Mom's Fruit Pizza

I don't know if my mother made this one up on her own, but I've never seen or heard of it elsewhere. Like most home-grown recipes, there's no quantities because you can vary them to suit yourself.

Mom usually did this with apples or peaches; if you use apples, use tart baking apples. Have fun and experiment with other fruit: pears, for instance, would also work well.

1 biscuit recipe (Mom made hers from Bisquick, but homemade works well too.)
Peeled, cored and sliced fruit
Granulated sugar

Roll out the biscuit dough to fill a lightly-greased baking sheet, about 1/4 inch thick. Lay out the fruit in a single layer, covering the entire dough. Sprinkle the top with sugar; if you're using apples, also sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 450 degrees until the dough is a light golden brown, about 15 minutes.

It's wonderful served warm, with ice cream!

Mincemeat Pie (the EASIER version)

If you're not into the previous mincemeat's all-day recipe.....

2 cups prepared mincemeat (Cross & Blackwell is my family's favorite)
2 cups thinly-sliced pared tart apples
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Pastry for a 2-crust 8-inch pie

Combine mincemeat, apples and lemon peel. Pour filling into the unbaked bottom crust; cover with top crust and crimp edges. Cut vents in top crust. Sprinkle lightly with sugar.
Bake at 400 degrees about 35 minutes.

Homemade Mincemeat Pie (NOT from a jar!)

Someone mentioned how she hadn't had a good mincemeat pie in a while; it's even gotten hard to find the jarred fillings at the holidays anymore. Hrumph. Well, for all the deprived mincemeat lovers, here's an older from-scratch recipe --- it's very good, but boy is it ever a lot more work than opening a jar! Serve it warm; it's great with a really good vanilla ice cream.

(I honestly can't say how many total pies this will make..... I started to simply eat bowls-full of it.....)

2 pounds beef neck
1 pound suet
4 pounds tart apples
4 cups sugar
2 pounds currants
3 pounds raisins
1/2 pound finely-chopped citron
Juice and grated peel of 2 oranges
Juice and grated peel of 2 lemons
1 pint apple cider or apple juice
1 tablespoon salt
1 and 1/4 teaspoons grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon mace

Simmer beef, covered in water, until tender, approximately 3 hours. Cool. Coarsely chop with suet and apples.
Add all other ingredients and mix. Simmer 1 hour.
Fill the unbaked bottom crust of an 8-inch pie with 2 to 2 and 1/2 cups of the mixture; cover with top crust, seal edges. Make vents in top crust. Bake at 450 degrees about 35 minutes. (Yes, a very hot 450 degree oven is correct!)

Brownies

Like cornbread, there's no need to bother with any pre-packaged brownie mixes: it's cheaper, better-tasting and just as easy to make your own from scratch. Also, you can substitute 3 tablespoons of powdered cocoa plus 1 tablespoon of butter for each square of the unsweetened baking chocolate.

2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 chopped nuts (optional)

Melt chocolate and butter. Mix flour with baking powder and salt.
Beat eggs well, and gradually beat in sugar; blend in chocolate and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, add nuts.
Pour into greased 8x8 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Cool, cut into approximately 20 brownies.

Cheesecake

In case you don't already know what one is: a spring-form pan is a pan that comes in two pieces. There's a flat disc that's the removable bottom, and another piece that wraps around to form the vertical side. The side piece opens and closes with a latch, so when its open its actually bigger around than whatever you just made, and is easy to remove without damaging your cake. They come in lots of different sizes.

I'm mostly a plain cheesecake fan, but you can top it with pineapple, strawberries, raspberries or blueberries.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 and 2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
Dash of cinnamon (optional)

Blend ingredients well, then press evenly into the bottom and about halfway up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan.

Cheesecake Filling

6 eggs
2 and 1/2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 pounds cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
1 and 1/2 cups light cream

Beat eggs for five minutes, gradually adding sugar. Add in flour, salt, lemon and vanilla.
In another bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy, then gradually beat in the cream until smooth.
Add egg mixture to cheese and keep beating.
Pour in graham cracker crust and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off the heat; open the oven door and let the cake stand in the oven until cool (overnight is fine). Refridgerate 8 hours before serving.
Warning: don't try to cool the cake too fast, because the filling will split and develop deep cracks.

