Amish Raisin Cookies

Moist, sweet, chewy, raisin-y goodness.  Oh my, these cookies were down a storm here. Even Ole Sweetie-Pi couldn't stay out of the cookie jar for these.  The cooked batter tastes like a chocolate chip cookie (due to all the brown sugar and butter, I suppose, smiles), and at first glimpse one could mistaken this cookie for a chocolate chip cookie, but the raisins bring a sweetness and a texture all their own.  Made with pantry staples, this is a recipe I will make often.

Amish Raisin Cookies
(found here:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-raisin-cookies/Detail.aspx)

1 cup raisins
1 cup water

3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt

In a medium sized pan, combine the water and the raisins.  Bring to a boil and cook until the water is reduced to one-half cup.  Remove from heat and set pan aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the softened butter and brown sugar and cream until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Sift together remaining dry ingredients and add to butter mixture and gradually add to creamed ingredients, blending well.  Add the raisins with the liquid and stir to combine.

Drop by tablespoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet, two inches apart.  Bake at 375*F for 10-12 minutes or until a beautiful golden brown.  Let rest on pan a couple of minutes before moving to wire racks to finish cooling.

MY NOTES:  For the first time ever, I used a baker's mat, and I found the cooking time was shortened to more like 8 or 9 minutes.  The cookie is pretty soft when it first comes out of the oven.

My raisins cooled only for the time it took to put the batter together.  I stirred them a couple of times in between putting the batter together, but otherwise the raisin-water mixture was still warm when I added it to the cookie dough.  If you're a purist, you could put the warm pan in a dish of cold water to cool it down completely or put it in the fridge. 

Chocolate Zucchini Brownies

My wagon has been dragging this week. It must have been the dreary weather we had earlier in the week that has sapped my energy and made me so lethargic.

Time for some chocolate to perk things up a little!

I didn't want a layer cake; didn't feel like cookies. I wasn't sure what I wanted, only what I didn't. I saw down with a cookbook that I haven't used yet, The Amish Cook, Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family by Elizabeth Coblentz with Kevin Williams. I flipped to the index, went to chocolate, and of the nine chocolate recipes listed, these zucchini brownies caught my eye. Ordinarily I'd give a recipe like this a quick pass as I can't imagine a vegetable with chocolate, but I had zucchini left over from my wheat germ and zucchini bread, so why not give it a try?

Oh my goodness! If you like moist chocolate cake, you'll love this. No way, no how can you taste the zucchini, but the quality it imparts is it's superb moistness, without being what I would term fudgey.

The directions call for the batter to be baked in a 10" x 15" baking sheet, (which is why I surmise this recipe is called a brownie) but I don't have one that size, so I baked the batter in two 8" x 8" baking pans, which made two small cakes. I like the result so much, I'll do it this way again, and freeze the other small cake for a future use. Perfect for me and Ole Sweetie-Pi.

Chocolate Zucchini Brownies

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chopped nuts

Shred the zucchini and set aside. Generously grease a 10" x 15" jelly roll pan (or use a baking dish and watch for doneness)

In a large mixing bowl combine the eggs, oil and sugar; beat well.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and cocoa.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir just to combine. Add the vanilla, zucchini and nuts to the batter and mix thoroughly. The batter will be thick.

Spread the batter into your jelly roll pan (or baking dish). Bake for 30 minutes or until done (a toothpick poked in the center will come out clean).

Cool. Frost with vanilla frosting. I used my favorite butter cream.

So good! Simple and delicious!

Peach & Raspberry Pie

Gosh, I love pie. Good ole apple is probably my favorite, but I pretty much love them all. Pumpkin, pecan, strawberry-rhubarb (now we're talking!), chocolate cream, banana cream, custard, lemon meringue, blueberry....oh I could go on and on.

So, it was no surprise to me that when I spied this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website, I knew I had to try it. The good cooks over there put a lot of effort in developing some of the very best recipes, and this recipe did not disappoint.

I used frozen peaches and raspberries, and gave my pie a generous six cups of filling; 4 cups of peaches and 2 cups of raspberries. No thin pies for me! I should have thought about the extra juiciness the added fruit would produce. When I cut into the pie, even after sufficiently cooling, it was too juicy. I used 1/3 cup cornstarch called for in the recipe, but next time I'll increase it to maybe just shy of half a cup. I think I'll add a tad more sugar. I love the tartness of raspberries, but a little extra sweetness would've have hurt. Grins.

The vanilla was a surprising touch, though not discernible in the baked pie. In mixing the ingredients, the vanilla, cinnamon and fruit mixture created a wonderful aroma and was enough to make want to me eat the filling Au natural. Heavenly!

