Blubberies and a Cold Front

Another long break, I honestly haven’t baked much of anything with the summer's heat.  I did sacrifice the oven heat for a huge batch of banana muffins a few weeks ago out of sheer necessity and self preservation - those ripe bananas were taking over the counter as summer berries came into full swing, no one wanted a banana any more!

So, what are these ‘blubberies’? A few weeks ago I dragged the family out to a local organic blueberry patch to pick the first wave of fresh blueberries.  Son decided to call them 'blubberies' and happily filled a container over and over again to put in our big 4-quart container, discussing the best place on the bush to find the best berries.  Daughter is not a fan of them raw, however was happy to pick ones so that I could freeze them for her favorite, blueberry mango smoothies.  From the bush these berries tasted like warm bursts of mellow sweetness.  I intend to go back again, as we ate a good amount of them straight, made one blueberry pie and froze the rest for enjoyment in the depths of the fresh fruit desert of winter.  In the meantime I have been enjoying getting quarts at the local farmer’s market twice a week.  They are sooo good. 

Then a cold front came – we were blessed with dry cool weather for a couple of days last week, a faint memory as we are now in the midst of what now has been dubbed "Sweat Ceiling" in the DC area. Windows open at night, sleeping well, reading on the back porch, runs in the morning with no thought to the air quality, and of course great baking weather; cold front. I look forward to another one soon, or at least I can dream.

When these two things collide - favorable weather conditions to run the oven and a whole bunch of blubberies, I dive in and find my grandmother’s box has two blueberry recipes, Blueberry Batter Cake and Blueberry Cake.  Many years ago my uncle asked me if I had a recipe for a blueberry baked dish from Grandma, I’m not sure if the Blueberry Batter Cake is the one, if not there is one more to try after the heat wave, or at least when the temps at night aren't in the 80s still.  Let me know what you think Uncle!

Blueberry Batter Cake

My first fear was the last step of the recipe, which involves pouring a cup of boiling water over the entire batter and blueberry concoction.  As I did it I became even more apprehensive, however I told my even more apprehensive son (he didn’t want to miss out on a fresh baked dessert if this failed) it was fine, the ingredients combined couldn’t be all bad, and we didn’t have to share it with anyone.  Well, I am so glad I persevered, and shared!

First put blueberries and lemon juice in the bottom of the pan.

Purple/blue pearls of sweetness

For the batter step the recipe says ‘Make the batter’.  I decided to cream the butter and sugar, then alternately add the milk and flour mixture, starting and ending with the flour.  I did my best not to beat it too much, in order to allow it to stay light.  

This is a rather thick 'batter'.

I carefully dolloped the batter over the blueberries and then spread it a bit with a knife. 

 
Next up was to sprinkle the dish with the cup of sugar with cornstarch and salt.  

Still looks good, though that's a lot of sugar!

Finally pour over the cup of boiling water and hold my breath for 40 minutes.

An odd look, not very appealing.

Into the oven, and frequent checking in to see what was happening.  Finally at 30 minutes I saw something that looked tasty.  After 50 minutes, here it is lovely, bubbling and oh so tempting. 

Yes, this looks incredibly edible!

We made a quick call to an old neighbor to see if they’d like to share, and we’re off to enjoy a visit with friends and their son and grandchildren, an impromptu lunch and then a fabulous dessert of blueberry batter cake with a spot of whipped cream on top.

I would note that this recipe is rather sweet.  I think I would drop the cornstarch sugar layer to ¾ cup and it would still be fine, room for experimentation indeed.  I also learned after some searching that this method of pouring the boiling water on top is a common method for making berry cobblers.  Always something new to learn.  Happy summer everyone!

Blueberry Batter Cake (Or Blueberry Cobbler)

2 cups blueberries

Juice of ½ of a lemon

Batter: 

3 tablespoons shortening

¾ cup sugar

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup flour

Topping: 1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup boiling water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put the blueberries in a well greased 8”x8”x2” pan and sprinkle with the juice.  Make the batter and gently spread over the blueberries.  Sprinkle the sugar/cornstarch mixture over the batter.  Pour the cup of water over everything. 

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.  Serve warm or cold, topped with whipped cream or ice cream.

