Snickerdoodles – Grandma Jones

This is a quick cookie recipe and you are likely to have all the ingredients on hand.  Snickerdoodles are great for bake sales, packing in lunches or just warming up the kitchen on chilly afternoons.

1 cup of soft butter
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon soda
¾ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoons butter flavoring

 2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1.  Beat together the butter, sugar and eggs.  In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cream of tartar, salt, soda and butter flavoring.  Add the egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture.  Stir until everything is moist. 
2. Using a teaspoon scoop out a small amount of the dough and roll it into a ball about the diameter of a quarter.  If the dough is too soft you can put it in the refrigerator for an hour or so to stiffen it up. 
3. Roll the balls into a mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon.  Place the coated balls two inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Then, press the balls with the bottom of a clean glass until they are about a ½ inch thick. 
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly brown and soft.  These cookies puff up at first and then fall and get the wonderful wrinkly texture as the cool.

Waldorf Astoria Red Cake – Grandma Irene

Waldorf Astoria Cake and Red Velvet Cake are basically the same.  Grandma Irene called her version Waldorf Astoria Red Cake.  In the original recipe the red color came from the combination of cocoa with vinegar.  The vinegar turned the cocoa redder.  Then with the introduction of Dutch cocoa which is more alkaline and doesn’t turn red, food coloring came into the picture.

Irene chose to make hers with crushed pineapple in the frosting. The pineapple is unusual, but it adds a nice texture and a bit of sweetness.  It also indicative of when Irene was baking.  Canned pineapple became affordable and widely available in 1930-1940s bringing a tropical fruit to American house wives.  Many recipes were altered to showcase the new fruit – including this classic Waldorf Astoria.    

This recipe is for Steven, Irene’s grandson.   When I asked him what recipes his grandma made this was on the list. 

Cake

½ cup shortening (butter)
2 oz bottle of red food coloring (1/4 cup)
2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa
2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 1 /2 cups sugar
1 cup butter milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs

1. Cream the shortening, eggs, and sugar. Make a past of the food coloring and cocoa.  Stir in the salt and paste to the egg mixture. 
2. Stir in the butter milk alternately with the flour to the mixture.  In a small bowl add the vinegar to the baking soda, quickly fold this mixture with the vanilla carefully into the main batter.  Blend but do not beat.
3. Pour the batter into 2 8” greased layer cake pans.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  Cool on racks.  Then split each layer in two.  Frost with the recipe below.

Frosting

3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter

1. Cook flour and milk until thick stirring constantly.  Let cool.  Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Add to flour and milk mixture – whip until light. 
2. Drain a small can of crushed pineapple and mix with half of the frosting.  Put the pineapple frosting between the layers of the cake.  Frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting. 

Any Day Dressing – Grandma Irene

This is a mouth watering dressing.  This one is from Irene Adams, my husband’s grandmother.  She always called it dressing which to me sounds like it goes with a salad.  I call it stuffing, even though it’s not stuffed inside anything.  It’s delicious, especially with bacon drippings instead of butter.  It may be easy enough for everyday, but is good enough for Thanksgiving and other holidays.

1 medium onion, chopped
4 tablespoons bacon drippings or butter
½ cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon sage
1 can chicken rice soup
½ cup water
8-10 slices of stale bread

1. Brown the onion in the bacon dripping or butter.  Pour the browned onion into a medium to large bowl. Mix in the celery, sage, soup, water and mix well.
2. Tear the slices of bread into small pieces.  Put the bread in a 9×9 casserole.  Pour the soup mixture over the bread mix only a bit until the bread is coated.
3. Bake covered at 325 degrees for a half hour then uncovered for a half hour.  Serves 4.

Buttery Parker House Rolls – Grandma Irene

This is Great Grandma Mary Steffen’s version of the classic Parker House dinner roll; a little sweeter and hers uses water and milk. The rolls are buttery, light and slightly sweet with a delicate crunchy outside.

Their name comes from the Parker House Hotel where they are still served today. The recipe can be traced back to Fanny Merritt Farmer in the 1870’s.

