"Deweydecimal's Favorite Recipes"

Well, since I am a better baker than cook most of these will be desserts. :) These are all tried and true.

Deweydecimal


Betty Crocker's chocolate chip cookie recipe - 1970's version

My family requests these for every gathering!

2/3 C shortening
2/3 C butter
1 C granulated sugar
1 C brown sugar- packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 C all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 cup chopped nuts
12 oz. semisweet chocolate pieces

Heat oven to 375. Mix throughly shortening, butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Cool slightly before removing from baking sheet.

Makes 7 dozen cookies.

Variations:

Chocolate chocolate chip cookies
(my niece's favorite)

Add about 1/2 C Nestle's Quick to dough (or as much as you like to turn dough chocolate).

Cran-Apple Pie

Another family favorite for Thanksgiving

From the Betty Crocker Cookbook 1970's

3 T cornstarch
2 T sugar
2 t grated orange peel or 2 T orange juice works well
1 can (1 pound) whole cranberry sauce
1 can (1 pound 4 oz.) apple slices or about 5-6 fresh appples (enough for a pie - peeled, sliced fairly thin)
2 crusts
1 T butter

Heat over to 425. Mix cornstarch, sugar, orange juice, and cranberry sauce in saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Gently stir in apples, set aside.

Prepare crust (can use frozen). Spread cranberry mixture in pastry-lined pie pan, dot with butter. Cover with top crust which has slits cut in it, seal and flute. Cover edges with strips of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning, remove foil last 10 minutes of baking. Bake 40 minutes or until crust is brown.

I place the pie on a cookie sheet just in case some of the juices overflow.

Kona Inn Banana Bread

From: Fanny Farmer Baking Book - Marion Cunningham

This makes a dark, dense, sweet banana bread. This is just the best.

2 1/2 C flour
1 t salt
2 t baking soda
1 C shortening
2 C sugar
2 C mashed ripe bananas (about 6 medium-size bananas) optional: 1 C chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour loaf pan (or I use a bundt pan).

Stir and toss together the flour, salt, and baking soda. In a large bowl, mix the shortening, sugar, mashed bananas, eggs, and walnuts. Add the combined dry ingredients and stir just until the batter in throughly blended.

(I use a mixer to blend the ingredients because I find the ingredients don't blend well by hand. About 1-2 minutes medium by electric mixer)

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 65-70 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then turn out in a rack to cool completely.

Lace Cookies

From: Fanny Farmer Baking Book - Marion Cunningham

These are my other niece's favorite holiday cookie.

Thin, crisp, and transparent, these spendid cookies are simple to make. The spoonfuls of batter will bubble and spread as the bake. Note the brief cooling time on the baking sheets immediately after the cookies are taken from the oven. This pause lets the cookies become firm enought to be lifted easily from the cookie sheets without breaking.

1 1/2 C uncooked oatmeal (not instant)
1 1/2 C light brown sugar
2 T flour
1/2 t salt
10 T (1 1/4 sticks or about 2/3 C) butter, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 and get out some cookie sheets.

Combine the oatmeal, brown sugar, flour, and salt. Stir in the melted butter, then add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Drop the batter by half-teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for about 5 minutes until the edges are lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the sheets for about 1 1/2 minutes, they are ready to remove from the sheets when they have stiffened slightly. Gently transfer to wire racks to cool.

If they become too hard on the sheet (you have to remove quickly), put back in the warm oven for about a minute to soften slightly. Remove quickly.

These cookies are very pretty but fragile but are very yummy and worth the effort. Store carefully in airtight container between rows of wax paper or other separators so that they don't stick together (which they do very easily).

Coconut macaroons

Soft and chewey macaroons.
Family holiday favorite.

2 egg whites
2/3 C sugar
2 T flour
pinch salt
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t coconut extract
1 1/2 C shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 325 and great some cookie sheets.

Beat egg whites until they stand in stiff peaks, then continue beating as
you add the sugar gradually (the sugar will not dissolve completely.) Beat in the flour, salt, and vanilla and coconut extracts. Stir in the coconut. Drop mounds of the mixture from a teaspoon onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on the sheets.

I have to mention Rabernet's Meatloaf which has become one of my all time favorites. It is posted everywhere on the board so I will not post it here again. Thanks so much for posting it!

Hi Dewey, just a quesation, are you a library staff person? Shirley

Yes, I work as a library director (ok grand title - means I shelve books as well as order them LOL) in a hospital library.

