visiting family all who have other destinations for the day and start packing the car for our journey. We are on the road by 10:45 AM. All told the Sixty Minute Rolls took 1 hour and 10 minutes.

  • 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 Tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 packages active dry yeast
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup butter

In the large bowl of the stand mixer thoroughly mix 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt, and undissolved yeast.

Combine milk and water and butter in a Pyrex measuring cup and microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes until the temperature is between 120 and 130 degrees F. Butter does not have to melt. Gradually add this to the dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Add 1/2 cup more flour and beat at high speed for 2 minutes. Add additional flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. I use the bread hook of the mixer. Put in greased bowl, turing to grease the top. Cover and let rise in warm place for about 15 minutes.

Turn onto lightly floured board and shape into 24 rolls. Place in greased pan and let rise, free from draft, for 15 minutes. Bake at 425 degrees F for about 12 minutes until done.

Notes:

  • In my haste I believe I used only one packet of yeast. Actually, I used 2 1/2 teaspoons of Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Instant Yeast. I have since made the recipe again and used the proper amount of yeast and they do rise a bit more.
  • Also, the instructions for the first rising say to put the bowl in a pan of warm water. I have never done this, ever.
  • I use the microwave for heating the liquids, one can use the stovetop. I always use a thermometer to test the temperature.
  • I use the same mixer bowl as the greased bowl by moving the dough to one side, brushing the pan with oil (or cooking spray), rotating the bread back to the other side and adding more oil. Holding on the ball of bread dough and swirling in the bowl makes sure it is oiled all over. Granddaughter enjoyed doing that bit.
  • I don’t remember why I had brushed the rolls with egg wash before the second rise after shaping. That does not make sense. I wonder if I let both pans have their second rise and then brushed with egg wash right before the first pan went into the oven and the larger pan go into the fridge? I generally don’t use egg wash anyway. Odd!

We arrived on-time to family in New Jersey with our rolls, Hubby’s stuffing, and “the best ever chocolate cake you have ever eaten in your life”! Step-daughter renamed the Best-Ever Chocolate Cake that I have been making since my childhood.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all, and Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

A Fussy Chocolate Cake

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

I was reading Paul Hollywood’s new cookbook, Celebrate: Joyful Baking All Year Round, and his famous chocolate cake recipe is in there. I like chocolate cake. I have several go-to recipes but thought I would try this one. After all, it is famous!

For this cake one needs to have a full container of cocoa powder and three 4-ounce bars of bittersweet chocolate, plus sour cream and heavy cream, and three-plus sticks of butter. It calls for a frosting and a ganache and raspberries, fresh and frozen. My substitutions were as follows:

  1. Unsweetened chocolate for bittersweet as I forgot to look up the difference.
  2. Frozen cherries as raspberries are not in season and are rather expensive.
  3. A completely different ganache using dark chocolate chips and not needing 7 more ounces of bittersweet chocolate and heavy cream which I forgot to buy.

For the cake:

  • 1 ½ sticks butter, softened
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups sour cream (plus one tablespoon, which I forgot)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder (this is a huge amount!)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups frozen cherries

Grease three 8-inch cake pans and line with parchment paper. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. He calls for using the whisk attachment but I used the paddle which I use for all cakes. Scrape down the batter and whisk again. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla, and sour cream with the mixer on low speed.

Stir the dry ingredients together and add large spoonfuls by spoonfuls to the batter while mixer is still on low speed until fully incorporated. Use a spatula to fold in the fruit.

Spread the batter in the prepared pans. This was a thick batter and a bit difficult to spread in the lined pans. Bake for 25 minutes until the cakes have risen slightly and start to pull away from the sides. My cakes took 30 minutes and did not appear to rise significantly but tested as done. Leave the cakes in the pans for 5 minutes and then remove to wire racks to cool.

For the frosting:

  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
  • ¾ cup cocoa powder (it’s a lot of chocolate here)
  • 5 Tablespoons boiling water
  • 1 ½ sticks of butter
  • scant ¾ cup powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool slightly. Mix the cocoa and boiling water to form a paste. I had to add an extra Tablespoon of water. In the mixer bowl, beat the butter until very soft and then add the powdered sugar and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate and the cocoa paste and beat until smooth. When the cake is cool, spread one-third of the frosting between each layer and on top. Spread around the sides of the cake and let sit for one hour.

