quote:

Originally posted by ewinbee:
Tracey, thank you so much for that pie crust. Although I kinda have to admit I was expecting some super sekrit ingredient, ya know, what with all the hush-hush... I'm not sure the motivation behind keeping a pie crust recipe a secret.

Me too! When she gave it to me, I said "That's it?!?" Her response was a look that could melt steel. I backed away slowly.

The recipe does make delightful crusts.

Tracey

quote:

Originally posted by Redsophiia:

What is it with non-recipe sharers anyway? My husband's aunt is that way. She makes the best molasses cookies I've ever eaten. I told my husband that I was going to ask for the recipe, and he told me good luck. She doesn't share recipes. Hmph! The noive...

Dani

Dani - Here are a few fairly surefire ways to get the recipe.

Next time you ask and she refuses, get all teary eyed and say "It'll be so sad when you die. No one will think of you at the holidays because we won't have your cookies..." OR "Would you teach me if I promise NEVER to divulge the recipe?" OR "I'm going to find which box you get these out of".

My grandfather had a sister that "Made" spiced pecans every Xmas. The recipe went with her when she passed away... until the fateful day that one of my clients in Georgia sent me a pound from some famous nut farm down there. Aunt Dottie's secret was OUT!

quote:

Originally posted by DirtEmomO:
My grandfather had a sister that "Made" spiced pecans every Xmas. The recipe went with her when she passed away... until the fateful day that one of my clients in Georgia sent me a pound from some famous nut farm down there. Aunt Dottie's secret was OUT!

Well, that WOULD explain a recipe hoarder, alright.

Dang.

Incidentally folks, the first molasses cookie recipe I know of is here. That would be the authentic Ginger Slut Cookie Recipe right there.

It requires crystallized ginger, which is much more fun to make yourself than to buy... and Naamah also tells you how to make that here. Although I recognize that my definition of fun may be a bit different from yours. I can sit around and slice ginger all day long and be a happy Ewin at the end of it.

I'll post my own slightly simplified version later (still at school).

My aunt makes an out of this world peach pie filling For a 9 inch pie

ripe peaches that she puts in boling H20 fast to remove the skins
12-16 peaches depending on size
slice peaches sprinkle with 1 tsp lemon juice
toss with a mix of 1 1/4 cups of sugar
3 T quick cooking tapioca and 1 teaspoon of finely grated lemon peel and 1/4 t salt
turn into unbaked crust,
heap slightly at center
dot with 2 T butter
cover with crust
Bake at 450 10 min
then at 350 for 40 min till light golden brown
she uses Walmart brand crusts and swears by them

i thought it was pi the math equation 3.1415.

there was this study (forget the proper name, done up north) about math and mozart's music sheets that shows lots of math equations related to the music notes...it also mentioned people who study math while listening to mozart music will retain a lot more of what they learn.

but i love pies though! pies are a better subject to talk about.

quote:

Originally posted by DirtEmomO:

My grandfather had a sister that "Made" spiced pecans every Xmas. The recipe went with her when she passed away... until the fateful day that one of my clients in Georgia sent me a pound from some famous nut farm down there. Aunt Dottie's secret was OUT!

NO!! GET OUT!! LOL!!!!!

Dani

My take on seven layer cookie bars, which I'm making right now for tomorrow's St. Patty's lunch at work.

Preparation: take half a bag of mint disk candies (you know, the peppermint disks with the red stripes?), unwrap them and drop them into a thick ziploc bag. Then put them over a nice cutting board and SMASH THEM WITH A HAMMER.

Because baking is better with a hammer. Don't smash them too fine, because you want the colors to show in the cookie bars.

I'm using spearmint candies this evening, because they are green, and it's for St. Patty's.

Then take a small bag of candied dried raspberries and chop them up, you can do this by hand (it gets a bit sticky) or in a food processor.

Now zie putting together part.

Start with graham crust -- 1 stick of butter, 1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs, melt the butter and stir in the crumbs, press the crust down into a casserole dish. I use a glass one, regular size (I think that's 7 x 10?).

Pour in a can of sweetened condensed milk over the graham crust, it should spread out pretty evenly.

Mix together (or you can layer them, but I get a better result from mixing them) 1 package dark chocolate (semisweet) morsels, 1 package white chocolate morsels, 3.5 oz baker's coconut, the chopped raspberries, and the crushed mints. Stir a bit, and then dump it into the dish.

Spread it around, press it down a bit (again, sticky), and bake at 325-350 for 35 minutes. That's 350 for a regular dish, 325 for a glass dish.

