1911 Bovina UP Church Cookbook - Snickerdoodles

My latest attempt using a recipe from the 1911 UP Church Cookbook had a very familiar name to me - Snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodles were one of the first cookies I tried when I got into baking and became a staple in my recipe repertoire. So I was intrigued to find this almost 100 year old version. It's not the Snickerdoodles I remember, though it's close. One puzzling aspect of the recipe was that it is in the Bread and Rolls section of the book, not the Cookies section. Here's the recipe:

Cream together 2 cups sugar, 4 tablespoons butter, 2 eggs, add 1 cup raisins, cut small; 1 cup milk, salt, 2/3 teaspoon soda, 1 1/3 teaspoon cream tartar, 1 qt flour. Drop small spoonfuls on buttered tins, sprinkle thick with mixed sugar and cinnamon; bake. -L.E. Dennis.

The recipe I used over the years did not include the milk or raisins and the cookies could be rolled into balls and put on the baking sheet. These were too sticky to be rolled. And they don't look like the ones I was used to either.

I baked them at 350 for about 8-9 minutes. They turned out ok, though I prefer my regular recipe. I shared them with a group at the church that went Christmas Caroling.

The recipe submitter was Miss Louisa E. Dennis. She was born in 1845 and was baptized into the UP Church as an adult in 1864. In the 1910 census, she was living with her sister Hellen and working as a milliner. By the 1920 census, she was living on her own, her sister having died in 1913. And she was not listed as having any occupation. What happened to her after that I do not know. Nor do I know much more about her background, such as who her parents were. But we have her recipe....

1911 Bovina UP Church Cookbook - Blackberry Cake

Ok, I'm in a baking rut with this cookbook, but I find that easier. I'll attempt a main course soon. In the meantime, I tried another cake.

Blackberry Cake

One cup sugar, 1 egg, butter, size of egg; 2 cups flour, 1 cup canned or fresh blackberries, a little salt, 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon cloves and nutmeg. Bake in layers - Mrs. J.M. Miller.

I used canned blackberries, including the liquid. Butter the size of an egg was about 4 tablespoons. I went easy on the cloves, with only 1/4 teaspoon, and left out the nutmeg because, well, I didn't have any! And I added one critical item that I think was missing - baking soda.

It took two attempts. My first try was ok but the seeds were noticeable while the berries were not. I made a mistake by mixing the berries with everything else. So for my second attempt, I put in everything including the blackberry liquid, but not the berries themselves. I had to carefully fold them into the batter before baking. With the second attempt, you could at least recognize and taste the berries. That was an improvement, but while edible, I wasn't bowled over by this. Sometime, I'll try fresh blackberries - but I'll then need to add more liquid to make it so the berries can be folded into the batter.

The contributor of this recipe was my great great aunt, Bertha Anderson Miller. She was born in 1857 and married John McCune Miller in 1886. She was widowed in 1920 and died in 1938. The Millers lived on what later became Suits-Us Farm on Pink Street.

1911 Bovina UP Church Cookbook - French Rolls follow-up

On October 9, I tried my first recipe from the 1911 Bovina cookbook. As I noted in the blog, I wanted some feedback from my friend (and former colleague) Pamela Cooley, who has a lot of experience working with historical recipes. She attempted to put a response in the comments field, but apparently it was too long, so I've made it a blog entry follow-up. Here's her response to my questions about the recipe:

"Despite your confusion, it appears from the look of your final product and comments from your family, that your (baking) instincts served you very well. Those rolls look beautiful! So as you requested, I’ll use the rest of my Comment to explain my thoughts about Ms. Scott's recipe.

"About the yeast: What Eva Belle was referring to when she listed 1/2 cup of yeast was what is called “starter” today. It is the yeasty flour and liquid mixture saved from the last batch of bread to start the next batch. And the type of bread made with starter is now usually called “sourdough bread.” I bet that Eva’s rolls, made with her starter, would have had a “sour” taste that yours lacked.

"That you dissolved a package of dry yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water was spot on, although another time if you wanted to make fewer rolls, you might try dissolving the dry yeast in a couple of tablespoons of warm water instead.

"About how wet the dough was for the first rise: This is fine, and typical of some bread recipes.

