Iron Skillet Upside-Down Pizza
Canning in a Boiling Water Bath
Coconut-Oatmeal Rum Pie (with Walnuts)
Strawberries and Cream Coffee Cake
Mrs. Randolph’s Strawberry Cake
My grandmother lived on a farm in Stringtown. When she was a little girl, it was her job to make bread every day. She learned to make bread from her mother, and her mother learned it from her mother before her, and so on. She taught her daughters to make bread, and when my mother came to West Virginia as a young bride, my grandmother taught my mother to make that bread, too. And then she taught me. When I taught it to Morgan, she dubbed it “Grandmother Bread” because I’d told her that her grandmother had taught me the recipe, and it’s been known as Grandmother Bread ever since.
This kind of simple yeast-risen bread is what used to be called “light bread” in the old days. It requires nothing more than water, yeast, sugar, flour, and a dash of salt. And, oh yeah, a great, big pat of real butter when it’s sliced.
1½ cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
Dash of salt
3½ cups all-purpose flour
In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar. Let sit 5 minutes. Add a dash of salt and stir in the first 2 cups of flour with a heavy spoon. (You can also use a stand mixer.) Continue adding flour a little at a time, stirring until the dough becomes too stiff to stir easily. Begin kneading, continuing to add flour. The exact amount of flour is approximate—your mileage may vary. Continue adding flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let the dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled (usually 30 minutes to an hour).
Uncover the bowl, sprinkle in a little additional flour, and punch down, lightly kneading the dough again. With floured hands, shape the dough and place in a greased loaf pan. The loaf pans I use are 1½ quarts, 4½ inches by 8½ inches. Cover and let rise another 30 to 60 minutes. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in a preheated 350°F oven.
The pepperoni roll, a.k.a. the State Food of West Virginia, is one of those simple things that makes life good. I’d never even heard of a pepperoni roll before moving here, but the testament to the pepperoni roll’s popularity in the Mountain State is found in every grocery store, bakery, and even gas station convenience store because the pepperoni roll is sold everywhere as if people might not be able to get down the road without one. As the story goes, pepperoni rolls originated with Italian immigrants who came to West Virginia to work in the coal mines. Rolls filled with pepperoni were easy meals to carry with them into the mines. I experimented for months to come up with a recipe of my own, and it fast became a family favorite in my house.
For the dough:
1½ cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 large egg
⅓ cup oil
1 cup chopped pepperoni
½ cup shredded mozzarella
4 cups all-purpose flour
For the filling:
Mozzarella or pepper jack cheese (about 2 cups)
Pepperoni, cut into 4-inch-long pencil-width sticks
Banana pepper rings (about 1½ cups)
In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, salt, sugar, minced garlic, egg, oil, chopped pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. Let sit 5 minutes. Stir in the first cup and a half of flour with a heavy spoon. Add the next cup of flour a little at a time as needed, stirring until the dough becomes too stiff to continue stirring easily. Add a little more flour and begin kneading. Continue adding flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let the dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled (usually, about an hour). Uncover the bowl; sprinkle in a little more flour and knead again before dividing in half into two balls.
Working with one half of the dough at a time, roll each ball of dough out onto a floured surface into a rectangle (approximately 8 x 12 inches). Sprinkle flour over the dough to keep from sticking as you roll. Make one slice lengthwise down the dough. Now slicing horizontally, make a slice across the middle, then again, until you have eight pieces. Sprinkle with cheese. Place pepperoni sticks on each piece. Add peppers. Roll up each piece, pinching the seams to seal.
Let rise approximately 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. (Watch carefully—the size of your rolls will vary the baking time. They’re done when they’ve browned.)
Makes 16 rolls.
Fried bologna sandwiches are nothing if not an homage to the country palate, which bears no pride, counts no calories, and uplifts even the lowliest of ingredients to the heights of celestial delight. Which is to say that you can actually find fried bologna sandwiches on sit-down restaurant menus around here and in many other parts of the South.
But the best fried bologna sandwiches are made at home!
Oil for frying
Thick, deli-sliced bologna
Deli-sliced cheese
Great bread
Condiments of choice
The three key points in a fried bologna sandwich are the meat, the cheese, and the bread. Start with good, thick, deli-sliced bologna, not the prepackaged stuff.
Choose your cheese—make it some good, deli-sliced cheese, too. And then there’s the bread. Fried bologna sandwiches are traditionally made on white sandwich bread. Homemade sliced Grandmother Bread is perfect.
Heat a small amount of oil on medium-high in a large skillet. (You can use olive oil, lard, bacon grease—whatever oil you prefer.) Carefully score each slice of bologna. Don’t cut the bologna in half—just make a few cuts across the center. (This will help keep the bologna from curling while it’s frying.)
Fry 3 minutes per side. If you burn the edges a little bit, you get a nice caramelized flavor.
Here’s where it gets really subjective. Anybody who grew up with fried bologna sandwiches will tell you that the only way to eat them is the way their mother made them—with mayonnaise or mustard, ketchup or barbecue sauce. I like mayo and a hot pepper butter. I spread both bread slices with mayo and put hot pepper butter between the bologna and the cheese. I like Colby, but any cheese will do. If you grew up with them, the only right way is how your mama did it, so I understand.
My mother never made fried bologna sandwiches. The first time I was introduced to the fried bologna sandwich was when I was living at the Slanted Little House. One day after church, my cousin made one for me. Now I’m a fan. It’s a real comfort food.
Top the bologna with the cheese while still warm and put the sandwich together. If you like, add lettuce, tomato, and onion. Some people even like a fried egg on top. Or if you have a sandwich press, you can grill it.
No matter how you make it, it’s hillbilly heaven. Pass the potato chips.
IRON SKILLET UPSIDE-DOWN PIZZA
A meal in a skillet—and it’s upside down! I first saw this recipe idea in a West Virginia Department of Agriculture pamphlet, and I’ve made it many times since with variations. Change up the meat, the cheese, and the other ingredients for a different dish every time. It’s a flexible, delicious one-pot dinner. If you don’t have an iron skillet, you can also bake this in a greased casserole dish.
½ pound ground sausage
½ pound ground beef
⅓ cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Approximately 2 ounces sliced pepperoni
1½ cups pizza or spaghetti sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
¼ teaspoon salt
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup grated Parmesan
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Cook the ground sausage and beef in a 10-inch skillet. Drain grease. Add the onion, garlic, salt, and Italian seasoning and mix in the skillet. Spread the pepperoni over the meat and onion mixture. Pour on the sauce and top with the cheese. In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk, salt, and flour. Mix well and spoon over the sauce and cheese. (That isn’t a mistake—no baking powder is required.)
Sprinkle the Parmesan on top (and I like to add some extra herbs for decoration). Bake for about 20 minutes, till the pizza crust top is golden and puffy.
To start a pot of beans, rinse and sort (to remove any debris that might be in the bag) dried pinto beans. You can use a colander, or you can just use the pot you’re going to cook the beans in. I’m pretty lazy, so I usually don’t get out the colander. Either measure out the quantity of beans desired or just pour the beans into the pot straight out of the bag. After rinsing and sorting, pinto beans require soaking before cooking. You can use one of two methods.
Long soak: Place beans in a large pot and cover with water. Cover with a lid. Let sit at room temperature overnight (or at least 6 hours).
Quick soak: Place beans in a large pot and cover with water. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat. Leave covered and let sit 1 hour.
Whichever method you follow, after the soak, drain the pot and replace with fresh water. Draining the soaking water helps eliminate the gases that can make beans hard to digest.
