Sweet Dough

from the kitchen of Elva Goering

375  15 min

2 coups milk scalded - pour over
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 teaspons salt
3 Tablespoons yeast dissolved in 1 cup warm water.
4 eggs beaten - add to cooled milk mixture.  Add dissolved year to milk mixture, add enough flour to make a thin consistency.  Beat well then add more flour to make soft dough
added in a different handwriting:  8 1/2 - 10 1/2  c. Flour

Elva writes on the back of the recipe card:  "This recipe I used at the Home for cinnamon rolls and poppy seed rolls. The recipe is large you may want to use only half of the recipe.  I do when using it at home, depends on how much I want to bake.  I like it as well as any I have ever tried  Hope you will enjoy using it.

Added in Dorothea's handwriting:  for dough of 2 c liquid, 5 1/2 c flour, 1 c evap milk, 2 c sugar, 2 c poppy seed makes about 5 rolls of poppy using:
3 c gr poppy seed
3? c sugar
1 /2 - 2 c thick cream

Cook cream & sugar together, cool

Editor: I used Love'n Bake Poppy Seed filling -- for this recipe, I used 3 11 oz. cans.

Peppernuts (a story)

Found in Dorothea's files:

Peppernuts were a must at Christmas time. Dad found a recipe in the magazine Successful Farming that he made one year and we used it ever after. It was a large recipe -- 11 coups of flour and Dad liked a liberal amount of Anise Oil.

The old farmhouse that we lived in until I was about 13 years old had a nice, big, back porch where the milking equipment was kept before the milk house was built. The kitchen had a wood burning cook stove that really heated up the kitchen when a lot of baking was done.

One year stands out in my memory. I sliced the rolls of peppernut dough and filled the pans on the back porch where the cool temperature kept the dough from getting sticky. Someone else did the baking in the kitchen.

Peppernuts did not crumble, so as went out to chore, we grabbed a handful or two and put them into our pocket to munch on as we worked.

Not a pear recipe

Note found in Dorothea's files:

I attended a one room country grades school, district 37 in Marion County. Besides the school building there was an open shed for horses and two outhouses.

We were taught to eat everything in our lunch pail, whether we liked it or not, or give an accounting when we got home.

I did not like fresh pears. They were plentiful in the fall.  One day I decided to dispose of the pear where no one would know that I had not eaten it.

That evening at home big sister Darlene said she had looked into the toilet hole and saw a perfectly good pear. Folks only had to look at my face to know who didn't eat their pear for lunch.

Coconut cookies (Lucille)

1 1/2 c buttermilk Bisquick
1 1/4 c instant potatoe flakes
1 stick Oleo
1 c sugar
1 t coconut flavoring
1 egg

mix and chill 1 hr

shape into balls and place on greased cookie sheet
Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees

Sunshine cake

6 egg whites beaten stiff
1 cup sugar and well beaten egg yolks
fold in 3/4 cup of flour to which has been added 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon cream of tart.  Flavoring.

Spice cake (large recipe)

2 c. syrup
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. lard
2 eggs
2 c. buttermilk (sour milk)
2 t. allspice
2 t. soda
5 c. flour

Chinese Chews

This would have been a great favorite of brother David......NOT!  Somehow he picked up an aversion to coconut.  Ah well.  The more for the rest of us.

1 c. flour
1 c. butter
1/2 c. b sugar (editor: brown sugar)
1/4 t. salt

Mix all the above and pat in pan 10x13 inches and back 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

2 eggs beaten
1/2 c. b sugar
1 c. coconut
1 c. walnuts
1 t. vanilla
2 T. flour
1 c. dates

Spread on first mixture and bake 25 minutes.

Peppernuts & raisin & nuts (Aunt Agnes)

1 1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter
3 eggs
1 c. raisens chopped
1 c. nut meats
1 t. soda
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. vanilla
 3 c. flour

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and mix well.  Add nuts, raisins, and soda dissolved in hot water.  Sift spices with flour and chill overnight.  Form rolls and slice.
375 degrees for 10 minutes.

Editor:  Pretty sure it should be "sift spices with flour, add to creamed mixture, and chill overnight."

Butterbrickle Bars

From the kitchen of Aunt Martha*
6-25-93

Bake 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes

1 yellow cake mix
1/3 c. butter or shortening
1 egg

Mix together and pat into bottom of 9x13 pan

1 can Eagle Brand milk
3/4 c bits of brickle
1 c chopped pecans
1 egg
1 t vanilla

Mix together, pour over cake mixture

*Mom's cousin, Kathleen Gales wrote that the Butterbrickle Bars were a recipe my mom, Elvera, gave to Aunt Martha Reed, both aunts of Dorothea.

Old Vogt peppernuts

Old Vogt peppernuts / Great Grandma (Magdelene Vogt) / Willard Fall coffee favorite

2 1/2 c. sugar and 5 eggs  -- beat till lemon color
2 t. cinnamon
vanilla, salt
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cloves
1/2 t. anise (optional)
1 t. soda in flour -- enough flour to stir till can be handled.  Let set 1 hr then roll into pencil size rolls and freeze.  Then cut into little peppers and bake.

Spice cake from Grandma Regier

1 c. sugar
1 c. syrup
1 c. butter
1 c. buttermilk
1 t. soda
1/2 t. cloves
3 c. flour
2 eggs
nuts on top

Bar cookie recipes / Peanut butter fingers

A request for bar cookie recipes found these:

Butterbrickle Bars (from Aunt Martha)
Cheesecake Cranberry Bars (from Christa)
Chinese Chews
Chunky Pecan Bars
Peanut Butter Fingers

Another source for Mom's bar cookie recipes would be the Betty Crocker cookbook, probably an edition that would have been in print in the 1950's.

