Lemon Bars

Love love love lemon bars. These are the same bars my mom used to whip up at a moment’s notice (sans the coconut), from the Joy of Cooking of course.

Preheat oven to 350°

Combine: 1 c. flour, ¼ c. powdered sugar, ½ c. melted butter; press mixture into a 8×8 greased baking pan and bake 20 minutes or until lightly brown.

Meanwhile combine: 1 c. sugar, ½ tsp. baking powder, 2 slightly beaten eggs, 2 Tbl. lemon juice, 2 tsp. lemon zest, ½ c. flaked coconut.

Pour these ingredients over baked warm crust and bake 25 minutes. Chill. Before serving, cut into 2-inch squares and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Chocolate Puffs

Just felt like a chocolate cookie. I got this recipe from The Art of Fine Baking (1961)

Chocolate Puffs…

1 c. butter

¼ c. sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tbl. cognac

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. walnuts, chopped finely

3 ounces baking chocolate, melted

2 2/3 c. sifted flour

Preheat oven to 325, grease baking sheets. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolk, cognac, vanilla, nuts, and cooled melted chocolate. Stir in flour. Chill until firm. Roll dough into small balls the size of a large cherry. Roll them in granulated sugar. Press a piece of walnut into each cookie. Bake 15-20 minutes or until cookies are crackly and dry. Make a LOT of cookies.

I recommend making them smaller rather than larger as they break apart really easily. Also, maybe rolling them before chilling them may make it easier. I felt like I was working with hard clay. All in all a solid recipe, but truthfully, not so puffy, more like puff-like nut balls. This would also be a good recipe for the base layer of a bar recipe.

Persimmon Pudding

Persimmons are all over the farmer’s market, and rotting (or ripening) all over the sidewalk these days. I love eating them raw, but I noticed lots off recipes for persimmon pudding in my vintage cookbooks. They range from mousse-like puddings to egg-based soupy puddings to brownie cake-like puddings, and they all involve using a pulp from super-ripe fruits.

I made my pulp by freezing the persimmons then thawing them out in order to break down the membranes and bring out the sweetness (like bananas). Then I just peeled them and tore off the core. People push this mixture through a sieve, but I didn’t have the patience for that. They’re really fibrous so I just made sure they’d distribute evenly.

This is my friend’s great-grandmother’s brownie-like persimmon pudding recipe:

Wild Persimmon Pudding

Preheat oven to 325 and grease two 8″x8″ pyrex pans (or loaf pans)

In a large bowl thoroughly mix:

2 c. flour (I used whole-wheat pastry flour to make it a little healthier)

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

In another large bowl combine:

2 c. persimmon pulp

1¾ c. sugar

¾ stick softened unsalted butter

3 c. skim milk

2 extra large eggs (or I used 2 small eggs plus a yolk)

Cream together the wet ingredients, then slowly beat in the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into two baking dishes, so it comes up an inch or so up the pan. Bake for an hour then let the pudding cool and set for at least 20 minutes. It’s even better the next day. And the day after that.

Date Nut Spice Cake

I was watching Mad Men the other night, per usual, and Don’s mistress offered him date nut bread. Being the fanatic I am, I immediately looked up some recipes for it in my Mad Men-era cookbooks. I found some, and actually I’ve noticed tons of date recipes. Maybe everyone was still entranced with glamorous Palm Springs date shakes in its heyday. Sealing the deal, at the farmer’s market today they had some amazing looking dates and the guy suggested some types that would work well for baking.

Either way, I was prepared to bake some nut bread and give it to my honey, but wanted to make something sweeter instead. So, date nut spice cake. Here’s a recipe from the Joy of Cooking. Instead of folding in raisins, I folded in more dates, but the little nugget ones covered in oat flour. I also used pecans for the nuts. The recipe actually filled two loaf pans, go figure.

Pitting dates ain’t so hard. I just slit them in half lengthwise and the pit came right out. That might be a perk of buying them fresh from the farmer’s market.

The verdict? Sooo good! It’d be great warm with some whipped cream on top, frosted with cream cheese frosting, or for breakfast.

 

Here’s the Joy of Cooking (1962) recipe for Date Spice Cake

Preheat oven to 325, Have all ingredients at room temp.

Cut 1 c. date into small pieces, pour 1 c. boiling water or coffee, then cool.

Sift: 1½ c. cake flour, 1½ tsp. baking powder, ¾. tsp. nutmeg, ¼ tsp. salt, ¼ tsp baking soda

Cream together: 3 Tbl butter, 1 c. sugar, 1 egg

Add flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with date mixture (including coffee). Fold in: 1 c. raisings, 1 c. pecan pieces.

Bake in a greased loaf pan (my recipe filled two pans easily) about 50 minutes, then dust with powdered sugar when cool.

 

And, here’s Sunset Cookbook of Favorite Recipes (1949) yet-to-be-made date nut bread. I hear people love it with cream cheese sandwiches.