Banana Bonanza

So, it’s been a while since I’ve had time to write.  I foolishly thought I could keep up with this weekly as I started a part-time job and decided to train for a 5K.  No problem, I’ll have time.  On top of this, our climate went from spring to summer overnight, not the kind of temperatures conducive to lots of baking, especially when I am not ready to concede to turning on the air conditioning.  Granted, there was activity in my kitchen between today and my last post, a birthday carrot cake, a few loaves of bread, hot cross buns and egg dyeing for Easter, chocolate chip cookies - one version for Passover and another from a mix that were the best I’ve had in a while. (Oh, those were Jacques Torres’ French Kiss Cookies from King Arthur Flour, with great huge disks of Belgian dark chocolate, oh yum.)

 All this makes me wonder, how do we make time to "do it all"? Did my grandmother ever consider working for pay, if so what would she have done, and how would she have managed all the demands on her time (she certainly did a lot in her community)?  It's hard enough to do the everyday tasks, then add on life's incidents and accidents...and then an overabundance of ripe bananas comes along...

Lots of ripe bananas, the one on the bottom, almost liquid...

It was a dire situation, and I was feeling the need for the soothing baking process.  In this house, once they start smelling (and tasting) like bananas and have the slightest brown spots, the love is gone.  Now I know why banana bread was invented!  I do save a few that aren’t too overripe and freeze them for a great smoothie with chocolate malted milk and honey and a hint of coffee (Nigella Lawson's 'Go Get 'Em Smoothie').  Lucky for me there is one banana bread recipe Grandma's box to try out; oddly only one compared to the several pumpkin bread versions.  I found two more from Cooking Light to try so I could use them all up – a banana bread baking frenzy.  

I love my new recipe box with card holder as part of the lid - thanks Mom!

The recipe from Grandma (from a friend, isn't that how we get our most favorite recipes?) calls for a lot of spices, 1 teaspoon of all three.  I don’t think I’ve ever used that much allspice in anything.  Hmm, will see what it leads to.  Shortening shows its ever present use in her day, and I found more in my pantry, a good time to use that up too.  The mixture of eggs and shortening looks like a rather disheartening mess of small lumps and egg.  Add the sugar and flour and it looks much more appealing. 

Eggs and shortening - don't blend easily

Grandma's recipe batter ready for the oven, looks good.

I still had 6 more bananas to use, so on to Basic Banana Bread (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/basic-banana-bread-10000002012776/)– I like that this has flaxseed.  

Basic recipe liquid ingredients

Basic recipe dry ingredients, ground flaxseed at the top.

Classic recipe in the oven.

Classic Banana Bread (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/classic-banana-bread-10000000549764/) is last, no spices in this recipe, and it starts out with a creamed sugar and butter mixture, add eggs, and then add dry ingredients. The temperature in the house was rising with the oven on already, however getting the butter too room temperature took a lot less time!

Good things come in threes!

The end result – I liked how the Classic rose higher and had the crack along the top reminiscent of pound cake.  They are all moist, Grandma’s is especially dense, perhaps due to the omission of salt.  Grandma’s doesn’t even taste like banana bread, perhaps the point?  Oddly, kid 2 doesn’t want to try it at all, either due to the pecans or the fact that it is so dark, though she greatly enjoys slices of the other two.  Kid 1 hasn't tasted any yet and dad ate slices for a hike today, and seemed to have energy to spare when he got home.  I would add whole wheat flour to all of these in my next version, and might try some salt to get a better rise out of Grandma’s.  I also would decrease the spices.  Samples of each loaf went to the neighbor who had provided some of the bananas before going on a trip.  It’s cooling off here, looking forward to another round of baking after I get all the dishes done!

Grandma's Banana Bread

Cream together: 1/2 cup shortening

                          2 eggs
Add: 1 cup mashed bananas
        1/4 cup buttermilk
Sift together and add:  1 1/2 cups flour
                                   1 1/2 cups sugar
                                   1 teaspoon baking soda
                                  1 teaspoon allspice
                                  1 teaspoon cinnamon
                                  1 teaspoon nutmeg
Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts
Bake for 1 hour in 350 degree oven or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Baking for Joy

Reasons to celebrate seem a bit sparse at the moment with unrest in many nations, unspeakable natural devastation, potential environmental damage from human created machines, and the cruelty of humans towards each other, it's hard not to feel a bit sad.  However spring is upon us, and I will celebrate the beautiful spring days, daffodils in the yard, viewing a 'super moon' with neighbors, grass stains on jeans and happy kids playing outside, and be thankful that there are so many traditions out there that can give us reason to celebrate, and to bake!  It's often the little things that make being on this planet something to cherish.

King Cake splendor.

