Tag: Spring Blossom

Lemon-Cream Loaf

Lemon-Cream Loaf

by Andi Cohen-Rabiner ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A Recipe from The Pillsbury Family Cook Book (1963)

About the Recipe

It’s (I bought too many) lemon(s) week in my household, so we’re making a lemon cake! I wanted something that would have a little bit of mid-century flair, but come out delicious enough to share. And wow oh wow – did this take the cake. (Pun intended).

A few quick notes to make sure yours comes out well:

  • Don’t just grease your pans. Give them a butter and flour layer to make sure they come out. They’re a little bit sticky all around and that extra flour will make sure they come out of the pans.
  • I made a simple syrup out of the lemon juice and sugar at the end. Put them in a small saucepan on a low heat and stir continuously until the sugar is dissolved.
  • Painting the glaze on made the tops sticky and moist and lovely. 10/10 don’t miss out on that step.

The result here was a crumbly, fluffy lemon cake. Both loaves were gone within two days after sharing with some friends. Heed the note about freezing the second loaf, but I’d be surprised if you manage to hold on to it for that long.

About the book

I found this book in a small antique store just outside of Joshua Tree. My friends and I were headed out to a dessert adventure to look at the stars. The hubs and I requested a quick stop in this tiny town to wander and look at the shops. I’m so glad that we made the stop.

This book is so cute. Each design choice feels very carefully made and curated for the mid-century kitchen. A perfect little time capsule of hosting in the ’60’s. Enjoy!

The Recipe!

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
1 2/3 cups sugar, split
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup milk
8-ounce package cream cheese, cut into 1/4-inch cubes, softened
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 T grated lemon rind 
1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions:

Grease and flour two 9 x 5 x 3-inch pans. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Gradually add 1 1/3 cups sugar to shortening in large mixing bowl; cream at high speed of mixer until light and fluffy.

At medium speed blend in eggs, beating well. At low speed add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Blend well after each addition. 

Fold in cream cheese, walnuts and lemon rind. Pour batter into pans.

Bake at 375*F for 50 to 55 minutes, until golden brown.

Combine 1/3 cup sugar and lemon juice (hint from Andi: heat this mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved); brush mixture over hot loaves. Cool 30 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely before slicing.

TIP: Freeze the second cake in meal-size amounts for a quick dessert. Lemon Cream Loaf is good as a base for Baked Alaska.

Blueberry Pancakes #2

Blueberry Pancakes #2

by Andi Cohen-Rabiner ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A Recipe from the Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking (1959)

About the Recipe

I woke up yesterday with an undeniable craving for blueberry pancakes. After a quick search through the MMMB, I came across this particular recipe. I took a look around for Blueberry Pancakes #1 – and did not find it. SO! Blueberry Pancakes #2, a delightfully over-complicated pancakes recipe it is!

Separating the eggs and beating up the whites plus the slightly high amount of baking powder makes for a wonderfully fluffy pancakes. They were well balanced between sweet, savory, and fruit. I would even make them again with different fruit or sans fruit altogether! Try a little lemon rind for a special twist if you’d like, but otherwise enjoy. And know that the extra 10 minutes or so to make them are definitely going to be worth it. Bonus points to the hubby this time around for helping to fold the egg whites!

I got to pull out my favorite Pyrex Frankenset and enlist the help of the hubby to fold in the egg whites. A wonderful way to kick-off brunch, indeed!

About the Book

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I love this cookbook. Not only is it a fantastic resource for any home cook looking for literally any recipe, but the illustrations and photographs are everything you’d look for in a mid-century cookbook. They look both appetizing and disgusting, all at once!

Check out more recipes in the Mary Margaret McBride Collection here!

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sifted enriched flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
3 T granulated sugar
3/4 t salt
2 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
3 T melted shortening
1 cup blueberries
Melted butter
Brown sugar

Directions:

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat egg yolks with rotary beater; combine with milk and shortening.

Add to dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir in blueberries. Then fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake on hot, greased griddle. Serve with melted butter, and sprinkle with brown sugar. Makes 12 3-inch pancakes.

Yorkshire Burger

Yorkshire Burger

by Andi Cohen-Rabiner ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A Recipe from 9th Grand National Cook Book (1958)

About the Recipe

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a real Yorkshire pudding. When I saw this recipe for the first time, it didn’t actually occur to me that this would be the closest that I’d ever get to making one myself! The texture of the breading around the meatballs is like a British pudding – eggy, buttery, slightly salty. It’s absolutely delightful.

When I put it out on the table, my husband took a giant piece, grabbing 4 meatballs in one go – exactly like the picture above! Mr. Kellogg notes that his high school baseball teammates like to dig into this dish, and after seeing the excitement in my husband’s eyes when it landed on the table, I don’t doubt that they did!

