My Favorite Cake

My mom has been visiting. We have been having all sorts of fun making things and cooking. Today we worked on a brick shirt for Spud 3 and she baked a cake. Not just any cake, my favorite oatmeal cake. It is a recipe she clipped from a magazine years ago. I have no idea what the source is. *

1 1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup oats
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanill
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Lazy Daisy Frosting
1/4 melted butter or margarine
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp milk
1/3 cup chopped nuts
3/4 cup flaked or shredded coconut

For cake, pour boiling water over oats; cover and let stand 20 minutes. Beat butter until creamy; gradually add sugars and beat until fluffy. Blend in vanilla and eggs. Add oats mixture; mix well. Sift together flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to creamed mixture. Mix well.
Pour batter into well greased and floured 9 inch square pan. Bake in preheated moderate oven (350 degrees F) for 50 to 55 minutes. Do not remove from pan.

For frosting. Combine all ingredients. Spread evenly over cake. Broil until frosting becomes bubbly. Cake may be served warm or cold.

Note, the recipe calls for half and half, Mom uses milk. The recipe makes a very tall cake in the 9x9 pan. Mom prefers to put it in a 9 x 13 pan. I will probably double the frosting recipe in a pan that size.


*As always if you know tell me and I will give proper credit.

Grandma's Recipes: Buckeyes

As written:

Buckeyes
1 pkg. pow. sugar
1 stick oleo
1 1/2 c. peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
roll in balls
1 lg pkg semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 block paraffin
melt
_____________
2 2/3 cups powdered sugar is a lb.


These are little round confections about an inch in diameter. The center is peanut butter, sugar and oleo (margarine). From the note at the bottom, one would interpret the package of powdered sugar to be a 1 lb box. While I recall a bit of peanut in these, I doubt she used extra crunchy. They were too smooth to have a lot peanut chunks in them. Soften the margarine. Stir or mix all of the ingredients together. Roll into balls. Very straight forward.

The little balls of peanut filling are dipped in melted chocolate. Using paraffin, from the same box you used to make your ice cube candles, was pretty standard at the time. I imagine it was used to make the available chocolate in the form of chips set up better. I also imagine using it avoids most of the problems associated with not tempering chocolate properly. I think they sell some kind of paraffin-like crystal at most cake/candy shops to serve the same purpose. You may still see paraffin as an ingredient in some lower quality chocolate bars in the candy aisle.

The peanut balls are usually held with a toothpick and dipped into the chocolate leaving a small circle of the peanut showing, This gives these candies the distinctive look of a buckeye. A big hit with fans of the OSU buckeyes.

Update for O Wise Sister!

I don't think they had access to good chocolate and the only grocery store version would have been choc. chips. They remove most of the valuable cocoa butter butter from them and they are not designed for making candy. Someone figured out that adding some paraffin would help it set up and hold up. As far as I know, paraffin is not known to be harmful to humans - look at all those wax lips and wax bottles we chewed on!

The alternative would be to go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and get some candy-making chocolate, melt it carefully and dip the peanut butter centers. It would be so much better. Of course, there is really good chocolate, too - a little harder to find and much harder to use as it must be temered (you remember that from class?)

Yes, I do remember that it needs to be tempered. I just never remember exactly how to do it properly.

Grandma's Recipes: Orange Julius

As written:

Orange Julius

1/2 of 6 ounce can = 1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
5 or 6 ice cube

Combine in blender till smooth about 30 seconds. Makes about 3 cups.

This one is pretty straight forward. The only thing to note is that her ice cubes would have been the big square ones that came out of the aluminum trays with the lever to separate the cubes.

The Orange Julius is likely one of the precursors to today's smoothie craze. As far as I remember, Orange Julius was a covered mall phenomenon. It was one of the first food stands inside the newfangled indoor malls which started opening where we lived in the late 60's or early 70's. Getting an Orange Julius to sip on while strolling around the shops was a very special treat. There was something about them that was just a bit different. I remember trying many times and many ways to recreate them at home. This was one of those knock-off recipes that circulated at the time. The ones I tried were never the same. I'll have to try Grandma's version to see if it is close. Amazingly enough there is an Orange Julius shop at the local mall where I live now so I'll be able to do a comparison.

Grandma's Recipes: County Fair Pie Crust

As written.

From the back of the card.

"This is the fair contest recipe and delicious. Very easy to work with -- almost like a cookie dough -- Thought you might like to try it.

Pie Crust

3 cups flour 1 egg
1 1/2 t salt 5 T water
1 cup lard 1 t vinegar

Mix flour and salt -- Cut lard into flour. Mix eggs with fork, add water and then vinegar. Add liquid to flour mixture all at one time. Mix -- let stand a few minutes -- Chill before rolling (I don't)

Translation.

This one is pretty straight forward. It would have been printed in the newspaper with the rest of the entry classes for the county fair. In this case, entrants would all have to use this recipe. I have no information about the rest of the pie contest, whether they were to make the same type or just use the same crust. These 'use the same recipe' contests really were to test the technical skill of the baker. The competition was usually pretty stiff.

