Chocolate Applesauce Cake

Recipe for Chocolate Applesauce Cake:

Sift together:

2 cups all purpose flour - sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves (?)
3 tablespoons cocoa

Add to sifted flour, etc.,

1 cup raisins
1/2 cup nuts

Heat: hot

2 cups applesauce

then add

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar

Add 1/3 at a time flour, etc., to hot applesauce, then bake in over 350° for 45 to 50 minutes or until done.

Found in "Children's Blue Bird" by Madame Maurice Maeterlinck. Published by Dodd, Mead and Co., 1928.

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Orange Cream Cake, updated

Tammy from A Speckle of Dirt was brave enough to try the Orange Cream Cake recipe posted recently.

Looks pretty good, eh? Do yourself a favor and check out the entire post.

Pasta with Artichokes: A Tale of 2 Kitchens Edition

In the last few weeks, Handwritten Recipes has gotten some good press and great traffic, and I've been lucky enough to meet a bunch of adventurous cooks willing to give some of those recipes a go.

Today's recipe tryout comes courtesy of  Hillary and Amy of A Tale of 2 Kitchens. They selected a recipe I posted a while back for pasta with artichokes, found in a copy of "Dune: Messiah." Here's what they came up with:

The recipe came out quite well!  The capers add a salty kick while the sour cream and half and half really round out the sauce - giving it a silky texture.  We used fresh herbs (basil, oregano, and Italian flat leaf parsley) because it's summer and they're abundant!  They also give great, fresh flavor.  I would definately make this recipe again, who doesn't love a good, simple pasta recipe?  I'd probably add even more artichokes then it calls for the second time around... and cheese!

Great, now I'm starving.

Thanks again to Hillary and Amy of A Tale of 2 Kitchens.

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Orange Cream Cake

Recipe for Orange Cream Cake, attributed to "Mystery Chef."

Orange Cream Cake

1/4 c. butter or other
1 1/3 c sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sifted flour
3 t. baking powder
1/3 t. salt
2/3 c. milk
1 t. orange extract

Cream butter and sugar, beat egg yolks and add, sift flour B.P. and salt, add alternatively with milk, cut and fold in egg whites.

No addtional instructions are given.

Found in "The Two Vanrevels" by Booth Tarkington. Published by McClure and Phillips, 1902.

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Instant Coffee

Recipe for instant coffee, slightly improved:

Bring water to boil

Put in instant coffee in water

Let come to boil again until bubbles come to top

Immediately turn off fire - let coffee stand a minute or two - then pour into cups

The second boiling is the secret

Found in "Betty Crocker's Outdoor Cook Book" published by The Golden Press, 1961.

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Welcome

Imagine my surprise this morning when I woke to find that traffic to the site had gone up 4,897% over the last few days. You have awoken this sleepy little blog! I promise to post some new recipes this week - and thanks for stopping in.

Chocolate Chip Bars: Updated

A few weeks ago, the wonderful Joanne Camas found this site and was nice enough to write up a piece for her blog on Epicurious. She helped put out the call for some test chefs, as I've always been curious to see how some of those recipes might turn out. I got over 100 emails, and I'm still sorting through them - this is the first of what I hope are a series of posts.

Our first guest post is by Malorie:

For my first entry on Handwritten Recipes, I couldn’t resist the Chocolate Chip Bars, something warm and comforting on a grey New England day. These did not disappoint and made a wonderful afternoon snack. Enjoy!

Recipe as found in "The Green Mile" by Stephen King. Published by Plume, 1997.:

Chocolate Chip Bars

1/3 c. shortening
1/3 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sug. (packed)
1 egg
1 teas. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 teasp. soda
1/2 teasp. salt
1/2 c. chopped nuts
1 pkg. (6 ounces) semi-sweet choco. piece

Heat oven to 375° Mix short., butter, sugars, egg and vanilla thoroughly. Stir in remaining ingred. Spread in ungreased oblong pan, 13 x 9 x 2 inches. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool; cut into bars.

My notes: I chose pecans for the nuts in this recipe, but really think that any nut (or omitting them and adding more chocolate for those with allergies or aversions) would work just fine. I also used a slightly smaller oblong pan, because of personal preference for a thicker bar.

Ingredients:

Cream together the butter, shortening and sugars, then add the vanilla and egg.

Add the dry ingredients.

Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.

Dough! It’s delicious at this stage too ;-)

Spread dough into oblong pan. I used a slightly smaller one than stated in the recipe because I like the consistency of a thicker bar cookie.

After 25 minutes at 375 – Voila! Warm and delicious Chocolate Chip Bars. The hard part is waiting for them to cool enough to consume one.

After some impatient waiting, a bar ready to be eaten:

Overall Verdict: Wonderful. Thumbs up all around from my husband, a visiting friend, and myself. These bars taste like thick chocolate chip cookies with a soft interior, an excellent crunch from the nuts and a nice crust on top. I think they’re best while warm, and I am planning on enjoying my next one with a scoop of ice cream on top.

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Fried Cakes

Recipe:

Franees's Fried Cakes

3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 tablespoons melted lard
1 cup sweet milk
1 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Flour to roll (3 3/4 cups)
2 teaspoons vanilla
Season with nutmeg

I guess it's up to you to figure out the rest.

Found in "The Boston Cooking School Cook Book" by Fannie Merritt Farmer. Published by Little, Brown and Co., 1947.


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Fruit Cake

Recipe:

Fruit Cake

4 cups sifted flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 dozen large or X large eggs
1 cup orange juice
1 lb butter
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon rose water

Cream butter until very light and sugary
Add eggs 1 at a time, beating thoroughly after each one
Sift flour and baking powder very well together and add alternately with orange juice, flavorings.
Blend.
Add the following fruits which are dredged with one cup of flour:

1/4 lb candied orange peel
1/4 lb candied lemon peel
1 lb or more of shelled unsalted nutes (pecans or pecans and almonds are best)
1 lb candied pineapple (yellow is best)
2 lb cherries
2 lb light raisins

Mix together with your hands - put in loaf pans.
Line pans with solocone paper or buttered paper (completely saturated with butter)
Bake at 275 degrees about 3 1/2 hours till done.
When cool enough to handle tins put in about one cup of brandy (apricot or peach).
Wrap tightly in foil when completely cool.

Found in "The Joy of Cooking" by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker. Published by Bobbs-Merrill, 1963.

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Maple Sugar

Recipe for making maple sugar:

Heat maple syrup to 238° F on candy thermometer.

Cool slightly then stir  syrup.

Pack mixture in olds or leave in bowl and crumble sugar when it has cooled completely.

Can be used sprinkled over pancakes - pudding - hot rice

Found in "I See By My Outfit" by Peter S. Beagle. Published by Ballantine, 1971.


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