Cop Car's Beat

11/20/2020 - An idea from me, a poor cook

 

Hunky Husband must have his dessert after most lunches and dinners; so, I try to keep him supplied. Some years, I've made him a gift of home-made goodies, promising to make him a batch of cookies or a pie each month for one year. In parallel, I've been trying to sneak better nutrition into his foods - especially since he is prone to making breakfast bars his staple, consuming at least two each day. (I consider breakfast bars to be disguised candy bars.) Sneaking the nutritional ingredients into HH's foods has become easier over the past couple of years. HH is no longer a picky eater. If I put the food in front of him, he will eat it - wow! For instance, the other day, I made macaroni and cheese where the sauce for a 6-serving casserole contained one cup of a chopped salad (much kale and broccoli stems) and mushrooms. He liked it.

The idea I thought to push, today, is the addition I made to HH's pecan pie that I baked yesterday. HH prefers pecan to any other pie and prefers pecan pie to any cake in the world.

Prior to pouring the filling of the pecan pie, I put a layer of plumped raisins down on the crust. This comes under the heading of sneaking in nutritional value. As one can see in the photo, above, the raisins re-distributed themselves - floating up in the filling. The big surprise, though, was the taste of the filling after I baked the pie. My recipe calls for 1 teaspoonful of vanilla extract. I had absent-mindedly used orange extract, instead. It added a bit of extra tang.

I would love to have a slice of HH's pie; but, I just get to lick the knife. Too much sugar makes me ill. (HH says that there is no such thing as too sweet - that "too sweet" is an oxymoron.) Of course, it did not occur to me to photograph the pie while it was still whole and pretty. (Before you ask: I don't "do" pie crusts. The above crust is one put out by Marie Callender's, sold in the frozen foods section of food markets.)

Cop Car's Chow - Pecan Pie

                                         Beat, lightly: 2 large eggs

Add & continue beating, just to combine: 1 cup corn syrup (light or dark)

                                                            1 tablespoon wheat flour

                                                            1/4 teaspoon table salt

                                                            1/2 cup granulated white sugar

                                                            1 teaspoon vanilla extract

                                                            2 tablespoons molten butter

Pour batter into un-baked, 9-inch pie shell.

                                Top batter with:    1-1/4 cup pecan halves

Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, cold with whipped cream, or at any temperature, alone.

Note: I use deep-dish, commercially produced pie crusts to prevent run-over.

Tip on keeping pie crust edges (or pizza dough edges) from burning: brush crust edges with plain water before placing the pie into the oven.

I'm not a great baker, but....

Slashdot.org led me to an article on the ABC website concerning a subject that is near and dear to our hearts - baking cookies in space! From the ABC article, "First space-baked cookies took 2 hours in experimental oven" By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer, ‎January‎ ‎23‎, ‎2020‎ ‎4‎:‎57‎ ‎PM, come a few excerpts explaining the "experiment".

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The results are finally in for the first chocolate chip cookie bake-off in space.

While looking more or less normal, the best cookies required two hours of baking time last month up at the International Space Station. It takes far less time on Earth, under 20 minutes.

And how do they taste? No one knows.

Still sealed in individual baking pouches and packed in their spaceflight container, the cookies remain frozen in a Houston-area lab after splashing down two weeks ago in a SpaceX capsule. They were the first food baked in space from raw ingredients.

....

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano was the master baker in December, radioing down a description as he baked them one by one in the prototype Zero G Oven. The first cookie — in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit (149 degrees Celsius) — ended up seriously under-baked. He more than doubled the baking time for the next two, and the results were still so-so.

The fourth cookie stayed in the oven for two hours, and finally success.

One of my first cookbooks - circa late 1950s.

I make no pretense at being a great baker...or, even, a good baker...but, baking cookies for 20 minutes at 300 degrees F sounds just plain crazy to me. Having lived at an altitude of about 6,000 feet (Albuquerque, foothills of the Sandias), I thought that I recalled having to use higher temperatures and longer cook times. Since "Betty Crocker" has been a household name for as far back as I can recall (at least the mid 1940s), I went to see what "Betty" had to say. From her website comes this advice, below.

