Hidden Jam Muffins

October 21, 2023November 11, 2024 Sarah

I was looking at old recipes and came across this one, dated from 1961. PET was a brand of milk back then, and is still in business, but now only makes canned evaporated milk. Back then dry milk was much more of a thing in recipes. Fresh milk wasn’t ultra pasteurized then, and had a very short life in the refrigerator. Canned and dried versions were very handy to have around.

The recipe is easy to make, and comes together quickly, using pantry ingredients. It’s convenient to keep dry milk on hand for baking (I use it often in bread baking).

Hidden Jam Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dry milk
¼ cup granulated sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
¼ cup avocado oil
1 large egg
1 cup water
6 ounce jar jam*

Topping:

¼ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°. Liberally oil a 12-count muffin tin.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Whisk the oil, egg, and water together and pour into dry.

Beat quickly into a batter.

Drop half the batter into the muffin tin (I used a generous 1 Tablespoon disher).

Drop about 1 teaspoon of jam into the center of each.

Cover with remaining batter (it’s another scoop for each).

Mix topping together and sprinkle liberally on top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes; I found ours took 21 minutes.

Let cool a bit, then gently pop out.

Notes:

I would recommend using muffin liners, of the parchment paper type, so the muffins pop out without breaking. They are delicate when still warm, and the sugar topping can cause them to stick a bit as they spread. I didn’t use them, to follow the recipe, but then…was there actually non-stick pans in 1961?

I used homemade lower-sugar pear jam, which worked well with the sugar topping. Yes, it calls for ¼ cups. I used about 5 ounces of a 6-ounce jar. I guess I am more generous.

I found I only used half of the sugar topping. Any more would have been a heavy layer.

~Sarah

Recipes

Depression Era Gingerbread Cake

October 10, 2023November 2, 2023 Sarah

While this wasn’t exactly the recipe my Mom would have baked for us, she loved baking a soft gingerbread cake quite often. This dates from the Great Depression Era, but due to it containing butter and an egg, it would have come from kitchens on farms, that could provide these fresh ingredients. That it also has a sauce is even more decadent. So Mrs. J. M. Williams was for surely running a kitchen on a successful farm, and feeding hungry men who worked from sunup to sundown. Which meant that working on that farm was good living because you ate.

The recipe calls for sorghum syrup, and since I don’t live in the deep south, I used molasses instead (light syrup would have been corn syrup, Karo clear, most likely). Want to know the difference? This explains it well.

I noted it didn’t have a pan size, nor baking time. So I used an 8″x8″ glass baking dish and started checking at 20 minutes. I found 40 minutes in our oven seemed to be about right.

Gingerbread Cake

Ingredients:

1/3 cup unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ cup buttermilk*
½ cup molasses
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt (used sea salt)
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp allspice

Directions:

Lightly oil a glass 8″x” baking dish. Preheat oven to 350°.

Let butter soften a bit, then add to a stand mixer bowl. Beat it till smooth, then add in the sugar till well mixed. Add in the egg, beat in.

Ass in the molasses and beat in for 2 minutes.

Add half the flour, salt, baking soda and spices, then half of the milk, repeat and beat till smooth.

Scrape into prepared dish and smooth out.

Bake for 30 minutes, then check every 5 minutes till done (middle is set). I found it took 40 minutes for mine.

Notes:

*To make soured milk, since having buttermilk on hand isn’t so common now, just add a ½ teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to milk. The baking soda needs acidic milk to activate in this recipe.

Vanilla Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
¼ tsp salt (used sea salt)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Add the milk to a small saucepan. Bring to a just simmer over medium-low. It will be bubbling if you shift the milk. Don’t let it boil.

Whisk in the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Continue to whisk till it thickens, lowering the heat as needed.

Take off the heat, whisk in the butter and vanilla.

Chill before serving. You will need to stir well before, to ensure it is smooth.

Notes:

The recipe called for 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, which isn’t enough to even lightly thicken the milk. I have to wonder if it wasn’t a mistake. So I used what I would use to produce a real sauce, which is 1 Tablespoon cornstarch to cup of liquid.