Most country bean cooks will put in a ham bone or some bacon, or at the very least some reserved bacon fat. From there, other additions are to your taste, but some good seasonings include garlic powder and chili powder. I like to add ground red pepper and sometimes red pepper flakes. How much seasoning you need depends on how big a pot of beans you’re making, but for the size pot I typically make (starting with 5 cups dry beans), I add a couple teaspoons each of garlic powder, chili powder, and ground red pepper.
Don’t add salt until the last 30 minutes of cooking. Adding salt directly too early will make your beans tough, and they’ll never soften up right no matter how long you cook them. Plus, if you’ve got a ham bone or bacon in the pot, there’s a lot of salt hiding right there. It takes time as the beans simmer for the salt from the meat to permeate the beans. You don’t know how salty your pot of beans already is until you give it time. When the beans are soft and close to ready for serving, test the beans and add salt, and other additional seasonings, until you’re satisfied. Serve in bowls with chopped onion, hot or mild peppers, shredded cheese, and/or sour cream as optional toppings.
A big pot of beans takes anywhere from 4 to 6 hours (or more) of simmer time. Test your beans for softness periodically as your time will vary from pot to pot, depending on various minor factors. If you find your water getting low in the pot, just add more. (I add it hot.) You always want the beans covered with water while cooking.
You can also cook beans in a Crock-Pot or a pressure cooker, but there’s nothing like beans simmering on the stovetop all day. And it gives you plenty of time to fix the corn bread.
Bacon fat, lard, or shortening
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup salted butter (cut up) or oil
2 large eggs
1 cup milk or buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Grease a cast-iron skillet with reserved bacon fat, lard, or shortening. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter or oil, eggs, and milk or buttermilk. Stir to combine. Don’t overstir. You want a thick, almost-pourable-but-not consistency. Pour the corn bread mixture into the skillet. If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, you can use a greased 8-inch-square pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until browned.
Making tortillas at home is simple, and they’re so much more delicious than the ones from the store. These flour tortillas are great for burritos, enchiladas, or just melting butter on them to roll up hot and eat fresh from the skillet.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup lard or shortening
1 cup lukewarm water
Mix the flour and salt in a medium-size bowl. Cut in the lard or shortening with a pastry cutter. Stir in the water and mix the dough as much as possible with a spoon. The dough will appear dry. Knead as you would any yeast bread dough until the mixture becomes a pliable ball. Cover the bowl and let rest for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle a bit of flour in the bowl and knead again briefly. Divide the dough into 12 balls. Preheat a cast-iron skillet on medium-high. Because the tortillas are cooked dry, with no oil, cast iron is best.
Taking one ball of tortilla dough at a time, flour waxed paper and stretch the ball a bit to get started. Place the dough on the floured wax paper and sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Roll out each tortilla as thinly as possible without breaking the dough.
If the dough sticks as you pull it up, you aren’t using enough flour. It should pull off the waxed paper easily.
Cook each tortilla quickly, about 30 seconds per side. Place cooked tortillas in a tortilla keeper or in foil. Keep wrapped while continuing to cook the remaining tortillas.
This recipe makes twelve 6- to 8-inch tortillas. To make larger tortillas, divide your ball of dough into fewer portions. (Remember to not make larger tortillas than you have a skillet to cook them in.) To store tortillas, place in sealed baggies in the refrigerator. They keep well for a week or more in the fridge. You can vary the recipe in endless ways—substitute whole-grain flour or add crushed hot peppers, chopped olives, anything you like for gourmet tortillas.
Even if your garden doesn’t burst with produce, most likely, if you’ve got a garden, there’s still too much squash and zucchini. My favorite way of circumventing the sometimes unwelcome bounty each summer is frying up the blossoms. (You can use any kind of squash blossoms, including pumpkin.)
This recipe will stuff 6 to 8 squash blossoms, depending on the size. Note: Squash blossoms are best picked in the morning and they don’t keep well. Use as quickly as possible after harvesting. If not using for a day or two, refrigerate.
To make fried stuffed squash blossoms:
Fresh squash flowers
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon fresh (or 1 teaspoon dried) chives
2 tablespoons onion, minced
1 large egg
½ cup milk
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup cornmeal
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
Oil for frying
Pick the squash blossoms. (If you choose male flowers, which grow on longer, thinner stems, you’ll avoid reducing your crop . . . if that’s what you want to do!) Cut the stems off at the base and clip out the stamens from the inside. Rinse thoroughly, shake off excess water, and let the blossoms air-dry on paper towels.
Combine the softened cream cheese with the chives and onion. Spoon about an ounce into the center of each blossom (less if you’re using smaller flowers). Close the blossoms by folding the petals over the mixture. Whisk the egg and milk together in one bowl and mix the flour, cornmeal, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in another. Dip the closed blossoms in the wet then the dry mixture until well coated. Fry in oil over medium heat until browned on both sides. Drain and serve with a creamy dip.
Even if you don’t have a garden of your own overflowing with squash and zucchini, somebody you know does, and he or she will be dropping vegetables off with you by the bagful. Or just setting them on your front porch and running. Not that there’s anything wrong with squash and zucchini, but I’m always looking for squash and zucchini ideas.
½ cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup yellow squash, chopped
1½ cups zucchini, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
4 large eggs
1 cup baking mix (such as Quick Mix)
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup grated Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Combine the chopped vegetables in a large bowl. Add the eggs, baking mix, sour cream, oil, cheese, garlic, and seasonings. Mix well. Pour into a greased 9-inch pie pan. Bake for approximately 40 minutes.
More ideas: Instead of cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and onion, use 4 cups of whatever you like. Use all zucchini, all squash, or any combination of your favorite vegetables. You can even substitute a cup of cooked, chopped, or ground meat for 1 cup of the vegetables for a main course. Use different cheeses and seasonings. Anything goes in this pie.
Everybody’s got an opinion about how to cook up a mess of fresh beans, but here’s how I do it.
1 quart green beans, fresh
¼ pound sliced peppered bacon, chopped in pieces*
1 medium-sized onion
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon seasoned salt
Water
Wash the green beans; drain. Chop the bacon in pieces. Start the bacon frying on medium in a large pot. Slice the onion and add to the pot to cook with the bacon. I love the caramelized taste to the onions that comes from frying them along with the bacon. You can add more or less onion, and slice it any way you like.
When the bacon is about half cooked (just starting to brown a little bit), add the green beans. (Don’t drain the bacon grease. Well, you can drain a little bit, if you must, but don’t go out of control here.) Add the sugar, salt, seasoned salt, and just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down, cover the pot, and simmer for at least 45 minutes.
I like to stop right here, but if you really want to cook them down hard, after the 45 minutes you can take the lid off and turn up the heat. If my cousin is coming over, I keep going until almost every bit of liquid is cooked down because he likes them cooked until dead.
When the beans are cooked to your liking, adjust seasonings to taste. This is a fantastic down-home side dish, or a meal all by itself.
* If you aren’t using peppered bacon, you’ll want to add some pepper.
Popcorn is the perfect natural snack, much healthier than chips, and it’s cheap, cheap, cheap! But not so cheap if you’re buying it in those microwave packages. You can make popcorn for pennies on the top of your stove. You can season it up a thousand different ways to suit yourself and make your own gourmet popcorn.
Making old-fashioned popcorn on the top of the stove is almost a lost art in today’s world of microwave popcorn and fancy air poppers. Ask average kids today how to make popcorn, and a good number of them are likely to tell you how many minutes it takes in the microwave. There’s a little bit of a trick to making good popcorn, with no burning and few old maids (unpopped kernels), but it’s easy once you know how.
