Molasses Crinkles

Tags

Brown Sugar, Cookies, Easy, Food, I ce Box Cookies, Molasses, Molasses Crinkles

A Delicious Ice Box Cookie

Do you like molasses or ginger cookies? These cookies are delicious anytime of the year! So very easy to make, as you can make the dough up today and chill in the refrigerator or freezer for several hours to several days and bake when it is convenient for you. The original mess is all gone. We have used this recipe for years from the Mennonite Community Cookbook.

You pinch off balls of dough, roll into balls in your hands, and drop into a bowl of sugar or I like to use a zip lock bag with sugar, this way you can coat a good many dough balls at once.

Molasses Crinkles

3/4 cup Shortening  (I use Butter)

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg

4 tablespoons molasses (I used strong molasses, however I have used Sorghum also)

2 1/4 cups Flour

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 teaspoons Soda

1 teaspoon Cinnamon (I use more 2 tsp.)

1 teaspoon Ginger (I use 2 tsp.)

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Cream Shortening and sugar together.

Add egg and molasses and beat until well blended

Sift flour.

Measure and add soda, salt and spices

Sift again.

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix thoroughly

Chill dough In refrigerator

Shape the chilled dough into balls 1 inch in diameter

Roll ball in granulated sugar, and place on greased baking sheets (I line my pans with parchment paper) makes for very easy clean up!

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

These are great dunked in hot coffee, tea, or cocoa.

MERINGUES FILLED w/ GINGER SYRUP POACHED PEACHES & BERRIES

Tags

Berries, Black Berries, Desserts, Food, Fresh Fruits, Ginger Syrup, Meringues, Peaches, Pharsalia Plantation

LIGHT AND SPECIAL ON A HOT SUMMER’S DAY

Alas, have you ever found yourself short on funds and running out of things, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” for me these days. For someone who loves to bake and cook, for the first time in eons, I have run out of milk, butter, shortening and oil, soon approaching 1 1/2 months, however we go through times like these to make us become more creative with what we have to work with. 

You would think this would end up in despair, however sometimes we need times like these, to cause us to dig deep inside of ourselves and pull out the “Mother of Invention” So that is what I did today.

Thanks to the kind generosity of my friend Foxie Morgan of

Pharsalia Plantation, who surprised me with a wonderful bag of produce at the farmers market on Saturday morning, I can now create some things to brighten my days and  hopefully inspire creativity in others as well. Thank You Foxie.

When you have to do without the staples of life such as the ingredients listed above you soon find yourself becoming very creative with what you have left, thank goodness I had eggs, or this would have been impossible.

Eggs Whites to the rescue !!! Simple Meringues can dress up a sliced peach, black berries into something that looks and tastes special and is very pleasing to the eye when plated. No fresh fruit? Custards, pie fillings many things can be spiced up by using these simply whipped up miracles.

Meringues

(preheat oven to 250 degrees)

3 large egg white (at room temp)

1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tarter

5 tablespoons 10x sugar

2 tablespoons 10x sugar  + 2 tablespoons Cornstarch (mixed together)

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

With an electric mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tarter together until soft peaks form.

While whipping the egg whites add the 5 tablespoon so 10x sugar, a tablespoon at a time.

Add the Vanilla, and whip until stiff peaks form.

Add the 10x sugar and cornstarch mixture by sifting over the meringue mixture and FOLD IN,  DO NOT OVER MIX.

Place dollops of  meringue on a parchment lined baking sheet, with back of spoon, make a well in the center of each forming a nest of about 3 inches in diameter, (larger if desired)

Bake in a 250 degree oven for approximately 1 hour, check at 45 minutes the meringues should be lightly browned and still moist in the center, when done.

When out of the oven remove from parchment with a thin bladed spatula to a wire rack for cooling

At 3” you should have about 8 meringue shells.

Ginger Syrup (click on the name to go to the recipe)

Poached Peaches

If you have made the syrup in advance just heat to a bare simmer in a small saucepan on the stove and turn the peaches as they heat  in the syrup. Remove from heat until ready to use.

You can make a ginger syrup right at the moment, however I find that it is much quicker and handy to prepare it in advance.

 

Berries for Garnish

I used black berries, however red raspberries or most any berry makes a good pairing with fresh peaches.

Also Whipped cream is delicious with this as as well, I would put the whipped cream in the nest and arrange the gingered peach slices over the whipped cream and garnish with the berries and drizzle with ginger syrup, also a fresh mint sprig looks nice as well.

The Quiet Hours by Barbara Burrow

Tags

Barbara Burrow, friendship, Grace Magazine, Poetry, The Quiet Hours

It is good to pause and rest awhile

From life’s demanding pace……

To leave the loud

Chaotic crowd

And find a peaceful place;

To put on the cloak of quietness

With heart and mine at ease.

To sit with a friend

At the long day’s end

And recall fond memories.

And whether we talk or whether we

dream.

You’ll find that in the end.

No treasure, though rare.

Could ever compare

With the quiet hours spent with a

friend.

At the time of the writing of this poem, I tried searching everyway I could think of to find a link to a biography of Barbara Burrow, and could not locate one.

I took the poem from Grace Magazine (British Quarterly) Spring Issue 1988,  that ceased publication probably 20 years ago, much to my dismay. The man who wrote this quarterly publication died and left no one to carry it on.

EASY PENNSLYVANIA DUTCH GOOEY SHOOFLY PIE w/ LEMON SAUCE

Tags

Amish/Mennonite, Desserts, Food, Gooey Shoofly Pie, Lemon Sauce, Pennsylvania Dutch

 

There are several versions of shoofly pie, one being the dry shoofly pie and the moist or wet bottom shoofly pie. Personally we never did care for the dry version. One day years ago we were given a recipe for Gooey Shoofly Pie with Lemon Sauce, and that has been the pie we like ever since. We were told this recipe came from an Old Order Amish woman many years ago.

When looking at the recipe you might think what is easy about it? However the mixing of the ingredients is quite simple and quick, the fact that it has crumbs and syrup and lemon sauce make the length of this recipe look harder than it really is.

 

GOOEY SHOOFLY PIE

SYRUP:

1 cup Molasses (dark black strap or milder ) also have made with Sorghum Molasses

1 cup Hot Water

1/4 cup Light Brown Sugar

1 Egg (beaten)

1 teaspoon Soda (dissolved in hot water)

Dissolve soda in hot water, add molasses, and beaten egg, brown sugar until well mixed.

CRUMBS:

1 cup Flour

1/3 cup Brown Sugar

5 tablespoons Butter

1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg (optional)

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon (optional)

Combine the crumb ingredients to form crumbs.

Put 1/2 syrup into an unbaked pie shell, then add 1/2 of crumbs.

Add remaining syrup, and last 1/2 of crumbs.

Put into preheated 400 degree oven, for 10 minutes

Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 50 minutes

Remove from oven to cool.

 NOTE: If using store bought pie crusts you should buy the deep dish type for this pie, and if you are making your own then make for the large country ceramic pie plates as a regular pie shell will not hold this pie.

LEMON SAUCE

2 tablespoons Corn Starch

1/2 cup Sugar

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 cup Butter

2 cups Boiling Water

Juice of one Lemon or  1  1/2  tablespoons bottle Lemon Juice (according to taste)

Grated Lemon Zest (if using fresh lemon)

Mix together Cornstarch, sugar and salt in a sauce pan.

Gradually stir in boiling water

Cook, stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens and is clear.

Remove from heat: stir in remaining ingredients, Server warm over shoofly pie.

Yield 2 1/4 cups