Apple Pie Filling and other pie fillings

http://utah4h.org/files/publications/publication/pub__6653587.pdf

Go to this link for some awesome recipes for home canned pie filling using clear jel.
I think the apple pie filling recipe must be the one that Emily used, or something similar.

Caramel Corn

Caramel Popcorn
1 ½ cups white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 ½ cups dark karo syrup
2 cubes butter
1 tsp. vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla
8 quarts popped popcorn
Mix first five ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Boil four minutes. Add vanilla. Pour over at least 8 quarts popped popcorn and stir well. Emily did not form popcorn balls with this recipe.

Popcorn Balls

Grandma Drake always made these for Halloween. She got this recipe from her friend Colleen Christoffersen.

Popcorn Balls

3 cups sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. butter
food coloring - optional
Popped popcorn (???probably 2 batches in an air popcorn popper)

Mix sugar, vinegar, salt and water in a saucepan. Boil up for 5 minutes. Add honey. Cook until crackle stage. Dribble a little syrup in a cup of cold water and if it forms a firm string in the water, that is crackle stage. Add butter. Add a few drops food coloring if desired (orange for Halloween, red for Christmas). Pour over popped corn, stir well and form into balls. Wrap with plastic wrap and tie with ribbon if desired.

Apple Crisp

Apple Crisp -- Emily Drake


½ cup sugar

2 tbsp. butter

½ cup flour

1 egg, beaten

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

6 or 8 apples (or peaches could be used; use cooking apples)

Peel and cut up apples. Put in 9X9 pan.

Add:

½ cup sugar

¼ tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. water

Mix the apples in the pan with sugar-cinnamon and water. Mix sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Cut butter into this mixture and add beaten egg. Place this dough on top of apples; a spoonful here and there. Bake at 300 to 350 degrees F. for 30 or 40 minutes, until fruit is done and the dough is brown. Serve with whipped cream.

Salad with Blue Cheese Snow

This is not one of Emily's recipes but I want to learn how to add video to my blogs and I think this is a really nifty way to add blue cheese to salads. So I will be experimenting with this.

I am not being successful. Until I figure out how to make a link in the post, please copy and paste the url below to go to the web page and view the video.

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2007/11/your-salad-forecast-cool-and-crisp-with.html

Brownies

Brownies –Emily Drake


1 cup butter

4 squares baking chocolate (or substitute ¼ cup shortening and ¾ cup cocoa)

4 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup nuts, chopped

Melt butter. Add sugar and chocolate (melt chocolate squares). Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix flour, baking powder and nuts in a separate bowl and gradually add to chocolate mixture. Spread in greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Do not over bake. Frost while hot.

Nougat #4

Nougat (Recipe Number Four for this blog)


2 cups sugar

2 ½ cups light corn syrup

½ cup water

¼ tsp. salt

3 egg whites

¾ stick (6 tbsp.) butter, melted

2 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

Cook sugar, syrup, water and salt to 234 degrees. Beat egg whites stiff and add 1/3 of cooked syrup, beating constantly. Boil remaining syrup to 262 degrees. Add slowly to egg white mixture, beating constantly. Add vanilla.

When very thick and stiff, add flour and melted butter. Be careful not to stir too much after adding butter.

Pour into buttered pan; cut into squares when set. If desired, add nuts before adding flour and butter. Allow to set 24 hours before cutting. Wrap individually in plastic wrap to store. If desired, candied fruits and chopped nuts may be added to nougat.

Note: This recipe was from a newspaper clipping, Salt Lake Tribune November 18, 1982.

Peanut Brittle

Peanut Brittle
2 cups sugar
1 cup white Karo syrup
1 cup water
2 cups raw peanuts
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
Combine sugar, Karo syrup and water in a saucepan. Cook to 236 degrees F. or 3 foot long thread. Add raw peanuts and butter. Cook until caramel colored and then add baking soda. Mix well and pour out onto a buttered cookie sheet or marble slab. Break into pieces.

Note: This recipe was in Emily's handwriting. She also had a newspaper clipping from the Salt Lake Tribune with another peanut brittle recipe. It had more details.  So I will copy it also.

Peanut Brittle
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
2 cups peanuts, raw, chopped
1 tsp. baking soda
In a 3-quart saucepan heat and stir sugar, syrup and water until sugar dissolves. When syrup boils, blend in butter. Cook to 225 degrees F. Stir often and continue cooking until mixture reaches 275 degrees F.; add nuts.
Stir constantly to hard-crack stage, 300 degrees F. Remove from heat. Quickly stir in soda mixing well. Pour onto two cookie sheets. Stretch thin by lifting and pulling from edges with forks. Loosen from pans as soon as possible. Break into pieces. Makes about 2 1/2 pounds.

