Category Archives: Dessert

Peggy dredged this up from an ancient text (her recipe book when we were newly wed), and it strikes a chord with me. My grandfather Earle was a chemical engineer, and in one of his early jobs worked for Royal Pudding, developing the specific recipe or “formula” used to make Royal chocolate pudding, or so I was told. I think I know what went into the package…

Combine in saucepan:

For chocolate…

• 2/3 C sugar
• 3 T cocoa powder

For vanilla…

• 1/3 C sugar

For all…

• 1/4 C cornstarch
• 1/8 t salt

Whisk dry ingredients together, then whisk in

• 2 3/4 C milk

Stirring constantly, bring this mixture to a boil. Boil about a minute, until pudding thickens. Let pudding cool slightly, then whisk in:

• 1 T vanilla extract
• 2 T butter

Serve warm or cold. Pudding can be covered with plastic wrap to prevent the formation of a skin.

I haven’t made this in years, but it’s a damned inexpensive treat for poor newlyweds!

When we were kids, Mom used to make a chocolate sauce for ice cream. I couldn’t remember the recipe so I poked around the web for a bit, found a recipe at https://barefeetinthekitchen.com. Of course I modified it (butter!).

• 1C granulated sugar
• 1/2 C cocoa powder ( I used Droste)
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 C cold water
• 1T vanilla extract
• 1T butter

Combine the sugar, cocoa and salt in a small saucepan. Whisk the dry ingredients until all lumps break up. Sift if you lean toward fussy. Stir in the cold water and mix well before applying heat.

Gentle bring to a boil, then simmer for five minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes, then stir in butter and vanilla.

Great over ice cream.

Yield is about two cups, and if you have leftovers, it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

I made a second batch with half of the sugar replaced with corn syrup (just Karo light), hoping to avoid cold crystallization of the sugar. I’ll report back, perhaps with a modified or alternate recipe.

I don’t know who “Grandma” is. Peg never, to my recollection, actually mentioned her. She’s talked about her Pap quite a lot, but I don’t think Peg ever met her Grandmother, at least not her maternal Grandmother. I understand her paternal Grandmother never made Apple Crisp to Peg’s knowledge.

Now, if the recipe had been called “Gram’s Apple Crisp” (and Peggy doesn’t know but maybe the computer autocorrected her…), I’d know it could be attributed to one Ruth Hamel, late of Franklin Maine, who might well be the best cook I’ve ever known. I’ve only eaten her food a few times, but I’ve gone through enough of her jelly and jam to make that proclamation. She was one rarely talented creature in the kitchen, and I was proud to call her “Gram” myself. Now if Gram wasn’t the best cook ever to walk the Earth, that mantle rests squarely on the shoulders of her daughter Teddy, and I’ve eaten a lot of Teddy’s cooking over the nearly 20 years I’ve known her.

So this recipe, whatever its provenance, reminded me on another level of my own Grandma Esther, who was my Dad’s stepmother. I never met his mother, missing her by something on the order of a decade. But I peeled these apples with a knife that is exactly like a couple of knives that my Mom got from Esther back in the 60’s. Not a terribly fancy knife, but it has a sharp, thin blade that is just perfect for sending Macintosh apples to their doom. I was using Cortlands, though, so the knife was just a bit too short for cutting through the center of the apple when quartering them. I peel apples just like my mother taught me – halve, then quarter each apple, then scoop out the core, turn it over and in three quick slices cut off the peel as close as you dare. If you miss a little bit, that’s OK. The peel is where the vitamins are.

Assemble your ingredients:
1 C brown sugar, packed (light or dark, it doesn’t matter)
1 C rolled oats
1 C flour
1/2 C (1 stick) butter, melted
3 C apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (Grandma apparently chopped them – I sliced them, and use Cortlands)

1/2 C granulated sugar
2 t cinnamon

Mix the sugar & cinnamon – set aside

Mix the brown sugar, rolled oats, flour, and butter until it forms a crumbly mixture in the bowl.
Lightly grease or butter an 8-inch baking pan

Evenly spread about half of the oat mixture into the pan.
Evenly spread the apples over the mixture. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over the apples.
Top with the remaining mixture.

Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown.

Personally, I’d serve it with ice cream in a few minutes.

Now, I screwed this recipe up, and it still came out good. I’m not one to carefully read instructions (my cross to bear, not yours), so I mixed all of the ingredients save the apples together, and put all of the mixture on top of the apples until I checked to see whether I was supposed to dot the thing with butter. Ooops. I also got to three cups of apples about halfway through the second Cortland, so I ended up with about four cups of sliced apples, not wanting to waste anything. Heaven forbid I waste half an apple. So I tried to mix some of the mixture down under the apples, but that left some of the apples exposed. But still, it turned out OK. I think it was a bit on the sweet side, so next time around I think I’ll cut the brown sugar by about half to see where that gets me. I’ll keep the apples at three cups, too.

Mom’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I was foolish enough to volunteer this year to cook dinner for our club’s Amateur Radio Field Day. Not really a daunting task – hamburgers, hot dogs, rolls, chips and the other usual stuff. Beans, German potato salad, and tossed salad are being done by my elves, so I just concentrate on the big stuff. But dessert. What would be good for dessert? Ah, yes! Peg’s Mom used to make us Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Without the pineapple, it stands on its own as an excellent Sponge Cake.

Herewith her recipe:

• 4 eggs
• 2 c. sugar
• 2 c. flour
• 2 tsp. Baking powder
• 1 c. hot milk
• 1/8 tsp. Butter
• 1 tsp. Vanilla

1. Beat eggs until light and fluffy, approx. 5 minutes.
2. Add sugar and beat again until light and fluffy.
3. Mix flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl and set aside.
4. Heat milk and butter in small pan over medium-high heat until milk just starts to boil.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
6. Add dry ingredients and liquid alternately until all are incorporated in the batter.
7. Add vanilla and stir well.
8. Bake in greased floured 13×9 pan at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

The Pineapple Upside-down Part –

• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C brown sugar, light or dark
• 1 – 20oz can sliced pineapple
• Maraschino cherries

1. Instead of greasing and flouring the baking pan, melt the butter in the pan
2. mix in brown sugar, stirring well
3. Drain a big can of pineapple slices and lay the pineapple rings on the brown sugar mixture.
4. If you’re being really cool, put maraschino cherries inside the pineapple rings. Very pretty!!
5. Pour the batter gently into the pan and bake as directed above.
6. Cool the baked cake for about 5 minutes or so and shake the pan around to loosen the cake.
7. Invert it onto a serving platter and you get a really decent looking cake.

(Peg’s note)

This was my grandmother’s recipe. The amount of butter in the cake was originally passed down as whatever “fits on the tip of a knife”

(John’s note)

I made this in a 14×10 pan. The 13×9 died years ago (Peg had it before we were married…)

And I let the milk boil by inattentiveness – it came out OK nonetheless.