"About the amount of flour you eventually used: For 2 1/2 cups of liquid, I would expect that 6+ cups of flour is about right. Many early bread recipes leave the final measurement of flour up to the baker (i.e. “add enough flour to knead”). This is because of inconsistencies in the make up of different flours, the humidity on bread baking day, and other vagaries.

"About scalding the milk: You are right about not needing to scald the milk because milk is now pasteurized. If I understand correctly, something in raw milk (I’m not quite sure what) had a tendency to kill the yeast, and that “something” was killed in turn by the scalding. But, in this recipe, there was another advantage to using the scalded milk: it would have melted the butter and kept the temperature of the mixture warmer so the yeast would have worked more quickly.

"About the shape of a French Roll: I bet a different shape wouldn’t have made your rolls any tastier than they already were, but traditional French Rolls are shaped in a longish oval, scored on top lengthwise with a sharp blade, and placed on a sheet to bake so that they don’t touch each other and get crusty all round."

Thank you so much Pamela for your feedback.

1911 Bovina UP Church Cookbook - Applesauce Cake

Tonight's baking attempt from the 1911 cookbook was a simple one - an Applesauce cake. Here's the recipe:

Apple Sauce Cake

One and a half cup cold apple sauce, without sugar; 2 teaspoons soda, mixed with sauce; 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup butter, melted; 1 teaspoon cloves, 1 cup raisins, 2 cups flour, pinch salt. - H.L.A.

I mixed everything in the order given and baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes in two 9-inch round pans. The applesauce was home made, using apples from my sister and brother-in-law's back yard. My only ingredient substitution was brown sugar for white sugar (and for all I know, brown sugar may have been meant, though by 1900, brown sugar was considered inferior to white sugar). And instead of mixing by hand, I used an electric mixture (though mixing by hand would not have been much more of an effort). The layers came out small, so one pan might have sufficed. And I do want to try it as a loaf. The taste - not bad, but I'm not a big fan of cloves. I think it will be great with a little whipped cream (and maybe reduce the cloves a bit).

This is a pretty standard recipe for applesauce cake. I found almost the identical recipe, submitted by Mary Inman, for the 1975 Bovina Historical Society cookbook. The only addition was a tablespoon of molasses.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to figure out who H.L.A is. Some people who submitted recipes only gave their initials. So the contributor appears to be lost to history, though her recipe is not.

1911 Bovina UP Church Cookbook - French Rolls

I took my first stab today at trying a recipe from the 1911 Bovina UP Church Cookbook, choosing to make 'French Rolls.' (See my July 15, 2010 posting for further information about this cookbook.) Here's the whole recipe:

Scald two cups milk, add three tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup yeast and 2 cups flour. Beat thoroughly, cover and let rise. Cut down and add enough flour to knead. Let rise again, put out on floured board, roll out and shape. Let rise in pans and bake in a hot oven fifteen minutes.

This recipe presented several challenges. My main confusion was over the 1/2 cup of yeast. I ended up dissolving a package in 1/2 cup of warm water. It made the dough too wet (see the picture below). I let it go ahead and raise, and it did raise some, but I had to more than triple the flour to be able to handle it after the first raising. I wonder if the recipe should have read 1/2 cake of yeast. No time for the raising was given, so I assumed the dough needed to double in bulk after each raising. And I wasn't sure how the rolls should have been shaped, so I just did them as dinner rolls.





















I used some modern substitutions, including bread flour and skim milk instead of whole milk. I did not scald the milk - I understand that is a holdover from pre-pasteurization days. And I used a Kitchen Aide mixer to knead the dough. With no temperature, I had to go with my own experience. I baked the rolls at 375 degrees. They took about 25 minutes to bake, so I suspect the oven wasn't hot enough and that 400 would have made more sense.

I have a friend and former colleague from the New York State Archives, Pamela Cooley, who is an expert at historical recipes - she's already tried some of the recipes from this cookbook. I'll be touching base with her for any thoughts she may have about this.

But when all is said and done, the rolls turned out just fine and were served at a dinner I made for my sister and brother-in-law. And the verdict from them is that they are very good.

This recipe was submitted by Eva B. Maynard. Eva was Eva Belle Scott. She was born in 1879 and married William H. Maynard in 1899. Eva joined the UP Church in 1890 was a member for 23 years when she transferred her membership elsewhere, probably because she left the area. Eva died in 1961.

More recipes from Bovina's past are coming, so get your appetites ready for further culinary treats.