Chiffon Pies

I love pie. I’ll take a birthday pie over a birthday cake any day. In a bunch of retro cookbooks I’ve noticed chiffon all over the place. Chiffon cakes, chiffon pies, chiffon frosting, so I finally looked up what it meant.

chif·fon // (shi-fon’)

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or resembling the fabric chiffon.

2. Made light and fluffy by the addition of beaten egg whites or gelatin: a lemon chiffon pie.

In The Mixer, Hand Mixer and Blender cookbook from 1956 (which excited me as I actually have two of those appliances, not to mention the illustrations are priceless), they have a base recipe for chiffon pie. I made the lemon and chocolate chiffon pies simultaneously, which may have led me to half-ass this recipe. I used pre-made pie dough and since using gelatin packets is a new thing for me, I didn’t know the signs of when the filling may go wrong. However, the pies turned out fine. Here’s the recipe, and please note the blurb about chiffon pies, “Want to impress a man? Serve him Chocolate Mint Pie – a generous serving, of course.” I’ll have to try that.

For the chocolate pie, I actually used 1/4 c. coffee and 1/4 c. water to bring out more of that chocolate flavor (a tip from Ina Garten). The fillings were much runnier going into the shells than I anticipated, but once they chilled in the fridge, they set beautifully. I have to say, I’m a big fan of lemon meringue pie, and there’s a place for gelatinous desserts, but I don’t know about this one. For the lemon chiffon pie (or any fruit chiffon pie), I may add in some pieces of real fruit to vary the texture. For the chocolate chiffon pie, meh. It had a strange texture, smooth and chocolatey without being creamy. I’d mix in whipped cream instead of meringue. It doesn’t satisfy like Mom’s chocolate pie, which is basically a chocolate mousse/ganache in pie shell.

Coconut Chiffon Cupcakes

I got this recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (new in 1952). Chiffon cakes were a new kinda cake in the 50s, supposed to be lighter by using egg whites and vegetable oil. I made these for my ladies book club, so I incorporate a lot of rum into the recipe, basting them with a pineapple rum sauce (from the 1949 Sunset Cookbook of Favorite Recipes) and frosted them with whipped cream with some rum and more flaked coconut.

2 1/4 sifted cake flour

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 c. milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs, separated

1 1/3 c. flaked coconut (plus more for the top and whipped cream)

Sift together flour, 1 c. sugar, baking powder, and salt into mixing bowl; make a well and add oil, half the milk and vanilla. Blend. Beat 1 minute at medium speed, add remaining milk and egg yolks, beat another minute.

Beat egg whites til soft peaks form, gradually adding 1/2 c. sugar; beat until stiffer (?) peaks form, fold into batter. I fold the whites in 3 stages to keep them extra light.

Fill paper bake cups half full in muffin pan (or in my case, I used actual cups upon realizing I don’t own a muffin pan). Bake at 400 about 12-15 minutes.

At this point I made the Baba Au Rhum with Pineapple sauce:

In a saucepan combine 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 c. pineapple juice and 1 tsp. lemon juice; boil about 2 minutes. Cool, add 2 Tbl. rum. Baste the cupcake with this syrup while they’re still warm. Once they’re cool…

Beat 1/2 c. heavy cream until stiff; fold in 1 tsp. confectioners’ sugar and a few drops (or many drops) of rum. I folded in more coconut flakes too. Frost ‘em.

Profiteroles

From the Joy of Cooking, 1975, this is a classic French pate a choux dough baked like a cream puff.  It can be filled with sweet or savory, I filled them with vanilla ice cream and topped them with a chocolate sauce, but they can be served as hors d’oeuvre cases or like rolls with soup. Here’s the goods…

Preheat oven to 400. Have eggs at room temp and melt or soften the butter.

1 c. AP Flour
1/8 tsp. Salt
1 Tbl. Sugar (for sweet puffs)

Place in a heavy pan:
1 c. Water or Milk
1/3 c. Butter

Bring to a boil, scald milk with butter. Add the flour mix all at once and stir quickly with a wooden spoon. Once the dough stops sticking to the pan and the spoon (around 2 minutes), remove from the heat and let sit for a couple minutes.

Add 4-5 eggs, one at a time, beating vigorously, and the dough’s ready to bake once they’re incorporated.
I filled a pastry bag, but you can also use a couple spoons, to dollop them onto parchment paper on a baking sheet. I made mine 1.5″ wide and 1″ tall. Make them into little Hershey’s Kiss shapes and use a moistened finger to press down pointy tips.
Bake for about 10 minutes, or until they’re lightly browned and the room smells like pancakes.
At this point, turn the oven off, use a sharp knife and poke a little hole in them to release any steam, and let them sit for another 15 minutes in the oven.
You know they’re ready when you tap the bottom and they sound hollow. Let them cool before cutting them and filling them.