Baked Apples

I suspect this is an old New England recipe: I haven't come across anyone from other regions who has even heard of such a thing. But they're easy and flavorful, and a great dessert in cold weather.

Apples (one per person)
Raisins
Butter
Brown sugar

Core the apples, but do NOT peel them or cut them up: just carve out a 'tunnel' from top to bottom and remove the core. Stuff the hole in each apple with raisins, top each with 1 or 2 tablespoons of brown sugar then a pat of about half a tablespoon of butter. Bake at 375 degrees for one hour.
Serve hot, with milk or vanilla ice cream.

Mrs. Peck's No-Sugar Apple Pie

Ethel Peck was our neighbor in Connecticut, and a life-long friend of the family. When she and her husband, Fred Peck, retired from their chicken farm, they moved to Maine to run a fishing camp. After his death, Mrs. Peck moved to a retirement home in Connecticut: she chose one because it featured weekly trips to the dog-track races. Later, when she needed a physical therapist because of her arthritic hands, she convinced the therapist that playing cards (mostly gin) would count as that therapy.

This is her safe-for-diabetics apple pie; although she was an excellent cook and could easily make her own light and flaky pie crusts, she passed on this recipe when she was in her late eighties, and insisted on using a store-bought crust because she said she "wasn't going to waste her remaining time on Earth in a kitchen making pie crusts." Bless you, Mrs. Peck, for all you gave us!

1 Pillsbury Pie Crust (red box), room temperature
6 MacIntosh apples, pared and sliced
10 teaspoons Sweet & Low
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 or 5 pats butter or margarine
2 tablespoons flour
milk

Grease pie pan with Pam vegetable spray.
Sprinkle flour over a square of wax paper, open pie crust and place on flour. Turn pie crust over and place in pie pan flour side up. Spread apples around and sprinkle with the spices, Sweet & Low and pats of butter.
Wet the edge of the pie crust, put the top crust on; trim around the edges and flute them.
Put a cut or two in the top crust for vents, lightly brush the top with milk.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Scripture Cake and Burnt Sugar Syrup

I first came across references to Scripture Cake in a mystery novel, of all places; it intrigued me enough to hunt down a recipe. The cake appears to come from the hills of Appalachia. There are several variations of it; this is, to me, the best of the three that I've personally tried. This is also the only one I've seen that adds any kind of icing, or gives a specific oven temperature.

Traditionally a Scripture Cake recipe would only list a Bible verse and a quantity for each ingredient; you were supposed to look up each verse to figure out what that ingredient might be. But to make your life easier, I'll be nice and give that information too!

Scripture Cake

1 cup Judges 5:25 (butter)
1 and 1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
3 Isiah 10:14 (eggs, yolks & whites separated)
2 cups 1-Kings 4:22 (flour)
2 teaspoons Luke 13:21 (baking powder)
3 teaspoons 1-Kings 10:10 (one each of cinnamon, mace and cloves)
1/2 teaspoon Leviticus 2:13 (salt)
1/2 cup Judges 4:19 or Genesis 43:24 (milk or water)
1 tablespoon Proverbs 24:13 (honey)
2 cups 1-Samuel 30:11 (one each of raisins and finely chopped figs)
1/2 cup Genesis 43:11 (almonds)

Dredge figs, raisins and almonds in 1 tablespoon flour, set aside. Mix together all other dry ingredients.
Cream together butter, sugar and honey; add egg yolks one at a time. Alternately add in dry intredients and milk, beginning and ending with dry. Stir in fruit; batter should be stiff.
Beat egg whites to peaks; stir into batter one cup at a time. Spoon into greased 8x11 baking dish.
Bake at 375 degrees one hour. Cool on a wire rack for at least ten minutes before removing from baking dish.

Burnt Sugar Syrup for Scripture Cake

1 and 1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
1/2 cup Genesis 24:45 (water)
1/4 cup Genesis 18:8 (butter)

Melt sugar in saucepan over low heat; stir occasionally, until deep golden brown. Add water, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from heat. Add butter and stir until it melts. Allow to cool; drizzle over cooled Scripture Cake and garnish with whole almonds.