My Favorite Fudge - Penoche

I needed to use some cream, so I browsed through the candy recipes. I have to say that I rarely, if ever, make candy if it's not Christmas time. But here is a recipe for my favorite penoche - a carmelly vanilla fudge. The instructions for the recipe just say, make it like fudge. Well, I don't make fudge the old-fashioned way, so I had to go to my favorite source - The Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. I followed it exactly right down to buttering the sides of the pan. Well, I should have called my sis! Geralee called me while I was on my second try to make the sugary mixture not be sugary. She said that the secret to fudge making is to add a couple of tablespoons of light corn syrup. So I checked the recipes in the cookbook, and they also included one teaspoon or one tablespoon of corn syrup. So next time . . . .

PENOCHE
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup milk or cream
Mix and cook as fudge. Roll into chopped nuts, mold and cut into shapes desired.

From the BH&G, butter the sides of the pan before adding the ingredients. Add the thermometer after it starts to boil and keep stirring until it boils. (I kept stirring the entire time cause I didn't want it to burn.) After it reaches a soft ball, take the pan off the heat, add the butter, and let it cool to 110 degrees, or till the bottom of the pan is "comfortably warm." Then add the vanilla and start to stir the penoche/fudge. Keep stirring until it loses its gloss and starts to stiffen. Then push into a pan or shape into logs.

PS - I did make it again. I added two tablespoons corn syrup, and here's another trick. My friend Chris is an expert candy maker. Her mother told her that when making fudge you need to add the liquid first and then stir in the sugar carefully as it heats. Don't let the sugar touch the sides of the pan as you stir. So I carefully followed all the steps and little secret tips - the result was perfect penoche! Delicious and creamy smooth. Good luck!

I'll Eat Any Cookie! - Ice Cream Cookies

Well, pretty much anyway. I made these cookies last week with Sarah and debated whether or not to post this one. But you can see that I decided to be true to my word. You can also see that candy corn doesn't do well in the oven. It melts. We probably could have used gum drops if we had had them. Or maybe pushed the candy into the warm cookies right out of the oven. They tasted way better than they looked. The dough was quite dry - I didn't add anything. I just molded the dough into balls to bake. It tastes good, and was fun to make. I have no idea why they are named Ice Cream Cookies. This was in the little recipe book written by me, probably from Primary or elementary school - "Linda's Miniature Cookbook."

ICE CREAM COOKIES
6 tbsp. butter or margarine
6 tbsp. confectioners' sugar
1 beaten egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sifted enriched flour
Thoroughly cream butter and sugar; add egg yolk and vanilla; beat well. Add flour. Drop from teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. If desired, decorate with bits of candied fruit, nuts, or candies. Bake in moderate over (350°F) 15 to 20 min. Makes two dozen.

Lots of Snickers - Snicker Doodles

Sarah and I had lots of fun making these Snicker Doodles. Doug & I are staying with Coray & Mindy's kids while they cruise the seas. So, what better activity to start with than making cookies? An old favorite, I've always spelled it as one word - Snickerdoodles, but I'll be true to what Mother wrote. There aren't many instructions here, but I baked them at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes and they turned out fine. I'm used to seeing them flatten more; these stayed quite rounded. Maybe a factor of too much flour. I don't know - but they taste good, so that's what counts!

SNICKER DOODLES
1¼ cups shortening
1¼ cups sugar
4 cups flour
1 tsp. cream tarter
1½ tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
Vanilla
Roll in sugar and cinnamon. Bake 400°F.

Old Bananas - Apple Banana Bread

Lately, I've been happy to have left-over bananas because I can have an excuse to make something good. I think this might be the last recipe to make use of old bananas. This is a really moist and delicious bread. It came from a newspaper clipping. I modified it a bit - namely, I substituted the "brandy flavoring" with vanilla. Can you even buy brandy flavoring? AND I added walnuts. What's the point of making sweet bread if you don't add nuts, after all? I made a half recipe, and it made one large loaf. Transferred it three times till I found the right pan!