The recipe card that looks oldest is peanut butter fingers, so we'll start with that one.

Bake 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes
Makes 4 dozen

Cream 1/2 c. butter,
Add 1/2 c. sugar and
1/2 c. B. sugar (editor: brown sugar) -- cream well

Blend in 1 unbeaten egg
1/3 c. p. butter (editor: peanut butter)
1/2 t. soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. vanilla

Stir in
1 c. flour
1 c. quick oats

Spread in greased 13x9 pan
Bake, then sprinkle 6 oz. cho chips (editor: chocolate chips).  Let stand 5 min. and spread

Combine 1/3 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. p. butter
2-4 tablespoons evaporated milk
Drizzle mixture onto first mix, cool, and cut into bars.

Pickled beets

Mom taught me how to make these from memory but I'm sharing the recipe from the Melting Pot of Mennonite Cookery, p. 44.

Cut off the beet stalks.
Boil red beets until tender (editor's note:  I also used golden beets but if you mix red and golden, it's a waste of effort because the red beet juice colors the golden ones so you can't tell any difference)

Slip skins off (editor's note:  easy!  much better than pealing prior to boiling)

Boil together:   (editor's note:  for the amount below I had 4 batches of beets, 4 in each batch, each about the size of a baseball.  Adjust the amounts so you have enough liquid to just cover the beets while they simmer. )

1 quart vinegar
1 pint sugar
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. allspice
1 t. mustard seed (but I've used dry mustard instead of mustard seed)
1 t. cloves
1 t. salt

Add the beets to the spiced vinegar mix.  Simmer 15 minutes.

Seal in clean hot jars.  (editor's note:  but I just store these in the refrigerator. )

One challenge is to be careful about the beet juice; it sure does make a good stain if it spills.

What to do about those beet stalks?
This time around, I made
1) vegetable soup (onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, diced tomatoes) and at the last 5 minutes I added  beet greens cut into slivers plus brown sugar)  Mmmmm-mmmmm!  I had a mixing bowl full of sliced beet greens and I used 5 cubes of brown sugar.
2) sauteed bacon with onion and then added beet greens cut into slivers.  As the greens are warmed they take up a lot less space.  Then I added wine while they simmered.  Cooked up penne pasta and served the pasta tossed with the bacon/beet greens and grated parmsan cheese.  Very tasty!  But then what isn't when it includes bacon?

Another word of wisdom from Dorothea:  when one stores pickled beets, they are stored in the spiced vinegar mixture, but when one serves beets, the vinegar mixture is left in the jar.  Mom saved the juice and reused it.

Soap

Here's the story of soap making....

And here's the recipe....

 From Grandma Regier -- (Editor:  not sure this is Helen (Toevs) Regier or C.P. Regier's mother)


3 pints H2O
1 can lye
10 C. fat (cleaned)
1/2 c. borax
1/2 c. amonia

Pour water on lye, stir til dissolved.  Add Borax, stir til dissolved.  Cool to lukewarm.  Pour lye mixture into cool, melted fat and stir seven minutes.  Add amonia and stir 3 minutes longer (the more you stir, the whiter the soap will be).  Let set until hard.  This makes pretty white granulated soup that will keep indefintely.  Dry thoroughly.

Peppernuts (Goering)

Peppernuts (Goering)


4 c. sugar
2 c. shortening
2 c. w. syrup
4 c. cream
2 eggs
4 T. baking powder
18 c. flour
2 t. each of following spices:  cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, mace, allspice, cardema, salt, star Anise.


Cream shortening, add sugar, add well beaten eggs.  Add syrup, then cream.  Sift flour, baking powder, and spices together and add to creamed mixture.  Make dough stiff enough to make long rolls, and cut 1/8 inch each slice and bake at 400 degrees.  Makes about 4 gallons.

Peppernuts / Dad / 350

Peppernuts are tiny crispy cookies.  Dorothea always included peppernuts in her Christmas packages to us children.

The Melting Pot of Mennonite Cookery describes making peppernuts as mixing dough and storing it in 5 gallon crocks and keeping the crocks cold in the basement.  The crocks were let sit for several weeks to let the spices permeate the whole dough; then on a Saturday all hands were busily engaged in baking.  The dough was rolled out in long thin rolls, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, placed on pans, and baked in the oven.

One of the last conversations I had with my mom was about the batch of peppernuts I mixed up right after Thanksgiving.  I had used the recipe with 14 cups of flour and was chilling it in the refrigerator -- it was taking up a lot of space.  Mom said, "14 cups!  You'll have peppernuts all year!  Here's what you do:  roll that dough into snakes and store it in the freezer.  Then when you have time, cut up a batch and bake them."  So that's what I did.

I found 4 peppernut recipes in the tin box!  Here's the one marked Dad and 350.

1 1/2 c. butter
2 c. sugar -- cream
3 c. dark syrup
4 eggs  -- mix and cream well
2 t. soda
2 t. ground cardemon
1/2 t. star Anise oil
14 c. flour inough dough
1 t. cloves

Editor's note:  this doesn't include an oven temperature, but most recipes call for around 350 degrees.

Coffee

Massive quantities of coffee:

H2O      Coffee
12 cups   1/2 c.
18 cups   3/4 c.
24 cups   1 c
30 cups   1 11/4 c.
60 cups   2 1/2 c.

16 T = c.
16Tx3t = 48 cups coffee
1 1/4 c. instant coffee for 55 c. pot
1 1/2 c. instant coffee for 60 c. pot