One quick adaption here – we don’t eat ground beef in my house, so I substituted ground turkey. It worked really well, and I would imagine any ground meat would do fine. It was even noted at the table that some salmon or other fish based balls would also be delicious in the eggy pudding.

For more recipes in the Pillsbury Challenge, click here!

About the book

In 1958, the Bake-Off moves across the country from New York to Pennsylvania. If the photos in the book are any indication, it seems the participants had a wonderful time. Indeed, the publishers of this years book seemed to have too much fun to cram into one little volume. The front cover has the customary letter from Ann Pillsbury, and is surrounded by smaller photos of the event itself. With the 10th Anniversary to follow, they dedicate more space than usual (4 whole pages!) to the following year’s event. So exciting!

About the glassware

I just got this beautiful Butterfly Gold lasagna pan a few weeks ago (the day after I made lasagna, of course). It came from the little antiques store that I love in New Paltz, NY. I’d had my eye out for a pan like this one, and I was so excited to see it. While it’s a little shallow for casseroles (other than lasagna) in general, it’s perfect for dishes like the Yorkshire burger, and will be exactly right for bar cookies and the like.

The gravy dish was a birthday present from my husband. Spring Blossom is my favorite, and I honestly just love every excuse to bring it out of hiding.

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1/4 cup chili sauce
1 package dry onion soup
2 T chopped parsley
1/4 t pepper
1/4 t poultry seasoning
5 egg
1 T water
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 1/2 t double-acting baking powder
1 t salt
1 1/2 cups milk
3 T melted butter

Beef Gravy:
1/4 cup Crisco or butter
3 T flour
1 T beef extract
2 1/2 cups milk

Directions:

Combine in a mixing bowl the ground beef, chili sauce, dry onion soup, parsley, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Blend 1 of the eggs and the water. Add to meat mixture; mix well. Form into 24 small meat balls. Place in well greased 12×8-inch baking dish.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat 4 eggs until foamy. Add milk and melted butter; mix well. Add dry ingredients all at once to egg mixture. Beat with rotary beater (or low speed on mixer) only until smooth and well blended.

Pour over meat balls.

Bake in moderate oven (350*F) 50-60 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot with Gravy.

Beef Gravy:
Melt butter or Crisco in saucepan. Blend in flour and beef extract. Add milk. Cook, stirring occasionally, until gravy is smooth and thickened.

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Herb Sour Cream Bread

Herb Sour Cream Bread

by Andi Cohen-Rabiner ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A Recipe from Fleischmann’s Bake-it-easy Yeast Book (1972)

About the Recipe

I love a good no-knead bread! The flavor on this bread is so delightful. It’s slightly sweet and there are just enough herbs to give it a little kick. I used fresh marjoram and thyme and dried oregano.

Full disclosure – I forgot the margarine. I put the dough in the oven for the first rise and saw it sitting on my countertop. But I baked it anyway, and it’s just as yummy. What that means though from a chemistry perspective is that it’s a little dense and a little chewy, and definitely not as crumbly as you’d want a bread to be. But the flavor is there and the flavor is great!

The recipe itself was so easy and fairly fast for a yeast bread. I can definitely see this going into rotation in my kitchen. I’m definitely going to make it again to go with a nice chowder or some chili this winter as a bread bowl. YUM!

About the Book

This is the second time I’ve baked from this delightful booklet that came from the Bonnie Slotnick grab bag, and she was so on point sending this my way. It has all of my favorite things – advertising, photographs, tried and true recipes designed to get you buying more! Whoever who put it together really took some time and put some love into the full color photos. They almost seam to echo the yeast packets, just inviting you to come try them out.

About the Glassware

This lovely little Spring Blossom one-quarter came from my mom. She gifted me the set of three casserole dishes when I went for a visit a few years ago. I saw them poking out of the back of the cabinet and just fell in love. I can remember sitting down for dinner growing up, and the smallest of these had green beans and almonds heated in the microwave just to make sure we had something green with our meal. I think of my mom every time I use them.

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water (105*F – 115*F)
2 packages Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast
1 cup warm dairy sour cream
6 T softened margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t marjoram leaves
1/2 t oregano leaves
1/2 t thyme leaves
2 eggs (at room temperature)
3 3/4 – 4 3/4 cups unsifted flour

Directions:

Measure warm water into large warm bowl. Sprinkle in Fleischmann’s Yeast; stir until dissolved.

Add sour cream, margarine, sugar, salt, marjoram, oregano, thyme, and eggs. Beat in 3 cups flour until well blended, about 1 minute. Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 50 minutes.

Stir down. Turn into 2 greased 1-quart casseroles. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 50 minutes. Bake at 375*F about 35 minutes, or until done. Remove from casseroles and cool on wire racks.