See all of our Great Depression Era recipes.

~Sarah

Recipes

Plant Based Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

October 5, 2023 Sarah

Before our youngest was born, we ate primarily plant based. Note I don’t use ‘vegan’, that is a lifestyle, rather than a way of eating. For years we were plant-based as we both liked it. We had to stop for a number of years till we worked out his food allergies he was born with (nearly all tree nuts and peanuts are his primary ones, when he was young chicken eggs were an issue, but he outgrew that one). I was very nut dependent when we were eating plant-based.

I still have an issue with a lot of meat because I don’t like eating food I don’t know where it came from. We eat eggs, because they come from our girls. But with fall here, it is molting season and egg production has slowed down. As it should every year. I don’t use supplemental lighting in their coop as I want them to have their down time, just like I’d like mine in the winter. So that leads to using less eggs, because when you go from 16 eggs a day to 1 to 6 eggs, on a good day, you better reign in how many you are using.

Baking cupcakes, muffins and cakes without eggs is actually really easy. And you’d never know they don’t have any. Still moist, with a tasty crumb.

And it’s fall, so it’s time for all the pumpkin and spice recipes, no? I use oat milk now, instead of how long ago we used almond milk.

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
½ cup unsweetened oat milk
½ cup avocado oil
2 Tbsp molasses

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°, line a 12 count muffin tin with liners.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour though cloves.

In a smaller bowl, whisk the pumpkin, milk, oil, and molasses.

Pour wet into dry, whisk until blended. Divide between the liners, they will be very full.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until top looks set and a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool before frosting, if desired.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

~Sarah

Homesteading · Recipes

Oatmeal Bread

September 30, 2023September 30, 2023 Sarah

This Fall I am back to making bread, but I have also decided I need to use our bread machine less, and work on my handmade bread skills. The bread machine I can always use on the really busy days when we need a loaf of bread, but I am busy. The other days, it’s time to try new recipes out and enjoy all the flavors.

Baked

Sliced

Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients:

360 grams bread flour
89 grams old-fashioned rolled oats
3 Tbsp packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp dry milk
1½ tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp activated dry yeast
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, diced
1¼ cups water

Also:

1 large egg white
1 Tbsp cold water
1-2 Tbsp old fashioned rolled oats

Directions:

In a stand mixer, with a kneading hook, add the bread flour thru water.

Start on low and work up to medium, letting it knead for 7 minutes. It may look sticky, do not add more flour. The oats take on moisture more slowly than the flour.

Lightly oil a mixing bowl, knock the dough into it, then flip over. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel.

Let rise for an hour.*

Lightly oil a work surface. Knock out the dough, and gently flatten the dough into a 6″x 8″ rectangle. Fold over a third, then the other third on top (like folding a piece of paper into thirds for a letter). Reshape into the rectangle and repeat again, and it looks like a dough log of about 9 to 10″ long.

Lightly oil a 9″5″ bread pan, place into it. Cover it with plastic wrap misted with oil, let rise for 1 hour 30 minutes*.

Preheat oven to 350º 15 minutes before the dough is ready.

Whisk the egg white and water together in a small bowl. Brush on gently (you won’t need the entire amount), then sprinkle on the remaining oats.

Bake for about 40 minutes until the top is golden.

Loosen and knock out, let cool on a wire rack.

Once cool, store in a bag to keep fresh. Can be sliced and frozen as well.

Makes 1 loaf.

Notes:

*Our kitchen/house is often on the cool side. I put a heating pad on to medium heat and place the dough onto it to keep it properly warmed and rising. I do this method for both rises.

~Sarah

Recipes

Teach Baking to a Teenager: Making a Birthday Cake

September 29, 2023January 28, 2024 Sarah

Our middle son has been interested in cooking and baking for a few years. He is 13 now and fully capable in the kitchen now. Our oldest son had his birthday this week, and W asked if he could make the cake. Which…why not? We had been walking by the bakery in the regionally local Safeway, and in their very sparsely stocked display case, 2 layer cakes are now $29.99 and up! For a cake that honestly, while pretty, just never tastes great. It’s $30 boxed cake mix, with shortening frosting to be honest.