On to the traditions! These last two weeks have overwhelmed me a bit in the baking department. No chance to try any recipes from Grandma, however a bunch of fun things to share.  First on March 8th we had Mardi Gras, and yes, we had King Cake.  I started making it several years ago when I bought a kit from King Arthur Flour.  Then I realized I could do it from scratch just as easily...  So I use a King Arthur dough recipe (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/king-cake-recipe), and the filling recipe I adapted is from their kit, which is not online at the moment, basically white bread dough, butter, sugar and almond paste. Super sweet and decadent--perfect.  Last year's baby finder got to put the baby in this year, and put on the egg wash before baking. 

Look at that filling, oh almost makes my teeth hurt it's so sweet.

Next up was Pi day, Monday, 3/14, and for perfect alliteration, there was pumpkin 'pi' to make.  This was not the full out home made version I do at Thanksgiving, just the recipe from the pumpkin can with a frozen pie crust - time is precious, and the food still tastes good.

Wednesday 3/16 was Home Sweet Home day - we moved into our current house on March 16th four years ago.  During the first year in our house the kids asked me to bake something special on the 16th of each month - a very busy year.  After that year, I suggested we keep it just to the actual anniversary and luckily they conceded.

I found an easy butter cake recipe from Good Housekeeping that I had saved to try (and figured with "house" in the name of the magazine, that would make it even more appropriate for our house celebration) and a fudge frosting.  These recipes aren't online any more, I'll add them at the bottom.  The cupcake liners are new, they don't have to be put in a muffin tin, so I used a half sheet cookie sheet.  This was interesting, the cupcakes bulged out a bit, however they tasted great.  The color will help with the next day's celebrations.

Scones with chocolate :)

Thursday 3/17 - St. Patrick's day.  I had hoped to get to baking an Irish Soda bread recipe from Grandma by way of the Boston Globe circa the '60s, however it was King Arthur Flour chocolate chip scone mix to the rescue at 5:45 am.  Will try the bread another week when it's quieter!

Lucky cupcakes.

Then thankfully I had enough cupcakes from the day before to frost with vanilla buttercream (again from Good Housekeeping, though it was a bit too sweet for me, not enough butter flavor, you decide: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/vanilla-buttercream-frosting-1848?click=recipe_sr) and some green sugar left over from the King Cake.  I do so love and appreciate dual purposed items. The leprechauns visited two neighbor families that night to share in the fun.


Finally this past weekend was Purim, time to make a huge batch of hamantaschen to share at a carnival.
For this I used a recipe from a cookbook I can't live without, Jewish Holiday Baking by Marcy Goldman.   For years I would take it out of the library and hoard it until my 2 renewals were up. It was out of print, and I couldn't copy the whole thing. Finally it was reprinted in 2009 and I bought it immediately.  I chose the "Almost-Like-a-Bakery Traditional Hamantaschen" dough recipe, nice and light, flaky.  Here's the dough, ready for rolling out.  There's a lot of dough here, I made about 6 dozen cookies! Check out her website, www.betterbaking.com

Poppy seed filling, ready to be shaped.

Nutella filling!!

Finished product with poppy seed filling.

Happy Spring and happy baking everyone, I'm going to take a break for a few days!


Golden Butter Cupcakes from Good Housekeeping May 2003

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line 24 2/12-inch muffin pan cups with paper liners.
2. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed (with heavy duty mixer, use whisk attachment; otherwise cupcake will not rise properly when baked), mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until combined.  Add butter, milk, vanilla, and eggs, beat just until blended.  Increase speed to high; beat 1 to 2 minutes or until creamy, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.
3. Spoon batter into muffin cups.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
4. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Fudge Frosting from Good Housekeeping May 2003

3 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 to 3 tablespoons milk

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt chocolates.  Cool slightly. In a large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat cooled chocolate with butter until blended.  Add confectioners' sugar, vanilla and 2 tablespoons milk.  Beat until smooth.  Increase speed to medium-high; beat until frosting is light and fluffy.  Beat in remaining 1 tablespoon milk if needed for easy spreading consistency.

Oatmeal Cookies and a Duck

Growing up I was lucky to have 3 grandmothers. Two through biology and one that I chose. My biological grandmothers did not live close to me, however my paternal grandmother, whose recipe box inspired this blog, came for frequent visits (and tea parties).  My maternal grandmother lived overseas and visits were more difficult and infrequent. So, when I saw this recipe and it's handwriting, it brought back a flood of memories of my chosen grandmother, to whom I gave the title Grandma III, and a very special cookie jar.  