Baking at High Altitudes

Air pressure is lower, so foods take longer to bake. Temperatures and/or bake times may need to be increased. Liquids evaporate faster, so amounts of flour, sugar and liquids may need to be changed to prevent batter that is too moist, dry or gummy. Gases expand more, so doughs rise faster. Jan 10, 2017

Even "Betty" confuses me, though, when I read part of a table (below) that was included in her article. (I've added highlighting to the confusing part.)

 

Cookies

Cookies generally bake well at high altitudes. You may notice: • Cookies have a drier texture • Cookies may spread too much • Cookies may not spread enough • Cookies may overbrown • Cookies may be underdone

• Decrease butter or shortening (2 Tbsp to 1/4 cup) if cookies spread too much • Decrease sugar slightly if cookies spread too much (amount depends on size of batch and other ingredients) • Increase liquid by 1 to 2 Tbsp only if dough is too dry and cookies don’t spread • Increase flour (starting with 1 or 2 Tbsp) if cookies spread too much • Increase bake time by 1 to 3 minutes • Decrease bake time by 1 to 2 minutes

I guess the message is that one needs to vary parameters to produce the best result - something that the experiment in space was not set up to do very well. My final comment is that, perhaps, I shouldn't be comparing baking in space to baking at high altitude.

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 6

Taco Salad

Recipe was passed along by Lois Wethington (wife of Bob who, in the late 1970s was CC's Group Engineer at The Little Airplane Company.

Brown & Drain:

    1 pound (weight) ground beef

Add & cook as directed on the packet:

    1 packet taco seasoning

Into a separate bowl, chop:

    1 head iceberg lettuce

    1 medium white or yellow onion

    2 medium tomatoes

Add to vegetables:

    10 ounces (weight) grated/shredded cheddar cheese

    1 each 15-ounce (weight) can red beans that have been rinsed

 Mix meat into vegetable mixture and mix in:

    Catalina French dressing - enough to make mixture very moist

Just prior to serving, toss all with:

    Taco flavored corn chips that have been lightly crumbled 

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 5

CC's Chili

The recipe was developed by Cop Car.

Brown in large, heavy pot:

    1 pound (weight) lean ground beef

Add & bring to simmer:

    1 pound (weight) brick chili

    1 pound (wet weight) cooked pinto beans

    1 pound (wet weight) cooked kidney beans

    1 tablespoon chili seasoning

    3 cups water (or tomato juice)

Simmer for 15-30 minutes. Chill in refrigerator to cool thoroughly. Skim fat off of the top. Return pot to stove top, simmering for at least 1 hour.

Add:

    1 pound canned tomatoes (squished up, if not diced) - Tomatoes may be omitted if tomato juice was used instead of water.

Simmer for another hour. Serve, as desired. [I like chili served over shredded Romaine lettuce or other greens.]    

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 4

Enchilada Chicken

Recipe was developed by Cop Car.

Sauté to blacken:

    Drizzle of olive oil

    2 slices onion, very finely diced

    1/3 large Pablano pepper, finely diced

    1/4 teaspoon prepared, diced garlic

Remove vegetables from skillet, but continue using skillet (with any oil that survived).

Sauté for a few minutes on either side:

    3 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Place chicken in oiled casserole, but continue using skillet (with any oil that survived).

Heat to bubbly in skillet:

    1 small can green enchilada sauce

    vegetables that had been set aside, above

    3 ounces finely sliced and chopped wheat tortillas

Pour sauce mixture over chicken breast halves in the casserole. Cover the casserole and bake for 60 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove casserole from oven and let set for a few minutes. Cut each chicken breast half into 2 or 3 pieces, lengthwise. Serve with sauce spooned over chicken pieces.

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 3

Ora's Sugar Cookies

Recipe is from the late Ora Thomas of Iowa - a family friend in the 1940s and 1950s.

Cream:

    3 cups granulated white sugar

    1 cup lard (lard that requires refrigeration - not hydrogenized)

Add & beat:

    2 eggs

Continue beating as add:

    1/2 teaspoon table salt

    1 teaspoon cinnamon [I sometimes use ground nutmeg.]