When frosting is set, make a ganache and pour over the whole cake. Decorate with the fresh fruit.

  • For my ganache I melted one cup dark chocolate chips with 1/3 cup evaporated milk, boiled for one minute, removed from heat, and then whisked in 2 Tablespoons butter. This needs to be mixed until it thickens. I poured it over the cake a bit too soon and had a bit of runoff. But that cleaned up tastily!

Thoughts:

  • I had expected the cake to rise a bit more than it did. This may be because it is on the mixer for a long time and I may have beat the air out of the eggs or the baking powder was old. I have since tested the baking powder and it is active so that is not the culprit.
  • So this is a dense cake in texture and in chocolate flavor. It is like a fudgy brownie and not cake-like. After three days I felt like I had overdosed on chocolate. And I like chocolate!
  • The cherries were a nice touch.
  • Definitely serve with vanilla ice cream.

Banana Oat Muffins

~ nancyruth ~ 2 Comments

I finally got around to tackling the clearing out of my baking cabinet. This corner cabinet holds the flour, sugar, flavorings, and all the other items needed for baking, including pans. In removing everything before rearranging I found that I have a variety of flours that I should start using. One of these was oat flour and on the back of the bag was this recipe. It used only oat flour and rolled oats, no all-purpose flour needed. And I had some overripe bananas languishing in the freezer.

The problem with baking and wanting to bake is that Hubby and I are the only ones to eat the baked goods and we do not need to be eating all these baked goods, tasty though they may be. So Church was having a brunch which gave me opportunity to have a baking weekend. Yay! I made two things for the brunch and one for Hubby and me, mostly Hubby. This also gave me material for three blogs. Stay tuned for the others.

This recipe is on the back of a bag of Bob’s Red Mill oat flour. I could not figure out if this recipe is also on their website. They do have a number of recipes on there.

  • 2 cups oat flour
  • ½ cup rolled oats
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup mashed bananas, about 3 small
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For this recipe I used nondairy oat milk and avocado oil. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and put paper liners in a 12 cup muffin pan. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix everything else in the bowl of your mixer to combine thoroughly. Stir these together and then divide into the muffin cups. Bake 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool in pan a few minutes before removing to wire rack to cool.

These are light and airy which surprised me. A touch of butter and jam would go well with these muffins. They had some banana flavor but it was mild.

Old-Fashioned Custard Pie

~ nancyruth ~ 5 Comments

I like custard: tarts, pies, plain, caramel, the lot. I was wandering the house wanting to make a simple dessert of some sort. I looked up custard in several cookbooks and settled on the custard pie from Pushcarts and Stalls: the Soulard Market History Cookbook. When in St. Louis I like visiting the Soulard Market. Just walking into the spice shop is an olfactory treat.

I had one sheet of frozen puff pastry which I took out to thaw. I thought a puff pastry crust would add a bit of interest to a custard pie. Custard is milk/cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Very simple and most ingredients are already in most kitchens.

  • One unbaked pastry shell
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cups cream: I had 1 1/2 cups cream so I topped it off with oatmilk.
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • Nutmeg
  • 1 egg white beaten until frothy

I omitted the last two ingredients. I forgot completely about the nutmeg, and did not bother coating the inside of the pie shell with the egg white.

I blind baked the puff pastry in the pie tin. I should have rolled it out a bit to fit better but I did not. This would have prevented a bit of seepage behind the crust. Ten minutes in a 400 degrees F oven did nicely.

Beat the custard ingredients in a mixer with a whisk or just by hand. Pour into the pie shell. Place on a baking sheet (important in case of leakage) and bake for 30 minutes.

In rereading the recipe now I find that I was supposed to reduce the temperature of the oven to 350 for the pie and the higher temperature was for the par-baking of the shell. Well, my pie took 35 minutes at the higher temperature anyway.

It was not that pretty coming out of the oven. So I found a small amount of frozen mixed berries in the freezer and cooked those down with a splash of cranberry juice to make a small compote to serve with the pie.

This was a tasty pie. It is not too sweet and the puff pastry was a nice shell for it. It made it a bit lighter than a regular piecrust. Yummy!

Another Basque Cheesecake

~ nancyruth ~ 5 Comments

It has been a while since I last wrote. I am going to try to write again but in my retirement I have been embracing the “I don’t have to” about schedules and activities. Yes, I do pay the bills and minimally clean the house and get up and dressed every day, feed the dog, cook sometimes, keep medical appointments, etc. I guess there is a lot of things I do but on my own time. I have not been baking a whole lot in the summer between heat waves and camping trips.

