Cheese Pie

Recipe from cookbook.

This recipe, although again short of directions, was easier because I treated it like a regular cheesecake. Sure was a lot easier to make with cottage cheese than it is with cream cheese, I think, no need for a stand mixer to whip the cream cheese and eggs together.

After baking - straight out of the oven.

Pie with cherry topping.

I decided to bake it in a pre-made graham cracker crust. I believe it turned out to be the perfect choice but I should have bought the larger size as the batter made more than would fit in the shell.

Again, I didn't know the temperature or length of baking. I chose 325 as that seemed to be the temperature most regular cheesecakes used. It took about an hour to set up. I brought it out while it was still wiggly in the center and it firmed up nicely after cooling on the counter and then sitting overnight in the refrigerator.

I served it with cherry pie filling over the top.

It was delicious! I wholeheartedly recommend this recipe. Even without the cherry topping it was tasty with the lemon (I used a Meyer lemon I grew myself!) juice/zest.

Crow Nest Pudding

Recipe from the cookbook.

Ok, here's my second tried recipe - Crow Nest Pudding. Once again the directions left much to be desired. How hot should the oven be? How long should I cook it?

So I decided to use blueberries as the fruit. That may have been a bad choice because the blueberries weren't very tasty on their own. But c'est la vie.

After 15 minutes in the oven.

The first instruction I had to figure out is "sprinkle with sugar and flour." Ok, hmmm, the "batter" doesn't have any flour....so how is this going to thicken and become a pudding? So I sprinkled about two tablespoons of flour and only a tiny bit of sugar over the fruit. The "batter" had a cup of sugar so I was sure it would be sweet enough - 1 cup of sugar for only one pint of fruit, right?

I love that these recipes tell you how much butter to use based on the size of a walnut? Did the PA Dutch always have walnuts on hand? Do walnuts grow native in PA?

After stirring and 30 minutes of cooking.

Anyway, I went with 350 degrees for the oven. I seem to think that's the average temperature for baking in an oven. Am I right or wrong? Don't know.

This is what it looked like 15 minutes after I put it in the oven. I thought I should stir it so I did. And cooked it another 15 minutes. It still didn't seem pudding like so I went another 15 minutes.

Turns out I left it in for 1 hour. Was that enough? Too much?

After 1 hour of cooking. Finished? I guess?

I'm not sure. This is what it looked like.

So, did it turn out the way it was supposed to?

I have no idea.

It tasted fine - although really sweet - but I wouldn't have titled it a pudding.

Ice cream topping, maybe. Topping for pancakes or some other cake, maybe, as well.

But once again a fun experience!

Should I have increased the temperature of the oven? Should I have sprinkled more flour?

But most importantly,why is this called Crow Nest Pudding?

Cinnamon Cake

Original cinnamon cake recipe.

Ok, I thought I'd start with an easy one. Cinnamon cake, #60. To the right you'll see the exact recipe from the cookbook. Sugar, butter, milk, baking powder, flour -- normal enough.

Cinnamon cake before baking.

"Punch holes in the batter and fill with brown sugar and cinnamon and seal the holes with butter." Hmmm...this is where the first decisions must be made. How much brown sugar and how much butter? Sure, it's easy to say a sprinkle of cinnamon in each hole, that shouldn't make much difference in a batter but butter and sugar? That could make a difference.

So I decide on a big pinch of brown sugar squeezed together tightly (like you pack brown sugar normally) and then about a half inch square of butter (completely randomly chosen). You can see the results to the right. BTW, punching holes in the batter was difficult - I'd punch it and it would, of course, just fill right back in!

And then, how many holes? I decided on six.

And what kind of pan was I supposed to put this cake in? I chose a loaf pan.

The last decision - what is a medium hot oven? I went with 350 degrees.

So into the oven it went.

Cinnamon cake after baking.

20 minutes later - that cake is definitely not done! Ok, 10 more minutes.

Tested with the toothpick method and it came out clean so I declared the cake done  (see picture to the right).

So, if I were to make this recipe again this is what I would change. 

First, I would  "punch" more holes to have more brown sugar, butter and cinnamon.

Second, I would bump the oven up to 375 degrees.

Overall, this cake turned out nicely flavored although maybe not all that attractive. It tasted like a pound cake but without the normal level of ingredients of a pound cake. It was dense and heavy and the bottom was like an "upside down" cake where the brown sugar, cinnamon and butter made a nice crusty bottom. Perhaps I punched the holes too deep?

Besides simply eating it with butter (melted butter made it even better!) I used it to make french toast for Van. He LOVED it! 

French toast made with the cinnamon cake.

Cinnamon cake simply sliced.

The Idea

One very common Saturday morning, this past Fall 2014, in Frederick, MD, my husband, Van Corey, were driving around looking for yard sales. We happened across a great street in downtown that had cute, little, older homes and a bunch of yard sales. And these people knew the real deal about yard sales - the prices! We found lots of good treasures: glass insulators for Van, birding books, binoculars, pristine glass wine decanters, and my biggest treasure - an old, tattered copy of The Lancaster County Farm Cook Book (A Collection of Pennsylvania Dutch Recipes from the Garden Spot of America) circa 1967.

So the idea was born. I was going to make recipes from this cookbook! That might not sound like a big deal, right? I'm a good cook. I cook from scratch all the time. Without recipes, with just an idea in my head of what goes together and the theories born and tested through the years of watching every cooking show available on TV. One of my fondest memories is watching Yan Can Cook with my dad when I was a kid.

So what's the big deal about cooking recipes from this cookbook? Well.....this book doesn't give you the things you expect, like, the temperature of the oven, what kind of pan to use, and sometimes even how much of an ingredient to use! Say what? How is that a cookbook?

Let the fun begin! I will pick a recipe, tell you what the cookbook instructions are and then tell you what I did and what the results were. That's what this blog will be about.
Hope you enjoy it!