Yummy Pumpkin Bread

Hey y'all.

 

Yep, it's that time of year. It has already snowed once up here in Boston and today I was regrettably under-dressed to face the chilling winds on the corner of Tremont and Boylston. I really do love winter, though. Despite this being my second year to spend it up North, the novelty of piles of snow and icy days has still not quite worn away. To me, winter is all about cute tights, pretty scarves, frosty eyeshadow, warm drinks and spicy foods. Unfortunately it also means painfully dry skin and hair. I only bring this up because The Beauty Department did a really cool post the other day with tips on caring for one's skin. Unfortunately, I fear that next week's paycheck is going to have a chunk taken out of it to buy some of the things mentioned in that post.

But food. That's my area of specialty. I'm doing something a bit wacky for November. I'm doing a month of pumpkin themed treats. Oh, boy. Who knows how this is going to turn out. We may all detest this innocent little squash by the time December rolls around, though I am hoping this is not the case.

First up: Pumpkin bread. When you were in school, did you ever have to do that exercise in reading directions where the very first one was to read through all of them first? But you didn't, of course, so you followed a whole bunch of silly, embarrassing directions that included standing up and saying your name and all kinds of fun stuff, only to get to the end and see the final direction was to skip everything else and simply sit there. Don't worry, I was awful at those. Still am. Bear with me here, as you'll see just how goofy I am...

What you need:

1 cup oil

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 box brown sugar

4 cups pumpkin

5 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 tablespoons cinnamon

4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Combine the oil and the sugars.

Add the pumpkin.

Combine flour, salt, cloves, cinnamon, soda and nuts. Add to the pumpkin mixture. Add vanilla; mix well. It's VERY thick so lift some weights and press those benches before stirring this concoction.

Now here is where my inability to look ahead came into play. When I set out to find this recipe, it was to look for something that included pumpkin and that wasn't super expensive to make. Which is why I never read the final step that said to bake the batter in five 1 pound coffee cans. 

Yeah, this. Source: icollector

I vaguely remember coffee coming in cans as a child, but now it's all bags and plastic containers with screw on lids. So I improvised. 

Grease and flour three loaf pans. (This makes a lot of bread.) Try not fill them more than half full. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour and ten minutes.

 

Gorgeous, right? It's a trap. About thirty minutes after these came out of the oven, they each had a giant sink hole in the center. What had happened? I had been tricked. About forty five minutes in, I checked them and they looked completely done. I even tried putting a tooth pick in, like in a cake, and it came out clean. They were definitely NOT done. 

Moral of the story: Don't be fooled by appearances. Bake these for an hour and ten minutes.

The good news is, despite parts of these being underbaked, they were really quite delicious. This bread is incredibly rich with a great spice flavor. You can even freeze two of the loaves so that they don't go bad while you're working on the first.

I would certainly recommend this recipe but I would hope that my readers are far cleverer than me and pay attention to directions. 

Good luck and don't forget to set those clocks back!

Rosie

Source: Favorite Eastern Star Recipes Holiday Cookbook 1970

Oh, and just because I'm vain, I'm posting a picture of my Halloween costume. I went as Rosie the Riveter! My Halloween was amazing and I was really proud of my ensemble. What did you guys dress up as?

The pants are from a vintage shop and make my rear end look three miles wide. But otherwise, I thought I did pretty well, no?

Happy baking!

Angel Fluff Brownies.... That aren't fluffy?

I debated a long time before I decided to post this recipe. Basically, it didn't come out well at all. In fact, these brownies tasted pretty awful. Finally, I decided that I already post enough of my screw ups, why not post this one as well?

I really want to know if this recipe comes out better for someone else. I mean, just from the title these sound so good. I expected big chocolately pillows of goodness but I got bland, textureless bricks of sad.

Ingredients:
1 small package of instant chocolate pudding mix
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs (I used the equivalent in egg substitute. Could this be my mistake?)
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
Powdered sugar

Begin by toasting the walnuts. Spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at about 350 degrees for about five minutes or until darkened.

  Stir together first 8 ingredients in a mixing bowl until well blended. This batter is really, really thick so get those muscles ready.

Spoon batter into a lightly greased 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until edges pull away from edge of pan. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Look how sad these little squares look.

As you can see, these really didn't rise at all. If anything should make a person blissful, it's a brownie. These were just major disappointment.

Please tell me if you have better luck! I'm dying to know how these brownies are supposed to taste.

Good luck,

Rosie

Recipe Source: Southern Living Annual Recipes 1999

Herp Derp Alert: The Seemingly Impossible Chocolate Pie

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things in the world was my granny's chocolate pie. There was something special about that chocolate custard filling, topped by a generous dollop of Cool Whip, that I just have never really been able to recreate.