I was perusing the New York Times cooking section and they listed a number of favorite fall baking recipes that looked and sounded interesting. This Basque Cheesecake was one of them. I know I have made a Basque Cheesecake before but that was the King Arthur Flour recipe which I apparently altered slightly. It is somewhere in a past blog post. Here is the link for this one https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024483-basque-cheesecake.

I gathered all the ingredients. Well, actually, I wandered off to the grocery store to buy more cream cheese. This calls for 4 ½  packages! I had heavy cream from making pastry cream for cream puffs recently. And 5 eggs which, luckily, have come down in price. Line a 10-inch spring-form pan with parchment paper that extends up the sides. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

  • 1 ¾ cups sugar
  • 36 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 5 large eggs
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour

Cream the cheese and sugar in a stand mixer. I mixed this for 5 minutes. Add the bit of salt. Then beat in eggs one at a time. Then the cream. Sift the flour on top and mix in. This makes a lot of batter. Pour this into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes until “burnt” on top. Let cool completely before removing from the pan. This is a large cake so having flat spatulas on hand to help move it to a cake plate will be handy.

Voila!

This is a light cheese cake, not at all dense like New York Style. But it is very pleasant.

Four Leaf Clover Rolls (KAF)

~ nancyruth ~ 1 Comment

Today is a good baking day. It is at least 20 degrees cooler than yesterday. Saturday was an out of doors kind of day: picked up dog poo, unwrapped the camper trailer, fixed bicycles, got out the lawn chairs and table, and had lunch outside. Truth be told, Hubby did most of the work. I made the lunch and brought it outside. The poor dog; he did not know what to do with himself at first. He does not seem to like laying on the lawn or sitting on the patio. By patio, I mean a section of concrete squares that surround the basement bulkhead, nothing pretty and designed.

Again I am making something from King Arthur Flour. Their catalog comes in the mail trying to sell me all sorts of baking items and has these few recipes in it. For this recipe they want you to use an Irish-style flour and some baking papers. Well, I used whole wheat flour (Bob’s Red Mill) and a jumbo muffin pan and two  8-ounce ramekins. I used raisins because I did not have currants, and I did not toast the walnuts.

The recipe link is here: the recipe.

My ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour; I always use unbleached but differing brands.
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt; I use kosher salt because I used to watch Alton Brown and i think he always used it.
  • 2 tablespoons honey; remember to spray your spoon with cooking spray first and it will slide right off; I forgot.
  • 2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
  • 1 cup lukewarm tap water
  • 2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1//2 cup raisins

20170226_192341860_iosThe instructions are simple and fabulous: Mix and knead all the ingredients until the dough is smooth and elastic. This took just over two minutes in the Kitchen-Aid stand mixer with the bread hook. Grease the bowl, cover, and let rise until puffy about 60-90 minutes. I let mine rest for about 75 minutes.

This makes eight large rolls so I used the jumbo muffin pan and needed two more spaces so I used two 8 ounce ramekins. I sprayed these with cooking spray.

After the first rise, gently deflate the dough. Ha! Mom always called this “punching down the dough. Divide this into 32 pieces. So divide the dough into eight pieces. I like to use a bench cutter/scraper. Cut each of those pieces into four and roll each piece into a ball and place four in each cup. Cover and let rise until they crest over the rim. (I could not find the height of the special papers that KAF was promoting so I figured 60 minutes was in between the 45-75 minutes in the recipe.

Bake in 350 degree F oven for 25-30 minutes. Mine took 27 minutes. Brush with 1-2 tablespoons melted butter, if desired. I desired. And rolls for dinner.

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I think one of these with a cup of yogurt and fruit would be a fabulous on the go breakfast too. They taste sort of like a yeasted Irish soda bread with a touch of whole wheat. Gotta be healthy, right?

Maple Pound Cake

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

I have been baking, and cooking, just not writing! We got a late start on camping this summer so are trying to make up with the weekends that are remaining through October. There’s something about camping that makes sitting around doing nothing very productive. This is compared to sitting around at home doing nothing which is just plain laziness.

