recipes
apple crisp - buttermilk biscuits - candy corn -cooky cutter cookies - fudge (Nana's delicious!) - gingerbread -jellybean bunny - peanut butter cookies - powdered sugar frosting - pralines - - radish tea sandwiches -
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Joy's Recipes:
Nana's Delicious Fudge
from HOW TO DRAW A RADISH PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR
2 cups sugar
2 Tbs. cocoa
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
1 can (3/4 cup) evaporated milk "with
just a little water added"
1 or 2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
You might want to double or triple this
recipe, so everyone gets plenty!
Mix together all ingredients, except vanilla and butter, in a
medium-size saucepan. Simmer over a medium flame. Melt the butter
around rim of pan to prevent crystalization.
When a test droplet in ice water reaches
the soft ball stage, (boiling point 273°F), set the pan in
a larger pan of ice water to hasten cooling. While the fudge is
still very hot, add the vanilla and stir vigorously. (If the mixture
has cooled too much, heat until the pan is warm to the touch.)
Stir until the surface is no longer shiny. Then spread the fudge
one inch thick on a buttered plate. Before the fudge has completely
set, cut it into squares.
Nana said, "If the fudge is too hard, add a little more milk
and start over. If it is too soft and won't harden, just boil
it a little more." After sharing with friends and family,
if there is any fudge left, wrap it in foil and mail to distant
relatives. (This will probably only happen with the triple recipe!)
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My Mom's Yummy Cooky Cutter Cookies
Gather together all of your cookie cutters and all of your friends! This recipe, I think, makes about 30 cookies.
Cream together in a Large mixing bowl:
2 sticks of unsalted butter (1 cup of butter)
2/3 cups white sugar
Beat in 1 egg. (optional: 1 tsp vanilla OR almond flavoring)
Mix in 2-1/2 cups unbleached flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt.
(Optional: add 1 tablespoon ground coffee.)
CHILL 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350º, butter 2 baking sheets.
ROLL 1/4 inch thick. CUT INTO SHAPES. Bake 8 minutes, until just barely brown, allow to cool.
Spread with Regular Ol' Powdered Sugar Frosting and decorate with your favorite sprinkles.
Regular Ol'
Powdered
Sugar Frosting:
Sift into a bowl: 1 box (1 pound) powdered sugar (also called Confectioner's
sugar). If you dont have a sifter, just shake it through a strainer, the point
is not to have large crumbs of powdered sugar that dont mix in.
Stir in 1 or 2 tablespoons of water, add tiny amounts of milk, stirring, until
you have the correct consistency. BE CAREFUL, because it can get too wet if
you add too much milk, in which case you simply add more powdered sugar.)
NOTE, there is also Royal Icing, which is the same thing but with egg whites
beaten in. "You could look it up," as Yogi Berra said.
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Peanut Butter Cookies - Joy's Extra Special
makes about 50 cookies 2" diameter.
preheat oven to 375º, butter 2 baking sheets
cream in a Large mixing bowl:
3 sticks of unsalted butter
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2-1/2 cups turbinado sugar.
beat and add:
4 eggs (medium sized)
beat slowly into mixture:
3 cups Smucker's Natural Chunky peanut butter
in a separate bowl mix:
3-1/2 cups unbleached flour;
1-1/2 teaspoons salt;
3 teaspoons baking soda.
((optional: 1 or 2 tablespoons coffee, ground at #5 (drip)))
Mix wet and dry ingredients together. Dough will be wet and
creamy, not dry.
Drop heaping tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart (important!) on buttered
cooky sheet.
Gently impress the traditional criss cross with a lightly floured
fork.
Bake 10 minutes until cookies are just beginning to hold together. (To test, try scooping one up with a lightly floured spatula. If you can get one whole or almost whole, they're done!) Keep an eye on them, don't overcook, or they will crumble too much later on.
Allow to cool briefly on sheet and then remove to a cooling rack or a flat surface.
Joy's Extra Special because she perfected it to her own exacting
ideal of the perfect peanut butter cooky, and because she makes
them for her special friends.
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from HOW TO DRAW A RADISH PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR
pre heat oven to 450° F
2 cups unbleached flour and additional
flour for patting out the dough.
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cold butter and more butter to put on your freshly baked
biscuits
1 cup buttermilk
Sift 2 cups flour and 1 tsp baking soda together with 1/2 tsp salt. Grate into the mixture 2 Tbs cold butter. Crumble up the mixture quickly, don't handle it too much, it should stay as cold as possible.
Pour 1 c buttermilk in center of mixture and stir briefly. Flatten and fold dough lightly four times on lightly floured surface. Pat dough lightly until it is 3/4" thick. Flour a glass and cut dough into circles. Don't twist the glass as you cut. Bake in the middle of a 450° F oven for 10 minutes. Watch carefully so they don't burn.
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Here is my (improved) peparkakor (gingerbread) recipe:
Cream 1/2 c. butter, gradually add 3/4
c. sugar.
Add 1 unbeaten egg, 3/4 c. molasses, 2 T. grated orange peel--(Use
that new slick grater--It is so easy and does a fine job.)
