Cook's Exchange: Readers offer more sweet selections
It's a sweet trip to the kitchen with readers' favorite dessert recipes.
Last week's column which featured some cakes that I enjoy making inspired readers to share theirs. Readers can feel free to share their favorite recipes anytime. Tried-and-true recipes always seem to be the best.
"I made this chocolate cream cake a few years ago for our church weekly Wednesday night dinners, and it was a huge hit," said Betty Bailey of Bradenton.
CHOCOLATE CREAM CAKE
1 package chocolate cake mix
1 package instant chocolate pudding (small size)
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I use canola oil) and water
4 eggs
Bake at 350 degrees in a 13-by-9-inch baking pan for 30-35 minutes. Cool on rack 10 minutes, then invert and cool completely.
In small saucepan, combine:
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
Cook flour and milk until thick and cool.
In mixing bowl, cream:
1/2 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Add mixture to flour-milk mixture and blend.
Split cake into 2 layers and spread filling over bottom layer. Cover with top layer and frost with your favorite chocolate frosting.
-- Submitted by Betty Bailey
Joyce Rackley of Bradenton shares a special blueberry pie recipe from her mother-in-law in Blue Ash, Ohio.
"My mother-in-law, Gladys Hubbard, used to make this when her blueberries came in," Rackley said. "It was a favorite of the whole family. She was (known as) Mrs. H.
"She was a fantastic cook. I thought it would be good to submit to you," she said. "The blueberries are better down here in Florida."
Mrs. H's recipe appeared in an Ohio newspaper years ago. In the article, she said half of the berries were made into a thickened sauce and poured over the other half of the berries left uncooked.
DOUBLE-GOOD BLUEBERRY PIE
A 9-inch baked pastry shell
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
4 cups (2 pint boxes) blueberries, divided
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Whipped cream (optional)
Use a 9-inch pie pan and medium-size saucepan.
Prepare pastry and line pie pan, making a standing, fluted rim. Bake as your recipe directs for a pie shell.
In medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt, mixing until all cornstarch lumps disappear. Add water and 2 cups of the blueberries. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and is thickened and clear. Mixture will be quite thick.
Remove from heat and stir in butter and lemon juice. Cool.
Place remaining 2 cups of raw blueberries (rinsed and blotted of moisture) in cooked pastry shell. Pour cooked blueberry mixture over raw berries. Chill. Serve garnished with whipped cream.
-- Submitted by Joyce Ann Rackley from Mrs. H.
Peach bread found
"I hope this recipe helps your requestor," said Jim Nowacki, who shares a homemade peach bread recipe for the reader who wanted one. "I really do adore this quick bread recipe. Especially when fruit is added, it really is a nice change to a plain old loaf of bread. It is a great item to have on hand during the holidays."
This bread easily could be frozen, well-wrapped in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil.
HOMEMADE PEACH BREAD
1/3 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1- 1/2 teaspoons peach schnapps
2 cups fresh peaches, peeled and chopped into small chunks
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Topping:
2 tablespoons pecans, chopped
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and place parchment paper on the bottom of the pan; spray with vegetable oil.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vegetable oil, vanilla and almond extracts and peach schnapps. Stir in peaches.
Combine cinnamon, flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder; divide into thirds and gradually add to the creamed mixture. Mix well after each addition. Pour into the prepared baking pan.
Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over batter. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.
-- Submitted by Jim Nowacki
Lookout for this recipe
"I am writing to see if Lookout Steakhouse could be persuaded to give you the recipe for a menu item they no longer have," Terri Jones said. "It was a decadent seven-cheese crabmeat casserole that was delicious."
I will ask owner Rob Stinson if he will share the recipe. Seven cheeses with crab? That dish has to be awesome!
Fall on the way, we hope
Please send me your favorite pumpkin, squash or apple recipe to share with your fellow readers.
Andrea Yeager, can be reached at ayeager51@cableone.net and takes requests at Cook's Exchange, P.O. Box 4567, Biloxi, MS 39535-4567.
This story was originally published September 9, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Cook's Exchange: Readers offer more sweet selections."