Once the 35 minutes are up, check to see if the coconut is browning. If it's not, they aren't done. I've let 'em cook for an hour before just to get the darned things done, but no batch ever seems to take the same amount of time...

Let them cool, then cut into SMALL pieces. Rich rich rich, these. They're also very pretty during the holidays.

quote:

Originally posted by cherryrn:
My aunt makes an out of this world peach pie filling For a 9 inch pie

ripe peaches that she puts in boling H20 fast to remove the skins
12-16 peaches depending on size
slice peaches sprinkle with 1 tsp lemon juice
toss with a mix of 1 1/4 cups of sugar
3 T quick cooking tapioca and 1 teaspoon of finely grated lemon peel and 1/4 t salt
turn into unbaked crust,
heap slightly at center
dot with 2 T butter
cover with crust
Bake at 450 10 min
then at 350 for 40 min till light golden brown
she uses Walmart brand crusts and swears by them

I bet you I will be trying this within a week.

The thing is, I've been under tons of stress at school. Apparently when I'm stressed, I bake.

Okay, here are more molasses cookies, and these I have actually made a few times myself.

14 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups sugar, divided
1/3 cup molasses (they say 1/3 cup, but I usually use 1/2 cup or so)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
a dash of cloves

I add some chili powder to these... trust me! It doesn't make them spicy, it just adds a touch of richness. I also totally overdo my spices. I like spices.

In a large-size bowl, mix the melted butter, 1 cup of the sugar, and the molasses. Beat in the egg. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, spices, baking soda, cloves, and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture, stirring until a thick dough is formed.

Now, I let it chill for a bit. That will make it stiffer, but it will also make it slightly less sticky.

Preheat the oven to 350. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls, then roll each ball in the remaining sugar (big decorative sugar crystals make a nice texture, too). Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 10 minutes. Don't overbake them, they burn WAY easily on the bottom. I use one of those silicone mats on my cookie sheets. My oven is a bit on the cruddy side.

Thanks for the recipe, Ewinbee. I copied it.

Dani

CARAMEL PECAN PIE

36 ea Kraft caramels
1/4 cup Water
1/4 cup Butter (or Margarine)
3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Vanilla
3 ea Eggs,beaten
1 cup Pecan halves
1 ea 9 " unbaked pastry shell

Melt caramels with water & margarine in a saucepan over low heat.
Stir occasionally until smooth.Combine sugar,salt & eggs. Gradually add caramel sauce;Mix well. Stir in pecan halves & pour into pastry shell. Bake @ 350 degree for 40 minutes.Pie filling will appear soft, but becomes firm as it cools. Refrigerate after cool.




Pie Crust

2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
3/4 cup cold Crisco (shortening)
Ice Water

Place Flour, Salt, and Crisco in bowl, "cut" together.

Add Ice Water, a bit at a time, until dough holds together.

Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic, and chill, before rolling out on a floured pastry cloth.

This makes enough for 2 crusts, extra crust can be frozen for later use.




Pastry Crust:

8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, room temperature)
1-1/2 cups flour

In a large bowl, blend cream cheese and butter. Gradually add the flour and blend until dough is smooth. Divide dough into 2 or 3 balls, cover and chill until firm

(about 30 minutes).

And in other DIRTY DESSERTS:

Texas Bunny Turds

Combine the following four (4) ingredients:
1 lb confectioners sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup crushed vanilla wafers
1 cup melted butter
When well mixed form into walnut sized balls.

In a double boiler melt:
1 bag (12 oz) semi-sweet morsels (chocolate chips)
1/4 bar parafin wax

Dip balls in chocolate mixture and place on waxed paper to firm up.

You can sprinkle with colored candies or jimmies for a festive look.


Dirt

1 large (16 ounce) package Oreo or Hydrox cookies
1 package gummy worms (optional)
1 large (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
enough Milk to make pudding
2 tubs (8 ounces each) cool-whip
1 flower pot
1 gardening trowel
1 stem tacky fame flowers


Crush Oreo/Hydrox cookies (I use a plastic bag & rolling pin). Set aside.
Make vanilla pudding. Add softened cream cheese. Mix well.
Fold in Cool Whip

In a flower pot, layer of crushed cookies and pudding mix, adding gummy worms (if desired) to each layer. Top with the remainder of the crushed cookies. Chill
When ready to serve, place flower in pot.