As you can tell, I only used the filling part of their recipe because I favor pies over tarts. This pastry recipe has become my favorite. It's a No Fail recipe, and I think it's appropriately named. The only time I've messed it up was when I thought the flour didn't need all the water, and I reduced it. Big mistake. Follow the simple directions, and you will be rewarded with a pie crust that is wonderful to handle. It's velvety smooth and bakes up flaky. I'm not saying that this is the best pastry recipe ever (I think an old fashioned lard is probably flakier and more tender), but for sheer ease, I think you'll have to go some to beat this recipe.

Recipe is from Marcia Adams' New Recipes from Quilt Country, though I have seen it any number of places on the web. My picture is a little pale; the dough will actually be more yellow than shown because of the butter-flavored shortening.

Perfect Pie Crust

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 cups butter-flavored vegetable shortening**
1 egg
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 cup water

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and shortening. Blend until you have reached the texture of coarse crumbs.

In a separate small bowl, combine the egg, vinegar and water. Beat to combine.

Drizzle the liquids over the flour mixture and mix thoroughly.

Shape the dough into a patty, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for 45 minutes, or refrigerate overnight.

When chilled, divide the dough into fourths. Each fourth is one single crust; use two for a two-crust pie. Roll and use immediately or wrap each portion separately and refrigerate or freeze.

**I've seen this exact recipe using the non-buttered flavored shortening, and in a pinch one day, I tried it. It was just okay to me; I think the butter flavored shortening has a better flavor.

The dough will keep nice for a couple of days in the fridge; I have frozen it, defrosted, and used it, but it's not as good tasting, in my opinion.

Amish Meatloaf with Sweet & Sour Sauce

Growing up, I didn't care too much for meatloaf. It was just so poor. I was convinced that only poor families ate meatloaf. We had it at our table a lot; I vowed that when I grew up, I would never eat meatloaf again.

And so for a long time, I didn't eat it, wouldn't even consider it. I can remember being appalled that people would actually order meatloaf in a restaurant. I don't recall when I came off my high mountain and joined the common folk, but I know that I've missed some mighty good eating. And made right, I would certainly serve it to company. This is a recipe I have served to company. The ingredients are simple, but the flavor speaks volumes.

Ole Sweetie-Pi and I agree: we love this meatloaf. If your preference is savory, you may not care for this as the sauce is definitely sweet, but that just satisfies my sweet tooth.

Once again, I fall back on one of my favorite cookbooks by Marcia Adams, New Recipes From Quilt Country.

Meatloaf with Sweet & Sour Sauce
Sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Meatloaf
2 eggs, beaten
2 small onions, finely diced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup cracker or unflavored bread crumbs
2 pounds lean ground beef

Preheat oven to 350 F.

To make the sauce: thoroughly combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

To make the meat loaf: In a large bowl, add the beaten eggs, half the sauce, and the remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly using a large spoon, (or if you're not squeamish, your hands) until all ingredients are well combined.

Dump the mixture into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Firmly pat the mixture into a loaf shape, leaving room all around it so any cooking fat can be easily removed.

Bake for 40 minutes. Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the loaf and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove the loaf from the oven and allow to rest for 5 or 10 minutes before serving.

Depending on appetites, this will serve 6 or 8. It makes a mighty fine meatloaf sandwich too.

Amish Macaroni Salad

Whenever I see the word Amish in a recipe title, I am pretty confident that I'm going to love it. This Amish macaroni salad is no exception. This is the only macaroni salad that I'll eat.

The first time I ate it, it was a huge surprise as I had never eaten a sweetened salad like this before. There was culture shock going on in my mouth. Around here, it's pretty standard fare to have just macaroni, mayo, maybe a boiled egg or two, and maybe tuna fish (which I positively loathe in pasta salad, by the way) and likely an onion or green pepper. Can you say flavorless? Colorless? I can go my whole life without it and never feel I'm missing a thing.

But what's a potluck or a barbeque without at least one pasta salad. Along comes Amish macaroni salad to fill the bill. So, I took a chance. It was almost love at first bite. Yellow from the mustard, smooth, creamy, sweet, tart. Flavorful. BUT, I felt the recipe was too sweet (can you believe that with my sweet tooth?) and have hence reduced the sugar in the dressing to 1/2 cup, and only use real mayonnaise, not Miracle Whip. Now' we're talking macaroni love.

Amish White Bread

I love bread in all its golden, crusty glory! This may be the only way I'll truly have gold in my pans.

I get all zen when I make bread; inner peace just swells inside me as I concenrate on the measuring and the kneading. I take the time to knead it right, until it's smooth as a baby's behind, maybe eight to ten minutes. Whatever trouble that may have been on my mind or in my heart dissipates, vaporizes, as I work the dough into a smooth globe and set it aside to rise. And that wonderful yeasty aroma! Ooooh....make me one with the bread....

I've made this bread at least a couple dozen times, maybe even more, and every time it has been wonderful. The bread is a little sweet because of the sugar, (which can be a surprise to some who are accustomed to, say, a French bread) but I like it. It makes great French toast, ham sandwiches, and of course, thick slabs with creamy butter.