'Eargle's' Raw Apple Cake

Another curious recipe - I have no clue who "Eargle" is.

Just about to taste this, and the awesome smell is killing everyone in the room while I let it cool a few minutes.

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Okay, I am kind of in love with this cake.

Today is a snow day, so Sarah and Jack came over for an afternoon of Lost - Season 6. A few episodes into it, I wanted to make something sweet but I was out of white sugar. I tried to make kettle corn, but it turns out, you can't substitute brown sugar for white sugar in the Whirly-Pop - even if it's only a tablespoon. Yuck.

Of course, this only aggravated my sweet tooth more. I had just cleaned the kitchen and really didn't want to make a mess, but the Apple Cake was simple and called for only brown sugar, and I had plenty of that. Actually, I was short on a couple of other ingredients, too, so I made a half-batch, and it was freaking fantastic. I definitely want to give this another try after I restock the pantry.

I used two aging gala apples and one fresh granny smith apple, because that's what I had in the fridge. Personally, I think it would be great no matter what apples you use. Steve tried the cake the next day, when it was cold, and said he didn't care for the apple chunks in the cake. They didn't bother me, though, so I suppose it's a matter of preference. Maybe he wouldn't have minded the chunks when it was still warm from the oven.

The recipe suggests topping "with whipped cream or sauce," but it doesn't say what kind of sauce. I had no cream, but I did have a jar of caramel sauce in the back of the fridge. It was a sauce I'd made a couple of months ago that I'd all but forgotten about, but it was perfect on this cake. I spooned a dollop on top while the cake was still hot, so the caramel melted into it perfectly. I'd have added whipped cream, too, if I'd had it. Maybe next time.

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"Eargle's" Raw Apple Cake

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup cooking oil

2 eggs, beaten

2¼ cups flour

2 level tsp soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp salt

2 cups chopped nuts

4 cups chopped apples

Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs.

Sift flour, soda, connamon, and salt. Stir into egg mixture.

Add vanilla, nuts, and apples.

Pour into glass dish - 13x9 inch, lined with wax paper.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes, serve cold or warm.

Top with whipped cream or sauce if desired.

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Peanut Blossoms (Shirley Mace - 1966)

Sarah and her son Jack came over for dinner last night. While I prepared chicken-fried venison out of some elk steaks we had in the freezer, I got the yellow box out of the cabinet and slid it across the counter to Sarah with instructions to pick out a cookie recipe that would not require a trip to the grocery store. She narrowed it down to two contenders, and the winner for the evening was Peanut Blossoms.

I am not a huge fan of peanut butter cookies, but these are dangerously yummy and easy to pop in your mouth. The batter is simple to prepare, too.

For the record, I used Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter.

The only thing I varied from the recipe was that I used butter rather than shortening.

The only drawback to this recipe is that it is rather tedious work to roll and sugar-coat all those teaspoon-sized balls of dough. I asked Sarah to help me, but only on the first batch; as I meticulously scooped and rolled each ball, then coated them evenly in sugar and set them in perfect rows on the cookie sheet, Sarah loosely pinched the dough into odd-shaped clumps, tossed them briefly in the sugar, then dropped them randomly on the cookie sheet. I'm sure her cookies would have turned out just as delicious as my cookies, but I nonetheless re-coated them in sugar and rearranged them on the cookie sheet before baking (if that tells you anything about me). My real point here is that these are totally worth the time and effort, but I suggest watching tv or chatting with a friend during the time-consuming ball-rolling phase of the recipe.

I think the recipe makes about six dozen cookies, but *someone* kept eating the raw dough balls off the cookie sheet, so it could have been more.

I also suggest making sure the oven is fully preheated. I was trying to multi-task and didn't notice the oven wasn't ready when I put in the first batch, and ended up scorching the bottom of the cookies. Oops.

Really, really delicious. I usually think of peanut butter cookies as being denser and heavier than other kinds of cookies, but these are nice and light. And, like I said, because they are so small, it's a little too easy to pop them in your mouth.

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UPDATED 10/26/11

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My daughter reminded me last night that she needed to take a snack to share for school today, so I pulled up this recipe since I remembered it being easy and delicious. Despite the tedious hand-rolling of the cookie dough, I had the entire batch of cookies prepared and baked in exactly an hour, and even had the dishes and utensils washed before the last batch came out of the oven!

Because I didn't want to mess with softening butter in the microwave, I went ahead and used shortening as the recipe calls for. I don't know that it made a difference, because they were just as light and delicious as I remember them being the first time.

In measuring out the dough, I scooped out a slightly-heaping teaspoonfull (I know "heaping teaspoon" is a relative term). Here's how they looked as I set them on the baking sheet:

I fit 30 cookies on the cookie sheet, and after the second batch, I had enough dough left for about maybe 15 more cookies. Out of curiosity, I started measuring out level teaspoons of the dough, to see how smaller cookies would turn out. After all, the recipe calls for "quarter size" balls of dough, and my heaping teaspoonfulls were quite a bit bigger than a quarter. Finishing off the last of the dough, I ended up with 32 more cookies. I baked the smaller cookies same amount of time - 8 minutes - and they came out just barely browned.