Mexican Wedding Cakes

Mexican Wedding Cakes


7/8 cup butter

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

2 cups flour

2 tbsp. water

¼ tsp. salt

Powdered sugar

Soften butter. Add sugar, flour, and salt; blend well. Add water, vanilla, and chopped nuts. Chill dough for ease in handling. Shape into balls 1 inch in diameter; place on baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Roll balls, while warm, in powdered sugar. Cool on wire rack.

See's Fudge

See’s Fudge


4 ½ cups sugar

13 oz. evaporated milk

3 packages chocolate chips

2 – 6-oz. packages marshmallows

1 cup walnuts

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix sugar, and milk. Cook at a rolling boil for 7 minutes. Add the chips and marshmallows. Fold until chips and marshmallows are melted. Add walnuts and mix well. Pour into a buttered pan and store in refrigerator.

Note: This recipe is from a much worn mimeographed piece of paper taped in Emily’s cookbook. Some of the information like the size of the packages of chocolate chips and the yield is missing.

English Butter Toffee

English Butter Toffee


1 pound butter

2 cups sugar

2 tbsp. light corn syrup

¼ tsp. salt

6 tbsp. hot water

½ cup sliced unblanched almonds

3 lbs. milk chocolate for dipping

2 ½ lbs. finely chopped walnuts

In large electric skillet, combine all ingredients except chocolate and walnuts and cook at 400 degrees F. stirring constantly, until it reaches the temperature of 275 degrees F. (at this altitude). Pour without scraping pan into large sided cookie sheet. Set aside to cool for 12 hours.

Break into bite-sized pieces and dip in melted chocolate. Roll in fine chopped walnuts. Let set until chocolate hardens.

Note: This recipe is from a newspaper clipping pasted into Emily’s cookbook. I am sure she did not use an electric skillet. She used a large saucepan on the range. The altitude probably is in Utah and the clipping is probably from a Utah newspaper. She always made toffee as part of her Christmas candy. I don’t think she used the sliced unblanched almonds, however.

Water Fondant

Water Fondant


4 cups sugar

3 tbsp. corn syrup

1/3 tsp. salt

½ tsp. cream of tartar

1 ½ cup water

Cook to a soft ball stage. Pour onto platter and let it stand until it is lukewarm. Add vanilla or other flavoring if desired. Stir until creamy; then knead with the hands until it is smooth and free from lumps.

Notes: Water fondant is what Emily used for her cherry chocolates (Jeanette’s favorite). As the cherry chocolates sit, the fondant becomes liquid or “cordials.” Another note of Emily’s is: “If fondant goes sugary just add cream or water and cook over.”

Here is another recipe from American Women’s Cookbook that gives more details:

Fondant

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup water

2 tbsp. corn syrup or 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. vanilla

Put the sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan and heat slowly. Do not let it begin to boil until the sugar is dissolved. Wash down the sides of the pan with a fork wrapped in a damp cloth or else cover and cook for two or three minutes so that the steam will carry down the crystals that have been thrown on the side of the pan. Remove the cover and continue to boil slowly without stirring to the soft-ball stage (238 degrees F.). While cooking, keep the cover on part of the time so the steam can help to keep the crystals washed down.

Remove from the fire and pour at once on large platters or slabs which have been dipped into cold water, and let it stand until it is lukewarm. Add vanilla. Stir with a fork until creamy; then knead with the hands until it is smooth and free from lumps.

Fondant is better if allowed to ripen for several days before being used. It may be wrapped in waxed paper and put into a tightly covered jar. When it is to be used for centers of dipped bonbons the centers should be shaped by hand or in molds and allowed to stand in the air until the surface loses all stickiness. Then the shapes may be dipped into the coating.

Honey Fondant

2 cups granulated sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 cup water

Proceed as for plain fondant.

Cream Fondant

Cream Fondant


3 cups sugar

1 cup cream

¼ tsp. cream of tartar

½ cup white Karo syrup

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan on stove. Stir to dissolve. Boil without stirring to soft ball stage. Pour out on buttered surface to cool. Beat and add flavoring. (Any flavoring can be used. Food coloring can also be added as desired.) Beat until creamy.