I am back to using King Arthur Flour recipes. I have not yet taken up their current bake-along challenge but may do so in the future.The catalog flyer they send each month has a few recipes in it along with the promotions of their products for sale. This latest had a Maple Pound Cake with Maple-Rum Glaze recipe which looked and sounded tasty and seasonal. It is definitely fall in New England and the Sugar houses will be full of maple syrup soon. Here is the link to the recipe on their website. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/maple-pound-cake-with-maple-rum-glaze-recipe

I followed the recipe almost exactly because that is just the kind of baker I am! Mise en place is essential for baking and I failed to pay attention to the recipe and what ingredients I had in the house. What type of baker runs out of butter! I had only some butter so I substituted coconut oil. This was solidified being less than 70 degrees F in my pantry. I also made my own cake flour using the directions from Mark Bittman’s book How To Cook Everything.

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour whisked with 1/4 cup cornstarch (OR 2 cups cake flour)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 10 tablespoons coconut oil and 2 tablespoons butter (OR 3/4 cup butter, softened)
  • 2/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup dark maple syrup
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (the recipe also calls for 1/4 teaspoon maple flavor but this I do not have)

Sift the first four dry ingredients in a bowl. Cream the coconut oil/butter with the brown sugar in separate bowl. To this add and beat eggs one at a time and then add the maple syrup. Now add half the flour mixture followed by the sour cream and vanilla. Then add the remaining flour. Mix just until combined.

You will have preheated the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly greased a 9-10 cup bundt pan. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 45-50 minutes until cake test done. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out on a cake plate. My cake did not come out cleanly. I had to patch some of the pieces of the top (or bottom, depending on your perspective) of the cake back to the cake like a puzzle. Luckily this does not affect the taste. No Star Baker for me though!

While the cake is baking, or actually when you pull it out of the oven, make the glaze by combining 2 tablespoons butter (I found a partial stick of butter in the camping butter container), 1/4 cup maple syrup, and 1/4 cup rum (or water) in a saucepan. Bring this to a rolling boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 5-8 minutes until thickens to a syrupy consistency. I forgot to check the consistency and just simmered it for 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over the warm cake.

The directions say to let the cake cool completely before serving. What? Why?

I let it cool just a bit while finishing an episode of the current Binge Watch on Amazon!

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This is a flavorful and moist cake. Hubby asked for a piece to put in his lunch the next day. This recipe is a definite keeper. Ice cream or real whipped cream could be added but is not necessary.

 

 

Musings from my Kitchen Table

~ nancyruth ~ 3 Comments

For the past 8 or so weeks I have started my day sitting at my kitchen table contemplating the day at home, out of work due to my broken ankle. If hubby had coffee before leaving for work there is a thermos of coffee waiting for me. If not, that is the first thing I’ll make. I have a journal that I write down what I would like to accomplish on that day or that week. My “to do” lists rarely have been checked off completely. From my kitchen table I can see the stove, the pile of dishes in the sink, the cats eating their food, and my cabinets full of cookbooks.

In the weeks before Christmas the list was full of sewing projects, cookies to bake, and gifts needed. I wheeled around the house in my sewing desk chair preparing for the holiday. Then the holidays came and family was around and it was great fun. The ankle pain had died down mostly by then but for occasional twinges and achiness. After the Christmas holiday my son was home and we talked some, he played piano a lot, and I trusted him to drive my car. It is a standard shift and he learned and mostly drives automatic. We cooked a little bit together, watched Jeopardy and football, and he cooked some meals for us.

So after the New Year I expected to be healed and well on my way back to work. Did not happen! Another 4 weeks for healing the bone was needed. So here I am, sitting at my kitchen table in the mornings planning out my day. There is no holiday to prepare for. It is only bleak winter.

The son left for vacation. He decided to see Vietnam. I went to High School and college in the 1970s. My brother had a low draft number the year they stopped the draft. Saigon fell in 1975. There was a flooding of refugees. Do you know the oddness of feelings when there is the thought “my son left for Vietnam this morning”? (Mothers of my parents’ generation dealt with that for the many years of the war. I am ever grateful that my family was saved from the ravages of that war. Many were not spared.)

Bleak winter calls for soup. This is a barley soup from the back of the barley package. I use my regular substitutes: potatoes for parsnips, spinach for kale, northern white beans for the cannellini, Italian seasoning for the basil. With soup, the exact ingredients are not essential for successful outcome. Throw whatever you have around the house in a pot of broth!

