HENRICI CAKE

A note from DivaGlinda:

I don't know where my mother-in-law got this recipe for HENRICI CAKE, but it was a favorite in my husband's family, supposedly passed along from someone connected to Henrici's Restaurant. The original restaurant had been a fixture in downtown Chicago, founded in the mid-1800's. I don't remember that location, but do remember when Henrici's Restaurant was at Oak Brook Center.

My mother-in-law passed the recipe along to me. My husband says that when his mom first made it she used a tube pan - the kind used for angel food cake. But by the time she gave me the recipe everyone had a bundt pan and that's what I used. Here's the recipe as I received it:

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HENRICI CAKE

Beat together until fluffy:
3/4 cup butter
1 ½ cups sugar

Beat in 3 eggs one at a time

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or almond extract to 1 cup milk

Sift 3 cups flour with 3 teaspoons baking powder and a pinch of salt

Add flour to butter/egg mixture in three parts, alternating with milk. (End with flour.)

Heavily butter a tube pan. Line pan with ½ cup chopped nuts mixed with 2 Tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Pour batter into pan

Bake at 375°F for 50 minutes

Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert pan onto plate leaving pan loosely on cake or cover until cake is completely cooled.
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I've changed this old-fashioned recipe a little over the years - usually I double the vanilla, reduce the sugar to a rounded cup, and I use the crunchier turbinado or demerara sugar instead of white sugar for the nut topping. If the nuts are almonds I use almond extract instead of vanilla.


You can make the cake richer by adding a package of cream cheese to the butter & sugar and really beat it well. For another twist, use a microplane to zest a lime and add the zest to the cream cheese.  

Double the vanilla and throw in some mini chocolate chips.

You can grate in orange rind & add a couple of tablespoons of Southern Comfort for a different flavor.

Add cocoa or melted chocolate to 1/3 of batter and swirl into the white part to make marble cake

Add dark cocoa to batter and make chocolate pound cake… it will need a few more tablespoons of milk. I made the chocolate version last fall as the dessert for my Divas of the Dirt garden project day, covering it in chocolate fudge frosting and adding pecans.

         
Once upon a time in the midwest, people made doll cakes for girls' birthdays and they also made Bride doll cakes for wedding showers.

Commercial doll-cake molds are available now, but back then a bundt pan and a glass bowl were combined to make a doll with a Scarlet O'Hara silhouette.

The Henrici cake recipe worked well to make the base of this doll cake. First up the ingredients by 1/3 (4 eggs, 1 cup shortening, 4 cups flour, etc.) so you'll have some extra batter. This batter was baked in a small, ovenproof bowl. When inverted on top of the bundt cake, the bowl cake became part of the dress, ready for a half-doll on a pick.

                               


I don't know if anyone still does this - bridal gowns looked more like cakes in those days, but modern brides go strapless & slinky!

[This post was inspired by a twitter conversation with @shytowngirl https://twitter.com/shytowngirl and @ChuckHenrici https://twitter.com/ChuckHenrici about Henrici's Restaurant and the frequently shared recipe.]
 

Jean Lafitte's Pirate Stew

JEAN LAFITTE STEW

When my turn as hostess for the Divas of the Dirt garden day landed on Talk Like A Pirate Day in September 2009, your correspondent-Glinda decided to celebrate it by thinking up this hearty main dish. 

Since this is a Pirate Stew there are no exact amounts for ingredients - it can vary depending on what you have on board ship. 

Feel free to adjust proportions of meat to vegetables to spices so your crew will like it!

Before making the stew I bought fresh Chicken sausages w/Poblanos*, grilled them, let them cool a bit, drained the links and & sliced them into rounds.

Now to the stew!

Sauté together:

Sliced precooked Chicken sausage w/Poblanos

A few cloves of garlic

Chopped red onions

Chopped white onions

Let cook for a while. Climb up to the crow's nest with your spyglass and scan the horizon. When you get back to the galley add in:

Chopped red peppers

Chopped celery

Chopped parsley

Let simmer together while you tend to the rigging or swab the deck

Return and add:

A few squeezes of double-strength, sun-dried tomato paste from a tube

A couple of ounces (or more) of Southern Comfort

Thyme

Oregano

Cayenne

Simmer a little longer – go check if anyone is in line to walk the plank. Return.