Caramels

Caramels


1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup Karo syrup

1 square butter

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Cook and stir all the time until firm ball stage.

Candy Making Tips

After not posting any recipes for about a month I decided I had better get started on posting the candy recipes. I want to give everyone plenty of time to practice in case they want to make some of Grandma Drake's Christmas chocolates.

Candy Making Tips – Handwritten by Emily Allgood Drake


Candy Making is called Sugar Cookery.

Always add some salt to your candy.

Stir toffee constantly until done. Don’t leave to answer the phone or the doorbell.

Use peppermint oil flavoring.

Stir caramels constantly.

Never scrap the pan, just pour out all you can onto a platter. Then scrape out the remainder and put it in a saucer for your children.

Measure accurately and use ingredients called for. Do not substitute for best results.

If fondant goes sugary just add cream or water and cook over.

Use a wooden spoon to stir with.

Note: Nowadays we have wonderful silicone scrapers that can withstand high temperatures. I prefer one of them to a wooden spoon. I call it my candy paddle. I have also used long-handled telfon egg turners to stir candy with.

American Style Nougat

American Style Nougat (two newspaper clippings with this recipe were found in Emily’s cupboard) They are nearly identical, but I will copy both of them here for your information).


American Style Nougat #1

Part 1:

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ¼ cup light corn syrup

¼ cup water

3 small or 2 large egg whites (See note.)

Part 2:

3 cups sugar

3 cups light corn syrup

4 tsp. vanilla

½ cup melted butter

1 tsp. salt

3 cups blanched slivered almonds, delicately toasted

Part 1: Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in 3-quart heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Continue to cook at low boil to soft ball stage (238 degrees).

When syrup reaches 230 degrees, beat egg whites until they stand in peaks. When syrup reaches 238 degrees, add it in a fine stream to egg whites, beating constantly with electric mixer on medium speed, or with wooden spoon, until mixture becomes thick and is lukewarm. It will keep several days if well covered with foil or wax paper and stored in refrigerator.

Part 2: Combine sugar and corn syrup in 4-quart heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, to 275 degrees. Meanwhile, place Part 1 in lightly buttered large bowl. Pour hot candy (Part 2) over it all at one time. Mix with heavy wooden spoon. Slowly add vanilla and butter, continuing to mix with heavy wooden spoon. Add salt and nuts; mix again.

Turn into 2 well buttered 9-inch square pans, flattening top of candy with buttered hands. Let stand several hours. Turn onto cutting board; cut each pan of candy into quarters, then each quarter into 4 each way (64 pieces), and wrap immediately with waxed paper. Keep well in refrigerator or freezer. Makes 128 pieces (5 pounds)

Note: Candy temperature is for sea level. Adjust for high altitudes. For best results, either 3 small or 2 large egg whites must be used. Eggs of other size or number may result in an inferior candy.

American Style Nougat #2

Part 1:

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ¼ cups light corn syrup

¼ cup water

3 small egg whites

Part 2:

3 cups sugar

3 cups light corn syrup

4 tsp. vanilla

¼ cup butter melted

1 tsp. salt

3 cups blanched slivered almonds, delicately toasted

Part 1: Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in 3-quart heavy saucepan. Cook, stirring until sugar dissolves. Continue to cook at low boil to soft ball stage. When syrup reaches 230 degrees, beat egg whites until they stand in peaks. When syrup reaches 238 degrees, add it in a fine stream to egg whites, beating constantly until mixture becomes thick and is lukewarm. (It will keep several days if well-covered with foil and refrigerated.)

Part 2: Combine sugar and corn syrup in heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly to 275 degrees. Meanwhile, place Part 1 in lightly buttered large bowl. Pour hot syrup (Part 2) over it all at one time. Mix with heavy wooden spoon. Add salt and nuts; mix again. Turn into 2 well-buttered 9-inch square pans; flatten candy with buttered hands. Let stand several hours. Turn onto cutting board, cut each pan of candy into 1-inch squares, 81 pieces, and wrap immediately in waxed paper. Keeps well in refrigerator or freezer.

Note: Temperatures are for sea level; adjust to altitude.


From “Mormon Country Cooking”


Each serving contains 119 calories; 3 gm fat; 24 gm carbohydrate; 60 mg sodium; 2 mg cholesterol.

Nougat

Nougat was Ron’s favorite of Emily’s Christmas chocolates. She made a pan for him and his family every year, sometimes just after Christmas. It was not in the form of individual chocolates, but in an 11X7 inch pan with milk chocolate on the top. We cut it into squares to eat it, or we just scooped it up with a teaspoon and ate off the spoon. (We all used different spoons, of course.)


