Bake Like It's 1908

This week's recipe is one I'm very excited for because it used choux (pronounced shoo) pastry. I like the challenge to try to shoe horn in a choux related pun (nailed it) . This recipe really has two parts, the dough and the filling. The choux dough provides comprehensive instructions but that filling is really just a list of ingredients so we're talking quarter final level technical challenge here in Bake Off  terms. Let's break this down into ingredients Dough 1/2 cup Butter 1 cup Hot Water 1 cup Flour 3 Eggs Filling 2 cups Milk 2 Eggs 1 cup Sugar 1/4 teaspoon Corn Starch Vanilla to Taste Here's how I'm going to tackle this I am pleasantly surprised by the level of instruction in the dough portion of the recipe. I'm going to get a pot going on the stove with the butter and water in it. I'll give it a stir once the butter has melted and then let it get up to a boil. When it's rolling I'll add 1 cup of flour a...

There are a few recipes that have multiple versions. Lemon ice is one of them. I'm providing you both recipes below, and I used the version on the left, mostly because the version on the right seemed too full of itself. I just spent a hot and mildly humid week in Georgia with my husband and the idea of a lemon sorbet style dessert was too tasty to pass up, even after we got back to chilly Ohio. Figured out how to put pics over her  Let's break this down into ingredients 3 Lemons Lemon Squeezer 1 Pint Sugar 1 Quart Sweet Milk 3 Egg Whites Freezer Here's how I'm going to tackle this All in all this is a pretty straightforward recipe. It even suggests that I freeze it which is more descriptive than some of the other recipes 1. Cut the lemons in half and juice the heck out of them into a bowl. I have a handheld squeezer that makes me feel strong I suggest you look into them. If you're like me and get seeds in there, scoops those out. Or p...

It was time for this recipe mostly because ham was on sale for Easter. I am nothing if not a cook of cheap convenience. So if your local grocery has some leftover ham on sale but is completely out of aluminum foil then I have a recipe for you! Let's break this down into ingredients: For Ham Medium sized ham Pot of Water Flour More water For Glaze Dijon Mustard Honey Brown Sugar Here's how I'm going to tackle this This recipe is more affected than some by the changes to foodstuffs in the last 100+ years. Ham used to be cured using a whole lot more salt than is used now. Some ham is still cured using the salt method but often modern techniques are used in combination. I'm worried that if I soak the ham for ten hours, presumably to reduce the saltiness I will just end up with water logged ham. So I mostly skipped the soaking part, but in the spirit of following the instructions I filled a pot with water and set the ham in for an hour. Nai...

I'm travelling this week and away from kitchen. To make up for the lack of new recipe, here is some info on a historic site I explored and the food finds I found there. Wormsloe National Park, south east of Savannah, is the family home of one of Georgia's original settlers. Noble Jones travelled from England with the original settlers of Georgia hoping to make it big. Back in England he had been a carpenter. In the States he was a carpenter, surveyor, constable, and whole host of other things. He made his money, and lots of it, and his descendants still live in a manor house on his land today. Back in the 1930's the owner of the house saw the new Clark Gable movie Gone with the Wind and was so taken with it she decided to remodel the manor house in the style of Tara, the plantation house in the movie. Quaint After comparing the cost of the renovations to the bank account the family decided to open up their driveway to the public for a fee. You might be asking how ...

If we know each other personally and you knew about boiled icing and didn't tell me about it we are now officially unofficially feuding. Boiled icing is super cool and you should have known that I would want to know about it. It's white, glossy, and tastes like marshmallows. AND no one ever told me about it before. I asked my Mom and Grandma about this icing before I made it and they both said the same thing, my Great Grandma used to make this icing and the whole family loved it. When I talked to my Grandpa about it he said his mom used to make it. I don't know when boiled icing went out of style, or why, but I think it's time for a comeback. Let's break this down into ingredients  1 1/2 cups Sugar 1/2 cup Boiling Water 2 Egg Whites 1/3 teaspoon Cream of Tarta Vanilla to taste (1 capful) Here's how I'm going to tackle this Step one is going to be putting the sugar and water into a pot and giving it a stir.  Stir before tur...

I was flipping through my book trying to find a recipe that would work well to take to my Grandma's house for Easter. I, mostly randomly, chose snow cake. I liked that there were multiple component's, cake and icing, and that I could choose my own flavor. Something I think we've lost in the world of boxed cake (and I love a boxed cake) is customizing cakes and desserts to seasonal ingredients. So for this post I am going to go through the cake making process, including my adventures in whipping egg whites by hand, and then in two days I'll post the icing and filling portion of the recipe. The separation is in part to keep the post length reasonable and in part because the icing recipe needs to be made the day it is eaten. Let's break this down into ingredients  1 1/2 cups Sugar 2/3 cup Butter 1 cup Milk (split) Flavor (aka 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract) 3 cups flour 2 teaspoons Baking Powder Pinch of Salt 5 Egg Whites 1/8 tsp Cream of ...