We came across a new cookbook in the library last week, “Anyone Can Cake” by Whitney Depaoli. It caught my eye as it was faced outward. W was enamored by the book immediately. It is written very straightforwardly and is usable by a raw novice to cake baking and decorating. Yes, she covers fancy techniques as well, but the book is about the basics: How to bake a good-tasting cake, how to make various frostings, the gear, how to dye buttercream, how to pipe, and so on. All I could think of was how lame the Wilton booklets were when I was a teen (and how it was only aimed at older women).

She does tutorial videos on YouTube, under Sugar & Sparrow. Which I might add, he was watching all the videos that week after finding her channel.

He asked F what cake he’d like. Well, F runs to the simpler things in life and loves a good vanilla cake. So we set out to the store to get a few supplies for it. We opted to make it as 2 8″ cakes, though the recipe can be done in 3 6″ pans. As a gift, I got him a cake turntable (really affordable actually!) that I had to be honest, always wanted. To ensure it was good, I picked up actual cake flour for once. Well worth the few dollars. Even with supplies, we still made the cake for less than that bakery one.

Then he got baking with my oversight.

Cakes getting ready to be put together.

Favorite Vanilla Cake Recipe (Page 126)

Ingredients:

292 grams cake flour (2¾ cups)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp baking soda
¾ cup unsalted butter (12 Tbsp), room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs + 2 egg whites, at room temperature
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup full fat sour cream, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Cut two circles of parchment paper to fit inside two 8″ baking pans. Lightly oil the pans, press the parchment paper onto it, set aside.

Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a small mixing bowl, whisk together.

In a stand mixer bowl, with the paddle attachment on, add the butter (cut into Tablespoon slices). Beat at medium-high for about 2 minutes, until the butter is creamy. Add the sugar and at medium-high for another 2 minutes, scraping the bowl and paddle at halfway with a spatula.

Turn to low and add in the eggs and egg whites, one at a time, until just combined. Add in the vanilla and sour cream, slowly turn up and beat for a minute. It will look curdled, this is normal.

Turn the mixer off, and add in the dry ingredients. Start on low and mix till just worked in. Slowly add in the milk, and beat till it just comes together and is smooth.

Divide equally between the prepared pans. Smooth out and lightly tap the pans.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, when a toothpick comes out clean and it smells baked.

Let cool fully on a wire rack.

We took the advice to chill the cakes a bit after they were cool, before decorating, and this made a huge difference I found, when applying the buttercream.

Vanilla Buttercream recipe (Page 133)

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3½ cups powdered sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsp whole milk
¼ tsp fine sea salt

Directions:

Add the butter to a stand mixer bowl, with a paddle attachment on. Beat the butter on high speed for 7 minutes, until it’s creamy and pale in color.

Turn to low and add in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating in each addition fully.

Add in the vanilla and salt, beating in, then the milk. Mix at low for 1 minute. Check with a spatula that all the butter is mixed in, scrape if needed and beat in.

Frosting the Cake to complete the look

I showed W how he could cut strips of parchment paper and put them on a cake turntable (so they stick out for easy removal). We then placed one chilled cake on that and applied a thin “crumb coat” layer of frosting with an offset spatula. Top it with the second cake and crumb-coated the top and the sides. We then chilled the cake for 30 minutes to set it up.

He returned and frosted the top and sides properly, using a bench scraper to smooth the frosting out gently. He applied sprinkles to the bottom of the cake, using the parchment paper to gently tap/press them into place.

W wanted to use “cake drip“. We could have made it, but honestly, it was easier to buy it already made. It is heated up in the microwave in its squeeze bottle and you let it, well drip, as you turn the turntable. He also wanted it to coat the top. So I poured it while he quickly spread it smooth. It sets up fast and is hard, so two make it easier. He put more sprinkles on and was done.

We carefully pulled the parchment paper out (next time I’d do it before adding the cake drip, as I bent a couple drips. Oops.)

It was time well spent with my kiddo. And that cake? It was SO moist and delicious. Making a real cake is so worth the tiny extra bit of work.

~Sarah