Raspberry Dessert Sauce

Recipe From: Ruthanne Hassing

Notes: Use with Norwegian Rice Pudding

Ingredients

1 12oz bag frozen raspberries, completely thawed
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup fresh raspberries (opt)

Instructions

Puree berries in blender.  Push mixture through a large strainer with the back of a spoon into a small saucepan, discarding solids left in the strainer.  Stir in sugar and lemon juice.  Cook over medium-low heat until mixtures comes to a slow boil.  Boil slowly for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and cool.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.  Stir in fresh berries just before serving.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups.

Norwegian Rice Pudding

Recipe From: Ruthanne Hassing

Ingredients

1/2 cup white rice, uncooked
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tbl sugar
4 cups milk

Stovetop Instructions

Combine rice, salt, sugar & 1 cup milk in pan.  Cook over low heat, stirring, until milk is absorbed.  Add remaining milk, 1 cup at a time, slowly.  Do NOT boil!

Slow Cooker Instructions

Combine all ingredients in lightly greased slow cooker.  Cook on high 1-2 hours or low for 4-6 hours.  Stir during first 30 minutes.

Serve with lingonberry, raspberry or other berry sauce.
Click for recipe for Raspberry Sauce.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe From: Barbara Clarke

Ingredients
 
1 stick margarine
8 oz cream cheese
1 16oz pkg confectioners sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Cream cheese and butter.  Add sugar and vanilla.

Kirsten's note: I make a half recipe and that's plenty for the cranberry loaves.

Click here for recipe for Cranberry Spice Loaves.

Cranberry Spice Loaves

Recipe From: Barbara Clarke, Kirsten's mother-in-law
From Thanksgiving in Cazenovia, NY

Preheat Oven to: 350 degrees

Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup nutmeats, chopped
1 3/4 cups flour
1 lb can jellied cranberry sauce, crushed
OR 1 1b can whole cranberry sauce, drained
OR 2 cups homemade
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Instructions

Preheat oven.  Cream shortening, sugar & egg.  Stir in raisins and nuts.  Combine dry ingredients and sift.  Add to first mixture.  Stir in cranberry sauce.  Spoon into two greased and floured loaf pans and bake 40-50 minutes, or use 4 small loaf pans and bake for 30 minutes. Cool.  Freezes well.  Good with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick margarine
8 oz cream cheese
1 16oz pkg confectioners sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Cream cheese and butter.  Add sugar and vanilla.
Kirsten's note: I make a half recipe and that's plenty for the cranberry loaves.

Cream Cheese Cookies

Recipe From: Maura Gallagher's mom
Notes:  I acquired this recipe when in sophomore year of college (so 1989-1990), a group of us decided we needed to see The Little Mermaid movie, which had just come out.  It wasn't playing in Williamstown, or North Adams, but it was playing in Red Hook, NY, Maura's home town.  So off we went.  We watched the movie, and then descended on Maura's parents house, where her mother graciously fed the completely unexpected horde of college students these fabulous cookies.

Ingredients

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 lb butter, softened
2 1/2 cups flour
1 jar strawberry preserves (or any preserves)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
raisins
confectioners sugar

Instructions

Cream butter and cheese and mix with flour.  Chill dough.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over surface that you'll roll the dough out on.  Take small fists of dough and roll out into a thin circle about plate size.  Cut like a pie into 16 pieces.  Sprinkle with cinnamon, nuts and sugar.  Place one raisin & tiny drop of jam on each piece.  Roll up from wide to narrow end.  Bake at 375 degrees for approx 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Repeat with remaining dough.

These freeze very well.

Dump Cake

Recipe From: Paula Pike (Kirsten's friend and former business partner)

Ingredients

You will need to purchase:        

• any type of pie filling you like
• any cake mix you like (we like blueberry and banana cake but as you can see the options are limitless)
• Pineapple tidbits
• 1 stick of margarine or butter

Instructions

1)     Spray the pan with cooking spray

2)     Drain the pineapple and drink the juice. While drinking put the pineapples in the bottom of the cake pan

3)     Spread (or dump) the pie filling over the pineapples

4)     Spread (or dump) the dry cake mix over the pie filling – breaking up any clumps

5)     Cut slim butter pats and place them over the dry cake mix. Try to cover the entire cake mix with the butter.

