Mennonite Monday - Salted Peanut Chews

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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This week decided to make the Salted Peanut Chews (pg 85W).  I need to give a little explanation about my experience before I encourage you to make this recipe.  For me, this recipe was a flop, however there where a few changes I made, which could have created the way they turned out.  With that said, I will also mention that I have had these bars before and they tasted very good, so I would still encourage you to make this recipe if you note the mistakes I made, which will be outlined in the narrative below. 

Salted Peanut Chews

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp soda

1/2 cup margarine

1 tsp vanilla

2 egg yolks

3 sups mini marshmallows

Topping:

2/3 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup margarine

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups peanut butter chips

2 cups rice cereal

2 cups salted peanuts

Heat oven to 350*.  Combine all crust ingredients except marshmallows until crumb mixture forms.  Press in bottom of ungreased 9x13".  Bake 12-15 minutes.  Immediately sprinkle with marshmallows.  Bake 1-2 minutes until marshmallows puff.  Cool.  Prepare topping.  In large sauce pan heat corn syrup, margarine, vanilla and peanut butter chips until smooth and melted.  Remove from heat, stir in cereal and nuts.  Immediately spoon over marshmallow crust, chill, cut into bars, 36 bars.  

 All of the crust ingredients ready to mix. 

 The crumbly crust mixture. 

 The crust pressed in the bottom of the 9x13 pan. 

 Adding the marshmallows.  I would used a whole bag of marshmallows next time, not just 3 cups.  

 After the marshmallows have puffed up.  Here was my first mistake, I did not let the marshmallows cool before I put on the topping, which made the marshmallow layer almost nonexistent between the other two layers.  

 The ingredients that need to be melted for the topping.  I made two mistakes for this.  1) I didn't have any corn syrup, so I used a substitution of 2/3 cup sugar and 3 Tbl water.  Taste wise I think the substitution worked fine, but the texture lacked.  2) I heated the mixture too fast and the peanut butter chips didn't not want to melt correctly. 

 The heated topping mixture. 

 Pouring the mixture over the rice cereal and peanuts.  

 Everything mixed together. 

 Adding the mixed topping.  

The finished product.  As a said earlier, this did not turn out very well for me, but I have had these bars before and they are very good, so it may have been due to the changes and substitutions I made.  

Be sure to vote for next weeks recipe in the tool bar to the right.  

Mennonite Monday - Cake or Buttermilk Brownies

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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Since I made a recipe that used used buttermilk last week and had some leftover, I thought it would be good to make a recipe that would help me use up some buttermilk.  I turned to the Cake or Buttermilk Brownies (pg 20Y) and found a great recipe that takes less than an hour to make and makes a large pan of brownies.  


Cake or Buttermilk Brownies
Sift: 
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt


Bring to a boil and then mix into dry ingredients: 
1 1/2 sticks oleo (margarine) 
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup water


Add: 
1 teaspoon soda to 1 cup buttermilk and add to batter. 


Add: 
2 eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla


Mix together with spoon.  Pour into jelly roll pan.  Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Frost while hot. 


Frosting: 
1/2 stick oleo
3 tablespoons milk 
1 or 2 tablespoons cocoa 
Bring to a boil and add 2 3/8 cups powdered sugar, and add 1 teaspoon vanilla.  1/2 cup nuts may be added after brownies are frosted.  (Another recipes called for 1/2 cup margarine, 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup buttermilk.) 

 I was a little skeptical about mixing this recipe by hand because I love my Kitchen Aid mixer, but since the recipe said it should be mixed by hand, I decided to give it a try.  I'm glad I did because I can honestly say that it was easy to mix by had.  

 I threw all of the ingredient into the pot to start heating while I measured the other ingredients. 

The mixture did not boil like water does, but it was easy to tell it was bubbling under the light brown bubbles.   

 Pouring the boiling mixture into the dry ingredients. 

 At this point the batter was pretty thick, but still easy to mix. 

 Adding soda to the butter milk. 

 Adding the buttermilk to the batter.  

 It took a little bit of stirring to get the buttermilk mixed in, but it made the batter much thinner and a little lighter in color. 

 Adding the eggs and vanilla. 

 The batter completely mixed together. 

 Pour the batter into the pan.  I decided to spray the pan with Pam just to be safe, so the brownies didn't stick.  

 While the brownies were in the oven, I started the frosting. I used the same pot that I had for the batter to minimize dirty pans. 

 It did not take long to reach a boil.  

 Adding the powdered sugar.  