Nougat (recipe handwritten inside Emily’s blue cookbook)

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup Karo syrup

1/3 cup honey

¼ cup water

½ tsp. salt

Cook syrup (all above ingredients) until hard ball 260 degrees F. and pour over:

2 whipped egg whites.

Beat until fluffy, pour into a buttered pan to set.

Add nuts or cherries or dates, if desired.

Emily used an 11X7 inch pan and covered the top of the nougat with milk chocolate.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

Combine and cream well and then add:

2 beaten eggs

½ tsp. vanilla

Sift together:

3 cups flour

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

Add by thirds to butter mixture alternating with

½ cup sour cream

Chill 4-5 hours. Roll out to ¼- ½ inch thick and cut with favorite cookie cutters. Bake 8 minutes at 375 degrees F. Frost with favorite icing.

Note: If you prefer, you can form dough into small balls, place balls on cookie sheet and flatten with a glass dipped in sugar.

Grandma Drake always frosted these cookies with pink powdered sugar butter frosting with candy sprinkles. Jane won 1st place in her age group at the Salt Lake County 4-H Dairy Foods Contest. The Salt Lake Tribune food editor wrote a story about her and there was a photo of her with her cookies.

Tempura Batter

Tempura Batter


¾ cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt
1 egg

½ cup water, or more

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Beat egg slightly. Add to dry ingredients. Stir until blended. Add water gradually stirring constantly until batter is smooth and the consistency of a custard sauce. Dip shrimp or vegetables one at a time into batter and fry in hot fat (350-360 degrees F.) until golden brown about 3 minutes. Do not fry too many at once. Remove from fat and drain on paper towels. Serving options: serve with soy sauce, sweet-sour sauce, and hot mustard sauce.

Note: This recipe is good for all the garden vegetables that are plentiful right now. Use it for fried zucchini, fried green peppers, fried eggplant, fried onions, and fried green tomatoes. Peel and slice the vegetables and dip in the tempura batter and then fry in hot fat, turning once when golden brown. Actually Emily made fried zucchini by dipping zucchini slices in beaten egg and then in seasoned flour and then frying the slices in hot fat. But I wanted to share this recipe for tempura batter since it is a little easier to make.

Banana Cream Pie

Banana Cream Pie


2/3 cup sugar

1/3 c +1 tbsp. cornstarch

Pinch of salt

Pinch of nutmeg

2 cups half and half cream

2/3 cup milk

3 large egg yolks

1 tbsp. butter

½ tsp. vanilla

3 ripe bananas

1 baked 9-inch pie shell

2 cups sweetened whipped cream

Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and nutmeg in a heavy large sauce pan or double boiler. Gradually add half and half cream and milk. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk egg yolks. Add 1 cup custard mixture and stir well. Then add to rest of custard mixture. Return to heat. Cook two minutes, stirring constantly. (Do not boil.) Remove from heat. Add Butter and vanilla. Cool. Slice two bananas into pie crust and add cooled custard and then whipped cream. Garnish with more banana slices just before serving.

No Fail Pie Crust

No Fail Pie Crust


3 cups flour

1 ½ tsp. salt

1 tbsp. sugar

1 ½ cup shortening or butter

1 egg (beat up a little)

1 tbsp. vinegar

1/3 cup or more of cold water – enough to put the dough in a ball

Cut shortening into the flour and salt to the size of peas. Put egg and vinegar and some of the cold water in a cup and add to the flour mixture. Use your hands and pull dough together. Add a little more water if you need it. Carefully roll pie crust with a rolling pin or a floured surface and place in pie pans. (Emily doesn’t say, but I think this would be plenty for a two-crust pie or maybe even for three baked pie shells depending on the size of the pie pans and how thin you rolled the pie crust.) Bake a one-crust pie shell at 475 degrees F. for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Prick the pie shell all over with a fork before baking to prevent large pockets forming.

Angel Food Cake

Angel Food Cake
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. cake flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups egg whites (room temperature)
2 heaping tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Sift flour and sugar 3 times. Place egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar into mixing bowl and beat at high speed until fairly stiff (not stiff peaks). Add 1/2 cup sugar slowly, close to beater. Add almond extract and vanilla. Beat until quite stiff but not dry. Add sifted sugar and flour mizture by fourths. Mix on low speed 10 seconds after each of first 3 additions and 20 seconds after last addition. Scrape down sides constantly during this mixing. Pour batter into 10-inch ungreased tube pan. Bake at 400 degrees F. for approximately 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in inverted pan.