½ cup lukewarm water
1 cake or package yeast (3 1/2 teaspoons)
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons shortening (as in unsalted butter)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons sugar
5 cups flour

1. Soften yeast in lukewarm water. In a small pot heat the milk – do not let it boil or simmer. Add the shortening, salt and sugar, stir until smooth then remove from heat. When lukewarm add yeast and about half of the flour stir until mixed.
2. Turn the mixture out into the remaining flour. Knead to make dough easy to handle. Knead thoroughly. The dough should be moist and slightly sticky.
3. Place the dough in greased bowl. Turn to dough over so all of it is greased. Let it rise until light (about 45 minutes depend on temperature of the air).
4. Take the dough out and knead it briefly on a floured board. Then roll it thin (about a ½ inch thick). Cover with a cloth and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
5. Cut the rolled out dough with a biscuit cutter (or drinking glass), brush the top with melted better. Mark a crease down the middle with a knife. Fold the circle over on the crease you just made to make a half moon shape.
6. Place the folded roll on a greased baking sheet, brush with butter and allow to rise for 30 – 45 minutes.
7. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Notes: I made these for the first time last night (Oct. 9, 2009).  I am wondering if a “cake of yeast” should have been interpreted as more than 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast, based on the amount of flour I’m going to guess 3 1/2 teaspoons is a better amount. I am also quite sure that the amount of salt in the bread is because the butter was unsalted.   Irene was a dairy farmer’s wife and she got her butter directly from the processor who purchased their milk.  So I will update the recipe to unsalted butter.  Grandma recipes definitely have the problem that they were written for grandma and not her grand daughter 40 years later.

Crunchy Crisp Dill Pickles – Grandma Irene

Grandma Jones didn’t make dill pickles, so it wasn’t until I married into Jeff’s family that I finally got a dill pickle recipe from Grandma Adams.  Unfortunately all I could find in her recipe box was the ingredient list so I had to resort to one of her cookbooks to create the instructions. 

These delicious crisp garlic-y dill pickles are easy to make. You only need a couple of ingredients and an hour or so to put up these pickles. They are ready to eat the same day, will last for years and your friends and family will be so impressed.

25 – 4 inch long pickling cucumbers
1 head  fresh garlic
10 heads dill just past flowering, but before the seeds are formed
1 cup pickling salt
3 quarts water
1 quart cider vinegar
5 quart jars with canning lids and screw bands
5 small hot peppers like jalapeno (optional)

1. Select Cucumbers
   Choose 25 – four inch pickling cucumbers. It is important to use pickling cucumbers over eating cucumbers because they have a lower water content. The fresher the cucumber the more crisp the pickle.
2. Sterilize
   Sterilize your jars, lids and screw bands. This can be done by running them through a hot dishwasher or washing them by hand and then pouring boiling water over and inside the jars. Keep the jars and lids ready near by upside down on a clean towel.
3. Wash
   Wash the cucumbers and cut off the blossom end (the other end of the stem). Sometimes the blossom end is bitter and this stops your pickles from being bitter too. Cut each cucumber into four or five spears.
4. Make the Brine
   In a large pot on the stove, combine the salt, water and vinegar; bring to a boil.
5. Prepare the Jars
   Fill each quart jar with 2-5 cloves of garlic, 1-2 heads of dill, and a hot pepper. Stuff the jars with cucumber spears. Leave at least a half inch between the spears and the rim of the jar.
6. Add the Brine
   Take the brine off the boil and use a ladel to spoon it into each jar. Fill each jar to with in a quarter inch of the top of the jar.
7. Close the Jars
   Put the lid and screw band on to the jars. The jars are really hot so just a hot pad or towel when handling them.
8. Seal the Jars
   At this point you can let the jars cool and store them in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them or you can can them. If you wish to use them as refrigerator pickles wait a week before opening them.
9. Can the Pickles
   To can the pickles, prepare your canner. By adding hot water and brining the water to a boil. There should be enough water to cover the tops of the jars by at least a half inch. Process the pickles in boiling water for 20 minutes. Start timing from when the pickles are put into the bath.
10. Cool the Pickles
    Remove the pickles from the hot water bath and place them upside down on a towel to cool. Once cool, check to make sure the lids sealed. You should not be able to press down on the lid. If a jar isn’t sealed put it in the refridgator and eat those first.

Banana Nut Bread – Grandma Jones

My Grandma Jones made moist soft banana nut bread.  It’s the best I have ever tasted. Her secret ingredient was butter milk. It adds a little bit of acidity so the baking soda reacts and the bread raises well.   

The perfect banana for banana bread is when the banana has black speckles all over and the peel has turned soft and crepe-y.

