Angel Food Cake

So I haven't been too good at making a recipe a week.  Last week I finally got around to making one, so here is the recipe.

It's from Sweet Talk, Recipes from the Domino Sugar Chef.  7th printing 1994.  Page 20.

1 cup Domino Confectioners 10X Sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sifted cake flour
11/2 cups (11-12) egg whites, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tarter
1 1/4 cup super fine sugar

Sift confectioners sugar, salt and flour together twice.  Set aside for later use.

Combine egg whites and extracts in large mixing bowl.  Sprinkle cream of tartar on mixture.  Beat at highest speed until whites stand in peaks but are not dry.  Reduce speed.

Gradually beat super fine sugar into whites, sprinkling 1 tablespoonful at a time on meringue and beating about 15 seconds for each addition.  With large whisk, fold spoonfuls of flour mixture into meringue slowly and gently. Continue folding only long enough to blend batter completely.

Turn into un-greased 10 inch tube pan.  Bake in a moderate oven (350°) about 35 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly.  Invert pan on funnel or suspend over cooling rack.  Allow to hang until cool.  Remove by running a sharp thin-bladed knife around the side of pan with one long steady stroke.

This was a really good Angel Food cake.  We eat the entire thing before we could put any sort of icing on it.

Week 1 - s'more bars

Last Monday I made the first recipe in the "Use all the cook books" challenge.  It comes from the EAGLE BRAND holiday magic cookbook.  ©1999 Meredith Corporation and Eagle Family Foods, Inc. Page 17.

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 (14 oz) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 cup milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts, optional
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows

Prehat over to 350°.  In 13x9 inch baking pan, melt butter in oven.

Sprinkle crumbs over butter; pour Eagle Brand evenly over crumbs.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips and if desired nuts; press down gently with fork.

Bake 25 minutes.  Remove from oven; sprinkle with marshmallows.  Return to oven.  Bake 2 minutes more.  Cool.  Chill if desired.  Cut into bars.  Store at room temperature.  Makes 2-3 dozen bars.

It was tasty enough, but I don't think I would make it again. If I did, I would use the same amount of ingredients, but use an 8x8 square pan instead. The bars were too thin and didn't get covered with the chocolate chips and marshmallows.

Tom decided to pick from the next recipe book. Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce. I'm planning that one for tomorrow.

The Plan

The other day, I started unpacking boxes in the new house, ( Follow that blog by clicking here) and came across two boxes of cookbooks.  I decided to store them on an open shelf in the hutch in the kitchen.  Although I discussed it with Tom first, he doesn't like "messy" things, and a row of mismatched books fall into that category.    He said I can keep them there, as long as each week I make a recipe from one of the cookbooks.  Not a problem!  I like to cook, and we need to stop eating out for both health and monetary reasons.

There are a lot of cookbooks, so I have months - maybe years - of random recipes ahead of me.  This blog will be dedicated to the cookbooks I use and recipes that I make.

To start things out right, the first cookbook is for deserts, made with Eagle Brand products.  Sweetened Condensed Milk.  Yum, one of my favorite foods of all time.  I can't wait to make the first recipe.