Grape-nuts Bread

 Grape-nuts Bread

    I did it! I made the Grape-Nuts Bread. What a success!!!! In my last post (Orange Bread) I talked about having had a poll to decide what I would make and Orange Bread won over the Grape-Nuts Bread. I had decided that I would make the Grape-Nuts Bread the week after the Orange Bread, because I was intrigued by it.  

    Just like a lot of the other old recipes, there was no measurement given for at least one ingredient. Salt. I guessed 1 tsp. This recipe called for 3x7 loaf pans and baking at 350 degrees for one hour and the recipe makes two loaves. So, what did I do first? You have to soak the Grape-Nuts in two cups of sour milk "for a few minutes", so I needed to start that before gathering the other ingredients. But first, sour milk? I googled sour milk and found out how to make sour milk for baking.  Once I made the sour milk, I stirred in 1 cup of Grape-Nuts cereal. Next up I sifted 3 cups flour with 1 tsp baking soda and 2 tsp baking powder. I mixed 1 tsp salt, 2 eggs, and sugar with the sour milk & Grape-Nuts mixture and mixed the dry ingredients about a cup at a time.  It seemed a little lumpy, so I actually used a whisk for most of the mixing and my favorite wooden spoon for some.  The batter seemed fairly thin, but I had to try it exactly like the recipe.  

    I poured half of the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan.  Into the other half of batter, I added half a cup of chopped honey roasted pecans & cranberries and poured that batter into my second greased and floured loaf pan.  I placed both loaf pans into my wonky, old oven which I had pre-heated to 350 degrees, set the timer and went and kept myself occupied. I was ready to go when the timer went off.  I removed both pans and set them on cooling racks.  After they had cooled for a while, I loosened the edges with a knife and removed them from the pans to continue cooling on the rack and a little while later, I cut myself a slice of the loaf to which I added the pecans & cranberries.

    The result? Like I said above, this recipe was a success.  I'm not sure I would do the nuts in this bread again, but dried cranberries or cherries even would be okay. It is wonderful without any additions.  I really liked the flavor of the bread and the texture was good.  I thought the crust was fine.  Nice and brown, but I would have liked it a tiny bit less "crusty", so maybe a few minutes less baking time would be fine.  I will 100% make this again.  Thank you to, Mrs. Ralph M. Wilson, who submitted this recipe to the church community cookbook, aka the cookbook that started me on this cooking/baking adventure.      

    Also, I made French toast with the bread this morning and it was so good, so try that also.  It's just me, so I decided to freeze most of what I made using my FoodSaver vacuum sealer.  We will see in several weeks/months, how well this bread keeps in the freezer.  I am betting it will be just fine. 

*The below instructions for making sour milk were found with a google search and are from Atco Blue Flame Kitchen*

*The Cranberry & Pecan mix is from Fresh Gourmet*

    

Orange Bread

 Orange Bread

    I ran a poll on Twitter last week, to determine what I would make next for my blog. The four choices were Raisin Bread, Orange Bread, Nut Bread and Grapenuts Bread (Yes, that Grapenuts).  In a stunning result, there was a tie between Orange Bread and Grapenuts Bread!! I ran a tie-breaker poll and Orange Bread won. I decided though that I would bake the runner-up next week.  So now we'll talk about Orange Bread. 

    Like I've said before, a lot of these old community cookbooks do not include pan sizes, oven temps and measurements are not always given.  The Orange Bread recipe did not give a measurement for salt, called for 4 teaspoons of baking powder (what???), did not say what size pan (I used a regular loaf pan) and again, no oven temp (I used 350 degrees).  I had fun making this, even though I was worried about how it would turn out with so much baking power and having to guess at how much salt to use.  I decided to "split the difference" and do two teaspoons of salt.  It was a little bit of a pain to prepare the orange peel.  I used a zester and then still tried to grind the pieces.  I was pleased with how the pieces of peel turned out.  Sifting the flour, baking powder and salt not one, but four times, was a pain also, but I did it.  I cooked the orange peel with sugar, which made a bit of an orange syrup and set it aside to cool.  After letting the syrup cool for awhile, I sifted those ingredients and set them aside. Then I combined the milk with the egg and added the orange syrup before slowly adding the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients.  I lightly greased and floured the loaf pan and I was ready to go.  