Garden Vegetables

Currently there is a picture of fresh garden vegetables in the heading of this blog. These vegetables are from Emily Drake's 2009 Garden.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie (Grandma Drake)


1 /4 cup corn starch

1 cup sugar

1 ½ cups cold water

3 egg yolks (slightly beaten)

Grated peel of one lemon (optional)

¼ cup lemon juice (Grandma uses a little more)

1 tbsp. butter or margarine

1 9-inch baked pie shell

3 egg whites

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp. cream of tartar

Directions for filling: In a medium saucepan, combine corn starch and sugar. Stir in water until smooth. Stir in egg yolks. While stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon peel, lemon juice, and butter. Pour into pie shell while hot.

Directions for meringue: Using an electric mixer. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar. While frothy, add a little sugar. Gradually add sugar while beating. Beat until egg whites form stiff glossy peaks. Pour meringue onto pie filling, carefully sealing entire edge of crust to prevent shrinking. Swirl or pull up points for decorative top. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 8-10 minutes or until delicately browned. Refrigerate. Serve cold.

Note: I composed this recipe using two slightly different recipes that I got from Grandma. One recipe called for adding the lemon juice at the first with the egg yolks. One recipe only called for 1 tsp. grated lemon peel. So you might want to experiment with this and modify the recipe to your own taste.

CORRECTION: Thank you to Elizabeth Lund for making the comment that I forgot the step of baking the pie shell. I have now corrected the recipe. I encourage any and all readers to notify me of mistakes and omissions in any of the recipes. -- JHD

How to Preserve a Husband

This recipe was submitted by Emily Drake for a Recipe Collection. It was mimeographed, so the collection was assembled some time ago. Emily and Gordon had a very successful marriage of almost 64 years (minus 3 days). Now they are together again.

How to Preserve a Husband

Be careful in your selection. Do not choose too young. When selected, give your entire thoughts to preparation for domestic use.

Some wives insist upon keeping them in a pickle. Others are constantly getting them into hot water. This may make them sour, hard and sometimes bitter. Even poor varieties may be made sweet, tender and good by garnishing them with patience, well sweetened with love and seasoned with kisses.

Wrap them in a mantle of charity. Keep warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion and serve with peaches and cream.

Thus prepared, they will keep for years.

Introduction

This blog was created to share the recipes of

Emily Allgood Drake

May 26, 1912 -- August 22, 2009.

She learned to cook at a very young age from her mother who had been a servant in rich people's homes in Salt Lake City. She continually increased her cooking skills throughout her life.

She was a 4-H leader for over 70 years and she taught her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren as well as many others. She had vegetable gardens, flower gardens, fruit trees, berry bushes, and grape vines. She raised chickens for eggs and meat. She was an expert at food preservation. She was also an accomplished seamstress and made nearly all of her family's clothing and did custom sewing for other people. She learned to refinish and upholster furniture. If there was anything she could do to improve her family's life she would learn how to do it and then do it.

She often said that she had obtained the equivalent of a degree in home economics because of all the USU Extension workshops and leadership trainings she had participated in.

Guess where I learned how to create a blog?
That's right. It was at an USU Extension workshop. It was the Diversified Agriculture Conference in Delta, Utah in February 2009. In the traditional 4-H teaching method of learning by doing, each student was given a computer to use and created their own blog right in the workshop. There are other ways to learn how to blog, but I think it was appropriate that I learned how to create Emily's blog in a USU Extension workshop.

I think Emily would encourage her posterity to seek knowledge where ever it could be found, through formal education, at churches, at libraries, and in all media. I believe that had she been born at a different time she would have loved the Internet! You need to know that she was always looking for new recipes. We lived next door and she gave us her newspaper (Deseret Morning News) after she was finished with it. Oftentimes I would notice that recipes had been clipped out. Then I would go to the web edition and to see whether the recipe she had clipped was something I wanted too.

In the spirit of Emily's continual quest for learning and improving her family's life I hope that everyone reading her recipes and trying her recipes will not be afraid to change and improve upon them. You are not being given "secret family recipes." You are being given the example of a wonderful woman who was always sharing and serving others. Please feel free to make comments and suggestions and corrections and to share with others. Let me know if there are particular recipes that you remember that you would like me to feature.