Vintage Receipts

Tonight I made Coffee Cake from a receipt in the March ’08 issue of  “Good Housekeeping Magazine.” 1908, that is. This was on page 323, in a section dedicated to “Saving Without Sacrifice.” The savings in this receipt was that the cake required no egg or milk, a precious commodity for city dwellers during those times.

As with the Cream Blueberry Gingerbread receipt, this cake also appears to be chocolate. However, the dark color is due to molasses being one of its ingredients. When making this, I varied slightly from the original receipt below. 

First, I only made half the batch, since I didn’t want to use four whole cups of flour. Next, I used only 1/4 cup of butter, and for the remaining 1/4 cup for the half batch, I used canola oil. (Much better than lard or beef drippings, anyway.) I didn’t chop the raisins, just left them whole. But I did take several tablespoons of flour from my 2 cups, for coating the raisins. This way, they don’t stick together when added to the batter.

And, of course, the pan must be greased and floured before adding batter to it. Since I was making half batch, and my 8×8 inch metal pan was thinner than ones used in 1908, I only baked this for 35 minutes in the moderate (350º F) oven. I thought it turned out very well.

Since last week’s Raspberry Preserves experiment turned out a fiasco, I decided to try something else from the 1921  Fruits and Their Cookery. So, this time it was on page 128, for Cream Blueberry Gingerbread. 

Unlike last week, this turned out well. Despite several obstacles I had to overcome. First, only having 3/4 cup of sour cream, I improvised, substituting canned cream for missing 1/4 cup sour cream. Second, after adding the soda, the batter really leavened.  It appeared it would require a bigger pan than the (about 8×8 inch) pan I’d first chosen to use. The finished gingerbread was to only be an inch and a half high, so I used a larger pan. But, the smaller pan probably would have been okay, because, after spreading the batter in the longer pan, there was still room left. 

I’d never thought of blueberries going with gingerbread, but it tasted pretty good. The texture is similar to brownies. Even the color. But, instead of chocolate/cocoa, the molasses gives it the dark color. As with about all receipts/recipes I’ve tried from old cookbooks, sweets aren’t overly sweet, like commonly found in today’s desserts.

Early cookbooks assume the cook knows all about baking, so doesn’t cover many of the steps that, in those days, were taken for granted. The metal pan used for baking must be buttered and floured to prevent gingerbread from sticking to pan. I figured “bake gently” referred to a slow oven, but I wasn’t sure how slow. I’d seen modern-day gingerbread recipes call for a 350°F oven. To be on safe side, I preheated oven to 350°F, but baked gingerbread at 325°F. I think this is about right: it was done in almost 25 minutes.