Lemon Squares, A Great Summer Treat

Lemon Squares

Dessert bars, or simply bars or squares, are a type of American "bar cookie" that has the texture of a firm cake or softer than usual cookie.
The term "bar cookies" or "squares" originated in the 20th century. The earliest examples we find in American cookbooks are from the 1930s [Date bars]. A survey of cookbooks suggests these recipes gained popularity as decades progressed. Lemons are ancient foods enjoyed in many cultures and cuisines from the beginning of time through present day. They figured prominently in custards, pies, cheesecakes, candies, and baked goods. They were also used to flavor savory dishes (lemon chicken, etc.). Lemon bars, as we know them today, evolved from Renaissance times. Why? The ingredients provide the answer. This is when shortbread/crust was developed, lemon custard was very popular and sugar was sprinkled on everything.

Ingredients:
Crust
1 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Topping
2 Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons of Flour
Pinch of Salt
Directions:
Heat oven to 350ºF.
Mix flour, butter and powdered sugar. Press in ungreased square pan, 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 inches, building up 1/2-inch edges.
Bake crust 20 minutes.
Beat granulated sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, baking powder, salt and eggs with electric mixer on high speed about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Pour over hot crust.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched lightly in center. Cool; dust with powdered sugar.

Gooey Butter Cake

Hot and humid summers may be an unpleasant St Louis tradition, but there is another that is a little more fun, and very much more tasty...Gooey Butter Cake!
Gooey butter cake is a type of cake traditionally made in the American Midwest city of St. Louis. It is a flat and dense cake made with wheat cake flour, butter, sugar, and eggs, typically near an inch tall, and dusted with powdered sugar. Yum! At the bottom of the article is the Real St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake Recipe.

As the story goes, it is believed to have originated in the 1930's as a mistake by a St. Louis-area German American baker. The original bakery, owned by a John Hoffman, hired a new baker who accidentally inverted two ingredients (he was trying to make regular cake batter but reversed the proportions of butter and flour) resulting in a gooey cake that became a best seller in bakeries throughout the St. Louis area.
Another St. Louis baker, Fred Heimburger, also remembers the cake coming on the scene in the 1930's, as a slip up that became a popular hit and local acquired taste. He liked it well enough that Mr. Heimburger tried to promote Gooey butter cake by taking samples of it with him when he traveled out of St. Louis to visit other bakers in their shops. Are you ready to try your hand at it now?

Gooey Butter Cake Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 (18-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 large egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 cups powdered (confectioners') sugar
Powdered (confectioners') sugar for dusting top
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
In a large mixing bowl, combine yellow cake mix, egg, and butter. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared baking dish; set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until creamy; add the 2 eggs and vanilla extract. Blend in powdered sugar until well mixed. Pour batter into the crust-lined baking pan.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until cake is nearly firm when you shake if (you want the center to be a little gooey, so do not over cook the cake). Remove from oven and let cake cool in the cake pan on a wire rack.
When cool, remove to a serving plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Real St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake Recipe

White Cookies a Recipe from the 1920's

This recipe comes from A CALENDAR OF DINNERS by Marion Harris Neil
Copyright 1920 The Proctor & Gamble Co. Cincinnati

White Cookies
Ingredients:
2 cupfuls sugar
1 cupful Crisco
1/2 cupful thick sour milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoonful backing soda
1 teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoonful lemon extract

Directions:
Cream Crisco and sugar together, add eggs well beaten, soda mixed with sour milk, salt, extracts, and about 5 cupfuls flour.Roll very thin, cut with cookie cutter, lay on Criscoed tins, bake in moderately hot oven (350 F.)five minutes. To keep any length of time, when cold, place in covered tin cans and set in cool place, and they will be as crisp as when first baked. Sufficient for ninety cookies.

Note: I did not roll out the dough, and use a cookie cutter, rather, I spooned them on to foil covered cookie sheets, but that is up to you. I also used milk rather than sour milk (I had none). They were indeed a very delicious cookie none the less.

1934 Cake Recipe, Economical Layer Cake

Economical Layer Cake
Ingredients:
1 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla (or other desired flavoring)
1/2 Cup Water
1 2/3 Cups of Cake Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

Directions:
Stir butter, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla together
until creamy. Sift together the dry ingredients,
and add alternately with the water to the first mixture.
When well mixed, stir in the egg white, stiffly whipped.
Transfer to two 9 inch layer cake pans which have been
rubbed with butter, and dusted lightly with flour.