    1 cup sour cream

    1/2 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

    1 teaspoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon vanilla

    7 cups flour (or enough to make a stiff rolling dough)

Roll out. Cut into 2 1/2-inch-to-3-inch-diameter circles. Place on cookie sheets. Bake 10-15 minutes at 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit. [Ora did not, but I sometimes cut into various shapes, decorated with sprinkles, and/or iced the cookies - after baking.]

    

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 2

Small Batch Cookies

Recipe is from Alicia Ross as published in the Derby Informer on 2/15/2017 and modified by Cop Car.    Makes 20-36 cookies

Cream:

    1/4 pound (weight) butter, softened

    3/4 cup granulated white sugar

Add & mix:

    1 1/4 cups all-purpose white flour

    1/2 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir in:

    4 ounces (weight) toffee pieces

    1/2 cup chopped pecans

    4 ounces (weight) chocolate chips

Crop onto lined cookie sheets, using 2-inch separation. Bake 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (light brown state). Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove from sheet to cooling rack.

 

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 1

Bran Muffins

Recipe is from a Kellogg's™  All Bran box. Makes 12 muffins

Soak:

    1 cup All Bran

    1 cup milk

Beat in:

    1 egg

    1/4 cup vegetable oil

Add & stir to just mix:

    1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

    1 tablespoon baking powder (sodium bicarbonate)

    1/2 teaspoon table salt

    1/3 cup granulated white sugar

Pour batter into greased muffin tin (or lined with paper baking cups). Bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Almond Horseshoes & CC's Cookies

So much for my memory! I would have sworn that I had, years ago (as in about 12), posted my much-missed late Mother-in-Law's recipe for Almond Horseshoes. Not finding that posting, I remedy the situation.

ALMOND HORSESHOES

Makes about 4-5 dozen

Cream together:

    1 1/3 cups granulated white sugar (12.5 ounces)

    1 pound butter (prefer sweet, but salted will do)

Add and mix in well:

    1 1/2 cups finely ground, blanched almonds (5.5 ounces)

    4 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour

    1 egg white

Pinch off pieces of dough (or use 2-tablespoon food scoop), forming each dough ball into a crescent. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. (Do not allow to brown.) Sprinkle with confectioner's (or powdered) sugar.

The reason I checked for the posting of the above recipe is that I wished to post another recipe for CC's Almond Cookies. I'm not much of a cook; but, I started with a recipe in Bake Sale: Favorite Brand Name Cookbook (purchased from the "excess" shelves at the local public library for the princely sum of 25 cents) and developed my own version. One thing that MIL always stressed was the importance of using a Mouli grinder (image, below).

The theory was that by using a meat grinder, one would reduce the almonds to an oily paste. Without proof, I believed that from age 20 to age 79. (Who said I'm slow to learn?)

A few weeks ago, I tested the theory by putting the almonds through our meat grinder (similar to the one in the photo, above), using the medium-holed grinder plate (our grinder came with grinder plates using small, medium, and large holes). It works beautifully. There is no crushing of the nuts. Perhaps, the person who came up with the Mouli grinder theory had a dull blade in their meat grinder! Oh, I should note: I did NOT grind whole almonds. Getting even lazier in my dotage, I've stopped blanching the almonds myself (which I still did at the tender age of 78). Now, I grind slivered, blanched almonds. That may change the interaction between the meat grinder and the nut meats.

CC'S ALMOND COOKIES

Makes about 3 or 3 1/2 dozen cookies

Beat until very light and fluffy:

    1/2 pound butter

    1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Add and beat well:

    1 egg

    1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla extract (I've never tried artificial; but, I understand that the world supply of Vanilla is at a premium these days.)

Add and mix, just until incorporated, on low speed:

    1 1/2 cups ground, blanched almonds (I use pre-blanched, slivered almonds.)

    2 cups all-purpose white flour

    1 teaspoon cream of tartar

    1 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

Transfer dough to small (1-quart size) bowl, cover, refrigerate to chill through. Drop dough by 1 1/2-tablespoon-sized food scoops onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Roll each scoop into a ball, flattening somewhat, and press top into blanched, slivered almonds. Leave 2" between cookies. Bake about 15 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. (Do not allow to brown.) Cool, completely, storing in air-tight container.

Please note that my version of almond cookies is much quicker and easier. My MIL loved to bake and seemed oblivious to the work involved. She was a oner!