I Love Cookbooks!

In fact, I may have a problem...I love reading, and prefer a real book, to the electronic versions I can easily get on my Nook.  I could spend hours in the bookstore, looking at the covers of books, picking them up, flipping through them, and in the end, I always buy more books than I have time to read.  Cookbooks are no different for me really.  There is such a wide variety of them out there on the shelves - hardbacks, paperbacks, spiral bound recipes, desserts, appetizers, famous chefs, local cuisine, ethnic and cultural collections, and they all have so many pretty pictures.  And, I am especially fond of old cookbooks - I have one from the 1950s entitled, "365 Ways to Cook Hamburger".  I just love them, and have developed a habit of looking for cookbooks in the gift stores of anywhere we travel.  So, I have a lot, and my family of enablers have added to the collections through the years at holidays.

I decided, as one of many New Year resolutions, that I would start actually using these cookbooks.  For the most part, they sit on a bookshelf I have in the kitchen, unused, because in my busy life as a wife, mother, teacher, volunteer, I go to my Pinterest boards instead of these books.  Here's the small book I started with last weekend...

I found this little paperback for under $5, in Kansas and just had to have it.  I'm not very good at making pies, in fact, I'll confess, I never use a homemade crust.  But, I love pies!  They are my absolute favorite form of dessert, and I will choose pie over cake any day of the week. 

I started with the lemon chess pie.  I had heard of a chess pie before, and knew that it contained cornmeal as an ingredient and expected it to turn out thicker and maybe even "cakier" than a lemon meringue pie.  It looks different than a lemon meringue pie, when you take it out of the oven, with a thin crunchy layer on top, but really didn't taste much different than a lemon meringue pie (minus the meringue of course).

 Lemon Chess Pie

1 9 inch unbaked pie shell
2 C sugar
1 Tbs flour
1 Tbs white corn meal
1/4 tsp. salt
4 eggs beaten
1/4 C milk
1/3 C butter, melted
4 Tbs pure lemon juice
1 Tbs grated lemon rind

In a mixing bowl combine sugar, flour, corn meal and salt.  Blend in beaten eggs and milk, then remaining ingredients.  Beat mixture thoroughly.  Pour in to pie shell.  Bake in 350 oven for 35 - 40 minutes.

My husband doesn't like lemon desserts.  I knew this when I chose the pie, so I also chose a recipe to make right after that I thought he would like, and one I had never heard of:

Brown Sugar Pie

1 9 inch unbaked pie shell
3 C dark brown sugar firmly packed
5 Tbs flour
1/8 tsp. salt
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 C whole milk

In a large mixing bowl combine ingredients in order given.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake in preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes.  (I baked mine about 10 minutes longer, because it appeared to jiggly in the center)

Now, this pie, got rave reviews from every family member.  My son says it is his new favorite dessert.  It tastes like a caramel custard, but not as eggy as a custard tastes.  It has a creamy soft texture and is extremely sweet, which makes it the perfect pairing for a strong cup of coffee...another addiction of mine:)

Twinkies!

My mother (an enabler of my addiction to cake pans of every size and shape) bought me a Twinkie kit for Christmas, so of course, I had to try it out before we all go back to school tomorrow.  The kit comes with a pan, a recipe book, and a piping bag.

I followed the easy directions to make a basic cream filled Twinkie (the recipe book also includes directions to fill these golden cakes with a marshmallow, chocolate and peanut butter filling as well.) 

Cake Recipe

1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 C sugar
2 large eggs, plus 1 yolk
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 C milk
(for best results, have all ingredients at room temperature)

Preheat oven to 350 and generously spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) over a large bowl.  Then in mixing bow, cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, egg yolk and vanilla extract.  Reduce the speed to low and scrape the sides of the bow.  Pour milk and continue mixing until smooth.  Pour the dry ingredients gradually into the bowl of wet ingredients.  Continue to mix until blended.  Do not over mix.

Spoon batter evenly into the pan, filling each oval about 3/4 full (I used an ice-cream scoop).  Bake for about 15 minutes or until cake tops spring back to the touch or a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Cakes should not be too golden in color.  Cool in pan for 15 minutes.  Invert pan onto a rack; gently tap the bottom of the pan, and lift it off.  Trasfer cakes to a wire cooling rack and cool completely before filling.

Vanilla Cream Filling

3 C confectioners' sugar
1 C unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-3 tbsp. whipping cream

Whisk together the sugar and butter until thoroughly combined.  (could use a stand mixer)  Add vanilla extract and cream.  Continue to whisk for 1 more minute, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency. 

As you can see, some of the cakes, puffed up in the middle, and never sank back down, so those few did not sit nicely on the rack.

Once cooled, fill the pastry bag with the vanilla cream and insert the tip into the bottom of the cakes.  Squeeze about a tsp. of filling into 3 separate locations of the cakes.

They look very much like a Twinkie in the end, but they do not taste like a Twinkie.  Honestly, the filling tastes like my basic buttercream frosting I use as a base for almost every frosting I make.  It does not taste like the light airy creamy filling of the real Hostess product.  The cake is not quite as spongy as the real thing and definitely doesn't taste like it.  It tastes like a basic white cake mix. 

So, what I think I'll do next time, is use this pan to be more creative.  Maybe stick with the same cake, but insert a jelly, or a coconut extract flavored cream, and then drizzle chocolate frosting over the top, as you would a bundt cake.  Or maybe I'll make peanut butter cakes and fill them with jelly and dust the tops with powdered sugar.  There are many possibilities...the pan will not collect dust in my cupboard...thank you Mom!