Apple Crisp - Gramma Hoover's Recipes

Here is another recipe from my Gramma Hoover, but this one was a loose card inside her write-in cook book. You can see how simply some recipes were written out by her. 

Hope Knight was a sweet lady that Gramma worked with at the Rural Bible Mission in western Michigan. RBM had a similar format to Child Evangelism, but the ministry was much smaller. Their missionaries went out and did release time classes for children from public schools and chapel services for children in Christian schools during the school year. During the summer vacation (holiday), they did Vacation Bible Schools for various churches who invited them in. Gramma and Hope Knight both worked at the headquarters where materials were written, printed, and sent out as well as the missionaries' newsletters. I believe Hope was an artist who helped create visual materials. Gramma worked in the printing press room and mail room.

Editorial Notes are in brackets.

Apple Crisp

Slice 6 peeled apples into baking pan. [EN: you'll have to judge the size needed. It looks like maybe 8x8 or 9x9 inches, or a 2 qt. casserole dish, possibly. I would use sweet apples since there's not sugar added to them.]

In bowl work together:

1/2 C. flour

1/2 C. oatmeal

1/2 stick margarine [EN: or butter]

1/3 C. sugar

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. nutmeg [EN: ground]

[EN: Spread the crumb mixture evenly on the top of the apples.]

Bake at 450F for 35 minutes.

Cowboy Cookies Tutorial

Another yummy recipe from Mary's Nest traditional foods kitchen.

Cookie recipe to print.

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How to Make Your Own Brown Sugar

Photo property of shop.myblueprint.com

Making your own brown sugar is very easy. My mom started doing it years ago because we enjoyed eating it on our hot cereal and it was more expensive than white sugar. (That's one of those ridiculous things where you pay more for something that takes less effort because brown sugar isn't processed as long as white, but I digress.) My mom made hers in a food processor. I make mine in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. This tutorial shows mixing it by hand with a fork.

Make Brown Sugar

Simple Raisin Tarts

I first published this recipe here in March of 2012. These are really easy to make and I hope someone enjoys them! :-) There is no added sugar, but they are very sweet because of the raisins.
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These raisin tarts are one of my dad’s favorite “cookies.” My Gramma Hoover used to make them for him as a special favor. Since she is no longer here to do this, I have done it for him a few times (not nearly enough). I made a batch for his birthday this past February (2012). :-)

These are super easy to make. So much so that we have no recipe. We just make them. One thing that you will need is a tart pan or a Madeleine pan, however, it is possible that a muffin/cupcake pan might work if you only press the dough into the lower part of the cups. I used a Madeleine type pan for these since our tart pans had to be discarded a few years ago. (My Madeleine pan makes round shells.)

Simple Raisin Tarts

Make up a single or double pie crust recipe of your choice. (I made these with a whole wheat – all purpose flour mixture I think.) Cut into small pieces and press into the tart pan.

Bake till just slightly browned around the edges. Do not over bake (especially if you use whole wheat flour). Allow to cool slightly in the pans and then remove gently to a rack to cool.

In a sauce pan place a generous portion of raisins – 1 1/2 to 2 cups. Barely cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer till quite soft, adding water as necessary to prevent burning. You may like to add a bit of cinnamon, or at the end you may add some orange flavoring.

When the shells and filling are both cool, spoon the filling into the shells. They are ready to serve!

NOTE: If you end up with too much raisin filling, use it as a spread on graham crackers or toast. If you don’t have enough for your number of shells, simply fill the extras with a little jam or jelly.  We never used a recipe, we just “winged it” with the extra or lack thereof. :-)

By the way, if you don’t want raisin tarts, just make the shells and fill them with jam or jelly to start with. Delicious! :-)

Card Making: The Edible Cookie Card

Since my dad's birthday is this coming up I thought it would be fun to share a card my mom made for him some years back.

Mom and I made Dark Pfeffernusse for my dad for his birthday that year.  It is his favorite cookie of all time.  It is also connected with his Mennonite background, so it has fond memories for him as well. While we were making them, somehow the idea came up that Mom should make letters to spell "I love you!" to make him a special "greeting card."  :-)  We baked them and they were stored at my house so that Daddy wouldn't stumble across them before his birthday.

You might be able to do this with peanut butter cookie dough, but it needs to be something that doesn't rise or spread a lot while baking.

To make the card, we covered a piece of sturdy cardboard with foil and then Mom "glued" the cookies to it with some plain white icing.

I made a little card for her to add using one of my own designs made on the computer (with one of my own photos), and she added a card with her signature.

As you can see from this picture, my dad quite liked his card.  Who wouldn't like an edible birthday card made with one's favorite cookies?  Haha!  :-)

Cherry Pound Cake

 

My husband made this for my birthday a few years ago.  It is one of **the best** cakes I have ever eaten.  Not low in sugar and a lot of (chemically altered) maraschino cherries are included, but – for once in a lifetime – it is SO good! :-)

Cherry Pound Cake

This link it so Taste of Home’s web page.  My copy is from one of the Reiman magazines and is in my recipe file. :-)

It made a thick, lovely batter…

…and a beautiful, golden cake.

The imperfections were not a problem because they covered by the lovely pink frosting – which my husband applied very carefully. :-)

Such a beautiful, yummy cake!

The cake was so rich we ended up cutting the slices quite thin and we got a lot of slices from one cake.  We froze part of them and they did really well.  I think I sliced it (perhaps after refrigeration), put a slip of waxed paper between each slice to help them stay separate and froze the slices in a plastic sealing container.