Tag: raisins

Aunt Bev’s Oatmeal Cookies

When I was twelve years old, I gave my mother a recipe box for Christmas. I know this because she scratched “FROM CHARLES XMAS 1955” on the back of the box. Some of the paint has worn off, but the flowers are still cheerful and if you turn it over, you will learn that it was “MADE in U.S.A” by the Ohio Art Company.

My sister Patsy loaned me two of Mom’s recipe boxes, and they have taught me some new things about my mother. Here are three of them. First, she was an avid snipper of recipes from boxes, newspapers and magazines. Second, she collected lots of recipes from relatives, friends and neighbors. And third, she really liked cake and cookie recipes. Supporting this conclusion is the fact that the soup section of the box includes recipes for “Krunch Drops” and “Chocolate Drop Cookies.”

One of the recipes I found was headed “Bev’s Oatmeal Cookies.” Aunt Bev was my mother’s youngest sister. She and her husband live in Barron today, and she still has coffee and snacks ready when I visit.

Here is her recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies, simple to make and tasty to eat. Plus, with all that oatmeal, they are good for you. I love health foods that taste good!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T condensed milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups quick cook oatmeal
3/4 cup raisins

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 350º and grease one or two cookie sheets.

Cream together the shortening and sugars. Stir in the egg, vanilla and condensed milk until you have a smooth batter. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda by thirds into the liquid ingredients and stir thoroughly to make a soft dough.

Stir a cup of oatmeal into the dough, then add the raisins and stir to mix thoroughly. Finish by adding the second cup of oatmeal and stirring until all the ingredients are moistened and mixed evenly together. You should have a very stiff dough. If necessary, add another tablespoon of flour.

Drop rounded teaspoons of dough on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for twelve minutes and cool them on a rack.

NOTES: This recipe makes about thirty cookies.

You can substitute whole milk, half and half or cream for the condensed milk.

These cookies are nice and chewy a few minutes after they come out of the oven, but they get crunchy if you let them sit out on a plate. If you want them to stay chewy, put them in a storage bag with a slice of bread when they are still slightly warm.

As an experiment I made a batch of these cookies using only light brown sugar and think that they have an even better flavor.

Bread Pudding with Maple Caramel Sauce

Stale bread may not sound very appetizing to you, but it is the main ingredient in one of the tastiest desserts you will ever eat. And it is so easy to make that people have been baking bread pudding for thousands of years.

I imagine that the first bread pudding was made three or four days after the first bread was pulled off the fire. It may have happened like this:

When Adam asked Eve, “Should I throw out this old bread?” she said, “Don’t you dare. I worked hard baking that bread.”

“But it’s stale and hard and you baked some more today,” says Adam.

“Just put it on that rock. I’ll make something with it. Maybe chop up an apple to make a good pudding.”

The rest is history.

My mother baked most of the bread we ate at home, but my parents both looked for bargains. When the A & P was having a special on bread, they would buy a couple of loaves of what we kids loved: “Store Bought Bread.” We liked the soft slices with peanut butter and jelly, but Mom dried them for bread pudding or turkey stuffing.

I do the same today. I watch for sales on ordinary white bread and turn it into bread pudding. It’s remarkably easy to do. If you don’t count the time to dry the bread or while the pudding is baking, it takes less than half an hour to make the pudding and sauce.

INGREDIENTS:

For the pudding:
4 large eggs
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 T vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
6 cups dry bread cut into cubes
1/2 cup raisins

For the sauce:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 T cornstarch
1/3 cup half-and-half
2 T maple syrup
1 T butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla

PROCEDURE:

To make the pudding, first dry the bread. You can cut 10 to 12 slices of soft white bread into half inch cubes and dry them in a warm oven for a couple of hours or dry the slices and cut them into cubes later. I have done it both ways, but I prefer the second because I like the more irregularly shaped pieces and bread crumbs that result.

My method is to arrange the slices in a couple of large pizza pans, turn the oven on low for five minutes, turn the oven off and let the slices dry for an hour. I then turn them over, turn the oven on for another five minutes, turn it off and let the slices finish drying. I usually dry the bread a day or two in advance and store the slices in plastic bags until I need them.

To make the pudding, start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Put six cups of dried bread cubes in a large bowl. Mix the raisins with the bread and spread the mixture in a seven by eleven inch ungreased baking dish.

In a large bowl beat the eggs until they are lemon colored. Beat the cinnamon into the eggs, then stir in the milk, sugar, salt and vanilla.  Pour the egg mixture evenly over the bread mixture.  Flatten the mixture gently with the back of a spoon to ensure that all the bread cubes are moistened.

Bake the pudding uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool slightly.  Serve warm with the warm caramel sauce.

To make the sauce, combine the brown sugar and cornstarch in a small heavy saucepan.  Dissolve the sugar and cornstarch in a quarter cup of cold water.  Put the pan over medium heat. Stir in the half-and-half, maple syrup, and butter.  Cook and stir until bubbly.

Don’t worry if the sauce appears curdled as it will become smooth and creamy when you stir in the vanilla.  Cook and stir two minutes more.  Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Store any leftover pudding and sauce in the refrigerator.

NOTES: I have not tried chopped apples in my bread pudding, but currants and dried cranberries work fine. Chopped dates would work too, but we have a really good date pudding recipe that you can find here.

If you use unsalted butter for the sauce, add a dash of salt to the recipe. Salt helps bring out the sweetness of the sugar and syrup.

If you don’t have whole milk in the fridge but do have some half and half, use two cups reduced fat milk and one half cup of half and half. Otherwise, punt and pray.

You can use any kind of commercial or homemade white bread including French or Italian bread if it doesn’t have seeds on it. Don’t worry about the crusts; they add interest to the pudding.