Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Holiday goodies that are not good for you

Good Morning Everyone.

I am adding some not-so-good- for you goodies for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday.  These are my grandmother's recipes, so you may have to adjust them depending on ingredients.
These are not diet friendly either, some of the recipes have, God forbid, "lard" in them, but sometimes, my grandmother used lard, as it was all she had to use, remember, this are post 29 and 30's recipes, especially these. I am writing them just as they are in her book, these are hand written recipes. These are courtesy of Mabel Bettinger. Please enjoy them. She would want you to. From her kitchen to yours. My grandmother was from  Canada, but ended up in the south in the Ozarks, because her family were migrant farmers, so she used molasses quite a bit. Both the dark and light molasses. These cookies, you could use the light or dark, depending on your taste.

Here goes:

Ginger Cream Cookies

1 Cup Molasses
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup butter (or 1 Cup lard)
1 Cup sour cream
3 Cups flour (probably all purpose) flour was just flour in those days
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger (you could sub fresh grated ginger)?
2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix ingredients, (she did this by hand, she didn't have a mixer till much later on)
Drop by teaspoonsful on to a greased cookie sheet. Bake, (I would try 350* F oven) not sure of time, just watch and take out when golden brown, or however you like your cookie's surface.

Frosting
GrandMa used a variety of frosting bases, regular cream, sour cream,  or cream cheese would work.
Small amount of cream or sour cream or cream cheese, and powdered sugar, mix, adjust consistency and spread on cooled cookies. Her recipe says to use small amount of frosting on cookies, I say, spread it in thick......:*) She was conservative with things, this was the 30's.



Pumpkin cake

2 Cups cake flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup of shortening (or butter)
1 Cup sugar
1 egg
1 Cup pumpkin
1 Cup raisins
3/4 cup nuts, chopped  (you can omit raisins and nuts if you wish)

Sift together the first eight ingredients. Keep the sifted ingredients in a separate bowl until ready.   Cream shortening, add sugar and blend well.  Add egg and beat til fluffy.  Add pumpkin.  Gradually add the sifted ingredients into your dry ingredients and blend until smooth. You may have to adjust smoothness with a dab of milk or cream.   Add nuts and raisins if you want them in the cake.  Bake in an 8 inch square pan, or what ever pan you have that would work.  350* F for about an hour.  Keep an eye on this though in the oven.

2 comments:

  1. Good! More pumpkin recipes.

    I didn't realize you had ties to the Ozarks. These days it is hard to find anyone who still makes the old-fashioned molasses. Mine is 'store-bought'.

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  2. Mom had that recipe for Ginger Creams. I made it many times as a girl. Thanks for posting it.

    I'd like to go to your recipe page but can't find a way. What am I doing wrong?

    Do you sell seeds? If so I'd like to see what you have. Hugs, Ilene

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