When my father was young his family moved to a new neighborhood in a new state.  Lucky for his family, and for me, they picked a cul de sac with several families whose lives have been entwined with my family ever since. His next door neighbor on one side was the woman who would become my Grandma III, along with her husband and three children.  There are home movies of the children playing together, and many stories of time spent together, summer days with July 4th parades, snowy winter days sledding, and many adventures.  To this day we are in touch with many of those people from that neighborhood. Full speed ahead to my childhood, where fate would bring my family to the same town where Grandma III and her husband (Grandpa III) retired.  The day we moved out of our old house we spent the night at hers until our new home was ready.  I loved sleeping in her dormer bedroom, with a special bear that still lives in my house.  As I grew up we celebrated Thanksgivings together, and I would often ride my bike over just to spend time at their home. When my parents needed a break I would get to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa III.  Many patient games of “War” and walks and making breakfast together in the kitchen with Grandma III, and time for me to be alone just reading or enjoying their basement and toys. Grandpa III tried to explain the ins and outs of golf and names such as Fuzzy Zoeller, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus. As I moved on and went to college, I still got letters and would visit when I was home.  After Grandpa III passed on, Grandma III continued to write even as her memories failed.  She cherished visits, as did I, and kept up with my life.  I am blessed to have had a grandmother I chose and who was generous-hearted enough to take on and relish the role.

So what is this about a duck?  Well, one thing I could always count on during visits with Grandma III was a chance to go into the yellow and white duck cookie jar that held an important spot on the kitchen counter.  She always made sure that her cookie jar was full until she didn't have a kitchen of her own. This cookie jar lives firmly in my memory; a huge duck as cookie jars go really, yellow oval ceramic on the bottom, with a white duck body as the top.  Peanut butter cookies, molasses cookies, and yes, most definitely oatmeal cookies lived inside. The cookie jar lives with my brother now, and a box of cookies have already been sent to go live (however briefly) in the cookie jar where they belong.

Time to get baking!!

This recipe calls for shortening. I hesitate to use it, though I do keep some in the house for certain kinds of cookies that benefit from its properties. I was uncertain about a recipe with all shortening, especially melted, however I decided to do this recipe twice, once with shortening and once with butter. A busy morning, and well worth it. I know that shortening, with less water content will allow for less spread in the oven, and that the butter will probably taste better. Let's see.

I actually sifted the flour per the recipe, though normally I don't any more. Experience and baking classes have taught me that fluffing the flour before measuring into the cup will do the same thing. I just remember getting the sifting job all the time as a kid and it's still fun

Melted shortening, somewhat unappealing looking...

Melted butter, mmmm.

Shortening and sugar mixed together

The first thing I notice with the shortening dough, it is very stiff. Here's where the lower water content of shortening comes into play. 

Butter and sugar mixed together

In the butter version, this step already looks more moist.


The final butter dough is much moister, and easier to work with when dropping on the cookie sheets, the shortening cookies are crumblier.

Shortening cookie after baking.

A note on baking time – the butter version took around 15 minutes, the shortening version took a bit longer, 19 minutes seemed good, this gave them a nice golden hue.

The shortening dough gave cookies that didn't spread as much, the butter ones flattened out a bit.

Butter cookie after baking.

Now for the final test - taste!  The kid vote – butter is better.  I agree, though the shortening ones aren't bad, after cooling (yes one was tested while still hot) it is crunchier on the outside, though still chewy in the middle. The butter ones are chewy all around on day one. After a few days, both are pretty crunchy, still tasty (and consumed by some in this house as breakfast...).  Next time I would make them bigger, that might give them more chewiness, something I prefer.
I love that I could make these in a bowl by hand, no need to haul out the mixer.   Enjoy!

Can you tell which one is which?

Best Oatmeal Cookies

2/3 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup seedless raisins

Melt shortening and stir in sugar.  Add unbeaten egg and beat until well blended.  Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and stir into first mixture.  Blend in vanilla*, oats and raisins.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet.  Bake in moderate (350) oven 15-20 minutes.  Remove to wire rack to cool.  Makes 5 dozen cookies.

*Personal preference, I would add the vanilla along with the egg before adding the flour.

Oh, and when I get one, I'll post a picture of the duck cookie jar.

Just as I remembered!  Thanks dear brother for sending a picture.

Rainy Days and Comfort

Soup's on.

I like taking care of others. It's in my nature, it is a strength. I also love to cook and bake good food.

Ready for transport.