    So, I had decided to bake the bread for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.  When I checked it, it had spilled outside one side of the pan. I pulled the pan out, scraped off the bit which had overflowed and shoved it back in there, because it wasn't done.  I think (I'm clearly so well-organized that I don't remember how much longer I baked it; so helpful!) that I baked it for another 15-20 minutes and took it out to cool.  

Once it was cool, I cut into it and surprisingly, I really liked how the texture looked. I cut a slice and put a bit of butter on it and nervously tried it.  The verdict?? Definitely a bit too salty.  One teaspoon may work well.  It wasn't super orange-y flavored, but it was good (other than tasting too salty) and the texture was good.  It wasn't dessert bread texture (soft like banana bread), but definitely like regular bread.  

The next day I thought I'd try to make French toast with it and that turned out really well.  It was yummy enough, that I'm going to slice the rest of the loaf, to freeze and make French toast with when I want it.

Will I make this again? Yes, because I am determined to get the baking powder & salt combination right; along with the baking time and a stronger orange flavor.  Like I said, I think I will try less salt and maybe less baking powder. 

Anyhow, pictures below.  Thank you to Mrs. B. Christerson who submitted this recipe to the church community cookbook which started this all. 

1) The Recipe

2) The orange syrup

3) The "Disaster" (It spilled into the bottom of my oven)

4) The good and bad sides of the loaf after it was cooled

5) The view of what the bread actually looked like; I was trying to show the little speckles of orange peel in there as well as the texture

    

Colorado Cream Pie

 COLORADO CREAM PIE

        So, here's the second recipe I've tried from the cookbook which started this all.  Colorado Cream Pie; recipe submitted by Mrs. Oliver Grimes.  It feels like pie crust has been the bane of my existence.  I've had crust not turn out well. Partly, I think because I'm not good at rolling it out; I've been scared to even try.  This time I used a recipe for a 9 or 10 inch double crust; I only needed one crust but the recipe for the single crust said that if you were doing a 9 inch pie, you should use the bigger recipe.  The pie crust recipe is on page 70 of my copy of the 1960 (1965 5th edition) Better Homes & Gardens "Dessert Cook Book".  I have a zillion dessert books in my cookbook collection, but I bought this particular cookbook, solely because it is exactly like the one my mom had. On a side note, my dad did most of the cooking when we were growing up and mom cooked on her days off. Sometimes she made chocolate cream pie with merengue for my dad (his favorite) and that recipe is in this cookbook.  I haven't been brave enough to make the chocolate pie, because when I make it, it will probably taste like her pie and that will make me cry buckets.  I've only had chocolate cream pie with merengue once in the almost 30 years she's been gone, where it tasted like her pie.  And that was at the old Stone's Restaurant in Marshalltown, Iowa, where some of my family is from.  

    Anyhow, back to my Colorado Cream Pie.  The ingredients are sugar, flour, butter, milk, vanilla, salt and two eggs (separated).  You cream the sugar, flour and butter, add the egg yolks, milk, vanilla and salt; mixing well. The recipe directs you to stiffly beat the egg whites and fold them into the other mixture.  Once that's done, you pour the filling (it was very, thin) into the unbaked crust.  It was the perfect amount for my 9 inch pie pan (Pyrex glass), so if you try this recipe, use a 9 inch pie dish. Much like a lot of recipes in these old cookbooks, pan size, no oven temperature was given and no baking time was given.  It only says "bake in a moderate oven, until inserted knife comes out clean. I used 350 degrees and started with 35 minutes. At 35 minutes, the filling didn't seem anywhere near being set, so I didn't even check it with a knife. I did another 10-15 minutes baking time.  I set the pie pan on a slightly elevated cookie rack, did the knife check and it was perfect.  I used an elevated cookie rack to cool, because I figured it would help it cool faster.   