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana (two bananas)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 tablespoon butter milk

1. Start by setting out the butter and eggs. Bringing them up to room temperature will make the batter better. Let them sit for at least an hour at room temperature. If you are in a hurry, microwave the butter for 10 seconds and stir it to distribute the heat. Try not to liquefy the butter. And in the end cold eggs, won’t make bad bread.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg, vanilla and butter milk and mix it until smooth. If you don’t have butter milk on hand add a couple drops of lemon juice or vinegar to milk.
3. In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.
4. Add the dry mixture and the banana to the butter mixture. Add a little at a time and mix after each addition. Stir in the nuts. Ideally you will mix just until all the ingredients are moist. Over mixing will react all the baking powder and soda. This makes the texture of the bread dense and heavy. So less work equals better bread. That’s the way it should be.
5. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan (9x5x3″). Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a sharp knife poked in, comes out clean.
6. Remove the bread from the pan immediately to avoid soggy crust. Let the bread cool on a rack for at least five minutes before cutting. When cool, cover and store.

Wild Grape Jelly – Grandma Jones

My grandma Jones made wild grape jelly in August. It was such a deep purple it looked black in the jar. This is her recipe.

The wild grapes around Iowa are Vitis raparia more commonly known as the fox, skunk, or riverbank grapes. They make the tangy sweet jelly, Welches can only dream about.

This recipe yields 7 cups of jelly.

5 pounds wild grapes on stems
3 1/2 cups water
7 cups white sugar
1 packet Sure-Jell
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil (optional)
Jelly jars for 7 cups of jelly

1. In the Midwest wild grapes usually ripen at the end of August. Take a canoe trip down the river or walk the banks and fill your old 5-gallon ice-cream bucket with grapes. Use a produce sale to weigh the grapes stems and all. A full five gallon bucket should be about five pounds.
2. Wash the grapes gently in cool water. Remove any damaged grapes and leaves. Don’t worry about taking the grapes off their stems; it’s a lot of work and it doesn’t affect the recipe.
3. Put the grapes in a big pot and add 3 1/2 cups water. Simmer covered for 20 minutes. After boiling use cheese cloth or a strainer to remove the stems and grape skins. You will be left with a clear juice.
4. Measure how much juice you have made. You should be close to 5 cups juice. It is important to be exact. If it is over 5 cups discard the extra. If it is not enough add water to reach five cups. It is key not to dilute your juice. If you are more than a half cup under, boil more grapes or reduce the recipe accordingly. At this point you can save your juice and make jelly another day or you can keep going.
5. Get out your canning jars, lids and the canner. Start by filling the canner half full with water and bringing the water to a simmer. Keep the water simmering while you make the jelly.
6. Sterilize your jelly jars and their lids by either running them through a hot dishwasher, or washing them in soapy water and then carefully pouring boiling water over them. Keep the jars clean by placing them upside down on a clean towel. Avoid contaminating them, do not put your fingers, or tongs inside the jars.
7. In a 6 or 8 quart sauce pan add the 5 cups juice and the packet of pectin. At this point you can add the vegetable oil if you want. It will help reduce foaming so the jelly has a nice smooth surface as it cools and make it more manageable in the sauce pan. Measure out the white sugar and have it standing ready.
8. Over high heat bring the juice and pectin to a full boil, stir constantly with a metal spoon. Pour the sugar in and continue stirring. When the jelly returns to a rolling boil, time exactly one minute, then remove the pan from the burner. Use the metal spoon to skim any foam off the top.
9. Working quickly pour the hot jelly into the jelly jars. Leave at least a quarter inch between the jelly and the rim of the jar. If needed with a clean towel wipe the lip and rim of the jar clean. Then cover the jar with the lid and screw on the band tightly.
10. Carefully remove the jar rack from the canner and place the hot jars into the jar rack. Lower the rack into the canner. The water should be 1 to 2 inches above the tops of the jars. Add more hot water if needed. Cover and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 5 minutes.
11. Using tongs and hot pads, remove the jelly jars from the canner and place upside down on towels to cool. When the jars are completely cool check the seals my pressing on the lid. You should not be able to depress the lid. If one of the jars doesn’t seal put it in the refrigerator and use it first.
12. Store your jelly in a dark, temperature controlled place. The jelly will be good for years, but I doubt it will last that long.