APPLE BANANA BREAD
4 apples, finely chopped
Lemon juice
3 large, ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. brandy flavoring
Core and pare [peel] apples; chop fine. Sprinkle with a little lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Add mashed bananas to apples; mix well. Cream butter to consistency of mayonnaise; add sugar while continuing to cream. Add eggs, beating well after each addition. Stir in apples and bananas. Mix and sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in. Add flavoring; mix well. Spoon into 2 greased and floured loaf pans 3x5x3 inches. Bake at 325°F for 1 hour or until bread tests done. Remove from pans. Cool on cake rack. Makes 2 loaves.

Comfort Food - Chili / Cheese Boxes / Sour Cream Salad / Dutch Apple Pecan Pie

So it snowed yesterday! Only in the mountains, but still . . . . I even turned on the furnace this morning. Perfect weather for soup. I let Caryn choose which soup recipe to use and she chose the chili. This is the easiest chili recipe and very good. I used to make it in the olden days. Well, turns out that Campbell's has since discontinued one of the ingredients, so I had to improvise. At least I think they did - I went to two stores and couldn't find the chili beef soup. So I found a Progresso's Three Bean Chili with Beef. It worked find, but I probably would use less water next time since this is not a concentrated soup. So here's the recipe:

CHILI
1 lb. ground beef
1 chopped onion
1/2 cup green pepper
1 clove garlic minced
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 can tomato soup
1½ soup cans water
1 can chili beans
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cans Campbell's chili beef soup
Serves 10.

To go with the chili, I decided to make a bread recipe. I chose Cheese Boxes because Doug wasn't here to complain about the cheese. I remember Mother making these yummy boxes. I bought French bread. Seems like when she made them, she went to Albertson's and bought their bakery bread and asked for it unsliced. The French bread worked well, though. It's messy - I used two forks to roll the boxes in the corn flake crumbs. To toast them, I put them on my broiler pan and broiled on low.

CHEESE BOXES
Cut unsliced bread into cubes. Spread with Cheese Whiz and roll in cornflakes (optional). Put in oven and toast.

Continuing to take advantage of Doug being out of town, I decided to make a salad with sour cream. Here's an easy one, but you might want to warn your guests that it's not whipping cream on the fruit.

SOUR CREAM SALAD
1 #2 can chunk pineapple
2 small cans mandarin oranges
1/2 pkg. angel flake coconut
1/2 to 1 pkg. tiny marshmallows
1/2 pint sour cream
Combine together.

And for dessert - the perfect comfort food!

DUTCH APPLE PECAN PIE
3½ cups sliced peeled apples
1 9-inch unbaked pastry shell
1 cup sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Note: If you wish to use fresh milk, use 1¼ cups milk, eliminating the water and evaporated milk.
Method: Arrange sliced apples in the unbaked pastry shell. In small mixing bowl mix together the 1 cup sugar, flour, salt, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, evaporated milk, water and butter. Pour over apple slices. Mix the 2 tbsp. sugar, the 1/8 tsp. nutmeg and chopped nuts and sprinkle over top of pie. Bake in preheated hot oven (425°F) for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350°F and continue baking for about 1 hour, or until apples are tender. Cover with aluminum foil for last 35 minutes of baking. Cool. Makes 6 servings.

Company Coming - Corn Flake Cookies

Caryn & Family are coming this weekend. Gotta have cookies. It's a good thing that I won't be left alone with the cookies - they are so good that I have already eaten __ (too many). Leaving it blank cause I might just have another. I think these cookies would be good with butterscotch chips.

CORN FLAKE COOKIES
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2½ cups sifted flour
2 cups coconut
1¼ cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs well beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups corn flakes
Sift dry ingredients together. Cream shortening, add eggs & sugar & flavoring. Combine dry ingredients with creamed mixture. Add coconut and cornflakes. Drop by teaspoonfuls. Bake 350°F about 10 min.