By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Sugar-Free Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov. 1987, p. 47)
INGREDIENTS:
¼ cup peanut oil
3 cups dry roasted peanuts, shelled and skinned
INSTRUCTIONS:
Place peanut oil in blender. Add peanuts and blend, with on/off [agitation], on high speed about 2 or 3 minutes. Stop motor every so often to scrape mixture away from blades and then resume blending until the mixture is very smooth.
For “crunchy style” peanut butter, put a half cup of the dry roasted peanuts [with no skins on] in the blender BEFORE you prepare the peanut butter, while the blender is completely dry, and blend only a few seconds on high, until the peanuts are nicely chopped.
Put those aside until you have prepared the smooth peanut butter, as described above, and then you can stir in the chopped peanuts. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature, to use in 30 days. Refrigerate the spread to extend its shelf life to 3 months! Makes about a pint!
FOR A SWEET SPREAD: prepare the peanut butter as directed above and then, when completely smooth, add ½ cup sugar-free pancake syrup, plus ½ cup real butter (or butter-flavored margarine). Blend until smooth. Keep this refrigerated to use in about a month.
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… The Joy Of NOT Cooking – Any More Than You Have To (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov. 1983, p. 134)
LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING about the Hot Roll Mix that may save you some time and trouble! When I was putting the ingredients together, testing the best combination for an at-home version of the store brand mix, I found that the smaller the quantity you made, the easier it was to mix and blend the ingredients.
If you double or triple the mix ingredients (to store for 90 days or longer), per directions in the recipe; remember to also double or triple, as the case may be, the mixing time. The milk powder must be thoroughly distributed throughout the flour mixture.
You can sift it or shake the mixture through a wire sieve several times or you can use a portable electric mixer on low speed to blend the dry mix ingredients. But, for every 3½ cups of the mix, you will follow the yeast, water, sugar portions, as noted in the recipe.
For a quick-rise hot roll mixture, in which you don’t want to wait through two risings, add an extra package of yeast to the water and sugar, when you prepare the rolls. You will have more of a yeast flavor in the rolls with the added package, but it will double in bulk in half the time.
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3 level TB Crisco
1 TB sugar
¼ cup dry milk powder
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a medium-size mixing bowl, blend all ingredients thoroughly, using a wire whisk or potato masher. (I prefer the whisk.) When mixture is even in texture and of very fine particles, equal almost to that of gravel, store the mixture in a well-covered container and keep it at room temperature, to be used within 90 days. You can keep it up to 6 months if you refrigerate it. And it keeps up to a year if you freeze it. Makes 3½ cups of mix [enough from which to make 6 rolls].
TO USE THE MIX: (for Dinner Rolls)
1 envelope dry yeast
½ cup lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
3½ cups Hot Roll Mix [above]
Soften yeast in warm water and stir in sugar. Let stand in a cup until it bubbles. (About 5 minutes.) Stir it into the Hot Roll Mix. Be sure that all dry particles are completely moistened in the yeast mixture.
Knead it with lightly floured hands – in the bowl – until smooth and elastic in texture. You should not have to use more than 2 or 3 TB flour, while kneading this dough. Place dough in greased bowl, turning dough once to grease top of it. Invert a second bowl, greased inside, over the bowl of dough and let it rise about an hour or until doubled [in size].
Punch it down and knead it about 8-10 times, in the bowl. Let it rise again, until doubled. [Split and] shape into 6 balls, equal in size. Place in greased muffin wells. Wipe top of each in soft butter or margarine and let rise until doubled, in a warm place. Bake at 350°F for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 6 rolls.
HOT ROLLS’ STICKY BUNS (option):
Prepare the Hot Rolls’ Dinner Rolls (above). After the last rising [divide and] shape into 12 balls [and set aside]. Prepare the following syrup:
INGREDIENTS:
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 TB butter
2 TB honey
2 TB water
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a small saucepan, combine [ingredients], over medium-high heat. Stir until it comes to a boil. At once, remove from heat. Divide equally between 12 ungreased cupcake wells. Drop the 12 balls of prepared dough into these. Let rise in warm place 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan half a minute and invert onto greased platter. Scrape down any excess syrup mixture and spoon over rolls. Makes 1 dozen.
1 pint fresh blackberries [or cherries or strawberries, etc.], hulled and sliced; or use frozen-thawed berries
INSTRUCTIONS:
Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in Crisco (although spry was all that Aunt Jenny used, Crisco is easier to find these days.) When mixture resembles coarse meal, add milk and mix to soft dough. Roll out or pat out to ¼” thick or less, to fit into a greased 13” oblong baking pan, over bottom only.
