Sharing recipes with friends is a long-standing tradition of saying one cook to another, “I enjoyed that cake or cookie or slice.”
In some cases, recipes were guarded as sacred trusts to be kept in the family from one generation to the next.
Such was not the case in an old, hand-written collection of recipes that had obviously been shared and their sources identified in the recipe’s name.
This week’s recipes come from Marion, Bertha, Georgia and Gladys — all cooking friends of the late Clara T. Lett.
• • •
Marion’s Date Loaf
1 lb. dates
1 tsp. soda
1 cup boiling water
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup walnuts
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. vanilla
Cut dates in small pieces. Sprinkle with soda. Pour boiling water over. Let cool.
Cream nuts, eggs and vanilla. Add to cooled dates and stir. Add flour and walnuts and mix. Place in a large, greased and floured loaf pan. Bake slowly at 325 degrees F for about 3/4 hour.
• • •
Bertha’s Ginger Lace Cookies
2/3 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg, beaten
4 tbsps. molasses
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
2 tsps. soda
2 cups flour
Mix butter, sugar and eggs. Mix dry ingredients. Alternately add molasses and dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well.
Roll into balls and roll in some sugar and cinnamon. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Do not press down. Bake for 12 minutes at 375 degrees F.
• • •
Georgia’s Coffee Bars
1 cup raisins
2/3 cup strong coffee
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Glaze:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
cold coffee to thin
Combine raisins, coffee and cinnamon and let stand.
Cream shortening and sugar then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
Mix and sift flour, soda and baking powder. Add to the shortening mixture then add the raisins and mix well.
Spread batter in a shallow, greased pan. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F. While still warm spread with the coffee glaze, adding enough cold coffee to the icing sugar to make a thin glaze. Cool before cutting.
• • •
Gladys’ Parfait Pie
1 strawberry Jello
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 qt. vanilla ice cream
Add water to Jello and mix to dissolve. When semi congealed, mix in ice cream and mix well. Pour into a baked pie shell and allow to set completely before serving.
Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
