I like to cook. I like sweets. I hate to shop, and tend to cook with whatever’s on hand. Due to good freezing habits, I always have butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. What delicious things can I make with just these ingredients?
The other night I made a poundcake out of Joy of Cooking. Not bad. Even better stale, toasted.
I think we could assume one or two additional ingredients. Water, for instance. I usually have vegetable oil and brown sugar as well. Very often I have cream or buttermilk in the freezer. Spices are iffy – perhaps I could find a bit of cinnamon or such, if I looked behind everything in all the cabinets.
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
2.5 cups milk
pince of salt
Optional:
vanilla, extra egg yolks, cinnamon or other spices
Mix it all together. Pour into oven-safe custard cups or a casserole dish. Put the cups/dish into a larger dish (a 9x13" pan works well) and add about 1" or so of very hot (almost boiling) water to the pan - make it go about halfway up the casserole dish/custard cups. If the casserole dish/cups slide around too much, fold up a kitchen towel and place in the pan before you add the custard pans. Just make sure the towel is totally soaked in water before you put it in the oven.
Place in 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until a knife stuck in the center comes out clean.
You can also adapt this recipe to make bread pudding. Collect stale bread until you have enough to pretty much fill a casserole dish. Cube it up, add to dish. Make custard as above, pour over the bread. Add raisins and cinnamon/nutmeg/allspice if desired. Bake same as custard.
Finnish Pancake
3 eggs
2 t. salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups milk
3/4 cups flour
optional: cinnamon/nutmeg/etc.
Beat eggs. Add the rest of the ingredents. Pour into a buttered 8 or 9 inch square square baking pan. Bake around 20 minutes at 400 degrees, or until brown on the outside and custardy inside. Serve with more butter and jam/jelly/syrup.
1 lb. butter
1 c. sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 c. flour
1/2 c. corn starch
Put butter into a large mixing bowl. Beat at medium until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating well. Stir in vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine flour and corn starch; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at lowest speed after each addition.
Press into a 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 and bake 20 more minutes, until top is lightly browned.
1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Directions
1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2 In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Stir in the eggs. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. In a small bowl, stir together the 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the cinnamon. Roll dough into walnut sized balls, then roll the balls in the cinnamon-sugar. Place them onto an unprepared cookie sheet, two inches apart.
3 Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be slightly brown. Remove from sheets to cool on wire racks.
Pastry cream or “creme patissiere”. Use it to fill pie crusts and top it with fresh cherries or strawberries.
MILK 2 cups
SUGAR 1/2 cup
SALT 1/8 tsp.
YOLKS 4
CORNSTARCH 1/3 cup
CAKE FLOUR 1 T.
BUTTER - 3 T.
VANILLA EXTRACT 1 tsp.
Scald milk in a large saucepan. Meanwhile, beat up the eggs, salt and sugar together until light and lemon-colored, then beat in the cornstarch and flour. Dribble the hot milk into the mixture, beating it in well. Return the mixture to the saucepan, and slowly bring it to a boil, stirring all the time with a whisk. It will be lumpy at first, but smooth out as you whisk it. After it has boiled gently for a couple of minutes, remove it from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Cool the mixture and use it to fill pastry crusts or to mix with fresh summer fruits.
Whoa…a cooking thread’s been up for nearly 24 hours and You-Know-Who hasn’t made an appearance yet?
Somebody’d better go and check on him. He may have fainted at his dinner table and pitched face-first into a bowl of his Ultimatest Gazpacho Ever and drowned himself.
…oh, yes. Cookies. Simple butter-cookies or sugar-cookies, much like DeVena suggests, only I like a little brown sugar in 'em, and hold the cinnamon.
Mmmmm pugluvr, I just made Pate a Choux with your filling. I used Alton Brown’s pastry recipe and added nutmeg and cinnamon to your mix. Deee-lish. I’ve always wanted a good filling recipe. Thanks.
Pie Crust is basically butter/flour/water + sugar and/or salt for flavour.
Quiche filling is basically eggs & milk/cream + pretty much whatever else you might have on hand that sounds like a good idea. Cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, ham, chicken, spinach, you name it, it can probably be thrown into a quiche to good effect.
I tend to cook by the seat of my pants, so I’m not too good with actual recipes and amounts, but if you want measurements and instructions, let me know, and I’ll look some specifics up.
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
3 heaping T. flour
1 1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 heaping T. butter
Beat eggs in medium bowl; add sugar, melted butter, milk, flour and vanilla. Stir well. Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake at 350° for 1 hour or until solid in the middle and slightly brown on top.
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 package of dry yeast ( about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 1/4 cups warm water ( 100 - 110 degrees)
3 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray.
Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water in large bowl; let stand for 5 minutes. (It should bubble to show it is activated.) Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups and level with a knife. Add 2 3/4 cups flour, oil and salt to yeast mixture; stir til blended.
Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. (10 mins, aprox.) add enough of remaining flour a tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands. Dough will feel tacky.
Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Spray top of dough and cover and let rise in a warm (85*) free from drafts for about 1 hour or until doubled in size. ( Press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Punch down dough, cover and let rest for 5 minutes. Divide dough in half. Shape into a standard pizza cirle with floured rolling pin or wine bottle. (makes two 12 inch pizzas)
Put on toppings of choice. Leave a one inch border to prevent spillage. Preheat Oven to 450. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly brown.
If you have a pizza stone, preheat about 20 minutes.
You can freeze the extra dough: let it rise once, punch it down and roll into a ball. Place in freezer bag. Can be frozen for up to two months. Thawing: allow at least 12 hours or overnight. Leave in bag. When ready to use cut away plastic bag with scissors and shape, bake and eat.
