Recipes offer blast from the past

I enjoy new adventures – going anywhere I’ve never been before, trying different recipes, etc. Yet I’ve always been a stick in the mud when it came to choosing the next book to read. Invariably, I would select the same kind of book over and over.

Just as convinced as I am that I will never like anything with an English pea in it (I don’t even have to taste it - I just know), I was also certain I wouldn’t like a book written by Stephen King. But that was before I read his time travel novel “11/22/63,” our book club’s selection for March chosen by Maryjane Beane.

I was intrigued with the book and the discussion it generated, and I was extremely impressed by her well-orchestrated presentation at the meeting. I’m glad I’m not hostess next month. She’ll be a tough act to follow with all the props she included to transport us back in time. For example, she gave each of us red roses like Jackie Kennedy was given on that fateful day in Dallas. She not only took the cake in regard to her turn as moderator for the evening, but she also brought a cake - a very delicious pound cake (also symbolism of sorts used in the novel. Nothing creepy or evil, but I can’t elaborate on it in this column. Just read the book – it and the pound cake are great).

I had fun researching old files for a few other recipes published in the 50s and 60s to continue the trip down memory lane. I found a few recipes I would run the other way from as well as some very outlandish advertisements. First, the good recipes:

1950s Sour Cream Pound Cake from Maryjane Beane

Makes one 10-inch fluted tube cake; stays moist for close to a week.

Have all ingredients at room temperature (about 70 degrees). Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease and flour a 10-inch fluted tube pan or 9-inch plain tube pan.

Whisk together until thoroughly blended:

3 cups sifted cake flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine in small bowl:

1 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat in a large bowl until creamy, about 30 seconds:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

Gradually add and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes:

2 cups sugar

Beat in one at a time:

6 large egg yolks

On low speed, add the flour in three parts, alternating with the sour cream mixture in two parts, beating until smooth and scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary.

Using clean beaters, beat in a large bowl on medium speed until soft peaks form:

6 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Gradually add, beating on high speed:

1/2 cup sugar

Beat until the peaks are stiff but not dry. Use a rubber spatula to fold one-quarter of the egg whites into the sour cream mixture, and then fold in the remaining whites. Scrape the batter into the pan and spread out evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Slide a thin knife around the cake to detach it from the pan, invert the cake and let it cool right side up on the rack.

Suzi’s Note: I have to order cake flour from the King Arthur Flour website. Cake flour must have been easier to find in the 1950s and 1960s. Cake flour is a blend with a lower protein content and will produce a moist and tender cake. If you don’t have cake flour, all-purpose flour may be used. You just might not achieve quite the same results.

Tim’s Grandmother’s Old German Cocoa Cake

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup butter or shortening (add 1/4 teaspoon salt with shortening)

3 tablespoons cocoa dissolved in 1/4 cup lukewarm milk

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour

5 eggs (separated)

1 tablespoon orange rind or 1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks and beat well. Add milk and cake flour alternatively. Add flavoring. Beat egg whites until stiff, not dry. Fold egg whites into cake mixture and pour into greased and floured cake pan. (Makes two 10-inch layers, or three 8-inch layers, or one 13x9 cake. Bake 30 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool and frost with either of the two icings below.

German Chocolate Icing:

3 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

1 cup Carnation evaporated milk

1 stick margarine

Cook until thick; then add 1 cup nuts, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 can Angel Flake coconut.

Peanut Butter Icing:

Place 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup milk and 2 tablespoons Karo light corn syrup in saucepan. Cook until temperature reaches 236 degrees on candy thermometer or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water forms a soft ball. Remove from heat; add 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter, 1/4 cup margarine and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until smooth, about one minute.

Dole’s 1959 Recipe for Tropical Bruffins from Co-ed Magazine

(the magazine for girls and homemakers of tomorrow”).

Note: Bruffins were described as something new in classroom projects, a recipe combining the ease of muffins and the texture of quick bread.

1 can (8 3/4 or 9 oz.) DOLE crushed pineapple

2 bananas

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

2/3 cup Grapenuts

2 cups biscuit mix

1 teaspoon salt

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar, unsifted

2 tablespoons pineapple syrup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease muffin tins. Reserve 2 tablespoons syrup from pineapple for glaze. Slice bananas and mash with fork. Combine sugar, egg and milk; mix well, then add Grapenuts, undrained pineapple, bananas, biscuit mix and salt. Stir mixture about 25 strokes until blended but not smooth. Spoon into muffin tins, almost to the top, and bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile blend glaze ingredients in small bowl until smooth. Loosen Bruffins with small knife and while still hot, place each, top-side down, in glaze. Easy way to transfer to cooling rack – slip fork under top and invert.

As I searched for more recipes published in the 1950s and 1960s, I found a couple I had to include for fun. I thought the advertisements 50 years or so ago were so funny. I’ll spare you the Chicken Noodle Casserole, Fruit Cocktail Eggnog Pie, and other budget beaters, but the magic masterpiece (as advertised) below was too hard to resist. Please understand, I am not endorsing this recipe – it’s just for your reading pleasure.

Jellied Chicken “Jewel” from Community Live Journal

Place a whole canned chicken in the refrigerator and let stand overnight. Then carefully remove from the can, and you’ll find that the rich natural juices have jellied into a jewel-like coating that tastes as luscious as it looks! How proudly you’ll serve this magic masterpiece!

Seven-Up Floats

(The 7-Up advertisement literally says “Boys like girls who make Seven-Up Floats” and includes a picture of a teenage girl making a “float” with three smiling boys around her!)

Put a scoop of his favorite ice cream or sherbet in a tall glass. Tilt the glass, and pour chilled, sparkling 7-Up gently down the side.

Feel free to send recipes/recipe requests from any decade to suzi.recipes@yahoo.com.

- Suzi and her husband, Tim, live in Mansfield.

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