The simplest popcorn, flavored with nothing more than butter and salt, is my favorite most of the time, but sometimes I also like to add a little sugar or even some cinnamon-sugar. Occasionally, I get adventurous and try some other spices or herbs. Good ones to try are cayenne, garlic, and pepper. Whenever I make popcorn, I make a big pot and snack on it for days. Store prepared popcorn in an airtight container.
This is the size recipe I make in my 5-quart pot. You can cut the measurements in half for a smaller pot. If you’ve never made anything but air-popped or microwave popcorn, here’s how to make real popcorn, the old-fashioned way.
¼ cup vegetable oil
⅔ cup popcorn kernels
Salt to taste
Butter to taste
Put the vegetable oil in the bottom of a large pot. Place three popcorn kernels in the pot. Turn the heat to medium-high. Watch for the kernels to pop. They’ll be popping before you know it—don’t go away! Once all three have popped, add all the popcorn and the salt, put on the lid, and remove the pot from the heat for 30 seconds. This allows the rest of the popcorn to warm up before returning to heat, which will mean fewer unpopped kernels in the end.
Note: Adding the salt before popping helps evenly distribute the salt throughout the popcorn. I use two teaspoons of salt.
Put the pot back on medium-high. Using oven mitts to hold the pot, begin shaking the entire pot over the burner. Try to hold the lid on the pot as you shake so that the cover is just slightly cracked—this helps vent steam and make your popcorn crisp. Continue shaking the pot until you don’t hear kernels popping anymore. Remove from heat. Drizzle (lavishly!) with butter and/or whatever else suits your fancy. Goodies you can add in to a bowl of popcorn include red hots, M&Ms or other candies, all kinds of nuts but especially cashews and peanuts, raisins and other dried fruit pieces, pretzels, or cereal.
You can have an endless array of biscuits, muffins, and pancakes at your fingertips as fast and easy as with a store-bought baking mix, only better because it’s homemade.
To make Quick Mix:
5 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup baking powder
1¼ teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. I use a large spoon and a whisk to blend the ingredients well. I like to make this mix in 5-cup batches because that quantity fits easily into my mixing bowls for blending. I make multiple batches at once and store it in a large canister on my kitchen counter. Store as you would flour.
BISCUITS:
Per 1 cup of Quick Mix used, add—
¼ cup shortening, salted butter, or lard
⅓ cup milk or buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Using a pastry cutter, cut in the shortening, butter, or lard until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the milk and knead your biscuit dough. (A secret to great biscuits—knead the dough lightly a few times, adding a pinch of flour if needed to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.) Roll onto a floured surface to an inch thickness and cut out. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Depending on the size of your biscuit cutter, this makes approximately 4 to 6 biscuits per recipe using 1 cup of mix. Double or triple as needed.
MUFFINS:
Per 1 cup of Quick Mix used, add—
3 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
⅓ cup milk
2 tablespoons oil
⅔ cup fruit (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Add the sugar, egg, milk, and oil to the Quick Mix all at once. Stir just till moistened. (Batter should be lumpy.) To make fruit muffins, using blueberries, diced apple, and so on, fold in ⅔ cup fruit. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake approximately 15 to 18 minutes. Per cup of Quick Mix, the batter makes 4 to 6 muffins.
PANCAKES:
Per 1 cup of Quick Mix used, add—
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
¼ to 1 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil
Add the sugar, egg, milk (adjust to make a good pouring batter), and oil. Stir just till moistened. Pour the batter onto a hot, lightly greased skillet or griddle, turning to cook the second side after the first side bubbles on the surface. The 1-cup recipe makes approximately 6 pancakes.
Biscuits with sausage gravy is one of my kids’ favorite lazy weekend breakfasts, and sometimes we even have it for dinner. One, biscuits. Two, sausage. Three, gravy. How can you go wrong with that combo? It’s no surprise it’s such a country breakfast staple.
Per dozen biscuits (depending on cutter size):
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup shortening or lard
⅔ cup milk
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl (or use 2 cups Quick Mix). Cut in the shortening or lard. Stir in the milk. Roll on a floured surface to about an inch thick and cut. Place the biscuits on a greased pan. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.
For the gravy:
1 pound ground mild or spicy sausage
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the sausage in a large skillet till done; drain, leaving a little bit of the drippings in the pan for flavor. Stir in the flour and garlic powder; add the milk gradually, cooking and stirring over medium heat. When the gravy thickens, turn off the heat and add salt and pepper to taste.
By now, you’ve got big, fluffy biscuits coming out of the oven.
You might need to eat one of those suckers right away, with some butter, to test them before you let anybody else have them with the gravy. You wouldn’t want anyone getting a bad biscuit. And they are awfully good right out of the oven.
Split the biscuits and pour on the gravy. Serve hot!
Start with a big bag of fat from when your pig was butchered. If you don’t have a big bag of fat, you’ll have to go to a butcher shop. Trust me, it’s worth it. Making your own lard is easy, and you can do it no matter where you live or how far you are from a farm. Homemade lard is fresh, natural, and not hydrogenated like store-bought lard, and if you raised your own pig, you know exactly what it was fed. It makes the best piecrusts and biscuits in the world. Lard is a real, natural food—don’t be afraid of it—and making your own is easy, taking you another step closer to your food and its origins.
To make homemade lard, you’ll need:
Pork fat
Water
(Short ingredient list.)
To render lard for baking, the best pork fat is kidney, back, or belly fat. Freeze the fat first to make it easier to handle—cutting up fat is a messy job. Chop it into about 1-inch pieces. (Some people even grind the frozen fat. The smaller the pieces of fat you start with, the quicker it will render.) How much fat you render at once doesn’t matter—however much you want to work with at a time and will fit in your pot.
Use a large cast-iron kettle or dutch oven to cook it on the stovetop, or cook it in a Crock-Pot or the oven. Cook the fat any way you choose—the method is similar no matter which way you do it. I prefer a Crock-Pot. Rendering actually produces three products—the mild creamy-white baking lard, what is called savory lard, and the cracklins (which are a guilty pleasure).
First add water to cover the bottom of the pot or pan you’re using to cook the lard, then add a layer of fat pieces. (Don’t add all the fat yet.) The water will eventually cook out—it’s just there at the start while you get the first pieces of fat melting so the fat doesn’t stick to the bottom.
Cook the lard slowly. I set my Crock-Pot on low and keep the pot uncovered throughout the process. When you see the first pieces of fat floating and turning white, the rendering has begun.
Go ahead and put in the rest of the fat. You can stir it occasionally, but it doesn’t need a whole lot of attention. It knows what it’s doing. It doesn’t need your help. The pieces will float as the amount of melted fat increases.
Eventually, the pieces of fat will sink to the bottom—those are your cracklins-to-be. Stick a spoon in there and you’ll see your nice, clear liquid fat. The cracklings will still have a puffy fatness to them. (Not crispy yet.)
You want to render your good, mild baking lard before you finish the cracklins. When you see the pieces sinking, it’s time to get the good stuff. In my Crock-Pot on low, this takes about 12 hours. (It’s a good idea to start lard in the evening and let it cook overnight—but be sure you’ve got it on low.)
Line a colander with cheesecloth. Place the colander over a bowl. Pour the lard into the colander and let it strain through to the bowl. Next, carefully and slowly pour the strained liquid from the bowl to your final container(s). I like to use quart jars to store lard. This first rendering of clarified lard is perfect for piecrusts and other baking uses (and also for soap making). It will be mild and turn a gorgeous white once it sets. Chill it quickly for best texture.