This past weekend I spent time making food to nourish others. First it was for the participants in a class I co-led Saturday morning. There were families in attendance, so I wanted something that would be good for kids and adults, and something good for a Saturday morning workshop, I turned to a much loved recipe in this house, Pumpkin-Walnut muffins. Luckily these were baked before we lost power last Friday afternoon due to rather vicious winds and a continually inept power company. No time left to try any new recipes then, the power was restored after dinnertime. After teaching all morning, which was a family affair, Saturday afternoon was for relaxing and rejuvenating.  Sunday morning I made food for a luncheon for the teachers of my kids' Sunday school. For this I chose to make a spinach cheese dish passed on from my grandmother-in-law, simply called Trudy's Spinach Dish. A couple of years ago I went to her kitchen to learn a few of her recipes, all done from memory, so they could be written down in a family reunion recipe compilation (more recipes for a future blog).  This is on the table at many family meals.  I didn't get a chance for a picture I'm afraid, it went straight from oven to the potluck, and was certainly devoured.  We appreciate all the teachers do to provide our children with a background in the uniqueness of many religions.  On Monday it was time to make soup for a dinner meeting of the leaders in the parenting program where I lead classes. Perfect for a rainy, dreary Monday, and this time I was able to have a taste too!

It is gratifying to make food for others. Those who receive the food are not only nourished physically, they also gain emotional sustenance from the care with which good food is made, and I do as well.  I now know that my grandmother made food for her community as well, fire fighters, police, fellow church members, whoever helped her she returned the favor with her baking skills.  This ethic has been passed down from my mother as well, and I have been involved in making or organizing to make meals for friend's welcoming a newborn baby, those going through illness, moving or just for a get together for as long as I have been on my own.

I look forward to a quieter weekend next week to make something from my grandmother's box. For now I will share the foods that I have made, favorite recipes that live in my notebook.

Enjoy, and share some good food with someone you care about.

Pumpkin Walnut Muffins
I come back to this recipe time and again, it comes from Gourmet magazine through epicurious.com. You can omit the nuts and dates if you want (as I did this time to avoid any nut allergy issues and possible picky tastes) and it doubles and freezes well.  I mix the nuts in as opposed to sprinkling on top, they tend to burn that way, and pecans are quite delectable here.  I often use half butter, half canola oil to make it a tad healthier.  I also have decreased the sugar by 1/4 cup with no complaints.   

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole-wheat flour or all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped pitted dates (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (about 3 ounces)

Preheat oven to 400° F. and grease twelve 1/2-cup muffin cups.

Melt butter and cool slightly. In a bowl whisk together butter, pumpkin, buttermilk, eggs, molasses, and vanilla. Into a large bowl sift together flours, baking powder, spices, salt, and baking soda and whisk in brown sugar. Make a well in center of flour mixture and add pumpkin mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in dates and divide batter among cups. Sprinkle walnuts evenly over batter in each cup and bake muffins in middle of oven 20 to 25 minutes, or until puffed and a tester comes out clean. Cool muffins in cups 5 minutes and turn out onto a rack. Serve muffins warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12 muffins.
*(Does well in other containers, e.g. mini muffin tins or bread pans; adjust baking time accordingly.)
(http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Walnut-Muffins-14500)

Trudy's Spinach Dish

For this dish and most of my baking I don't like to use substitute anything, butter, eggs, the real thing is best. This time I did use one carton Egg Beaters and 2 real eggs.  You get to decide how much for the spices, it's to your taste!

20 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 pound cottage cheese

12 ounces mild Cheddar cheese, grated

5 heaping soup spoons flour

9 whole eggs (can use some or all Egg Beaters)

Garlic salt

Pepper

Parmesan cheese

Nutmeg

Grease two pie plates or one large 9”x13” dish. Combine all the ingredients up to and including the pepper.  Spread into baking dish and sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese and nutmeg. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Lots of yummy bits.

Lentil-Barley Soup

This soup was a new recipe my mother shared over the holidays; when we get to her house after 8 hours of driving, we often have soup and it is a great way to relax after a long drive. I made a double recipe.  In place of water and bouillon cubes I used 6 cups of vegetable broth, and I have yet to remember to add the shredded Swiss cheese, it's optional!