6)     Bake according to the cake mix directions

Cinnamon Apple Cake

Recipe From: Maura Gallagher.  Made by her for the New Years Gathering in October of 2008.

Preheat Oven to:  350 degrees  

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups  sugar -- divided
1/2 cup  stick margarine -- softened
1 teaspoon  vanilla extract
6 ounces  fat-free cream cheese -- softened
2 large  eggs
1 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons  baking powder
1/4 teaspoon  salt
2 teaspoons  ground cinnamon
3  cups  Rome apple -- peeled and chopped (about 2 large)
vegetable cooking spray

Instructions

1. Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, margarine, vanilla, and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well  blended (about 4 minutes). 
2. Add eggs, one at a time , beating well after each addition. 
3. Combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until blended.
4. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. 
5. Take 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture and mix it with the apples in a bowl
6. Stir apple mixture into batter. 
7. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.
8. Bake at 350° for 1  hour and 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away form the sides of the pan. 
9. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.

NOTES : If made in a 9-inch springform pan, reduce cooking time by 5 minutes.

MAURA'S SPECIAL VARIATION: instead of reading recipe carefully, mix the full sugar/cinnamon mixture in with the apples.  Then, when you realize you should have only used 2 tablespoons, sigh, beat head against the countertop, and mix together another 1/4 cup sugar & 2 teaspoons cinnamon to use for the topping.  [I suspect that this weekend is the first time i've followed the recipe exactly, since i was keenly aware that i wouldn't have any backup cinnamon!]

Source:
  "Cooking Light, October 1997, p. 120"

Smørkranser (Butter Wreaths)

Recipe From:  Ruth Hassing, Kirsten's grandmother

Notes

This is a Norwegian recipe translated by my aunt Åse Blake, Ruth's daughter.

Preheat Oven to:  350 degrees

Ingredients

1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup ground almonds
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
12 Tbl butter

Instructions

Grease cookie sheet.  Beat egg and sugar.  Add finely chopped almonds and vanilla.  Work in butter, sifted flour and baking powder.  Chill dough.  Use cookie press (star shape); make them about 3 inches long.  Form into a circle.  Bake until golden brown and crisp in 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Makes 3 dozen.

Williams College Bar Brownie

Recipe From: Williams College Dining Services  (note to other college/university dining services: if you want really good food, you have to do it yourself and not outsource it.  Williams College Dining Services is proof.  Because I had no experience with other college dining services while at Williams, I did not realize how good they were until I visited other colleges and went to graduate school.)

Story:  I came by this recipe as a result of staring at a knife in my cutlery drawer and thinking, "I'm pretty sure this is a Greylock Dining Hall knife."  I had a couple of spoons and forks of the same pattern and I felt some guilt over this.  It was a thoughtless theft as I hadn't intended to leave college with dining hall cutlery and I'm not even sure how I ended up with as I don't recall taking it having bought my own bowls and cups and such.  So I wrote to dining services, explaining I'd graduated over 10 years ago, I was pretty sure I had some of their cutlery and where should I send it back to?  Oh, and by the way, was there any chance of getting the Williams College brownie recipe?  Dining Services wrote me back and very kindly said I could keep the forks and spoons and also mailed me the recipes for brownies with helpful instructions on how I might go about reducing the quantity for home use.  Williams brownies tend to generate strong feelings from people.  They either love them or can't see how you could eat one, but few people are neutral.  I loved them.  They were almost fudge-like, they were so dense and chocolatey.  Just great!

Preheat Oven to: 370 degrees

Ingredients (original recipe)

1 pound, 6 1/2 oz granulated sugar
12 1/2 oz Shortening (Sweetex)
2 7/8 tsp spice salt
2 1/2 oz Numoline (invert sugar syrup used on commercial baking)
8 oz liquid eggs plus 1 1/2 oz for egg wash
4 oz cocoa powder
7 1/2 oz corn syrup
15 oz cake flour
2 oz water
1 Tbl vanilla extract
4 oz chopped nuts (opt)

Instructions
Cream sugar, shortening, salt and numoline. Add eggs and beat.  Blend in cocoa and corn syrup.  Add flour, water and vanilla.  Scale 9 lbs batter into greased full sheet pan and wash with egg wash.  Scale 4-8 lbs per half sheet.  Sprinkle 1/2 sheet with nuts; leave some plain.  Bake at 370 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  Makes 1 1/2 13x18" sheet pans, or about 90 brownies.