Granny always made things seem easy. She owned a local "gently used" consignment shop which kept me in the prettiest dresses during my entire childhood. I felt like a princess at every holiday in the dresses she gave to me and it made not one bit of difference if they were second hand or not. Thanksgivings and Christmases were held in her beautiful formal dining room where she made a table full of delicious foods. But the most delicious of all was that chocolate pie.

I attempted to make a chocolate custard pie several years ago and failed miserably. What I got was little more than chocolate syrup in a crust. But now, I attempted once more and though not nearly as pathetic as the last try, I still just couldn't seem to get it right.

Below is the recipe and the pictures of my work, but I hope you have much more success than I did.

Ingredients:

For the crust:
2 cups of crushed graham crackers
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar

For the filling:
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons margarine

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

The process begins easily enough. Start by mixing together all of your crust ingredients until they are well combined.

Press into the bottom and sides of a nine inch pie plate. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until it is lightly browned.

Now begins the hard part. In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt. Mix well to remove any lumps. 

Gradually add milk, stirring until blended.

 Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil; boil one minute, stirring constantly. Remove mixture from heat.

NOTE: Be patient on this step! It takes a long time for a custard to thicken and you may be tempted to rush the process. Don't give in and just keep stirring. When it thickens, it will happen all of a sudden.

 Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored. Gradually stir about one-fourth of hot mixture into yolks.

Add yolk mixture to the remaining hot chocolate, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat 2 minutes, stirring constantly (you'll soon be tired of hearing that phrase).

ALERT ALERT!! I'm pretty sure this is where I messed up. I cooked my chocolate for two minutes like the recipe said, but in retrospect I really believe it could have cooked longer. I have nothing that you can judge your mixture by, but make sure it is good and super thick before removing it from the heat.

Remove the pan from the heat; stir in margarine and vanilla. Immediately pour into the pie crust.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it? At this point, the recipe says to put meringue on top and put it in the oven to brown the meringue. But... yuck. I am not a fan of meringue and Granny never ruined a delicious chocolate pie with that eggy concoction. I'm not sure if that contributed to what happened next. My mom swears it shouldn't have but I may never know.

Let the pie cool before serving. I prefer to chill mine. That night, my parents, my boyfriend and I cut into the pie, chocolate lust in our eyes. I lifted a piece out and...

Voila?

Uh oh. That baby did not set nearly well enough. As soon as I tried scooping out a piece, it fell apart. Though definitely better that my original attempt, it seems that I have yet to master the art of getting a chocolate pie to set.

As you can probably tell, the center just oozed out like pudding. Not that I have anything against that-- I love pudding. And this tasted delicious. I just wish that I could produce one beautiful pie like my Granny used to make.

Granny now lives all the way in Lubbock. I haven't talked to her in years and I'm afraid I'll never be able to get her exact recipe for chocolate pie. It's crazy how time can fly by without you ever realizing that you're losing touch with the ones you love.

I hope you can learn from my mistakes and make a wonderful chocolate pie. If you do, share it with your grandkids one day. They'll thank you for it.

Good luck!
Rosie

Recipe source: Southern Living 1983 Annual Recipes

Swedish Spritz and the Cookie Press from Hell

My second recipe to attempt in Grandma Rose's cookbook was her Swedish Spritz. I decided to alternate between the sections of recipes because, as much as I love cake, I don't think I want to make a million of them all in a row.

This recipe should have been easy. In fact, it WAS easy. But the cookie press drove me into fits of rage that I have never experienced before. I hate to say, but several pictures did not get taken due to me being occupied by spitting flames and throwing cookie dough at the wall.

Ingredients:

1 cup sweet butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Thoroughly grease your baking sheets.

Beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating until fluffy.

Add yolks, one at a time, beating until smooth. Sift flour with baking powder and salt, and gradually add to butter mixture. Mix until well blended.

Add almond extract and vanilla. Mix dough until you can form a smooth log with your hands.

Place dough in cookie press and push out dough in small rings onto baking sheets.  Bake for about 12 minutes and be careful not to overbake.

Aren't they cute? This is a picture of the only -almost- perfect batch I made. My mistake was in buying the cheapest cookie press I found at the store. Though Wilton brand (I find that their stuff usually works pretty well), I had an issue with getting the dough to come out evenly. One of the petals of the cutout REFUSED to come out and I found myself scooping up half formed cookies and placing them back in the press for the majority of the project. The second problem was that, because the dough did not come out evenly, the cookies became very fragile and, more often than not, fell apart at the slightest touch.

The moral of this story? Never skimp when buying baking supplies.