Aunt Jenny’s Quick Placek

21 Monday Mar 2016

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I make this placek at least once a year and Easter is sometimes the only time. The recipe came from my Great Aunt Jenny. I still use the original recipe I got from her in my teenage handwriting on an old Birthday card they had at their home on Cudaback. Aunt Jenny and Aunt Stella always had time to babysit, always had a candy dish filled with candy, always had the tabletop photo album turned to the picture of you and your siblings when you came to visit and never let you leave with out a 10 dollar bill to “buy yourself a hamburger”.

Placek is usually very dry which makes it unappealing to some people. This version is a little moister than traditional the Polish bread, but still dense and delicious. And if it was good enough for Aunt Jenny, it should be good enough for you and your family. 😊

Quick Placek

1/2 c. butter softened

1 1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

4 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c buttermilk

1 c. yellow raisins

Crumb Topping (mix with your fingers)

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c . sugar

4 tblsp butter

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Pour boiling water over the raisins and let them soak for 20 minutes, his plumps them up nicely for the bread. Drain, let dry and cool on paper towels. I blot them too.

Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter, sugar and eggs together. Beat well.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add slowly to the egg mixture, beating very slowly at first, alternating with the buttermilk. Increase the beating speed, beat well. The batter will be heavy. This is a double batch. Not sure I would recommend a double batch. It’s a lot of batter.

Fold in the raisins.

Pour the batter into the pans.

Sprinkle the tops with the crumb topping. Let it rest for 20 minutes before baking (I tend to press it into the batter a bit then let it rest. Otherwise the topping tends to fall off, and that is the best part!).

Bake for 1 hour or until well done. Mini loafs took about 40 minutes. Check them at 30 minutes.

Light Bulb! Reduced Fat Baking

10 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by clearlycorinna in Light Bulb!, Recipes

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applesauce for oil, life hacks, mini muffins, reduced fat muffins, uses for snack pack applesauce

I love to bake, but making muffins from scratch is not something I do. What I do is alter the mixes to make them a little better for my kids. Mini Muffins are the easiest way to get something in their belly before school. I always replace the oil with applesauce, but found when I bought applesauce in a jar it always went bad before I would use the whole jar. So I started buying the snack cups of applesauce. They are shelf stable and are just about the right amount for any muffin mix I ever use. Some times a little over, some times a little under, but it rarely makes a difference. They are always yummy. For Blueberry muffins, I replace the liquid (milk or water) with Trop 50 orange juice. When I make banana muffins, I add some mini chocolate chips. A little goes a long way.

Grandma’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

25 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by clearlycorinna in Recipes

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Best Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Best Pumpkin Pie Ever! It is light and perfect after a heavy Thanksgiving meal. If you don’t like the texture of a tradition pumpkin pie but love the flavor, try this.. it is truly my Grandma’s recipe.

1 9″ baked pie shell (cooled)

I tried to make the crust this year from scratch, but it was a bust and I had to use the premade ones from the refrigerator section. My crust is always a mess. Even when I use the premade kind. If you want to attempt a crust, this is her crust recipe:

1c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c shortening
about 3 tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp baking powder

Sift dry mixtures. add shortening. mix with hand until crumbly. add cold water. mix. roll out to fit pie plate. Chill. Prick pie shell with fork before baking then bake at 450 degrees for 15 to 18 min.

1 envelope. plain unflavored gelatin (1tbsp)
4 tbsp. cold water
1 c. brown sugar , firmly packed
3 eggs, seperated
1/2 c milk (recipe says bottled, it’s so old. I love that.)
1 1/2 c canned pumpkin (1 15 oz can)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp granulated sugar (for egg whites)

Soak gelatin in water.

In a large saucepan, combine brown sugar, egg yolks, milk, pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened (about 10 min on med-low heat). It will splatter as it begins to heat up so the stirring constantly in important plus you don’t want the egg yolks to cook before they are properly mixed in.

Remove from heat, add gelatin, stirring until thoroughly dissolved. Chill until mixture begins to set. I usually set it out on the back patio steps so it doesn’t heat up my whole fridge. Of course this only works if you live somewhere where it’s cold in November. 🙂

While the pumpkin mixture is chilling, beat egg white until stiff, add granulated sugar, continuing to beat until stiff.

Fold egg whites into the cooled pumpkin mixture. It will look like this:

Pour into baked pie shell and chill until set.

Serve with whipped cream. Yum!! Happy Thanksgiving!

Birthday or Anniversary Cut-Outs

15 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by clearlycorinna in Light Bulb!, Recipes

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75th anniversary, cut out cookies, dessert

My Mother in law is 75! I was put in charge of dessert for the party, so in addition to the cake, I made cookies. Everyone loves cut-outs so I tried to think of which cookie cutter shape to use. 75 is big so I wanted them to be special. I scoured Pinterest and came up empty. Then I came up the idea to use the number cutters I have and just put the 7 and the 5 together. You could obviously do this for any birthday or anniversary. I am sure I’ll be doing it again!

Book Club Bean Salsa

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by clearlycorinna in Recipes

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appetizers, bean dip, bean salsa, Book Club

You have to try this recipe! You will love it! Every time I bring it to a party, at least one person asks me for the recipe. In fact, I am posting this because I was asked for the recipe at a party 2 weeks ago and I said to myself, why aren’t I posting recipes too? So here it is.

You will be eating this with a spoon right out of the container. The original came from my sister in law who got it from one of her book club friends. I altered the original recipe to suit my tastes– more vinegar, less oil. This salsa is delish on day 2, so it’s a great make ahead appetizer. And if you are bringing it somewhere, I suggest making a double batch because you will definitely want to have some at home. As long as you are doing all that chopping, why not have it for the week ahead. It’s a great after school snack for the kids too. I think because of the sugar, they love it.

1 can corn
1 can black eyed peas
1 can black beans

Drain, rinse and put in a large bowl (remember to make it big enough so when you add all the ingredients there is room for mixing)

In a small saucepan, heat on low until sugar dissolves:

1/2 c cider vinegar (original 1/4 c)
1/2 cup sugar (same as original)
1/4 c olive oil (original 1/2c)

pour over corn/pea/bean mixture.

This next part changes for me every time. The basic ingredients are the same, but the measurements change based on what I’ve got in the fridge. I want to note that I always feel like I’ve added too much onion when I taste it immediately after making it, but the pungent onion flavor melts away by day 2.

Chop and add:

1 rib celery (I chop this separately. The chopper I use doesn’t chop the celery consistently, so I get better results manually)
approx 1/2 c red onion (this flavor mellows by day 2)
approx 1 c red/orange/green pepper (add all three, or use just 2 but the total is about a 1 c)
cilantro (to taste, I use about 2 tbsp.)

The original recipe also calls for diced grape tomatoes and jalapenos, but my kids are not fans so I eliminated them.

This is a hearty salsa so I serve it with those tortilla chips that are shaped like little bowls (scoops). It can be a messy eating experience with flat chips.

I hope you love it as much as we do! pass it on! 🙂