Notes
I have to confess I have no idea what "scale 9 lbs batter" means, since I don't think the ingredients add up to 9 pounds. However, I haven't tried it to see.  I assume this instruction would make sense to a commercial baker.

Ingredients (scaled recipe for home use)
Note: this is still under development.  I haven't perfected the Williams College brownie at home yet, so this post may change over time!

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup + 2tsp butter or shortening
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup cocoa powder
7 Tbl corn syrup (1 Tbl shy of 1/2 cup)
1 cup + 1 Tbl cake flour
3 Tbl water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions
Cream sugar, shortening and salt.  Add eggs and beat.  Blend in cocoa powder and corn syrup.  Add flour, water and vanilla.  Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.  Sprinkle with chopped nuts if desired.  Bake at 370 for 35-40 minutes.  Makes 16 brownies.

Grandma Hullinger's Sugar Cookies

Recipe From: I'm not sure.  It's a variant on the Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies from Great-Grandma Hullinger I published yesterday, similar to but not the same as.  I clearly got it from someone in the family as it has a note at the bottom, but all I have is a typed version so I can't even use handwriting as a clue!  If you wrote this down, let me know so I can credit you!

Preheat Oven to: 350 degrees

Ingredients

4 cups flour

1 cup butter, or shortening

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract, lemon or almond

1 cup milk

1 tsp baking soda

Original Instructions:  Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.  Beat the eggs and set aside.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar; add the beaten eggs and continue to beat until mixed.  Add vanilla and flour mixture and stir until well mixed.  Chill.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll out chilled dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 ".  Cut into rounds or shapes with cookie cutters.  Sprinkle with sugar if desired.  Bake until edges are lightly brown, 15-17 minutes.  Decorate with colored icing, sprinkles, etc. if desired.

Notes
I remember that Grandma Hullinger (your Great-Grandmother) made great sugar cookies. I found this recipe in a box of recipes from their house. Grandma wrote that Ruthanne called these Grandpa's cookies. Dough must chill.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Recipe From: Agnes Hullinger (Kirsten's great-grandmother.  Agne's daughter was Ruth.  Ruth's daughter is Ruthanne and Ruthanne's daughter is me.) San Jose, IL

Preheat to: 350 degrees

Ingredients

2 3/4 cup flour
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp grated lemon rind, opt.

Original Instructions 

"Sift measure add bp. and salt
cream butter add sugar and eggs
beat
add vanilla and flour.  Chill and roll. Sprinkle sugar.  Bake."

Instructions for bakers not as experienced as Great-Grandma Hullinger

Sift flour with the baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, cream the butter.  Add the sugar and eggs, beating between each addition.  Add the vanilla and optional lemon rind.  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.  Chill for a few hours in the refrigerator.  Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick and cut out cookies.  Sprinkle with sugar or decorations if desired.  Bake at 350 degrees until slightly gold at edges (4-8 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie).

Notes:  Keep covered in a tin with a cut apple or orange slice to keep soft.  I've also made these with orange rind and once with grapefruit rind.  All very good!  I bet lime rind would also be good.  I think my mother first added the lemon rind.  She would cut them out with a large glass to make big round cookies and would sometimes put a raisin in the center before baking.

These cookies are intended to be thick and soft, not thin and crunchy.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Recipe From:  Karen Howard - one of Kirsten's mother's-in-law

Karen's Notes: Here is a recipe for sour cream coffee cake which we always have Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings, other special occasions too

Preheat Oven to: 350 degrees

Ingredients

1 C less 2 Tblsp oleo                

1 C sour cream                        

3 eggs                               

1 tsp vanilla                        

3 C sifted flour

1 C sugar   

1/2 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp baking soda 

Sugar filling

1/2 C sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 C chopped walnuts

Instructions

Mix together wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients. Put 1/2 mix in angel food cake pan (greased). Sprinkle 1/2 sugar filling, then carefully spread rest of mix. Sprinkle rest of sugar filling on top.

Bake 350 deg. about 1 hour- check with toothpick. Cool before removing from pan. When room temp, wrap in alum. foil until ready to start eating.