The cracklins, remaining in the cheesecloth, will still look puffy and fat. Return the cracklins to the pot, keeping the heat on low. (No need to add more water.) Continue to cook the cracklins until they’re crispy and golden, having released more fat. Again, strain the lard by pouring it through a cheesecloth-lined colander into a bowl. This second rendering is the savory lard. Because it’s made from cooking down the cracklins, it has a much stronger flavor. You can use it for various savory cooking purposes—it’s just probably not something you’ll want in a crust for an apple pie. It will set to a light amber color and should be chilled for best texture, just like the creamy mild lard.
The cracklins, your final product, are delicious sprinkled over salads or on top of casseroles. Or eaten as a snack. Go ahead, you know you want to.
Store your finished lard in a cool, dry place. If you don’t have a cool place to store it, you can keep it in the refrigerator. If used within a few months, refrigeration is not necessary.
Note: You can render other types of fat using the same method. Rendered pork fat is called lard. Tallow is rendered beef fat. Chicken fat when rendered is called schmaltz. Suet is the hard, lean rendering of fat from around the kidneys and loins of cows or sheep. All these types of rendered fat find traditional uses in cooking, soaps, candles, and more.
Making butter is the process of releasing butterfat from the cream. Like cheese making, it’s an age-old and delicious way of preserving milk.
Here’s how you do it.
Take 1 pint of heavy cream. Not too fresh. It’s best to work with cream that’s been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days. Set your heavy cream out for several hours to come to room temperature. When you’re ready to start, pour your pint of cream into a quart jar.
Cover tightly with a lid and start shaking. At first, the cream will seem to expand and fill up the jar to where it almost looks as if you can’t shake it anymore. Keep shaking—next thing you know, a big yellow blob of butter will appear inside the jar. It’s like magic!
Using a spoon to hold the butter in place, pour off the buttermilk, transferring it to another jar, then dump the butter in a bowl. (The most straight-sided bowl you have is best.) Using the back of a big spoon, press the butter, pushing out any remaining liquid. This is still buttermilk, so add it to your buttermilk jar.
Run cold water over the butter, then press again, releasing as much liquid as possible. Dump this liquid—it’s watered down now. Repeat this process of washing the butter several times until the water is pressing out clear. After you’ve washed it for the last time, add salt to taste. (Salt also helps preserve the butter.) Refrigerate and eat with much happiness because you made it yourself.
There are numerous variations on making butter. You can make it with a stand mixer, a blender, or a food processor, too. (Or even the old-fashioned way with a hand-cranked churn.) Main points to remember when making butter:
Be sure to use really good, rich heavy cream.
Don’t use cream that’s too fresh. Let the cream for butter sit in the fridge a couple days before using.
Don’t use ultrapasteurized cream.
Let the cream come to room temperature before starting to make butter.
CANNING IN A BOILING WATER BATH
There is nothing better than a cellar or pantry stocked with home-canned food. It’s frugal, it’s easy, and it makes for great gifts with the addition of decorative canning lids, labels, and a bit of tied raffia or ribbon.
Note: Boiling water bath canning is for high-acid foods only, which generally include fruits and soft spreads. Figs and tomatoes may be canned in a hot water bath with the addition of a sufficient amount of acid (bottled lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar). Fermented foods such as sauerkraut and pickles may also be preserved by this method. Standard canning recipes are calculated for altitudes of 1,000 feet above sea level or lower. Always consult expert resources for canning method recommendations for the type of food you are canning as well as for altitude adjustments. For low-acid foods such as vegetables, meats, poultry, and seafood as well as soups, stews, and sauces containing those foods, you must use a pressure canner. The pressure inside this type of canner provides a higher heat to destroy the bacterial spores that emit toxins in low-acid foods. A good beginner resource is the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, available at many stores and online.
Supplies you will need: A large canning pot with a rack, a wide-mouth funnel, a jar lifter, and canning jars, lids, and bands. Lids are onetime-use items. Jars and bands can be washed and reused.
Jars must be well washed and hot when you begin filling them. Jars do not need to be presterilized as long as the filled jars will be processed at least 10 minutes in a boiling water bath or pressure canner.
1. Before you begin the final preparation stage of the food to be canned, fill the pot half full of water and heat to a simmer (180°F).
Set the pot on the stove to boil. Use a rack that fits the bottom of the pot and the size jars you are using. (The jars must not be in direct contact with the bottom of the pot. Normally, a rack will come with your canning pot. Canning pots are available at most large stores, such as Walmart, and also at hardware and other specialty stores.) Meanwhile, in a small pan, prepare the jar lids. Lids come in regular and wide-mouth sizes, as do jars. Use real canning jars only. Lids should be heated for 10 minutes prior to using. Lids can be heated in a small pan on the stove or in a small slow-cooker that can maintain a temperature of around 180°F. (Do not overheat. Do not boil. Overheating lids by boiling can result in seal failure.) Remove from the water one at a time as needed.
2. Using a wide-mouth funnel, spoon the food into the jars, filling to the recommended headspace per your recipe.
Use a plastic or wooden instrument to press the mixture and remove air bubbles. (Always remove air bubbles, even if you think there aren’t any. There are.)
Never use metal in a glass jar. The slightest knock of metal against a glass jar could cause an invisible fracture that might cause the jar to break in the canning pot.
Wipe the jar rims with a damp towel to clean any spillage. This is important because any particles of food remaining on the jar rim can prevent a vacuum seal.
3. Take the lids one at a time from the simmering water with tongs. They do not need to be dried—put them right on the jar.
You can also buy what is called a magnetic wand to use for removing lids from simmering water to place on jars. But tongs work just fine.
Place a lid immediately on each jar as it is prepared. Screw on the bands. Use a towel to hold the hot jars as you tighten the bands. Tighten the bands only fingertip tight—meaning stop when there is resistance. Firm and snug—not as tight as you can make it. Overtightening can interfere with the vacuum seal and even cause buckled lids.
4. Slowly lower each jar as you fill it into the simmering pot of water using a jar lifter.
Make sure the jars remain upright as they are moved. Once all the jars are loaded into the pot, check that the water is at least two inches over the tops of the jars. If necessary, add boiling water to reach the required level. Place the lid on the pot.
5. Time the boil according to the directions for the recipe you are using. After placing the lid on the pot, increase the heat to medium-high and bring the water in the canner to a rolling boil. Begin counting the processing time when the rolling boil begins. Keep the water boiling during the entire processing time.
When the processing time has expired, turn off the heat, remove the lid, and let the canner cool for 5 minutes.
6. Remove the jars one at a time with a jar lifter and place the jars, not touching and at least 1 inch apart, on a dry surface covered with toweling or layers of newspaper to prevent thermal shock. Keep the cooling jars out of drafts. Do not move the jars or adjust the rings during the resting period.
Allow the jars to rest undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours. You will hear the lids “pop” as they cool and form the vacuum sealing the jars. Store the jars in a cool, dry location after removing the rings from the jars and thoroughly washing the jars in warm soapy water.
Do not store jars with the rings on. The rings may rust onto the jars and become difficult to remove. The rings may also mask a bad seal and result in jar explosion. Always remove the rings on stored jars. (You may want to return rings to jars when transporting or gift giving, but long-term storage with the rings on is not a good idea.)
For storing home-canned goods, most expert sources recommend the standard guideline of one year for optimal quality, though it’s not really that simple. Some foods, such as jams, are considered truly best, at least from a flavor standpoint, if used within six months. However, there is no way to give a blanket answer to the storage question because so many different factors affect storage quality, including temperature of the storage location (should be cool, not warm), how clean the fruits/vegetables were when packed in the jars, and whether or not proper processing and handling were followed in every detail. The best advice is to plan what you can. Can what you expect you will use or share within a year, especially if you are a new canner. After all, every year is a new harvest.