Short White Torte
(Krukhyi Torte)


A traditional Ukrainian favorite (especially in my family LOL) composed of three parts: short dough layers, filling, and icing. Its elegant, delicious and keeps well. It is made in stages and it must cure for least two days to allow the flavors to intermingle, so it is made about a week before serving. Traditionally the torte is white with a glaze of hard sugar. There are many, many variations of this recipe and most every Ukrainian housewife has her own "special" recipe. It is served at the Christmas and Easter holidays, weddings and special occasions only, at least in my family.

Boy, do I remember waiting for this twice a year..... Now I have the fun of baking it for my whole family as the official torte maker...in training of course.

My mom made this cake for years and cooks without recipes. Since I did not inherit the knack, I have found a wonderful Ukrainian cookbook "Festive Ukrainian Cooking", that has a very good recipe. I have used it for years (with my mom's suggestions).

Torte layers

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 pound butter
6 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sift flour with baking powder and cut into small pieces of chilled butter with a pastry cutter or in processor. Beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale, and add to flour. Add milk and vanilla. Knead lightly and form 4 balls of dough (for 4 layers). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours. Dough can be frozen, thawed and formed latter.

Between two sheets of paper, roll out dough less than 1/2 inch thick. Peel off top paper. Place 9 inch cake pan on dough and with a sharp knife cut a circle around the pan. Remove the scraps. Slide wax paper and dough onto a cookie sheet and prick with fork. Repeat with rest of dough. (you can use a 8 inch pan and you will then have a five layer torte).
Bake in preheated 350 oven until golden but not brown- about 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Torte layers continued:

Handle carefully, as layers become brittle as they cool. They may and probably will crack at least one. Icing will cover any cracks (I know from experience). Cover layers lightly with dish clothes. They can be kept on a counter overnight until you frost them the next day.


Filling: - use unsalted butter, powdered sugar, jam/melter chocolate, etc.

coffee buttercream.
jam buttercream (apricot jam or raspberry jam are traditional)
chocolate buttercream
mocha buttercream
ground nuts buttercream

Do not use canned/store bought frosting for this. It is worth the effort to make the many fillings and icing for the cake by hand.

To layer:
Each torte layer should be sprinkled with an essence according to the filling that will go on top of it. The essence will be absorbed by the cake layer. For example: make very strong black coffee and sprinkle it on a layer and then use coffee buttercream on top of that layer; orange juice can be be sprinkled on the layer with apricot buttercream; rum or rum extract and the nut buttercream.

Pick the icing for the outside of the cake, whether hard white or one of the buttercreams which will harden in the refrigerator.

To make this cake is a several day process:
day 1 - make dough and refrigerate
day 2 - roll out and bake and sprinkle essence
day 3 - make fillings and icing and layer cake, layer, decorate
day 4-6 keep in refrigerator so flavors mature and blend. It really does taste better after a 2-3 days.

After filling and frosting cake must be refrigerated.

To cut: Put a 3 inch glass in middle of torte and cut around it to bottom of torte and then make radial 1 inch cuts . You will have nice slices not slabs.

SMACHNOHO (Good eating)
Deweydecimal)

Bonnie Brae Strawberry Pie

Quick, easy pie.
My nieces really like this pie.

1 quart strawberries or 1 large package frozen strawberries, thawed and drained
3/4 cup water
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup sliced berries, fresh or frozen, thawed and drained
whole berries for garnish

Combine strawberries and water in pan. Cook until just softened, about 4-5 minutes (let frozen berries thaw, heat but don't cook them.) Mix together cornstarch, sugar and water until smooth, add to hot berries. Cook over medium heat until clear. Add lemon juice, immediately remove from heat and let cool. Place sliced berries in cooked pie shell. To assemble pie, pour cooked mixture over berries, top with whipped cream and garnish with whole berries.

For a less gloppy pie that slices neatly, especially when the berries are juicy, use 6 teaspoons of cornstarch.

Deweydecimal

Oops, hit return too soon.

You need a pre-baked pie shell for this recipe.

bumping up for Nikhaven.

Hi Deweydecimal....thanks for sharing your favorite recipes with us. I copied several. Quick question...how many eggs are in your banana bread recipe? I would guess 2......

Sorry I left out the eggs in the banana bread recipe.

Its 4 eggs slightly beaten.