Start the rice cooking. (Medium grain works well for this dish).

Add drained, cooked pinto beans and cut-up, stewed tomatoes and let the stew simmer while the rice cooks. If you go to the treasure room and run your hands through the pearls & jewels, the time will pass quickly.

Serve in bowls with the rice added by the individual pirates.

*Fresh Chicken Sausage with Poblanos is available at local HEB Stores in Central Texas. I don't know how hard it is to find in other areas.

Quiche Lorraine, Glinda's version

SERVED FOR BREAKFAST at GLINDA'S GARDEN DAY, SEPTEMBER 2009

This is an adaptation of a recipe from the 1965 edition of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. I wanted it to be reasonably authentic, but recently read that you can substitute yogurt for cream and wanted to try it. The quiche still tastes extremely rich, but there's less butterfat and the yogurt gives it a thick tanginess.

The pie shell is also an adaptation from that Fanny Farmer cookbook, used since I was a newlywed. In the interests of accuracy, most brands of ingredients I used are included.

The recipe is supposed to make enough for two 8" pie shells, but it might be a little skimpy to make a high edge. Because I was also making a 10" Deep Dish Key Lime Pie, I doubled the recipe and it was perfect for 2 quiches and the pie, with a little dough left over.

My mom taught me to divide any extra pie dough into walnut-sized blobs, roll the pieces in cinnamon & sugar then bake right away. She used these pastry nibbles as bribes, hoping to keep us kids from eating the edges off the pie before my dad got home from work.

Pie Crust

2 cups unbleached King Arthur all purpose flour
pinch of baking powder
pinch of nutmeg
Use a fork to lightly mix dry ingredients in bowl.

1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk (I used 1%)

Use a fork to whip & emulsify oil and milk. Pour it over flour mixture and blend with the fork until flour almost disappears. Make two balls. Roll out between 2 sheets of waxed paper. Line 8" pan, using your favorite crimping technique for a raised edge. Prick dough all over with fork. Pre-bake about 12 minutes at 375°F. You can do this ahead of time - wrap well and freeze if holding more than a few hours.

Fanny Farmer said to cook bacon, set aside to drain before crumbling into the pie shell, pour most of the fat out of the pan and then cook chopped onion in the remaining bacon fat. But I hate to cook bacon! So I bought Target's house brand of precooked bacon, threw it in the microwave and skipped the onion. It took most of a package, nuked & crumbled, to cover the bottom of the quiche shell.

I shredded HEB (local store brand) Swiss cheese and mixed it with Brown Cow fat free yogurt and Davidson's pasteurized eggs, added a few cranks of sea salt, a few grinds of pepper and a little more nutmeg and poured it over the bacon.

Filling for one Quiche:

Most of a 2.1 ounce package Market Pantry/Target Brand precooked bacon, microwaved, crumbled into bottom of pie shell

Combine
1/2 pound/8 ounces HEB Swiss Cheese, coarsely grated
16 ounces (1/2 of a big carton) Brown Cow Fat Free Yogurt
3 lightly beaten Davidson's eggs
Sea salt and pepper at your discretion
Shake of nutmeg

The quiche baked at 350°F for somewhere between 35 and 50 minutes - the Divas were arriving so I'm not sure! I used a thin stainless steel spatula blade to test - the quiche was done when the blade came out clean. You probably have your own favorite technique.

Let it cool for a little while before cutting to get neat wedges. I made 2 quiches - leftover slices were delicious cold, too!

BURNT-SUGAR CAKE - Glinda

(This is a recaptured recipe from my mom’s childhood, called Burnt Sugar Cake, which my grandmother made back in the 20's and 30's. My mom knew what the caramelizing procedure should look like, and had a good idea of the ingredients, but no one ever found a written recipe after my grandmother died. When this recipe turned up in a search the result matched my mom's memories.)