    I probably could have let it cool a little longer and I don't remember how long I did, except I think it was about 1 1/2 hours or so. When I cut into the pie, I was able to easily remove a slice. The filling was "soft" if that makes sense, but it did not run all over the place, so I consider that a success! The pie crust was the only thing I wasn't super happy with.  It was not 100% cooked all the way through.  Close.  I think if I'd rolled the crust thinner, the crust would have turned out better.  Even with that, I was pretty proud of that crust.  It didn't bubble up anywhere and I thought the texture was fine.  

    Overall, I was really happy with this pie.  It tasted really good. Sweet, but not too sweet and it had a nice, not overpowering vanilla flavor  And, it was good today (of course I had to test that out). I just covered the pie pan and put it in the fridge.  Will I make this again? Another 100%, "Yes"!!!! And, let me know if you try it.  

Porcupine Balls

 Porcupine Balls

        So, I finally made something from the cookbook which got me to start this blog. I made  Porcupine Balls.  I think I'd heard of these before, but hadn't ever considered making them.  This recipe calls only five ingredients: 1 1/2 lbs sausage, 1/2 cup uncooked rice, 1/2 cup milk, onion and sage. Including tomato sauce to pour over top, there's six and there is a note to 'flour' them, so if you want to do that, it's seven ingredients.  I somehow missed that part and didn't flour mine and they turned out fine.  

    The directions are to mix in the order they are listed, make small balls, flour and pour the sauce over them.  Bake slowly for 2 hours.  The recipe doesn't give a pan size or an oven temperature, which I've found in old, cookbooks like this one, there isn't always a pan size and directions are sometimes really unclear. But, I decades ago (like this cookbook is approximately 80 years old), so many more women regularly cooked every single meal, twenty-four/seven and they probably just knew what to do.  

    I used regular sausage that comes in the little tubes, white rice, 1/2 of a medium onion (diced) and I didn't have sage, so I used Italian seasoning mix (2 teaspoons in the mixture and sprinkled some on top). I didn't flour the balls and I used a tiny can of tomato paste, which I thinned out with water to about 2 cups and added a small can of tomato sauce. 

   A small ice cream scoop was used to make the balls and I really liked the size they ended up being. I didn't use any cooking spray on the pan, but I guess you could. It turned out fine without it.  I had the common sense to use the largest baking dish I had (11"x14", I believe) and I still had to squeeze them in there.   After I'd placed all of the balls in the baking dish, I poured the tomato sauce I mixed up over top and placed the pan in a pre-heated oven at 325 degrees.  I ended up taking them out about 12 minutes early.  They were perfect and my house smelled really good! 

    What would I do different? I would try using minute/quick rice or maybe even pre-cooked rice and I would play around with using a hotter oven and cooking for a shorter length of time. I think you could absolutely make these ahead of time and store them without the sauce, refrigerated or even freeze them. Obviously if you freeze them, you'd need to ensure you thawed them out before baking with the sauce.  There's definitely some possibilities for changing things up a bit.  Like, my using the Italian seasoning, not just sage, was an excellent decision.  And, I sprinkled a little bit of parmesan on top when I was ready to eat. I made brown rice to go with mine, but you could easily to some kind of pasta or mashed potatoes. I think you could also make some delicious hot subs with these.  Just add some extra sauce and cheese. 

    I ended up with 20 sausage balls. For me I had 4 in a serving with a side of brown rice. You could have 4 - 5 servings, depending on whether or not you want 4 pieces of 5 pieces. 

    Would I make this again? Oh my gosh, 100%, yes!!!! It tasted really good and wasn't greasy at all, which I'd kind of been expecting.  

    A huge "thank you" to Mrs. Ray Sheeley, who submitted this recipe back in the early 1940s.