Apple butter in autumn is an Appalachian tradition. Historically, it’s a daylong event. Whole families would join together to simmer apple butter in copper kettles as big as washtubs. Apple butter was one of the traditions my father took with him when he left these hills long ago after World War II. I grew up on apple butter and, yes, sometimes I thought it was odd. None of my friends had apple butter at their house. But we did. (We also always—always!—had West Virginia molasses in the house, too.)
Once we moved to the farm, I made a lot of apple butter with free apples, either from farmers’ market pig hauls or from the old apple tree behind the Slanted Little House. An adaptation with whiskey and raisins became my favorite version of this West Virginia staple.
Start with however many apples you can get your hands on. A bushel or two is fantastic. (A bushel is 8 gallons.) Most people have a favorite kind of apple, but any type of apple will work. My favorite kind of apple is a free apple. Short of free apples, my next favorite kind is what they sell at the farmers’ markets as “canning apples”—boxes of usually mixed varieties of (often bruised) apples that are offered at a cut-rate price.
To make apple butter, core, peel, and slice the apples. Cook apples in a pot of water long enough to soften, then puree into sauce. You can also use a food strainer, like a Squeezo, to prepare the puree, which makes the process even easier. Per 2 quarts prepared puree, add:
4 cups sugar
1 cup raisins
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup whiskey
Combine the applesauce puree, sugar, raisins, and spices in a large pot. Simmer until the mixture thickens and rounds up on a spoon. Stir frequently. Add the whiskey to the pot and stir well. Ladle the hot butter into hot jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Add lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Yield: 3 pints.
Corncob jelly is a perfect example of the “waste not, want not” spirit of our ancestors, who knew how to use everything, and I mean everything. Most of us are accustomed to tossing corncobs in the trash or the compost pile, but there are actually many, many ways to utilize them. Corncob jelly is one of the tastiest. Here’s a short list of other ideas.
Give them to the animals. Chickens and donkeys love to peck and chew every bit of sweetness out of a cob.
Make a corncob doll.
Make a corncob pipe. (If you’re handy and into that.)
Stick a nail or hook in one end of the cob. Slather cob with peanut butter and seeds—tie on a tree branch as a bird feeder.
Boil down for vegetable soup stock. (Similar to the method I outline below for making corncob jelly—use the corn liquid as soup stock instead.)
Potpourri—slice cobs in thin pieces, dry, then sprinkle with scented oil. Makes a very pretty addition to a potpourri bowl.
Dry for fire starters. (You can dry corncobs in the sun, the old-fashioned way, or use a dehydrator.)
In the old days, dried, they were used as pot scrubbers.
Poke a long nail in each end of a dried cob and use as a paint roller to make a neat pattern. (Also can use corncobs held upright as a brush, or cut in half to use the even, cut edge to stamp patterns.)
Corncob wine!
You should never throw a corncob away again.
For this recipe, you can use any kind of corn. Traditionally, (red) field corn was often used, but the corn you plan to serve for supper will also make a delicious jelly.
12 large ears of corn
2 quarts water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
11¼-ounce package powdered fruit pectin
Salted butter
Sugar
Cook the corn; cut the kernels from the cobs and store for another use. Measure 2 quarts water into a large pot; add the corncobs.
Bring to a boil. Boil hard for 30 minutes. (If you had the pot covered when you brought it to a boil, take the lid off now. Boil it down uncovered for a more concentrated result.) Turn off the heat and remove the cobs. Strain the corn liquid through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer.
Measure the remaining corn liquid. I usually get a little over 3½ cups corn liquid after it boils down. Return the liquid to the large pot. Stir in the lemon juice and pectin. Add a dab of butter to prevent foaming. Bring to a boil. Add the sugar, cup per cup, to match the measure of your corn liquid. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring pot to a rolling boil. Boil hard one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Ladle the hot corncob jelly into hot jars. Adjust the lids and bands. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
Makes approximately 5 half-pints.
This jelly comes out a beautiful pale amber color and tastes surprisingly like a light honey.
Wildflower jellies are an old-fashioned idea, and the reason for that is we don’t think we have time in our rush-rush world to pick flowers for a few hours and separate the petals. It’s a slow task, somewhat akin to stringing beans or cracking nuts.
You can make flower and herb jellies using any amount of flowers and herbs, so if you don’t want to pick any certain amount, this per cup recipe is helpful. Note: Be sure to check an expert resource when determining what flowers are edible.
This same recipe can be used to make herb jellies. Herb jelly is more than mint! Basil, rosemary, sage, and many other herbs make wonderful herb jellies.
To prepare the infusion, boil water and steep petals/herb leaves overnight, one cup boiling water per one cup petals/leaves. The next day, strain the infusion through cheesecloth to get a clear liquid. When adding up cups of strained infusion, if you’re short, add water to round up to the next cup, then make jelly.
For the jelly, per cup strained infusion, add one 1¼-ounce package powdered fruit pectin, ⅛ cup lemon juice, and 2 cups sugar. One 1¼-ounce package powdered fruit pectin will set up to 2 cups strained infusion. For 4 cups infusion, use 2 packages, and so on. (For 3 cups infusion, go ahead and use 2 packages, and for 5 cups, use 3 packages.) There is no natural pectin in flower petals and herbs, so a lot of pectin is required.
To make the jelly, combine the strained infusion, powdered pectin, and lemon juice in a pot according to the per cup measurements. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the sugar, stirring until dissolved. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Ladle hot jelly into hot jars. Add lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
These jellies come out in beautiful natural colors, but you can add a drop or two of food coloring for a desired effect, if you wish. You can also use this same infusion method as a base for flower or herb syrups, teas, and more.
I came up with this recipe when I realized I had some bananas on the verge of going bad. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten a banana split, but I love the combination of fruit flavors. And the whipped cream. And the fudge. And the ice cream.
And I wondered why I hadn’t had one in so long. But, of course, banana splits can be a bit of a hassle to put together. You have to have all the stuff. Then I thought—banana split in a jar!
I created a recipe combining all four of the traditional banana split fruits, ready, able, and willing to go on top of a bowl of ice cream. Just add chocolate syrup and whipped cream.
½ cup lemon juice
2 cups mashed bananas
2 cups crushed strawberries
1½ cups crushed pineapple
1 cup halved maraschino cherries
11¼-ounce package powdered fruit pectin
5 cups sugar
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup banana rum or dark rum (optional)
Mix the lemon juice into the bananas immediately after mashing to retain the fresh color, then combine all the fruit and the pectin in a big pot. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add the sugar and a dab of butter to reduce foaming. Bring to a rolling boil; boil hard 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add nuts and rum (if using).
Ladle into jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Process in a boiling water bath 15 minutes.
Serve over ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. This also makes a great spread on toast or topping for pancakes or waffles, pound cake or cheesecake, and anything else.
This recipe makes about 9 half-pints.
You can find whole vanilla beans at farmers’ markets, whole food stores, and even many chain grocery stores, but the best deals are available online in bulk. Store vanilla beans triple-bagged in the refrigerator and they will keep fresh up to a year. Scrapings from vanilla beans can also be used in homemade vanilla ice cream and in cookie and other dessert recipes. Add whole split vanilla beans to your sugar container to make vanilla sugar. Don’t be afraid to buy vanilla beans in bulk—there are so many ways to use them!