Here's a photo of both the larger and smaller cookies, along with the teaspoon I used, and a quarter thrown in for the heck of it:

Cute, huh?

As before, these cookies are dangerously easy to pop in your mouth. I ate four before I realized it.

Also, these cookies pretty much require a glass of milk to wash them down. I really can't remember the last time I drank a glass of plain white milk, but this was an occasion that demanded it.

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UPDATED 12/23/11

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Ohhhh... you know how sometimes you have to look at something when you're not really paying attention in order to "see" what you're looking at?

I decided to make Peanut Blossoms as part of my holiday cookie menagerie, and suddenly, without even trying, the last line of the recipe card made perfect sense. It had been a complete mystery every other time I'd looked at it, but now I totally get it.

"Chocolate drops press. - 2-5 min" means to take the cookies out of the oven, press a "chocolate drop" into each one, then return the pan to the oven 2-5 minutes until the chocolate melts. Of course! I've seen those types of cookies countless times, but I've never made them myself, so maybe that's why it wasn't clicking for me.

Hershey's Kisses seemed the obvious choice for chocolate drops, except that I didn't have any on hand, and I am not a fan of Hershey's chocolate, anyway. I did, however, have a bag of Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips, which were nice and plump, the perfect size for my little Peanut Blossoms.

So, as soon as the next batch came out of the oven, I pressed a chocolate chip into each one. As it turned out, the chips were small enough and the cookies were hot enough to melt the chocolate completely without needing to return the pan to the oven. The chips melted into perfect little chocolate puddles, and now I think the cookies are even cuter than before.

The other thing I learned this time around was not to overbake these cookies. I had new baking sheets rather than the old air-bake sheet I used before. The cookies came out a little too brown on the bottom, and they were much harder after they'd cooled, so I didn't like them as much. I should have watched them more closely and adjusted my baking time.

Other than that, this recipe is still one of my favorites, and I'll be sure to have chocolate chips on hand next time!

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Peanut Blossoms
Shirley Mace - 1966

Mix in a small bowl:
1¾ cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Cream together in a larger separate bowl:
½ cup shortening [or butter]
½ cup peanut butter

Add:
½ cup white sugar
½ brown sugar, packed
1 egg, unbeaten
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Beat well
Blend in dry ingredients
Shape dough into quarter-size balls - approximately 1 tsp
Roll dough balls in white sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet
Bake at 375° for 8 minutes
Remove from oven and press chocolate drops into each cookie, then return to oven 2-5 min until chocolate melts (or not at all, depending on the size of the chocolate).

[For best results, do not overbake!]
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Cracker Pie

I'd been itching to try this recipe since I first went through the box. The curious title is what mainly got my attention, but the recipe itself intrigued me as well. There's practically nothing to it -- just a few simple ingredients mixed and baked in a pie pan -- but I was entirely unable to imagine how it would taste. Most of all, though, the 23 Ritz crackers had me baffled. Why 23?

I finally made Cracker Pie tonight, and it was as easy as I expected. As I set out the ingredients and read through the recipe, I realized it was essentially a meringue with nuts and crackers stirred in. The entire process took 10-15 minutes before it was in the oven.

Incidentally, I love my nut-chopper, which I used both to chop pecans and also to pulverize the 23 crackers. Also, once the crackers were crushed, I understood the significance of the number 23 (but I'm not going to tell you... ha!).
I forgot to set the oven timer, so I just took the pie out when I thought to check on it; it was kind of grayish-brown on top and browned around the edges.

I probably could have taken it out a little sooner, but I also think maybe I left it in just the right amount of time. I'll set the timer when I make it again. I'll also use a standard Pyrex pie plate. I must have left mine at my parents' house at Christmas, because I couldn't find it anywhere. This time, I pulled out my old metal quiche pan, which is bigger, so the pie came out thinner than it probably should have. Everybody loved it, regardless - even Steve, who usually skips dessert, went back for his own slice after tasting a bite of mine.

I'm still not sure how to describe the taste - it was familiar, yet I can't tell you what it reminds me of. I recognized the sweetness of the meringue, but not the texture, which was somewhere between a crumbly brownie and a really soft cookie. The pecans and vanilla added a lovely richness to it. I didn't notice a distinct taste of crackers -- I think they mostly contributed to the texture, as well as added just the right amount of saltiness to balance and enhance the other flavors.

Though I don't think it's quite right for a dinner party, cracker pie will definitely be on my list of desserts to contribute to any kind of casual potluck gathering. I'm thinking it might also work baked in a 9x9 pan and cut into squares. It's dense and rich enough that the servings can be fairly small. Five of us ate less than half the pie, so I'd say one pie could serve 8-12 people.

I'll re-evaluate after I get my pie plate back from my mom.

Overall: Yummy & worth a try.
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Cracker Pie

Beat 2 egg whites stiff
add 1 cup sugar gradually
add ½ tsp baking powder
and 1 tsp vanilla

add to
1 cup chopped nuts
23 crushed Ritz crackers

Melt ½ stick oleo [butter] in pie pan
pour mixture into pie pan
and bake 20-25 minutes at 350°
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