Tea With Friends: Vintage Recipes

Showing posts with label Vintage Recipes. Show all posts

Friday, March 27, 2020

A "new" cookie recipe that's worth sharing

So in addition to finishing up my second cozy mystery and starting on a third, I am also this year aiming to publish a cookbook of vintage Christmas recipes. Yesterday, I made some coconut cookies using a Baker's Coconut recipe from the fifties, and these coconut cookies were great iced (they seemed to ice everything that moved back in the fifties), but the plain cookies would be great for teatime as well. Most of the women I know are baking more than usual these days, so I thought I'd share the cookie recipe here in case any of you are coconut fans.

Merry Christmas Cookies

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter or shortening (I used shortening)

2 eggs, unbeaten

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups Baker's Coconut

Sift flour, then add baking powder, salt, and sugar. Combine and sift again into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add shortening, eggs, 2 tablespoons of the milk, and vanilla. Beat by hand for 2 minutes. Add coconut and remaining milk, then beat for another half minute. Chill batter for two hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drop batter by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet, making sure the cookies are social distancing two inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Yields about 4 dozen 2-inch cookies.

Icing: Sift 2 cups of confectioner's sugar, add 2 tablespoons of milk, then combine well and tint using food coloring. Spread on cookies and, if desired, immediately sprinkle with more coconut.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

A vintage cookbook with some intriguing tea & coffee tips

I'd learned of Betty Crocker's Good and Easy Cook Book some years ago but never got around to actually searching for one. Then, I came across this copy of the 1954 cookbook in great condition for just 99 cents at a thrift shop in Rome the other day. Sold! When I got home and started reading it, I was especially intrigued by a chapter titled "The Fourth Meal." What is the Fourth Meal, you ask? According to this book, "It is the meal that people eat for fun. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, you eat the things you think you should eat. But in between, you eat the things you like."

Happily, their Fourth Meal suggestions include "Afternoon Teas," with some suggestions for sandwiches, salads, and other treats.

Now, when I got to these beverage recipes, I thought the Hot Tea recipe was pretty simple. No quibbles there. But check out the first ingredient in the coffee recipe. I was flummoxed. What on earth? Surely they didn't mean to put a raw egg in with the coffee. But indeed, that's exactly what they meant. In fact, I found this article online which rather explains the why and the how. But I'm just shocked that as much as America loves its coffee, I had never heard of this before. Have any of you? Have any of you tried egg coffee? I'd love to hear a review!

Monday, June 3, 2019

"The Vintage Baker" by Jessie Sheehan

I was in more of "reading" mood than a "cooking" mood this weekend, and my reading included a new cookbook I had recently ordered, The Vintage Baker by Jessie Sheehan. This isn't a tea cookbook, but I shouldn't have been surprised that I came across a few tea-inspired recipes in the book.

When I opened it, I discovered a lovely surprise, a cute little facsimile cookbook of Vintage Recipes. In the intro, Sheehan explains that she got interested in all things related to sweets and baking when she went to work at a bakery in Brooklyn, New York, more than a decade ago and began collecting recipe booklets.

The recipes in this book are "revamped" versions of some old ones, and I enjoyed seeing where she got the originals. Here, for instance, is her recipe for Chai Banana Fritters. The chai spices are part of her "update" to the recipe, and this sounds quite delicious.

And have you ever heard of Swedish Tea Rolls? I had not, but Sheehan says they taste like "the best mini cinnamon-sugar toaster pastry you've ever had," and she also says they're perfect with an afternoon cup of tea. (I'm sold!) The Vintage Baker is one of the most fun, unique cookbooks I've come across in a while, and if you're into vintage recipes yourself, I definitely recommend that you take a look.

I've been collecting vintage recipe booklets as well for the past few years, especially looking for anything suitable for teatime, so I love her idea of updating some of these recipes. Do you collect (or have saved) vintage recipe booklets? If so, got any recommendations?