Making your own vanilla extract is very simple, and it also makes great gifts for the bakers in your life. Since I bake a lot, I use a 750 ml bottle of vodka, but the recipe can be downsized if you prefer a smaller batch. For “double-strength” vanilla, increase the number of beans.
12 whole vanilla beans
750 milliliter bottle of vodka
Dark rum (optional)
Using kitchen scissors, split open the vanilla beans lengthwise, leaving about an inch connected (not cut) at one end. The vanilla beans will take up space inside the bottle, so pour out about half a cup of the vodka (or more as needed) and set aside.
Push the beans into the bottle. Add back vodka if necessary to fill up the bottle, or you can also use a little bit of dark rum for additional flavoring if desired.
Screw on the lid tightly, shake well, and store in a cool, dry location. Shake the bottle once or twice a day for the first week or so, then just whenever you think about it. It will take a month or two to steep well enough to use, but you can use it sooner if you’re in a rush. Stored properly, it will be good for years and will in fact get better all the time as it grows stronger. If you can wait 4 to 6 months before using, all the better. (Remember to make a new batch well before the old one runs out. If planning for gifts, prepare the extract several months beforehand so your recipient can use it right away.)
Georgia made big batches of cracker candy every winter. She’d give it away to family and friends and keep a box of it in her refrigerator. “It satisfies all my longings,” she’d say.
For a quick treat to put together, it makes pretty good comfort food. All you need for basic cracker candy is crackers (any type will do) and some semisweet chocolate. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and dip the crackers. Let sit to harden and enjoy.
For toffee cracker candy, a little more involved but worth it, you’ll need:
Oil
Crackers (such as Ritz or Club)
1 cup salted butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup nuts (optional)
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Spray a 9 x 13–inch pan with oil. Spread the crackers evenly over the bottom of the pan. Heat the butter and brown sugar in a small pot. Let boil for 3 minutes. Pour the butter and brown sugar mixture over the crackers. Sprinkle with the chopped nuts. I prefer pecans or walnuts. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and turn the oven off. Scatter chocolate chips over the top and place in the still-warm (turned off) oven for a few minutes, long enough for the chocolate to melt. Let sit to cool and harden, then break the candy into pieces.
Don’t forget to hide some of it in your fridge for when you have a longing.
Clover’s favorite cookies!
1½ cups salted butter, softened
1¼ cups sugar, plus addtional for sprinkling or rolling
2 large eggs
¼ cup molasses
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1½ teaspoons salt
1 cup raisins (optional)
4 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Three sticks of butter is a lot of butter. That’s why these cookies are so delicious. You can substitute margarine or shortening. If you insist.
Cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs and molasses. Add the soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Stir to combine. (Optional: Add 1 cup of raisins.)
Stir in the flour. Divide the cookie dough into thirds and chill for an hour or two until the dough is easy to handle. Shape the dough into logs for slicing, or use a spoon to scoop off balls of dough. Place the slices on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar. If scooping off balls, you can roll the balls in sugar. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. This recipe makes several dozen cookies, but that depends on their size!
These are actually people cookies, in case you’re wondering. But don’t be judging if I give them to my goats.
When these cookies come out of the oven, they’ll make your house smell like you’re inside a glass of eggnog, and they are scrumptious. This is a recipe I got from Georgia, only she makes them with rum flavoring. The first time I made them, I took a batch to my cousin and said, “Look, I made your mother’s cookies. Only I call them drunken rum cookie logs.”
He said, “Why?”
I told him, “I don’t use rum flavoring.”
He said, “Oh.” And took them. Then I delivered some to Georgia and told her the same thing.
She said, “Oh my.” (She took them, too.)
For the cookie:
1 cup salted butter, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons rum flavoring or ¼ cup rum
1 heaping teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups all-purpose flour
For the frosting:
3 tablespoons salted butter, melted
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon rum flavoring (or a big dollop of rum)
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
A couple tablespoons milk (as much as needed for drizzling consistency)
Ground nutmeg
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Then start with some rum. Bacardi Gold or Calico Jack spiced rum is good. You should probably test the rum first. You don’t want any bad rum going into your cookies.
When you’re sure the rum is okay, cream the butter and sugar. You might want to stop now and check the rum again. You can’t trust it. It might go bad.
Add the egg, the vanilla extract, and either 2 teaspoons of rum flavoring or ¼ cup rum. Add the nutmeg.
This is when you’re about to get up to the real manual labor, so it might be a good time to take a break and test the rum again.
Dump in the all-purpose flour. This makes a pretty heavy cookie dough, so use a sturdy spoon to stir. Divide the dough into four parts and shape each part into a long, loglike roll. Cut into 3-inch pieces with a sharp knife.
Place the cookie logs, lengthwise, on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool before frosting.
This is a good time to test the rum again.
To make the frosting, cream the butter with the vanilla and either 1 teaspoon of rum flavoring or a big dollop of rum. Add the powdered sugar and a few tablespoons of milk until you have icing at a drizzling consistency. Frost the cooled cookies and sprinkle with more nutmeg.
Serve with rum.
My kids think they don’t like sweet potatoes, but their easily diverted little minds never make the connection between a pile of sweet potatoes in the pantry and what ends up on their plates. The first time I made sweet potato fries, Morgan said, “Why do these French fries look orange?”
I said, “Oh, it’s just some special seasoning I put on there.”
She said (suspiciously), “What kind of seasoning?”
I said, “Orange-colored seasoning! Here, you want some ketchup?”
She ate them right up. And so when I make sweet potato pie, I tell everyone it’s pumpkin pie. And they eat that right up, too. Ha. Sweet potato pie does taste very much like pumpkin pie, and this recipe is my favorite.
To start, you need a great piecrust:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1¼ cup lard or shortening
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 large egg
½ cup cold water
Combine the flour, lard or shortening, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Blend with a pastry cutter. Add the vinegar, egg, and cold water. Mix well with a spoon, knead lightly, and divide into four balls. Chill 15 minutes before rolling out into crusts. (Extra pie dough balls can be frozen.)
To make sweet potato pie:
3 large sweet potatoes (about 1 pound)
½ cup salted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
½ cup milk
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, plus additional for sprinkling
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 unbaked single-crust pie shell
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Boil the sweet potatoes in their skins until very tender. Drain, then slit the skins with a knife and they’ll peel off very easily. Mash the sweet potatoes with the butter, then use an electric mixer to blend well. Add the sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. Use the mixer to blend again. Pour the sweet potato filling into the unbaked pie shell. Sprinkle the top with more nutmeg. Bake (mostly on the lowest oven rack) for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Baking pies on the lower oven rack is my secret to properly baked crusts. No gooey crusts! This also prevents the edges from overbrowning.)
Cool and top slices with whipped cream. Then call the kids and ask them if they want some pumpkin pie.
COCONUT-OATMEAL RUM PIE (WITH WALNUTS)
I made up this recipe when I was baking a couple pies and managing with what I had on hand. It’s based on a coconut-oatmeal pie recipe, adjusted for the addition of rum and the lack of enough oatmeal, which I replaced with walnuts. The result was intoxicating. This one went right into my holiday pie repertoire.
3 large eggs
¼ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup dark rum
⅔ cup sugar
⅓ cup salted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup shredded coconut
⅓ cup oatmeal
⅓ cup walnuts, chopped
1 unbaked single-crust pie shell
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a medium-size bowl, combine the eggs, corn syrup, rum, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Whisk to mix. Using a spoon, stir in the coconut, oatmeal, and walnuts. Pour into the pie shell. Bake on the lower oven rack for 40 to 45 minutes.