Stir in 3 1/2 c. flour, 1 t. baking soda, 1 1/2 t. ginger, 1 1/2
t. cinnamon, 1 t. ground cloves, 1 t. cardomom and 1 t. instant
coffee, 1/2 t. ground black pepper.
It is kind of hard to mix, but persevere. chill.
Roll 1/4" thick. cut into shapes.
Bake 375 8-10 min.
The coffee idea is from you. The spice
quantities are variable and to
taste,(or whatever falls in) I like more cardomom but it is a
nuisance to
peel and grind, which I do in the coffee grinder. Cloves are better
that way
too. Grind the spices all together---blends them well.
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from my HOW TO DRAW A RADISH Booth at New York is Book Country, Sept. 29, 2002
Large batch: 5 jumbo bunches of radishes (20 per bunch : 100
fat radishes)chopped
in a food processor
3 large packages of Lite Cream Cheese
1 huge container of Country Crock whipped butter
2 fist-fulls of fresh chives: chopped
(use no salt as the butter has more than enough)
Mix all together thoroughly. Keep refridgerated.
Medium batch: 2 chps whipped butter
1 8 oz pkg lite cream cheese
1/3 c. chopped chives
4 cups chopped radishes
Mix well and refridgerate.
Voila! Spread on bread and feed the masses!
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Mom's Pralines - oh, the sugar-rush!
Line up all of your ingredients, and your wax-paper sheets, ahead of time.
Mix:
2 cups light brown sugar
3/4 cup evaporated milk (canned milk)
cook, stirring, until 234 degrees
(234 degrees is the "soft ball stage": drop a tiny amount into icy cold water. Remove it - it should form a soft ball. (not a hard ball, not a thread.))
when it reaches this stage, remove from heat
Stir in:
2 tablespoons butter (at room temperature)
2 cups pecans (in halves)
let stand 10 minutes, then:
Beat until thick. Don't over-beat or they become lumpy.
Drop in large spoonfulls on to wax paper. work quickly or they will harden too fast. NOTE - you may have to make this recipe a few times to get to perfection, but you will enjoy eating your not so perfect batches as you gain expertise.
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Apple Crisp, the easiest dessert!
Serves 2. Heat oven to 350º. Rub with butter the bottom and sides of a shallow 8" square pan, or else a pie pan.
8 apples (2 pounds)
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) of cold butter
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Peel, core, and slice 8 sweet and tart
apples, try to use 2 different kinds of apples, and heap them
into the pan. (It comes to about 2 pounds of apples, or 5-1/2
cups of slices.) TIP: The thinner you slice, the sooner your Apple
Crisp will be ready to eat. !!!
In a large mixing bowl, crumble together the flour; butter; white
sugar; brown sugar; cinnamon; salt. Don't mix it too long, keep
it in large crumbles.
Spread the crumbly mixture in a thick layer over the apples in
the pan.
Bake about 45 minutes or until apples are soft and crumbles are
bubbling hot.
Allow to cool somewhat before you eat it, and serve hot or cold with whipped cream, sour cream, or vanilla ice cream!
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Candy Corn
1 Cup white sugar
2/3 Cup white corn syrup
1/3 Cup butter
1 teaspoon real vanilla
2 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup powdered milk
yellow & orange food coloring (optional)
Combine sugar, butter, and corn syrup in pan and bring to a
boil
stirring CONSTANTLY. Turn heat low and boil 5 minutes, Stirring
occasionally. **Better to cook a little longer than a little shorter.**
Remove from heat and add vanilla. In a separate
dish, combine powdered sugar, salt, and powdered milk. Add all
at once to the mixture in the pan. **If you want to add food coloring,
divide the mixture into 3 pans, for orange, yellow, and plain.**
Stir until cool enough to handle. **THIS TAKES TIME AND ARM POWER,
or an electric mixer on slow speed, for at least ten minutes or
more. That's why it's good to have friends to help you.**
Shape. **Roll a little ball (the size of a small marble) in your hand, then roll a point on it. Then flatten onto foil or ungreased baking sheet.
**OR just line up a bunch of little blobs onto the baking sheet and press them into triangle shapes using the flat of a butter knife.
**If using colors, the make one orange ball, and then add a small bit of white on the tip and a flat piece of yellow for the wide end.
**IT GETS BORING, though, if you don't have company. I made about 30, then I branched out and made 2 snails, a bunnyrabbit, and a daschund. Then I wrapped the rest of the dough into roll shapes and stored them in foil the refrige for when my friends come over.
**OR to make it go much faster, you could also make a long tube of dough, 3-sided like a prism, with yellow at the wide edge, orange in the middle, and white at the narrow pointed edge, let it harden, and slice into candy corn triangles! I learned this from a Master Candy Maker many years ago, and just remembered it now!**
Makes 1 3/4 pounds of candy. Enjoy!
**OH! And, does it Taste like candy corn? Pretty much. Remember, commercial candy corn sits around a while. I am going to age some of mine and see how that affects the taste. (You could also try a teaspoonful of honey to replace a tsp of the corn syrup.)
This Candy Is Quite Yummy, though, and there's so much of it you can nibble and nibble and never be done!
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click
here for jellybean bunnies... 
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Joy Sikorski, P.O. Box 1771, Hoboken, NJ, with a great view of NYC ("Ain't it a city!"), 07030
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