Kitty Litter Cake

1 package Spice cake mix
1 package White cake mix
1 package White sandwich cookies
1 package Vanilla pudding mix
Green food coloring
12 Small Toosie rolls

Prepare cake mixes and bake according to directions.Prepare pudding mix and
chill until ready to assemble. Crumble white sandwich cookies in small
batches in blender, they tend to stick, so scrape often. Set aside all but
about 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup cookie crumbs, add a few drops green food
coloring and mix using a fork. When cakes are cooled to room temperature,
crumble into a large bowl. Toss with half the remaining cookie crumbs and
the chilled pudding.
gently combine. Line new, clean kitty litter box. Put mixture into litter
box. Put three unwrapper Toostie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat
until soft and pliable. Shape ends so they are no longer blunt, curving
slightly. repeat with 3 more Tootsie rolls and bury in mixutre. Sprinkle the
other half of cookie crumbs over top. Scatter the green cookie crumbs
lightly over the top, this is supposed to look like the chlorophyll in kitty
litter. Heat remaining Tootsie Rolls, 3 at a time in the microwave until
almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with cookie
crumbs. Serve with a new pooper scooper.

I still use baking as a threat, I once made a cake that took physical force to cut. I was using a large serrated knife. I couldn't get through the middle without leaning into the cut.
Dust Maker

I could bake,,,,, run I'm telling you. run....

PS. As far as math here's a little wisdom about statistics, Figures don't lie but liars sure can figure. Ask anyone in public relations or advertising.

quote:

I could bake,,,,, run I'm telling you. run....

Try the Dirt, no baking involved.

I made it once for a party at a coworkers home. When I arrived, I handed his wife the pot. She looked at it, said thank you, and placed it on the kitchen table.

When it came time for dessert, I picked up the pot and put it with the other desserts.

While eating some of the Dirt, the wife commented that she wasn't sure why I had given her such a *very* tacky fake plant and we had a good chuckle.

I can cook and I may even try the dirt but I can't see crushing perfectly good cookies. Not after the christmas cookie disaster of 2000. I made cookies from a list of home recipes that was given to me. They all had the incorrect amount of butter printed by mistake. I used physical force to make thumbprint cookies. Needless to say, they didn' t travel well either. My family called and asked what the heck was up with all the crumbs. I sent out 9 packages of christmas crumbs that year.

I could bake .no, really , run ... I can't stress this enough, while you still can. run...

Dust Maker

This is from a while back, but I just wanted to say:

"My aunt makes an out of this world peach pie filling For a 9 inch pie"

I just did a search to find this particular recipe so I could try it out today. Mmmm. Pah. (Hope it turns out okay.) Thank you cherryrn if you're still out there somewhere!

The most appropriate recipe I could think of to contribute was Dump Cake. I don't have mom's recipe in front of me so here's one from cooks.com. I like it because it says "dump" a lot.

BLUEBERRY DUMP CAKE

1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 c. fresh blueberries
1 box yellow cake mix
1 c. chopped pecans
1/2 lb. melted butter

Dump pineapple into ungreased cake pan. Dump blueberries on top. Dump cake mix on top and spread evenly. Sprinkle pecans over top and pour melted butter over all. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serve warm or cold. Very good! Serves 10.

I found some recipes for dump pie too, but I've never had it before.

What a fun thread. We're such a bunch of old hens.

I can bake...if I must. I look at baking the same way I look at sewing. If you let people know you are capable, then they suddenly expect it of you all the time. I reserve my talents for Thanksgiving.

Oh, and I'm a recipe secret keeper. I hear I make a mean pie crust...but I'm not sharing. Nothing makes me crankier than to share a recipe and have someone show up at the next social function toting MY secret cookies. Dammit.

On the subject of math...I thought that a person either excelled at numbers or excelled with words, but not both. I'm an english person...I svck at math. I figured Mike for a word person too. *shrug* Maybe he's an exception to the rule?

Din0

I'm not sure it works that way, din0... I'm a proofreader (on a part-time basis) and math is my favorite subject. I want to get a Master's in math once I'm done with my CompSci degree which is taking FOREVER...

But I'm not much of a history person. I hate rote memorization.

Okay, cherry. THAT IS A LOT OF PEACH PIE FILLING. It's like... three pies' worth!

I am drippings vis peach pies!

Ewinbee , you have terrible timing

Hi I am NPO and I am so jealous of you. She uses those monster crusts 10 inch type. I feell
like howling. Mike would eat that pie. Most guys love pie. That filling is dynamite .

Cherry (yip yowwww)