My kids love Pop-Tarts, but I don’t love to buy them, and one day it hit me that I could just make them, so I did. And wow, they are so good (unlike their rather cardboard-tasting store-bought counterparts), and they’re surprisingly easy to make. These are also really fun to make with little (and big!) kids because they can pick out their own flavors and help decorate them.
Use your favorite pie pastry, or try mine. (See my piecrust recipe on page 263.) I use the entire pastry recipe for the Pop-Tarts, splitting the dough in two instead of four balls.
Roll each ball out in two long strips (as far as it will go) that are 6 inches wide.
Cut into 3-inch sections.
Your mileage will vary depending on the pastry recipe you used and how thin you roll the pastry, but you should come out with about 8 to 10 big, full-size, rectangular Pop-Tarts pieces per strip. (You could also cut into smaller pieces for “Pop-Tarts sticks” instead, or cut into triangles, or use a big cookie cutter to make circles, and so on. Think outside the rectangle!)
Place filling in the middle of the strips for the bottom layer.
Filling ideas:
Use a couple teaspoons of the jam of your choice.
For brown sugar ’n’ cinnamon Pop-Tarts (my kids’ favorite), melt 3 tablespoons butter and combine ⅓ cup granulated sugar, ⅓ cup brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon in a small bowl. Brush melted butter on each piece, then sprinkle with the brown sugar mixture.
Try a couple teaspoons of melted semisweet chocolate and marshmallow cream.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
After placing the filling on the bottom strips, using the other strips, place tops on the Pop-Tarts pieces, pinching or pressing with a fork all the way around the sides to seal. Prick the centers to vent. Transfer to a greased baking sheet using a large spatula.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, switching oven racks halfway through baking. (Start baking on the top rack, then move the pan to the bottom rack after about 8 minutes.) Cool and top with icing (and candy sprinkles if desired). For brown sugar ’n’ cinnamon Pop-Tarts, I add a dash of ground cinnamon to the icing.
Powdered sugar icing: Combine ½ cup sifted powdered sugar, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract, and enough milk (1 to 2 teaspoons) for drizzling consistency.
A pan of apple dumplings was Georgia’s go-to company dessert. She got the recipe from my great-aunt Ruby, who probably had it handed down to her from my great-grandmother. This old-fashioned delight has been in my family for a long time, and for good reason. It’s scrumptious.
For the syrup:
3 cups sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground (or freshly grated) nutmeg
3 cups water
6 tablespoons salted butter
For the dough:
5 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking powder
2½ teaspoons salt
1⅔ cups lard
1¼ cups sweet milk
For the filling:
12 medium-sized apples
2 cups sugar
Cinnamon for sprinkling
You know it’s an old recipe when it calls for sweet milk. Sweet milk is the old-time way of saying regular milk, not soured or buttermilk. You can substitute margarine for the butter and shortening for the lard, but you’ll be sorry. Lard is the secret to a tender, flaky pastry, and butter is the secret to happiness. For the nutmeg, if you can use fresh grated, that’s the best!
For the syrup, combine the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and water in a medium-sized pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, dump in the butter to melt, and let the syrup cool while you continue with the recipe.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
To make the dough, place the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl, cut in the lard, then stir in the milk and knead lightly.
Divide the dough into four parts, then divide each part into four balls for 16 dumplings. Peel, core, and slice the apples. If you want to prepare the apple slices in advance, you can sprinkle fruit protector on them to prevent browning and refrigerate until you’re ready.
On floured parchment paper, roll each ball of dough into a 6-inch circle. Place a cup of apple slices on each center. Sprinkle ⅛ cup sugar and a dash of cinnamon on top of the apples. Fold the dough up around the apples to make a sort of pouch.
Divide the dumplings between two greased 9 x 13-inch pans. Pour the syrup over the dumplings. Bake for about 45 minutes or until lightly browned.
This recipe has comfort food written all over it, but it is also so stunningly delicious that no wonder it was Georgia’s most frequent offering to guests, often tripled to serve at her parties, and is even worthy of showing up on a holiday table.
Note: You could easily add some raisins and/or chopped nuts to the apple filling if you like for an even more festive dumpling, although the simplicity of the recipe is pretty darn perfect as is.
STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM COFFEE CAKE
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
⅓ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup salted butter, margarine, lard, or shortening
1 cup strawberries, chopped
⅔ cup milk
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 ounces strawberry jam
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Place the first five ingredients (or 2 cups Quick Mix or other baking mix, with the addition of a tablespoon of sugar) in a large bowl and cut in the butter, margarine, lard, or shortening with a pastry cutter. Mix in the fresh chopped strawberries. Add the milk and stir to combine.
Place the dough on a floured surface. Sprinkle more flour on top and roll into an approximately 12 x 8-inch rectangle. Spread the cream cheese down the center, then top with the strawberry jam.
Make cuts, about an inch and a half apart, all along both long sides. Lift the cut strips of dough and crisscross them over the top of the cream cheese and jam. Pinch the ends to seal. Transfer to a greased baking sheet or 13 x 9-inch casserole pan. I use two big spatulas to move the unbaked coffee cake. Bake for 25 minutes or till nicely browned. Cool, then top with powdered sugar icing.
Powdered sugar icing: Combine ½ cup sifted powdered sugar, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract, and enough milk (1 to 2 teaspoons) for drizzling consistency.
Slice to serve. Perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snacks. Don’t tell anyone you made it and you can have the whole thing! Add some ice cream and it’s even dessert.
Whether you’re fixing holiday gift baskets to share, or just a sweet, warm treat to enjoy at home, pumpkin bread is irresistible. You can make this recipe with canned pumpkin, but it’s so much better with fresh.
The most common pie and baking pumpkins include Sugar or Sweet Pie, Small Sugar or New England Pie, and Sugar Baby. Choose a pumpkin that is heavy for its size, which means more moisture and lower chances of the flesh being dry or stringy. Don’t refrigerate unless cut. Stored in a cool, dry place, pumpkins can be kept for a couple months before being used. Depending on the size of the pie and baking pumpkin you choose, you can count on getting 2 to 4 cups of puree per pumpkin.
If you’re planning to prepare puree for baking, cut out the stem then slice the pumpkin in half. Scoop out the seeds with your hands or a spoon and scrape out the strings. Rinse in cold water.
Pumpkin can be cooked in the microwave, on the stovetop, or in the oven.
Microwave—place each pumpkin half, cut side down, on a microwave-safe plate and cook on high for approximately 15 minutes.
Stovetop—boil in a cup of water in a large covered pot approximately 30 minutes. (It’s not necessary for the water to cover the pumpkin.) Or steam pumpkin for about 15 minutes.
Oven—place pumpkin halves, cut side down, on a cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for an hour to an hour and a half.
However you cook the pumpkin, test for doneness with a fork. Pumpkin is ready when it’s tender and a fork slides easily through outer skin.
To prepare puree, scoop cooked pumpkin out of skin. Puree with a masher or food processor. Pumpkin puree should be the consistency of mashed potatoes. Fresh pumpkin puree can be substituted in equal amounts in recipes calling for solid-pack canned pumpkin. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to a week. For longer storage, place in freezer bags or containers for as long as twelve months.
For pumpkin bread, you’ll need:
⅔ cup shortening
2⅔ cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin or fresh pumpkin puree
⅔ cup water
3⅓ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cloves*
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup nuts
2 cups raisins
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add the eggs, pumpkin, and water. Mix thoroughly. Stir in the flour and the rest of the dry ingredients, then add the nuts and raisins. Spoon into greased loaf pans. Bake 1 hour for standard-size loaves or 25 minutes for miniloaves. Makes 2 standard-size loaves or 15 miniloaves.
