CookBook Project: Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal Cookies, with plenty of raisins, are one of my favorite cookies!

While reading the King Arthur Flour baking blog; Flourish (I found the post on reducing sugar in cookies fascinating); I came across the mention of molasses in oatmeal cookies. Sounded intriguing to me!

A look through the cook book collection turned up these two recipes from Good Housekeeping's Book of Recipes and Household Discoveries. I was delighted to see that version 2 used molasses and cooked oatmeal. What I didn't realize is the recipe called for a half of cup of molasses!

Yes, they turned out to be molasses cookies with raisins and odd lumpy bits of oatmeal. Not too good. The cooked oatmeal also gave the cookies an odd texture. Perhaps I didn't cook the oatmeal enough, but the dough was very sticky and I had to drop by spoonful onto the pan. Once on the pan, they cooked just like I had dropped them.

Not really cookies with a spongy-gummy cake-like texture. I decided not to waste time and put the dough/batter into a 9 x 9 pan. It made a not too terrible molasses cake.

Now that I had a taste for Oatmeal Raisin cookies, I decided to go ahead and give version 1 a try. They turned out lovely! Lots of raisins, a bit crispy on the outside, but soft inside.

I found it interesting the recipe called for rolling and cutting out the cookies, even though I just rolled the dough in balls and flattened onto the cookie sheet. 

Have you ever had/heard of oatmeal cookies with molasses? I am still intrigued with the idea and will keep looking for recipes.
It has been such a long time since I have posted a Cookbook Project post! What is it all about? Read Here For more Cookbook Project posts Here.

Cookbook Project: Vanilla Wafers

The jury is still out on this one. Part of the problem was I wasn't sure what the end resulted was suppose to be, so I kept trying different baking times and temperatures. I was hoping they would turn out similar to store bought vanilla wafers and with a bit of tweaking, I think they might.

It is a pretty basic cookie recipe, starts with shortening, sugar and eggs. But could certainly use lots of extra vanilla! Maybe vanilla sugar or vanilla seeds.

Add the flour and baking powder to make a dough. 

I did like the texture of the cookie, after some research I am wondering it the dough should have been softer, but it still needs to be workable. 

 My favorite biscuit cutter set had a one and a half inch cutter. Perfect!

The recipe calls for egg brushed on the top. I didn't see much difference, egg brushed to the left, plain to the right. But the egg might have just been to keep the coconut or walnut nutmeats on. Maybe I should have tried them with the coconut?

A very nice recipe. But if you are looking for something similar to store bought vanilla wafers, this isn't it. There were more of a shortbread type cookie.

I will certainly post an update when I adjust the recipe!

Simple Goodness

Earlier this week, I was craving some simple comfort food. With the weather gloomy and snowy and spring apparently far away, something a little extra special was needed. How much better can you get then a simple bread pudding? Bread, milk, apples and cinnamon. Yum! 

For some reason  I came home from work with bread pudding and apples stuck in my head. I wasn't sure where I got the idea, but a quick look through my cookbook collection and I discovered Brown Betty is a type of apple bread pudding. The main difference being there is more apples in it then bread.

 I decided to go with a traditional bread pudding and add one chopped apple (we needed all that carb goodness!) and vanilla extract. We have a local bakery that we buy our bread at and it gets stale quickly, but makes divine bread pudding!

When you need a simple basic recipe one can always count on Betty Crocker! This edition is from the late 1950's.

Autumn Spice Cake

 The other night I was in the baking mood and after flipping through a few cookbooks I remembered this cake recipe, aptly named "Autumn Spice Cake", I have been meaning to try. (I posted about this little promotional cookbook here.) I am not sure the cake turned out the way it was suppose to. I didn't have anything to fill it with, so I added apples. It didn't turn out as fluffy as pictured either, but that might have had something to do with not having baking soda......

Do you get the sudden notion to bake like I do? I usually don't have baking planned, unless it is a special occasion. At the end of the day I suddenly decided something yummy sounds wonderful and take a look through cookbooks and the cupboards to see what will work. I don't want to make a trip to the store at that point, so whatever I can make work will do!

As this was another evening baking session, I decided I didn't want to mess with frosting and threw some chopped apples in the batter. Because this was a war time recipe, the sugar has been cut down to a minimum and after tasting the cake, it was decided frosting was a must! 

 So I whipped up a bit of Cream Cheese frosting and stuck in on top, much better! 

I am loving my vintage spring form pan I picked up at an estate sale this spring! It is the perfect pan for a cake like this.

The recipe calls for molasses, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Yum! The fig filling recipe intrigues me, I might need to bake another cake to try it out......

Apple Upside Down Cake

When I posted about the Spry Shortening cookbook awhile back, this recipe caught my eye. We had also just recently acquired a cast iron skillet. I was surprised how the cake turned out, instead of having the same texture as a traditional upside down cake, it was feather light and melted in your mouth. 

The apples tend to cook down quite a bit so the second time (Yes, it was so good, I made a second cake!) I used more apples. 

 The cake batter is very fluffy and soft. 

Even though the recipe doesn't call for a cast iron pan, it worked out really nice. If you want to be fancy, you could turn the cake out onto a platter. 

With the weather typical gray November, Apple Upside-Down Cake is the perfect comfort food!

What Shall I Cook Today? 124 thrifty, healthful tested recipes from Spry

 Here is the Spry Shortening cookbook I mentioned last week. Even though it doesn't have a copyright date, the illustrations shout 1930s! Aren't the comics darling? The thrifty, healthful line makes me laugh!

 I have always wanted to try apple fritter, I will have to remember this recipe.

 Of course, they couldn't have a shortening cookbook without talking about Pies!

 I like how they have included illustrated guides. Sometimes these are very helpful as cakes in vintage cookbooks usually aren't the dump-everything-in-a-bowel-and-mix variety. 

The recipe for Spry Pan-coat looks interesting. I haven't thought about mixing the flour and shortening together.

 Don't you love the recipe titles? Arabian Dessert Cake and Apple Upside Down Cake? 

Of course the reason I bought this booklet was the comics on the front and back, too cute!

Cherry Breakfast Muffins

I am still celebrating Cherries! Today, I have a recipe that is not only cherry, but from a vintage cookbook! When I looked in past posts, I realized I had not shared the little Spry cookbook pamphlet this recipe is from, so stayed tuned for it in a later post.

The cherry muffin idea all started with a recipe I saw on Pinterest for Cherry Danish Muffins which looked delicious. But once I read the recipe I realized it was make with pre-packaged dough, not really my idea of  baking. So I took the idea and set out to find a muffin recipe. 

They turned out very well. A little different then we are normally use to in a muffin recipe. Instead of being almost cake like, they are a bit more egg-y with not as fine as a texture. I reminds me of a popover without the crisp outside. Which in my opinion makes a great breakfast muffin!

The muffins are in a vintage silver wire basket I found last fall. It has become my favorite thing to serve muffins and scones in!

I followed the recipe just like it is written except to substitute water for milk to make them dairy-free. Then I added 2 cups thawed cherries to the batter. Once the muffins tins were filled pushed a little chunk of cream cheese in the middle and spooned cherry jam on top. (When I make them again I would mix the cream cheese with a little sugar and milk so it was softer.) Or you can always skip that part and just make cherry muffins!