 And the vanilla. 

 The frosting thickened very nicely.  

 When the brownie was done, I did a toothpick check to make sure it was cooked through and the toothpick came out clean.  

 I spread on the frosting right away, which seemed to work well because the frosting was warm and was easy to spread.  

 The final product. 

I couldn't help but eat a piece while it was warm and it was wonderful.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been a scoop of ice cream.  

Mennonite Monday - Brownies for a Crowd

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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This week I made Brownies for a crowd (pg 17 Y) for Mennonite Monday.  This recipe is quick and will serve at least 24 people a good size brownie. I ate one of these brownies with ice cream on top, which was really really good.  

Brownies for a Crowd

Beat 1/2 cup oleo with 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in 4 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Mix well and stir in 1 (1 lb.) can (bottle) of chocolate syrup. Sift together 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Stir in chocolate mixture. Pour into a well greased jelly roll pan 15.5x10.5.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 22-25 minutes. 

Combine 6 tablespoons oleo, 6 tablespoons milk, 1 cup sugar in a saucepan.  Stir to mix.  Bring to a boil and boil 30 seconds.  Add 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces.  Stir until mixture thickens slightly and cools.  Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Spread over bars.  

Oleo and sugar

With eggs and vanilla added

The entire brownie mixture.

When you let the sugar, milk and oleo boil, it will boil up pretty high.

This turns out to be a big pan of brownies.

    I meant to have a picture of one brownie, but I took the pan to church and it came home empty, so you will have to try them for yourself.  

NEXT WEEK: Potato Pizza.

Mennonite Monday - Chocolate Brownies

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

~

This week I made Chocolate Brownies (pg 17Y) from scratch.  It often amazes me how easy it is to make food from scratch.  You need to have a few more ingredients on hand to make recipes, like these brownies, from scratch, but the end product is so much better.  

Chocolate Brownies

4 squares chocolate

1/3 cup margarine

1/3 cup shortening

 4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 1/3 cup sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt chocolate with shortening and margarine.  Beat eggs well, add sugar gradually and add the melted chocolate mixture.  Sift flour and add baking powder and salt and vanilla to mixture.  Sprinkle nuts on top if desired.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 

I used butter flavored Crisco because that is what I had on hand and it seemed to work well. 

Mixing the egg and sugar together.

Adding the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture.

Adding the flour mixture.

Mixing it all together.

The recipe did not say what type of pan to use, so I used a 9 x 13 pan, which worked well.  I would suggest spraying the pan, so the brownies don't stick.

I put some semi sweet chocolate chips on the brownies instead of nuts to add a little more chocolate flavor.

 NEXT WEEK: Sweet Potato Balls and Chicken -N- Biscuits

Mennonite Monday - Lemon Bars

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

~

I did not get the Mennonite Monday poll posted last week, so I had to decide what I would make this week. On Tuesday night I was at the Preschool Committee meeting at our church, when we started talking about the possibility of creating a cookbook as a fundraiser for the preschool. We know that both of the church cookbooks are out of print, so we are interested in creating a new cookbook with recipes from the white and yellow church cookbook, plus some new recipes of our own.
Please leave a comment if you think a new cookbook would be a good idea and/or you would be interested in purchasing one. I'm curious to see if there is interest in this project.

Okay, so back to the recipe. As we were talking about the white and yellow cookbooks, we decided that it was kind of like this secret code that we talk in and is hard to understand unless you own the cookbooks. In this conversation, Arlyce Erb's Lemon Bars came up, so I searched through my cookbooks and found the recipe on page 21 of the yellow cookbook.

Let me tell you, this recipe is AMAZING. They are also incredibly easy for being made from scratch. I have tried to make a few recipes of lemon bars since we have been married. One from a box and at least one I found on the internet. I will never need to find another recipe for lemon bars again.

Lemon Bars
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup oleo
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 eggs beaten
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix flour, oleo and powdered sugar. Put in 9 x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then mix together eggs, sugar, flour and lemon juice. Pour over hot baked crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool and cut. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

The mixture is pretty crumbly after it is all mixed up.

I did not press down the the crust in the bottom of the pan, but others I have talked to always press down the crust in the pan, so it is up to you.

I mixed the bar ingredients together while the crust was baking in the oven.

As soon as the crust came out of the oven, I poured the lemon mix on top.

In the oven.

After it was done baking.

With the powdered sugar on top.

The final project. YUM! I couldn't leave these alone. I even started eating them while they were still warm.