Swiss Cheese Braid

Swiss Cheese Braid

by Andi Cohen-Rabiner ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A Recipe from Bake-Off Cook Book from Pillsbury 100 prize winning recipes from the 22nd Bake Off (1971)

About the Recipe

Wow oh wow were these loaves a hit! The beer combined with an abundance of yeast made what sounds like a heavy recipe, in actuality light, fluffy loaves of bread.

A few quick notes on some changes that I made that seemed to work well:

  • I used my KitchenAid mixer to do 90% of the mixing. I used the regular beater for the initial mix of the yeast into the first two cups of flour, than switched to the dough hook on the “Stir” setting while I added the additional flour. Once the dough was fairly set, I did a minute or so by hand to check the elasticity and texture of the dough.
  • I have a new obsession with Everything Bagel seasoning, and I just can’t resist the urge to throw it on a loaf of bread, especially when there are 2 loaves to play with. That said – go with a sprinkle, not a heaping like I did and the loaf won’t pull apart quite so much during the bake.
  • I used Guinness beer, which comes in 11.4 oz. bottles and made up the rest of the liquid volume with water, which worked fine.
  • The only processed cheese I could find at the store was American, sliced, from the deli… which also worked fine, but I can’t help but wonder how a processed Swiss or Velveeta would have worked in this recipe.

For more recipes in the Pillsbury Challenge, click here!

About the book

I hate to say it, but there’s nothing spectacularly interesting about this book. It’s a good book with several recipes that look to be easy to create, but nothing out of the ordinary. It’s almost like the editors were in the process of puzzling about what comes next. And the next book is notable indeed…

About the glassware

I can’t tell you how I ended up with two loaf pans with green patterns on it, but there you are! The Spring Blossom was a gift from my father, and the Meadow Green came from a flea market. They’re wonderful pans, and always come perfectly clean.

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 can (12 oz.) beer or 1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup warm water
2 T sugar
1 T salt
2 T butter or margarine
1 package (8 oz.) pasteurized process Swiss or American cheese, not natural cheese
5 cups flour
2 packages active dry yeast

Directions:

Generously grease bottom and sides of two 9×5-inch loaf pans.

In large saucepan, warm beer, water, sugar, salt, butter and cheese. (Cheese does not need to melt completely.) Cool to lukewarm (~220*F).

In large mixer bowl, combine 2 cups flour with yeast; add warm (not hot) cheese mixture. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed. By hand, gradually stir in remaining 3 cups flour to make a fairly stiff dough.

Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size, 45-60 minutes.

Punch down dough; divide in half and shape into two 11×5-inch rectangles. Cut each rectangle into 3 long strips, leaving strips joined at one end. Braid; place in prepared pans. Cover; let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size, 45-60 minutes.

Bake at 350* for 40 to 45 minutes until deep golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when lightly tapped. Remove from pan immediately; cool completely.

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Olive Cheese Nuggets

Olive Cheese Nuggets

by Andi Cohen-Rabiner ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A Recipe from 100 Grand National Recipes Collected for You at Pillsbury’s Best 8th Grand National (1957)

About the Recipe

Quick confession – I love weird recipes. And this one falls into the “this is very odd, but it just might be delicious” category. The cheese crust is so tender and yummy. And it provides the perfect wrap for the olives (I used ones stuffed with pimentos, but trying different stuffings would work well).

A few quick notes if you give this one a try – the dough wraps around the olives way better if you take some time to really work it with your hands and give it a few kneads. I chose to put them in the oven right away, however if given the option I would definitely make these ahead of time and refrigerate them before the bake. If nothing else, it gives the butter time to reconstitute, so that you end up with even more flake when it comes out of the oven.

All in all, this was actually a really fun recipe, and a total hit at the socially distanced barbecue!

For more recipes in the Pillsbury Challenge, click here!

About the book

This book was a gift from a very generous fellow member of a cookbook group I belong to. Every day I marvel at these humans all around the world who preserve and enjoy these old books and recipes. We come from all walks of life, but really do come together over food, and it’s just so amazing.

Of note on this one – there was one male senior contestant and four teenage boy contestants! The recipes they entered with were a little outside of what I was looking for this time around, but I’ll circle back and try them in the future.

About the glassware

Spring Blossom is my favorite Pyrex pattern, and this little guy came from my mother. She got it as a gift, and when she saw my passion for the old glassware growing she decided to gift it, along with two others to me. It’s a little odd, but it hold memories of crab dip and steamed greenbeans and late night dinners and snacks. Thanks, mom!

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup soft butter
3/4 cup flour
1/8 t salt
1/2 t paprika
medium sized stuffed green olives

Directions:

Blend together cheddar cheese and butter in mixing bowl. Sift together flour, salt and paprika into cheese-butter mixture. Mix together to form a dough. Shape around olives, using about a teaspoonful of dough for each olive. Place on ungreased baking sheet.**

Bake in moderately hot oven (400*F) 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot or cold.