Bake about 25 minutes at 375 F. When cool, remove from the
pans, and put together with jam, jelly, any fruit butter,
Italian Cream filling, Creamy Icing, or Rich Chocolate Icing.
You can even put the cake together, just before serving, with
whipped cream, or with sliced, and sweetened oranges, or other fruit.
From: Round The World Cook Book by Iad Bailey Allen

Easy Old Fashioned Valentine Treats

Two simple recipes for Valentines Day treats that are sure to please you, and yours.
Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
2 cups peanut butter chips
1 cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Hershey Kisses
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Mix flour, baking powder, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, beat butter, peanut butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer until well blended. Beat in both sugars. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Stir in half of the dry ingredients into the mixture. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Mix in remaining ingredients. Stir in peanut butter chips.
For each cookie, roll 1 heaping tablespoon full of dough into 1 3/4 inch diameter ball. Arrange balls 2 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Flatten slightly.
Bake cookies until dry on top, about 15 minutes.
Place an unwrapped Hershey Kiss on each cookie. Let cool, and enjoy!

Chocolate Crinkles
Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
Directions:
In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. I like to use a number 50 size scoop. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Lithuanian Apple Cookies

The flaky, buttery dough is wrapped around the cinnamon/sugar-covered apple slices.

Ingredients
FOR THE APPLES:
Ingredients

FOR THE APPLES:
4 Medium Apples, Peeled, Cored And Cut Into Thick Slices, About 6 Slices Per Apple
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

FOR THE DOUGH:
2 cups Flour
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1/4 teaspoons Salt 1 1/2 Sticks of Butter Cut Into Half-inch Cubes
8 ounces, weight Farmer's Cheese, Cold
You can choose to cut the dough into long strips, or circles. It's up to you.
2 Tablespoons Sour Cream

FOR COATING THE COOKIES:
1 whole Egg White Lightly Beaten
1/3 cups Sugar
Instructions:
Prepare the apples. In a medium bowl mix the apple slices, sugar and some cinnamon, enough to cover the apples. Set aside while you prepare the dough.
Preheat the oven to 200ºC (about 400ºF). Line a baking sheet with Silpat or parchment.
To prepare the dough, in a food processor pulse flour, sugar and salt to combine. Add cubed butter, cheese and sour cream and pulse until all ingredients come together and form a ball.

Take the dough out of the food processor (I used a blender)and place it onto a floured surface. If it looks like it is too sticky to roll with the rolling pin, add a small amount of flour and knead with your hands until it looks like it can be rolled with the rolling pin.
When the dough is ready, cut about a quarter of the dough and roll it into a long narrow rectangle. Then cut it into long strips about 2 cm wide (or circles). Take one strip and wrap it around the apple slices in an overlapping manner, covering all of the apple slice with the strip. If the strip is too short, add a piece of another strip. Pinch the ends of the cookie so that there are no holes.
Dip one side of the cookie into the egg white, then into the sugar, and place it on the baking sheet, sugary side facing up. Continue with the rest of the cookies. Bake until the cookies are deep golden brown, about 25 minutes. Don’t try to eat them straight from the oven; let them cool a bit before serving because the apple inside will be hot.

I cannot tell you just how good these simple treats really are. You really have to try these out!

A Very Old Pumpkin Pie Recipe

This recipe comes from “The American Frugal Housewife” by Lydia Maria Child, and published in 1829, “The American Frugal Housewife” was an instant success, going into more than 30 editions before 1850.

*Makes two 10-inch pies
Ingredients:
1 medium sugar pumpkin (about 3 pounds)
4 cups milk
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, more to taste
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, more to taste
1 tablespoon ground ginger, more to taste
Grated zest of 1 lemon, optional
3 eggs, whisked to mix
2 10-inch pie shells
2 10-inch pie pans
Instructions:
To cook pumpkin: slice skin from top and bottom of the pumpkin. In a curving motion, cut remaining skin in segments from the sides, working from top to bottom.

Cut flesh in half, scoop out and discard seeds and cut the flesh in chunks; they should weigh about 2 pounds. Put pumpkin in a saucepan with water to cover base of the pan. Add the lid and cook over medium heat, stirring often, so pumpkin steams until it can be crushed easily with a fork, 30-45 minutes. Crush it with a potato masher or puree in a food processor until smooth.

Chill the pie shells. Heat oven to 400 degrees and put a baking sheet low down on a shelf to heat. For filling, heat milk in a large saucepan. Stir in pumpkin puree and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, so the mixture thickens slightly, about 20 minutes. Let cool to tepid, then stir in sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and lemon if using. Taste and adjust sweetness and spice. Stir in eggs.
Transfer filling to pie shells. Set pies on the heated baking sheet and bake in the oven 15 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until pies are firm and knife comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes more. Serve at room temperature.