Spread berries to within 2 inches of sides of pan. Roll up, jelly roll style. Seal seam in bit of milk. Position roll [lengthwise] in the center of the pan. Wipe top in a little more milk and dust with a little sugar. Bake at 425°F, 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Slice while warm and serve like cobbler, topped in milk while warm or cold with ice cream. Serves 8.
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 238) [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
There was a very Victorian ‘flavored’ restaurant in Randolph, Vermont that once served a delicate, coffee-flavored cream pie that was beyond description.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup fine graham cracker crumbs (about 15 cracker squares finely crushed)
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted and cool
3 cups stiffly with cream
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup each: whiskey and Kahlua
¼ cup instant coffee powder
2 tablespoons hot water
INSTRUCTIONS:
Combine cracker crumbs, sugar and butter; then press into bottom and sides of greased, 9-inch pie pan. Bake 6 minutes at 375°F. While crust cools, prepare filling by gently combining the whipped cream and powdered sugar, using low speed of electric mixer.
Stir in whiskey and Kahlua. Dissolve coffee powder in hot water and fold into cream mixture. Pour mixture into cold crumb crust. Chill 8 to 10 hours or overnight before cutting to serve. Add whipped cream and some shaved chocolate bars to garnish. Serves 6 to 8.
Place the butter in an oblong, 13-inch pan, in a 350°F oven until melted. Coat pan evenly in melted butter and set aside while you mix the powdered sugar and berries. Set them aside, also. Combine all the dry ingredients. Spread the berries mixture evenly over bottom of butter-coated pan. Spread batter evenly over berries.
Bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes or until cake tests done when a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool a few minutes and invert cake onto platter. Serve warm or cold, with ice cream or milk. Serves 8.
[*NOTE: You can also make other berry cakes, using this recipe and substituting something else, like raspberries, for the blueberries.]
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 212) [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
Decades ago, when the Mills Bakery truck came through the neighborhood, and you wanted him to stop at your house, you’d put a card in the window, reading “Mills”. The assortment of freshly baked goodies was overwhelming. One of their specialties (and this goes back to the late 40s) was a chewy peanut butter bar that I was told was NOT baked. This is as close as I could come to the original.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter or margarine (2 sticks)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
INSTRUCTIONS:
In large mixing bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, flour, vanilla and nuts, mixing thoroughly. Set aside. In a 1 ½-quart sauce pan combine sugar and water and cook, stirring constantly, until it comes to a boil. Turn heat to low or sufficient to keep mixture just below a boil, continuing to cook and stir to a “hard ball” stage (when a few drops of the syrup form a hard ball when dropped into a glass of very cold water or 250°F on a candy thermometer.)
Pour syrup slowly into flour mixture, beating it on medium speed with electric mixer until well combined. Stir until it thickens. Pour into a greased 11 x 7” baking pan (sometimes called a brownie pan.) Chill until set; then, cut into 24 small bars.
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 213) [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
These were a featured item in a Toronto bakery – they are made like muffins but taste like a cookie.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional*
*Chocolate (or butterscotch) chips may be substituted for the walnuts or pecans – or may be added in addition to the nuts, allowing a 12-ounce package for this recipe.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Mix oatmeal and brown sugar thoroughly. Work in butter until it becomes intimately acquainted with the other ingredients. Add everything else. Spoon into 12 greased and floured muffin wells. Pack the mixture down firmly with the back of spoon. Bake at 350°F for exactly 16 minutes. Remove pan to wire rack. Allow cookies to cool in the pan about 1 hour. Loosen with the tip of a sharp knife to remove from pan. Makes 1 dozen.
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 279) [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
One of the best additions to pancakes was the offering of apple butter at a restaurant in upper New York State. The apple butter was homemade, from the apples of their adjoining cider mill and orchards. Had I only known, [in the 50s] that I would be re-creating famous recipes [25 years later], I would have paid more attention to what the cook told me she did with the apple butter. All I could remember was that she began with apple juice and lemonade and a little molasses. After several batches that were not even close, I finally came up with the correct combination that, in my memory, duplicated the smooth, slightly spiced condiment.