As for ingredients the only things to note are the use of lard, size of the egg and the vinegar. Lard is still available if you look for it. It is commonly substituted with vegetable shortening. I know that some people have success with crust making using the heart healthy spreads, but those folks are superior bakers so I wouldn't try that on a pie for company tonight. Egg sizes have varied over the year. Most of the bakers in this competition would have been using farm eggs. We were just given a lovely box of brown eggs in size really small. Cute, but they would wreak havoc on the wet to dry ingredient ratio. I would start with a large or extra large egg. The vinegar would likely be cider vinegar but they might have used the small bottle of white vinegar for this.

It is hard to say whether the original recipe would have been as sketchy as this one. I know the competition at the local fair was fierce. I would not put it past some one to leave out a few ingredients or short cut a few steps to keep from helping the competition.

The secret to making great crust is getting the right distribution of fat into the flour. The cutting in instructions usually suggest something like pea-sized chunks or coarse crumb or something similar.

There are two things that bother me about these instructions. The first is the instruction to add all of the liquid at once. We all know that everything from the weather to the way you measure flour affect the dry to liquid ratio in baking. Every one who has ever tried to teach me to make pie crust (and some experts have tried) says to add some portion of the liquids, mix gently and add more. Usually they say something like add it by the tablespoon. The trick here is that the more you work the dough the tougher it becomes. Adding lots of little amounts of liquid would require working the dough more. I think that some of the food processor recipes add the liquid all at once. Hmmm. (If anyone has thoughts about this leave a note in the comments. I am not a crust maker so I don't really know.) The other thing is the resting/chilling time. It is harder to work cold dough, but the fats 'melt' into the dough as it warms up so you lose flakiness. Perhaps the author of this recipe left larger lumps of fat. I don't really know.

The last thing to note is that filling and baking are omitted from the recipe. Fillings would most likely have been a mixture of fresh fruit, flour, sugar and spices dotted with butter. The exact amounts depend greatly on the fruit used. The crust could be pre-baked or baked with the fruit. In the later case it takes longer to bake the crust than it might seem.

I'll upload the photo when I take my next round of pictures.

Here is a link to a tutorial on pie crust from the folks at BHG.

Grandma's Recipes: Honey Dressing

This is another recipe from my Grandmother's collection. It is written on one of those printed recipe cards that we all gave her for Christmas when we were kids. I would guess this is from sometime in the seventies.

As written:

Honey Dressing
from: "The Forks" - Pemberville *

2 T onion juice (or 1 small onion)
2 t celery seed
1 t salt
1 t mustard
1 1/2 c sugar
1 c vinegar
2 c oil

Beat at high speed in blender until thick.

Onion juice. I read this and vaguely remember seeing bottles of onion juice as a kid. Here is a great post on the Mark Bittman website written by John Thorne of Outlaw Cook. John has done all the research you need to know about onion juice. Having read his taste test recommendations, I would strongly suggest the small onion route.

Celery seed, salt and sugar would all be the same things we use today.

Mustard is most likely dry mustard. It is possible it bottled in which case it would be a standard yellow mustard.

The vinegar in Grandma's kitchen would be a gallon jug of cider vinegar.

The oil would be a vegetable oil, perhaps the Wesson oil she mentions by name in other recipes.

I don't recall Grandma having a blender. Which is funny because the box in which I have her recipes is from a blender!

* This recipe says it is from "The Forks" restaurant in Pemberville, Ohio. Pemberville is a small town not too far from where I grew up. In the seventies and eighties we would go there for dinner on occasion. I do not recall anything called a honey dressing on the menu. I remember a celery seed dressing from a different place we went to about the same time. The food was good traditional Midwestern fare. Quality at a decent price.

The restaurant is located on the Portage River. We always parked in the back and walked up the very narrow paneled stairs to the entrance. The first time we went in the front door I was very much surprised to discover it had a bar. I'd never noticed it from the back! I always assumed that the name of the restaurant came from silverware. While trying to research it, I discovered that "the forks" was a historical reference to this particular area of the Portage River. My current assumption is that the name comes from there.

The Forks restaurant is still in existence according to the internet. The link to the website doesn't work today and there are few reviews.

Grandma's Recipes: Lentil Loaf

From Grandma Waggoner's collection. First the recipe as written.

Serves 10 - 12

1 cup cooked lentils (Well done)
1 cup nuts - pecan, walnut, etc
1 egg well beaten
1 large can of evaporated milk
1/2 cup wesson salad oil
1 1/2 cups crushed corn flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 onion
1/2 teaspoon sugar

bake 45 minutes at 350 in 8" x 8" pan

Translation (in this case as best I can interpret). I'm not sure what sort of dish this is actually supposed to be.

The lentils would be standard issue green lentils. There would likely not have been any baby beluga's or red or other varieties, at least not on a regular basis.

