Good morning readers. We're looking this morning for one thing: where to find Meyer lemons, and whether they are the same size as regular lemons. How about substitutes? The lemon questions came from Marianne.
This week's mailbox was filled to the delicious brim with cold-oven pound cakes. In addition to the ones you'll read below, we thank Marilyn King, Janet Bischoff, Ginny Green, Y. Ward, Mary Brown, Mary Grider, Marianne Halbrooks, Joanne Scott, Ruby Jean Smith, Robbie Whittle, Jimmie Lou Mulkey of Soddy-Daisy, Glenda Perry, Mildred Dennis of Chickamauga, Ga., and Dianne Price. Whew! This is a cake with a history.
We'll begin today with the version sent by Deb in Georgia.
Cream Cheese Cold-Oven Pound Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
11/2 cups butter, softened
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
11/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Do not preheat oven. Grease and flour a 12-cup tube pan.
Sift together flour and salt, and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar on low speed for 10 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs alternately with the dry ingredients, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Set the oven temperature to 325 F and bake for 11/2 hours or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan.
Grady Rutledge wrote that "While visiting our daughter and her family in South Carolina last year, she made this soup. We love it and hope your reader does also."
Tomato Basil Soup
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon each dried basil, salt and pepper
7 chopped garlic cloves
6 chopped tomatoes or 3 cans petite diced tomatoes
1 can chicken stock
Heat olive oil in a soup pot. Sauté onion, basil, salt and pepper in oil. Add garlic cloves and sauté until soft, then add tomatoes. Add chicken stock. Cook about 20 minutes, and then puree if desired. More garlic, pepper and fresh basil may be added after tasting.
Speaking of tomato soup, wouldn't it go well with pimiento cheese? Enter Jane Guthrie with a "small pimiento cheese discovery. I wanted some the other day and didn't have any pimientos. I did have a jar of roasted bell peppers in water and substituted them instead. Chopping them small enough was the only problem. It was good, looked the same and had a good flavor. I always add onion to my pimiento/pepper cheese and use finely grated sharp Cheddar. I have a friend who adds some mustard."
Mrs. Guthrie's cold-oven cake of choice is flavored with lemon, "a family recipe of a friend of mine from Queens, Joyce Mainz. It was printed in our cookbook, 'Cooking With Gladness Volume II' from Rivermont Presbyterian Church."
Cold-Oven Lemon Cake
1/2 cup Crisco (or Butter Crisco)
2 sticks margarine (or real butter)
3 cups sugar
3 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons lemon extract
Lemon curls for garnish (optional)
Lemon Frosting (recipe follows)
This makes a thick, creamy batter. Cream Crisco and margarine with sugar. Sift in flour, salt and baking powder. Add eggs, milk and lemon extract. Beat vigorously. Pour into greased and floured tube pan in a cold oven. Turn oven on to 325 F. Bake 11/2 hours. Frost with Lemon Frosting and garnish with lemon curls.
Lemon Frosting
1 box confectioners sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
Milk to thin
1 or 2 drops yellow food coloring
Mix together with an electric mixer until smooth.
Jimmie Lou Mulkey topped her pound-cake recipe with the following recipe for apple dumplings that she describes as "very good."
Apple Dumplings
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup butter
Combine to make syrup. Heat to boiling, and turn off heat. Let sit while you prepare apples and dough:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sweet milk
6 or more apples, cut in fourths
Butter to dot apples
Mix together flour, salt, baking powder, shortening and milk. Cut pastry in 6 parts. Roll 1/4-inch thick. Put 4 to 5 pieces of apple on each. Dot with butter, fold corners to center and pinch together. Pour syrup over dumplings and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Serve hot.
It's spicy autumn cooking time, and evidently baking weather. Shall we commence?
To Reach Us
Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send.
- Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750.
- E-mail: janehenegar@gmail.com.
- Fax: 423-668-5092.