INGREDIENTS:
6-ounce can lemonade concentrate, frozen
6 ounces “natural”-style apple juice (I used Mott’s brand)
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup dark molasses
4 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon mace powder
½ teaspoon salt
24 firm, semi-large, red apples
INSTRUCTIONS:
Combine everything except the apples in a 2 ½-quart sauce pan, stirring constantly over high heat until it comes to a boil. At once, reduce heat to lowest point and continue stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. Let [the syrup] simmer ever-so gently while you prepare the apples.
Have a helper – or even two – to peel and grate 24 firm, large, red apples (by weight, before peeling, I had exactly 10 pounds.) Using the large hole of a vegetable grater, grate the peeled apples to almost the cores – you don’t want to scrape the casing around the seeds the least bit and have these get into the [grated] apples.
Keep turning the apple a quarter of a turn as you grate it down close to the core. Discard the cores and combine both syrup and apples in a very large kettle, to be certain all the apples are coated in the syrup. Place this on high heat, again, stirring constantly until it begins to bubble.
Remove from heat at once, or it may scorch, and begin putting 2 or 3 cups full of the mixture through your blender to a purée. Transfer the purée to a preheated slow cooker or crock pot. When all the mixture has been puréed [and transferred], cover the slow cooker with a tight-fitting lid.
Be sure there are no particles of food lodged around the rim of the slow cooker to prevent a tight fit, where heat might otherwise escape and foul up the temperature control. Set heat at high for 1 hour. Then, stir it thoroughly and turn heat to LOW.
Keep it covered and forget about it for 5 hours or longer – depending upon the thickness you wish. The longer it cooks, the thicker it will be. Makes about 3 quarts of apple butter, which can be packed into family-sized freezer containers and sealed securely to be used within a year. Allow to thaw at room temperature when ready to use.
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… The Joy Of NOT Cooking – Any More Than You Have To (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov. 1983).
THERE ARE MANY BASIC ingredient recipes that you can convert into other forms than [for] what the original mixture is intended. One of my favorites is a candy mixture that was originally developed to use on our coffeecakes and yeast breads, as a basic icing.
I prepared it one day, intending to use it on the coffeecake that was then in the oven, but was interrupted when a radio station phoned and asked me to fill in for a guest who couldn’t make it. So I poured the icing into a container, put it in the refrigerator, and forgot about it, until the next day.
I was interested in the texture – how it had thickened and stabilized to the point that it could be shaped into balls and dipped into melted chocolate and flavored in various ways to become any number of kinds of candy.
1 recipe of “Truffles ” (using almond extract instead of coconut)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Prepare 1 recipe of our “Vanilla Candy Icing” [see “Recipes” tab]. Mix candied cherries in light Karo. Use coffee cream plastic cups, as in “Truffles ” recipe [or use ice cube trays]. Prepare [“Truffles ”] chocolate mixture with almond extract instead of coconut.
Drop enough chocolate mixture into each cup to coat bottoms. Drop in a cherry and enough icing to fill cup 2/3 full. Add warm chocolate mixture over this to fill the cup. Let “set” 2 hours. Do NOT refrigerate or chocolate will change color.
THERE ARE MANY BASIC ingredient recipes that you can convert into other forms than [for] what the original mixture is intended. One of my favorites is a candy mixture that was originally developed to use on our coffeecakes and yeast breads, as a basic icing.
I prepared it one day, intending to use it on the coffeecake that was then in the oven, but was interrupted when a radio station phoned and asked me to fill in for a guest who couldn’t make it. So I poured the icing into a container, put it in the refrigerator, and forgot about it, until the next day.
I was interested in the texture – how it had thickened and stabilized to the point that it could be shaped into balls and dipped into melted chocolate and flavored in various ways to become any number of kinds of candy.
INGREDIENTS:
¼ cup margarine (or butter)
¼ cup light corn syrup
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup milk
Dash of salt
4½ cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
INSTRUCTIONS:
Bring [first five ingredients] to a boil in a 1½-qt saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly and reducing heat, as necessary, to keep mixture boiling at 1” below rim of pan. The higher the heat, the more apt it is to boil right out of the pan and create a mess. You might even have to remove the pan from the burner to let the boil subside and then return it to a lower heat.
After the first, hard, brisk boil, set your timer for 5 minutes to let it boil gently, while stirring almost constantly. Remove from heat entirely and, with a portable electric mixer on medium speed, beat in powdered sugar [a little at a time] and vanilla, until smooth.
At this point, it is ready to use as an icing on coffeecakes, preferably, or yeast rolls or yeast breads. It is a bit too heavy in consistency to frost a cake. Makes about 4 cups of icing. It freezes well, to be used within 6 months.