Pecans or walnuts, pretty standard. These would most likely be chopped. They probably would have gone through the pretty red grinder-like chopper my father bought at the five and dime for her Christmas present when he was small. I would probably chop them to be roughly the same size as the lentils.

One egg... I would use a large or an extra large egg.

The large can of evaporated milk could be tricky. She seems to be pretty clear that she is using the unsweetened evaporated milk rather than the sweetened condensed version. This makes sense as the unsweetened version is more common in the German tradition. The tricky part is the size of the can. It is most likely that she would have been using the standard large 14 ounce can of milk. Today the can size is 12 ounces. Opening another can of condensed milk leaves plenty of leftovers in an odd quantity. If you have another recipe where you can use it great. If not there are a couple of things I would try. First, I'd mix the ingredients as written to see if it is too dry. If it needed more liquid, I might try adding another egg. A large egg is close to 2 ounces of liquid and might be sufficient to compensate for the difference in can size. Extra milk or fewer cornflakes might also be ways to address the problem.

Wesson oil. Grandma was pretty brand specific. This may have been due to some unique difference between brands available. Wesson oil was originally processed from cotton seed. However, it seems pretty likely that it would have been vegetable oil by the time Grandma was making her lentil cake. I am pretty sure that any good quality vegetable oil will work. Given the amount of oil used, I would stick to a quality oil because it could have an effect on the flavor of the final product.

Corn Flakes. Same old same old. Use what is on your shelf. I wouldn't try using frosted flakes unless you leave out the onion.

Salt and sugar. Salt and sugar are added in tiny amounts. I imagine the lentils can take a bit more salt. I am not sure of the value of a half tsp of sugar. There isn't any mention of yeast so it wouldn't be needed for that purpose. It could be mis-written and she is really using a half cup. However, with the addition of onion, I don't think more sugar is needed.

One onion. Up to this point the ingredients were going together in my head in the form of a dense dessert cake. Now, not so much. Strong yellow onions would have been more readily available (from the garden!). I would chop the onion, as with the nuts, to the same size as the lentils. I think the onion would soften up pretty well during the suggested baking time. It might be worthwhile to saute them in a bit of oil first. I can't fit onion into my impression of this dish so I am torn about what to suggest. I think I would try adding them raw the first time. They would add a different texture to it that way. But, if they ended up too strong, I would saute the next time. Given what I remember about the size of my Grandmother's kitchen, I think she would have put them in raw to save on dishes and space if nothing else.

The 8x8 inch size for the pan suggests a glass baking dish. She most likely used Pyrex. It might be wise to oil or use cooking spray on it before adding the lentil mixture. Bake at the suggested temperature and time but watch it. I have no information about texture or moisture. It will need to bake long enough for the eggs to set but it won't have to bake longer. Be wary of baking so long that the lentils dry out.

If you try it, let me know what you think. I'll do the same and let you know.

Grandma Recker's Baked Corn

This is a dish I remember from family gatherings as a child. Grandma Recker was my great grandmother and I have no real memory of her. But we still attend Recker Reunions every couple years. Perhaps I will have to make this to take to the next one.

Again, this recipe is a copy of a typed recipe card. It has a note in mom's handwriting on the side with the recipe for the medium white sauce which follows.

Baked Corn

2 c corn, drained
2 eggs
1 c medium white sauce
1 tsp sugar
salt
3 or 4 crackers broken in to pieces

Buttered crumbs on top.

Bake 425 about 30 minutes.

Medium White Sauce

1 c milk
2 Tbs flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs oleo

Translation...

Most likely the white sauce is made as a standard white sauce. Melt the oleo (currently known as margarine or use butter) in a skillet. Stir in the flour and cook a few minutes. Turn off the heat. Slowly stir in the milk. I mean slowly. A few tablespoons at a time until it gets thin enough to stop causing lumps. Add the salt. Cook it down until it becomes relatively thick. I am going to have to try this. Regulation white sauce is pretty thin. I don't think that thin sauce will cook down into the thick custard I recall.

I am guessing that you make the white sauce first and allow it to cool enough so that it won't cook the eggs. Then beat the eggs, sugar, salt and white sauce together.

Stir in the crackers. I believe the crackers serve as a thickener. I doubt you worry much about keeping the structural integrity of the cracker. The most likely cracker to have around would have been saltines. I know that my grandmother always had Keebler Club crackers. They are slightly sweeter and most likely what she used when she made this. Stir in the corn.

Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish. Mom always made this in a pyrex clear glass round baking dish. It was probably the flameware version about 8 inches in diameter and 2 or 3 inches deep.

Top with buttered crumbs. These would likely be fresh bread crumbs made from stale bread. I can't picture mom making them. I am guessing she let the bread dry slightly and then grated it on the box grater. They would then be mixed with melted butter or oleo. Again, I will have to experiment with the proportions and get back to you on it. I know that the crumbs were very buttery and became crisp and brown on the top of the dish.

Bake at 425 degrees F for about 30 minutes. I know this dish is custard-like so I would suggest baking until the crumbs are golden and the eggs are set.