Great-Grandmother McCarrell's Tea Cakes

I was so excited when my father emailed this recipe with the subtitle "150 years old."  I've heard many stories about my great-grandmother's delicious finger foods.  It's kind of funny to hear my dad talk about how delicious her strawberry jam sandwiches were (strawberry & white bread - sans crust!).

You'll see from the rather vague recipe blow, I have a lot of experimenting to do w/ this recipe.  I believe I'll make some and test them out on family members during Christmas - hopefully they'll help me tweak.

GGma doesn't specify how much flour, she just said to use enough to make a soft dough.  I started out with 1 1/2 c., but ended up adding and probably used about 2 cups.  I ended up baking for about 10 minutes.  I increased the tempurature to 325 during the last couple of minutes. 

I also baked half the dough and chilled half.  I'll bake the chilled portion later.

I can tell you that the soft doughy portion that I just baked was delicious.  They were puffy and delicate -- a delicious cross between a cookie and a cake.

Recipe follows:

Great Grandmother McCarrell's Tea Cakes

 150 year old recipe

1/12 cups butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

plain four (I used AP)

Beat eggs. Add sugar, salt, soda, baking powder and vanilla.  Then add creamed butter and enough plain four to this mixture to make a soft dough.  Roll very thin and sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Cut cookies the desired size.  Bake in moderate oven (about 300).  They bake quickly.

Quinoa Currant Muffins

I recently checked out the cookbook Veganomicon.  Giving vegan baking a go once again.  I thought this sounded like a healthy way to start the day.

The recipe called for either apricots or currants.  I used currants because that's what I had in the house.  The muffins probably would have been better w/ apricots.  I did love the texture of the quinoa in the muffins.  

On another note, I noticed that the ingredients list in the book left out the amount of baking soda.  I just eyeballed a little bit.  I'd say I used a couple of pinches.  maybe 3.  They rose fine and the texture seems fine.  

Here's the recipe.  

1 c. vanilla soy milk

1 tbsp. ground flaxseeds

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup agave nectar or pure maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups AP flour

1/4 cup almond meal or almond flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 1/4 cups cooked quinoa

1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots or currants

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease nonstick 12-cup muffin tin.  In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the soy milk and ground flaxseed.  Allow to sit for 1 minute, then whisk in oil, agave nectar and vanilla.

In a separate large bowl, sift together flour, almond meal, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just incorporated.  Gentl fold in the cooked quinoa and the apricots and mix until only the large lumps are gone.

Pour into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 20 to 22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.  

Yeasted Sugar Cake

This is another Deborah Madison recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Madison suggested cooking in a 9" cake pan or tart pan.  I used the tart pan...I thought it did fine.  The cake was delicious.  The only thing I would have done differently is spreading the butter on before sprinkling w/ sugar and baking.  I think I'll melt the butter next time and brush on.  Spreading softened butter over unbaked dough is a rather clumsy task. 

Deborah Madison had all kinds of wonderful serving options...none of which I had time for.  Just after baking, it was fine by itself.  The next day it really did need something.  

My husband poured maple syrup on it.  Not my speed.  

I made an "apricot orange sauce" - Melted a bit of apricot jam in the microwave, then poured a swig of Grand Marnier and mixed w/ a dab of butter.  I served slices of the cake drizzled w/ the sauce for dessert this evening.  My husband and I were both pleased.