¾ cup chopped onion

¾ cup chopped celery

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ cup margarine or butter

6 cups water

1 28-ounce can stewed (or diced) tomatoes

¾ cup dry lentils, rinsed and drained

¾ cup pearl barley

6 vegetable bouillon cubes

½ tsp. Dried rosemary, crushed

½ tsp. Dried oregano, crushed

¼ tsp. Pepper

1 cup thinly sliced carrots

1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Cook onion, celery and garlic in hot margarine or butter in a 4 quart dutch oven until tender. Add water through black pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.  Add carrots and simmer 15 minutes more or until carrots are tender. Ladle soup into bowls and top with shredded cheese.

Tea Parties and Coffee Cake

Tea set circa 1970

Tea parties were intrinsically linked to visits with my grandmother. Whenever she came to my home, I was ready with my tea sets on a small table in my room. She would maneuver her adult frame into a small kid chair and join me in a very formal tea party of manners and small talk. She gave me a couple of play tea sets and now I am happy to say I have some of her 'adult' tea sets as well.  I don't recall if she drank much coffee, however I know she always had tea with milk or cream, and I loved to watch the swirls as the milk mixed in with the hot tea. 

So, when my daughter found all her play tea sets in a forgotten corner of her closet and set her table for a tea party, which grew into plans for a real tea party with a friend, I knew this week I would have to find something that would befit a tea party.  I happened to have extra sour cream in the refrigerator, so when I saw Sour Cream Coffee cake, I knew the stars were aligned somewhere to create some magic. Darling daughter had a friend over yesterday and was so excited to add this to her menu! Mini cheese rounds and crackers and mini chocolate cream pies, 'tea' (apple juice being the beverage of choice) and giggles. Luckily big brother also had a friend over and they stayed out of each others way!

Looking at the recipe, there is the note of “V. good” in the corner.  I am counting on Grandma being correct on this one!

The recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, and then she notes, “Crisco”. Now unless I am making certain cookies which require the shortening to create a certain texture (a topic for a later post on cookies), I stick with butter – it's the real thing and has to be much healthier than the list of ingredients you find in shortening. I do realize that shortening was probably cheaper and lasted longer in the pantry for her.

It is always important to get your ingredients together and then read carefully, especially when starting this project at 8:30 pm - 2 teaspoons of baking powder, not baking soda can make a big difference!  I learned a trick when measuring the bowl of dry ingredients for baking, to put the various spices and leavenings in separate spots in the bowl of flour so you can keep track of what you have put in.  Still a bit tricky with the white salt, baking powder and baking soda.

After eggs are added - looks 'curdled'.

I creamed the butter and sugar mixture until it was just creamy, not fluffy really. The note on the recipe card says once you add the egg and vanilla the batter will look curdled, here's a picture of that step. Good to know there's nothing wrong with this! Once you start adding the sour cream and flour it all comes together again quickly. 

After first addition of flour and sour cream - nice and smooth again.

Remember that you want to start and end with the dry ingredients when adding them to the butter/egg mixture, alternating with the sour cream.  I mix just until everything is combined, keeping the final result as tender as possible.  The final batter is very thick, dropping it into the pan is a bit tricky, the small pans were especially challenging.  An off-set knife is helpful to spread the batter before adding the layer of streusel.  I can't vouch for exactly how much this batter would actually make; I used a 9"x9" non-stick pan for the larger coffee cake, and then the three small containers for tea party options. The recipe says you can make one 9"x13" pan or two 8x"8" square pans.  All the pans I used were dark non-stick pans, so I lowered the temperature to 350 degrees.

The little cakes were done in about 20 minutes, they rose very high, much like a muffin, so keep this in mind if filling smaller containers. The cake took 40 minutes, and I lowered the temperature towards the end to 325 to prevent burning. The baking time will need some fine tuning based on pan used and your oven. The time tested 'toothpick in the middle' is key here; the cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with just a few dry crumbs. 

Oh what a great way to wake up!

The final result – delectable layers of moist cake (surprising one taster at home who expected it to be dry) between sweet sugar/cinnamon/pecan crunchiness. Four thumbs up in this house, 'V. Good' indeed. 

Mom's coffee cake with coffee.

Girls' coffee cake with 'tea'.

Extraordinary tea party!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 cup butter (Crisco)

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup sour cream

Topping:

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 tsp. cinnamon

Cream shortening and sugar.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  (Will look curdled.)  Add dry ingredients, alternately with sour cream.  Pour half the batter into greased 13"x9" pan or two 8" square pans.  Mix ingredients for topping.  Sprinkle half of the topping over the batter.  Top with the rest of the batter then the rest of the topping.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes for the 13"x9" pan, 45 minutes for the square pans.