Sitting in my kitchen I like to plan supper. I don’t want to wait until the end of the day to decide. Sometimes I do, though very seldom. I brought my computer in here so I could take care of household business. But I also peruse all sorts of wonderful recipes from you fellow bloggers as well as the King Arthur Flour website and blogs. I have gotten used to baking something or trying a recipe each day.

The other day I was contemplating brownies. Today I am contemplating chocolate cake. I was even thinking I could make a cake and send my sister a picture of it for her birthday at the end of this week. “Give” her a birthday cake!? Hubby does not have a sweet tooth like mine. I would eat 80% of the cake when and if I make one. What to do? I revisit the desserts for two website: www.dessertfortwo.com . Here I can find small batches of chocolate desserts. Brownies or cakes, which will it be?

And I have been thinking about frozen raspberries as well. And here is where other bloggers become my inspiration. I rarely make one of the recipes exactly but I will give credit to the inspirers! http://bitesize-bakes.com/2016/01/26/raspberry-buttercream-layer-cake/ and http://www.dessertfortwo.com/2011/09/one-bowl-chocolate-cake/ and http://sugarbcupcakes.com/2016/01/21/chocolate-raspberry-ganache-cake/

MusingsChocCake 008I get out the closest thing to a six inch cake pan that I can find. This is a 7-inch cast iron skillet to make the one-bowl-chocolate-cake:

  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I am using Hershey’s Special Dark since the only other chips I have are bittersweet chocolate)
  • ½ cup seedless raspberry jam
  • ¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Grease and flour the pan. Melt butter; stir in chocolate until melted; add the jam and sugar and stir well; add the egg and stir until well blended. Sprinkle on the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Bake 43 to 45 minutes at 350 F. My cake took only 40 minutes. The directions say to let cool completely before trying to slice. I turn it out on a plate. Tasting the crumbs from the bottom of the pan finds that there is definitely a raspberry taste to this chocolate cake.

MusingsChocCake 010

Meanwhile plan the frosting! With the Raspberries! Should it be pink or chocolate? When getting the raspberries from my freezer I find that I have a container of chocolate frosting leftover from the birthday cake made in early December. (I hate throwing food of any kind away.) So I take some raspberries for decoration and put the rest with this frosting, thawed of course. I whip that up to blend and then chill it a bit for spreading consistency. Now to wait for the cake to cool completely. Otherwise the frosting will melt and become more of a glaze. That’s not a bad idea, but, no, I’ll wait.

MusingsChocCake 014

Looks very rich and yummy! I could whip up some cream to serve with it. This small cake should make dessert for two for two nights.

(While finishing this up the KAF shopping magazine came in the mail, with a chocolate sheet cake recipe in it! Another cake next week?)

Missouri Mix

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

MoMix 001

Mom would send for a variety of information from the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Missouri. This later became the Extension Division. I think she was a farmer at heart. Missouri Mix is “an all-purpose baking mix that you can make up to be ready for easy baking. It can be used to bake many good foods.” The table of contents includes cookies, fried pies, muffins, pancakes and waffles, cakes, coffee cake, swirls, gingerbread,and pizza. Mom would make a batch of Missouri Mix and it would be in a large tub along side the other baking supplies in the kitchen cabinet. She made this up with vegetable shortening although it can be made with lard. The storage instruction for lard is that the mix must then be refrigerated.

Mom also has a “Basic Receipt For…”a mix developed at Purdue University. These mixes were substitutes for the expensive Bisquick in the grocery stores. Both cost out the ingredients. The cost of 5 pounds of flour at the time was 53 cents! Apparently in 1967 2 ½ pounds of Bisquick cost 55 cents and 4 ½  pounds of Missouri Mix cost about 70 cents.

MissouriMix 002I have two booklets for Missouri Mix. The one with Mom’s notations is from April 1960. This is the one she gave me when I moved away from home. The newer one that I found in her recipe clippings notebook is from July 1976 but is the revision from 1971. My sister raised her family on Missouri Mix. I would make half a recipe since I did not make biscuits and muffins and the like often for my children when they were growing up. What I remember most and did make for my young family was the Fudge Pudding. This was a dessert that baked a cake on top and its own pudding underneath. Very yummy!

At one point in my family life I found “The New Missouri Mix” on line. I printed this out in 1997. This booklet has a “large batch”

  • 5 pound bag of flour or 20 cups
  • 3/4 cup baking powder
  • 2 Tablespoons salt
  • 2 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
  • 3 3/4 cups shortening

and a “smaller batch” recipe.

