Hot Cross Buns

   Happy Easter!

   One of the foods that was a staple of Easter for our family was Hot Cross Buns - my Grandmother Hill made them, my Mom made them, and now, finally - it's my turn.

   And by "my" - he quickly added - I mean "we," as in my lovely wife Jeanette and I.

   It started with a run to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients, which is always a joy on Easter weekend - I imagine a Demolition Derby would involve less violence.

   We found everything except one crucial ingredient - Candied Peel. We looked and looked and couldn't find it. (And Jeanette is a champion finder - even she was stumped.)

   She finally said, "No problem - we'll just make our own." She looked up the recipe on her iPhone, we picked up a couple of oranges, and we were off. (She's a wonder! I definitely married above my station.)

   Jeanette cooked up the candied peel (which took a bit of time and effort), and I have to admit - it's tasty stuff! I leave it to you to look up the recipe online, dear reader - but here's what it looked like cooking in the pot:

   At this point let me pause to post the recipe, which is labeled "English Recipe - April 11, 1974" (so it was written down almost exactly 43 years ago):

    This recipe must have been in demand - there are three copies of it in the card file, with only minor differences between them.

   Here are the directions:

   Ingredients:
      6 1/2 cups of flour
      1/2 cup of Crisco
      1/4 cup margarine
      1/2 cup of sugar
      1 1/2 tsp of salt
      3/4 cup of raisins or currants
      1/4 cup of candied peel chopped up fine
      2 eggs beaten up
      1 1/2 cup of warm milk
   
   Dissolve three cakes of yeast or three packets in a bowl in 1 cup of lukewarm water. Let stand until it rises - about 30 minutes.

   Rub shortening into flour until it's like meal. Mix in salt and sugar. Then add raisins and peel. Mix well.

   Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast, eggs and milk. Mix by hand to a smooth dough - but don't knead. Place in a warm greased bowl, cover with a towel and let stand to rise for 1 hour.

   Then take out the bowl and cut off in small pieces (about the size of an egg). Mold into a ball and flatten a little. Make a cross across the top with a knife. Place on a greased cookie sheet, paint buns with beaten egg white wash, and sprinkle a little sugar on top. Let stand to raise about 30 minutes, then bake in a preheated oven at 370 degrees or 400 degrees for 15 or 20 minutes.

   Jeanette and I tackled the job as a team because we were running short of time - we wanted to get a batch ready for today's dinner at her Mom's house. It takes some time to bring all the ingredients together (and wait for them to rise as needed), so we were racing the clock.

   We made one change to the recipe - neither one of us cares much for raisins, so we left that bit out. The sharp-eyed among you may also notice that there's no mention in the directions of what to do with the butter. (The other two direction cards offer no guidance here, either.)

   Even with that, the finished rolls were mighty tasty (though I probably should have browned them just a bit longer).

   But they were very tasty - the orange gives them a great flavor. The smell alone was wonderful - it brought back memories of past Easter family gatherings, and happy times.

   Oh, and I applied butter before I ate them - so maybe that's the answer to the mystery.

   (And thanks again to Jeanette for holding my hand through this holiday challenge!)
   

 

 

Mamie's Cherry Cobbler

   It's been a while since my last baking attempt, and I think that's because the recipe I decided to tackle next was intimidating.

   It's also the only one I've seen in my Grandmother Hill's collection that was created by my Grandmother Minsker.

   We always knew her as Mamie, but her real name was May - and this recipe is dated 1959.

   It's a Cherry Cobbler recipe, and the reason it's intimidating is that it's mostly just a list of ingredients - it assumes the person baking knows something about the process.

   That person is not me.

   It reminds me of the technical challenges on the Great British Bake-Off TV show, where they intentionally leave out certain instructions to see if the bakers can figure it out.

   How clueless am I? One of the ingredients listed is BAK Powder. I hate to admit how long I sat there, wondering what the heck BAK powder was. (Yes, I finally figured it out - baking powder. Duh.)

   Here's the original card:

   The ingredients listed include:

2 eggs
1 can plain cherries
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbs butter
3 tbs tapioca
2 cups flour
2 tsp BAK powder (ha!)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
whipped cream

   So, I freely admit - I cheated and looked up a generic recipe online - but it wasn't much help, either.

   The recipe just says to mix all the ingredients, warm them in a saucepan for 5 minutes, place them in an 8 x 6 x 3 dish (or a 9" round pan) - bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, and it's done!

   As near as I can tell, you're (probably) supposed to make two flour mixtures - one to mix with the cherries and place in the pan, and the other one to mix with the egg whites and the c. of tartar and place over the mixture.

   Well, that's what I did, anyway.

   After the initial bake, it wasn't really brown on top - so on Jeanette's advice, I broiled it on low for 3 minutes, and that did the trick.

   Here's the result:

    So how did it taste? Well....

    It was pretty darn good! Maybe just a little on the sweet side (I think I was a tad generous with the sugar) - but definitely add a dollop of whipped cream on the top!

   When we were sampling this, Jeanette asked if it brought back memories. Sadly, it doesn't - I was at Mamie's house quite a bit when I was very young, but I don't remember any meals or treats she made. By the time I was old enough to remember such things, Mamie had a stroke that took away her speech - I don't remember her doing any cooking after that.

    But I do have fond memories of being at her house, especially for family gatherings - so this was a nice way to reconnect with her!

7-Up Salad

   The holidays are over, so it's finally time to get back in the kitchen.

   This time around I tackled the easiest dish yet - and one that took me back to my childhood.

    One of the dishes that my Grandmother Hill made often was a Jello salad, which she just called a 7-Up Salad. 

   I actually found two different recipes in the collection. This one:

    And this one:

   There are some minor differences between the two, but since I need all the help I can get, I went with the first one - it went into more detail.

   I couldn't find a large box of Lemon Jello at the store, so I picked up two small ones (narrowly avoiding the mistake of buying Lemon Jello Pudding).

   The directions are very simple - I boiled two cups of water and mixed it with the Jello, and set it aside to cool.

   My lovely wife Jeanette helped me dig out our electric mixer (turns out we did have one after all. Who knew?). The most challenging part of the recipe was whipping the cream cheese (I probably should have waited until it was room temperature), but the mixer made it a lot easier.

   I mixed in the Jello, added the sugar and vanilla (at this point I had to start using a whisk (at Jeanette's recommendation) because the mixer, even at the lowest setting, sent the mix flying.

   I added sugar and vanilla, then the crushed pineapple (adding the juice, too) and a cup of crushed pecans. (Why pecans? Why not?)

   The final ingredient was 1 3/4 cup of 7-Up (which made the whole mixture bubble delightfully as it was added).

   The last big decision was: what pan to put it in? Jeanette was urging me to use a smaller Tupperware dish, but I wanted to go Old School with a large pan (I remember it being thin when served, cut into neat little squares).

   The instructions suggest adding green food coloring (which I think my Grandmother did often), but I decided to go with the natural color. Also, I forgot to buy the food coloring.

   I covered it and put it in the refrigerator overnight, and here's how it looked the next morning:

    Interesting that the nuts "floated" to the top, even though they were mixed just as thoroughly as the rest of the ingredients.

   Here's a slice, which is about the size and consistency that I remembered:

   And the taste? It was wonderful!

   More than any of the recipes I've made so far, this one took me back immediately to that kitchen in Nitro - the lemon and pineapple and cream cheese make for a smooth, tasty treat.

   And the recipe is so simple, even I couldn't mess it up!