For holiday pumpkin bread, add 2 cups raisins and candied fruit, mixed, to the batter, instead of just raisins. Press a candied cherry into the top of each loaf before baking.
* Add up to 2 teaspoons of ground cloves, if you like it spicy.
The origins of nut cake go all the way back to medieval times. American settlers brought the tradition with them and claimed it in their own way. The basis for all the competing nut cake variations is the plain nut cake that is but a simple and delectable cake with nuts.
We forget how rare treats were in the days when sugar was limited. Nuts were also a treat in and of themselves. They were harvested in the fall and time-consumingly cracked, the nut meats carefully extracted and lovingly stored to show up on holiday tables at Thanksgiving and Christmas and on other special occasions through the year. Pioneers weren’t buying nuts—they were using what was available to them where they lived.
In West Virginia, that meant black walnuts. In other areas, the nut cake might have had English walnuts or pecans because that was what was available. And traditional old-time nut cake is just that—a simple nut cake made with what is available to you.
Nut cake is an amazing cake that deserves a comeback. It’s a truly versatile recipe, and its longevity speaks for itself.
½ cup salted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped nuts (any)
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Cream the butter and sugar; stir in the eggs and vanilla. Using a sturdy spoon (or an electric mixer), alternately mix in the milk with the flour, baking powder, and spices. Stir in the nuts. Transfer to a greased pan (or pans) and bake for about 30 minutes (depending on pan size).
You can use any type of pan(s) you want. When I did this in loaf pans, I divided the batter into two large loaf pans. You could also do two 8- or 9-inch cake rounds, an 11 x 9-inch cake pan, a tube or Bundt pan, or a cupcake pan.
For the cream cheese frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese
½ cup salted butter (or margarine), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 ounces powdered sugar, sifted
In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter or margarine, and vanilla till light. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in the rest of the powdered sugar a little bit at a time until you reach spreading consistency. (You may or may not need the whole 16 ounces.)
If you don’t recognize the name of the cake, you’d likely recognize the flavor. It’s a cake you had sometime in your childhood, while visiting older family members or at a church supper somewhere. Burnt sugar cake has a unique taste that just spells home and country roads and a day when people spent more time in the kitchen. But there’s a reason burnt sugar cake isn’t so popular anymore—it does take time. There is no cake mix that will give you the flavor of burnt sugar. You have to “burn” the sugar yourself and make the cake from scratch.
But let me tell you—it’s worth it.
I started out with a little old lady’s recipe in an old spiral-bound church cookbook. The recipe included the list of ingredients, with some measurements (but not all), and directions that were incredibly lacking. (In which she instructs about ingredients that aren’t even mentioned in the list of ingredients and measurements.) You know, it’s one of those recipes—the type where they all knew what they were doing and only halfway wrote it down because you were supposed to know too. It gave absolutely no instructions for burning the sugar.
Lost, I turned to the Internet and studied burnt sugar cake recipes I found online. I chose one and made it. . . . It was quite different from the “authentic” recipe I had from the elderly lady, but hey, at least it had directions. Unfortunately, the cake was terrible. It baked up dry and dense and just utterly unacceptable.
Not to be deterred, I took what I’d learned from the online recipe and went back to the “authentic” one. Armed with at least a sense of how burnt sugar is created and the process of this cake, I tackled the old-time recipe again, filling in the gaps with my own experience. You know, the experience the incomplete recipe assumed I had to begin with. The two recipes were different in several ways, and by and large my second attempt was based on the old-time recipe. However, where measurements were incomplete in the old-time recipe, I filled in with my own guesses from my baking background, and what I ended up with was a delicious, moist, light cake that fulfilled all my burnt sugar cake dreams.
Start by making the burnt sugar syrup:
1⅓ cups sugar
1⅓ cups hot water
Dump the sugar in a skillet on the stove. Turn the heat to medium-low. You don’t actually “burn” the sugar—you melt it. Stir only occasionally. The less you stir, the better. Once the sugar is melted, add the hot water, continuing with your heat on medium-low. When you add the hot water, the melted sugar hardens again, but as it continues to cook, it transforms into a syrupy mixture.
Turn off the heat and set the sugar syrup aside to cool to room temperature while you start preparing the cake. The syrup is thin while it’s hot, but as it cools, it thickens. By the way, if you’re ever snowed in and need pancakes, this makes a pancake syrup in a pinch. Add a bit of maple flavoring if you have some on hand and it’s make-do maple syrup. Just remember, however much you want to make, use equal parts sugar and water. Using 1⅓ cups sugar and 1⅓ cups water, you’re going to end up with approximately 1¼ cups burnt sugar syrup after it cooks down in the process. Your exact mileage may vary.
To make burnt sugar cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup salted butter, room temperature
1½ cups sugar
2 large eggs, separated
½ cup burnt sugar syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup water (minus 1 teaspoon)
¼ cup milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks and beat again. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites till fluffy. Pour or spoon the burnt sugar syrup in a 1-cup measuring cup. Add the vanilla extract, then add enough water (cool to lukewarm) to add up to a cup. To the bowl with the creamed butter/sugar/egg yolks, add the flour mixture, the syrup mixture, and the milk. Beat well. Gently fold in the egg whites. (Do not beat again.) Divide into two round, greased cake pans.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (Don’t overbake!) Cool and frost with burnt sugar icing.
For burnt sugar icing:
16 ounces powdered sugar
⅔ cup to ¼ cup burnt sugar syrup (however much you have left)
¼ cup salted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pecan halves
Combine the powdered sugar, burnt sugar syrup, butter, and vanilla and beat till smooth and spreadable. If your icing is too stiff because you found yourself on the low side with your remaining burnt sugar syrup, add a bit of milk or water. Frost the cake and decorate with pecan halves. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
MRS. RANDOLPH’S STRAWBERRY CAKE
1 cup salted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
6 eggs, separated
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon baking soda
8 ounces strawberry jam
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat the egg yolks, add to the mixture, and mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium-size bowl.
Mrs. Randolph called for 2 small teaspoons each of baking powder, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda. What was a small teaspoon?
Teaspoons don’t come in small, medium, and large. They come in quarter, half, and full.
I looked up some other cake recipes, checking out the baking powder and baking soda measurements. This wasn’t all that helpful since every cake recipe I looked at called for something different. I wanted the cake to rise, of course, but I didn’t want to go overboard. I also thought the spices were a bit much if she really meant a “scant” teaspoon. Maybe to Mrs. Randolph, a small teaspoon was a quarter teaspoon? I went with the measurements in my ingredients list above. If you want it spicier, go for it. I could be wrong! If I’m wrong, it’s Mrs. Randolph’s fault.
Combine the buttermilk and baking soda. Add flour/spice mixture and buttermilk/soda mixture alternatively, mixing well. Mrs. Randolph didn’t say to beat this, but I did.
Fold in the strawberry jam, mixing well, then fold in the egg whites. This makes a huge bowl of cake batter. Mrs. Randolph didn’t suggest a baking pan size, but I ended up going with a large tube pan (greased). She didn’t tell me at what temperature to bake it, either, so I used 350°F.
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, which took an hour and a half for me. (Put aluminum foil over the top after about 40 to 45 minutes so it doesn’t overbrown.) Of course, if you’re baking this in round cake layers or in a 13 x 9-inch pan, your baking time will vary. If you bake it in round cake layers, I think it will take three pans!
Mrs. Randolph suggested a caramel icing, but, of course, didn’t provide a recipe.