  • 8 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 cup dry milk powder
  • 1 1/2 cups shortening

It still calls for shortening! There is a hint for using whole wheat flour and that would require storage in the refrigerator. This booklet does not have the “Fudge Pudding” recipe. But what to do about the shortening? You know, trans fats and all that!

But first let’s cost it out. I am using Walmart prices since I tend to shop at discount grocery stores. When I first calculated this formula I used the entire can of shortening and there was no cost savings at 2016 prices. Both the homemade and the store bought baking mix cost about $0.45 per cup. So why bother? But when I redid the calculation it came out with a cost savings. The home made mix cost about $0.36 per cup.

costof MOMIX 001

 

Several years ago while waiting for an appointment of some kind I was browsing through a magazine and happened upon a recipe for a homemade Bisquick using butter! This was intriguing because that would answer the trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils problem found in shortenings. I have made a half batch of this and here are the ingredients:

  • 3 Tablespoons sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
  • 6 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 sticks frozen butter, unsalted, grated

This would make about a third of a recipe of Missouri Mix. The cost of butter would be more than the equivalent of shortening, but not that much more. Hmmm?

Lard has no trans fats. The mix could be stored in the refrigerator. But butter adds such nice flavor to baked goods. What to do?

I like home made. It is about making a home, making a meal, and living the legacy of my mother and grandmother. If I were to make this mix, I could make the Fudge Pudding at the drop of a hat! I could use half whole wheat flour and it would be “healthier”. I would also give in to the urge to make biscuits or muffins or other goodies more often.

 

fudgepuddingcake 001

So much for reducing carbs in my diet!

Birthday Cake

~ nancyruth ~ 3 Comments

I have the privilege of making the birthday cake for my granddaughter’s second birthday party. What to make? I had recently organized some photos and found some of my daughter and there was one of her third birthday and the cake I made then. And it is in the shape of my granddaughter’s favorite word: cat!

afterThanksgivingCakeHumility 014
1986

This is right out of Betty Crocker. I don’t remember making neither the cake from scratch, nor the frosting but this time it will be. But it is not easy to decide on which cake recipe to make. I am thinking that the cake made for son-in-law’s birthday was a bit denser than I would like for this cake. Perhaps I should just use a Betty Crocker recipe for a white or yellow cake. Food for thought!

So I decide to peruse my Mom’s recipe notebook, the one with her typed recipes and clippings. I have only used two of the recipes in the cake section, Best Ever Chocolate and Mayonnaise. What else is there? There is a booklet published in 1967 by the Betty Crocker company, whoever they may be, all about the perfect cake from scratch and mix.

There is even a quiz on the back to rate your cake. How cool is that! I also found a description of the “regular way” for mixing a cake. This is your standard cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, sift dry ingredients together and add alternating with the milk. Now I just need to find a description of the “mix easy” method.

afterThanksgivingCakeHumility 015In preparation to make the “old fashioned” cake from the Betty Crocker booklet, I need to make my own cake flour. Every once and a while I will buy this stuff, but rarely, and I do not have any on hand at the moment. This is easy to do. Replace two tablespoons of each cup of flour with cornstarch. Sift thoroughly. This particular cake recipe makes it easy. Just replace the ¼ cup with cornstarch and use two cups of regular all-purpose flour. Pretty handy dandy, I’d say.

Making the cake: ah hah! This is the “modern method”, one bowl, super quick! Mix together all the dry ingredients. Add exactly 2/3 of the milk, the shortening/butter and flavorings and beat for 2 minutes, or 300 strokes. Add the two unbeaten eggs and the rest of the liquid and beat for another 2 minutes. Pour batter into pans and bake 30 minutes at 350 F. There is a footnote in the booklet that says to add cocoa and baking soda, if the recipe calls for it, with the dry ingredients.

Looks nice in and out of the pans. I used baking spray with flour added so the one cake did not turn out of the pan perfectly. Luckily I will frost these and that should take care of that.

Decorating the cake is a challenge. I could not find licorice whips just twizzlers. I could pull those apart…or buy thin pretzel sticks for the whiskers. I am using vanilla wafers for the eyes and paws as that is what I did 30 years ago. Perhaps using frosting pens to draw the nose, mouth, and outline the ears and paws. I finally chose to use red pull apart Twizzlers. I make a chocolate pudding type frosting and then decorate.

Voila!skylarbirthday 001

Like mother, like daughter!