DEPRESSION ERA BURNT-SUGAR CAKE

Burnt-sugar syrup:
¾ cup regular sugar
¾ cup boiling water

Cake:
2/3 cup butter, softened (I use Fleischman’s unsalted margarine)
1 cup regular sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, separated3 cups cake flour, sifted with 3 teaspoons baking powder and a dash of salt
¾ cup milk
½ cup of the above burnt sugar syrup

Burnt-sugar Frosting:
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted with a dash of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Reserved burnt-sugar syrup

Pecan halves, for garnish

Burnt-sugar syrup: In small heavy skillet or saucepan, heat 3/4 cup sugar, stirring, until a brown syrup forms and mixture begins to smoke. [They really mean this, so have your exhaust fan runnin' on high!] Very gradually stir in 3/4 cup boiling water and remove from heat. Cool thoroughly.

Cake: Cream butter and sugar until light. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup burnt-sugar syrup. (Reserve the reminder for the frosting.) Add vanilla, then egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk, beating until smooth. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Pour into two 9-inch layer pans lined on the bottom with waxed paper. Bake in moderate oven (375 F) about 25 minutes. Cool and frost. Top with nut halves if desired. [I always desire pecans on everything, how about you? I put them on in a nice spoke pattern all over the top and sides, and had no complaints whatsoever.]

Burnt-sugar Frosting: Cream butter or margarine. Beat in confectioner’s sugar, salt, vanilla, reserved burnt-sugar syrup and enough cream for spreading consistency.

Google source: Alberta Ruthrauff/ Woman’s Day Cookbook (1950s)

SAVORY CHEESE & ONION PIE- Glinda

This recipe started out as "Savoury Tomato Cheese Pie”from a Vegetarian Epicure cookbook, but it has evolved over the decades. My version was served in 2002 and 2003 - and might turn up again! Looking it over, bet some of these branded ingredients are no longer available so wing it.

SAVORY CHEESE, TOMATO & ONION PIE

Oven 350 degrees F

1 frozen pie shell, Marie Callendar if you can find it

10 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated and tossed with

2 Tablespoons flour and a little pepper

3 Tbls. Fleischmann's unsalted margarine)

2 large onions (or one really giant Texas sweet one)

1 tablespoon chopped basil (fresh off the plants on the deck!)

2 large firm tomatoes, or four Romas, sliced

3 eggs [I use free-range eggs]

3/4 cup half-and-half

Melt the butter in a large skillet, slice the onions thin and sauté them very slowly and gently until they turn golden. This takes about a half hour, but it is critical to the taste.

Meanwhile, grate the cheese and toss it with the flour. Beat the eggs and cream. When the onions are transparent and golden, turn on the oven to 350 degrees.

Sprinkle a third of the grated cheese over the uncooked piecrust, then arrange the onions in a layer on top of the cheese.

In the still buttery onion pan, gently heat the tomato slices with the chopped basil for a minute or two. Arrange the tomato slices over the onions, then cover with the remaining cheese.

Pour the egg mixture over the cheese. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 40 - 50 minutes, until the top browns nicely and a knife blade comes out clean.

PECAN BREAD from Glinda

PECAN BREAD – adapted from an old Fanny Farmer Cook Book, with apologies to Mrs. Beeton

Plant 2 pecan trees. Wait for years and years until tree are large enough to bear.

Pray for a year with sufficient rain. If you get a crop, watch for the husks to start opening and curling back into points.

Quickly start gathering pecans before squirrels take them.

Circle the area under the trees a couple of times a day bending to pick up nuts, while shaking fist at tree rats.

Let pecans dry inside safe warm garage. Talk someone else into cracking them.

Once pecans are ready – start baking!



Sift into a bowl

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder

Using electric mixer beat in 3 tablespoons softened Smart Balance spread

Add

1 egg
1 cup of 1% milk
A splash of Southern Comfort
1 cup pecan meats, broken into pieces

Beat thoroughly. Spoon into loaf pan, sprayed with butter-flavored canola pan spray and sprinkled with Hawaiian raw sugar.

Bake at 350º F for about 45 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Turn out and let cool on its side on wire rack.

Negate healthy ingredients by slathering thick slices with butter.

Served by Diva Glinda in October 2007