Joan’s Country Kitchen

My husband loves peanut brittle so I decided to make this recipe for him at Christmas. This peanut

Christmas Peanut Brittle

Peanut Brittle Recipe

Ingredients for peanut brittle

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 cup peanuts
2 tbs butter, softened
1 tsp baking soda

Directions for Cooking

Grease a large cookie sheet and then set it aside for later.

Using a heavy saucepan, bring sugar, corn syrup, salt and water to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Add peanuts to mixture and stir in.

Continue cooking, stirring frequently until candy thermometer reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or until a hard ball forms when a little brittle is dropped into very cold water.

Remove peanut brittle from heat and immediately stir in butter or margarine and baking soda.

Pour candy onto greased cookie sheet at once.

Using 2 forks, lift and pull peanut mixture into rectangle about 14×12 inches and allow to cool.

Gifts from the Kitchen

More Gifts from the Kitchen

This unique cake recipes comes from my mom’s 1920’s Iowa Farm Bureau Cookbook. It was submitted by Mrs. Donald Klopping. The recipe caught my eye because of the idea of adding a mashed potato to a cake recipe seemed interesting. The results are delicious though!

Historic recipes are not long on directions so I’m using the directions I used myself. Most old recipes presupposed that the cook really knew what she was doing in the kitchen!

Potato Caramel Cake Recipe

Ingredients

2-3 cups butter (I used 2 cups)
2 cups sugar
1-2 cup sweet milk ( I started with one cup and added a little more until I got to the right consistency)
1 cup mashed potato
2 cups flour
1-2 cups cocoa (I used one cup)
1 cup raisins
1 cup nuts ( I used walnuts)
4 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg
1-2 tsp cloves

Directions

Cream sugar and butter, then add egg yolks, potato, milk, spices, cocoa, nuts, and raisins rolled in flour. Mix well and then slowly add flour, blending as you go.

Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into cake batter.

Bake in a tube pan at 350.

I love historic recipes and the original Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe has a very interesting history.

Over 700 delicous recipes from Ruth Wakefield

In 1930, Ruth Wakefield and her husband, Kenneth, bought a 1709, Cape Cod-style toll house situated halfway between Boston and New Bedford, Massachusetts, just outside the town of Whitman.

A toll house used to serve as an inn and eating establishment for road-weary travelers. Here passengers paid their toll, changed horses, and ate welcome home style meals. This particular toll house, purchased by the Wakefields, was turned into a lodge called The Toll House Inn, with Ruth baking for all the guests who stayed at there.

Ruth used historic and traditional Colonial recipes, for her guests and her delicious desserts began attracting people from all over New England. One favorite cookie recipe from the Colonial Days was called Butter Drop Do cookies. One day, while preparing these, she decided to cut up a Nestle Semi-Sweet Chocolate candy bar and add it to the cookie dough.

Ruth expected the chocolate to melt but instead, the chocolate bits held their shape and softened. This chocolate chip cookie recipe became extremely popular at the inn and it wasn’t long before Ruth’s cookie recipe was published in a Boston newspaper, then other newspapers in New England.

Ruth Wakefield’s chocolate chip cookie recipe caused the sale of Nestle Semi Sweet Chocolate Morsels to sky-rocket in the New England area. Soon, Ruth reached an agreement with the Nestle company which allowed them to print the recipe on the wrapper of the Semi-Sweet Chocolate bar and in exchange, Ruth received a life-time supply of chocolate so she could continue making delicious chocolate chip cookies, which Ruth had named Toll House Cookies, after her inn.

Nestle loved the idea so much, they even sold a special chopper with the candy bar for easier cutting. Then in 1939, the Nestle company started offering the tiny chocolate bits in ready to use packages. This best-selling chocolate chip continues to create delicious chocolate chip cookies today.

Get the original Toll house homemade chocolate cookie recipes, plus 700 more historic recipes from Ruth Wakefield in Toll House Tried and True Recipes Her book includes authentic recipes for Authentic recipes from the famous Toll House restaurant in Massachusetts, like popovers, Toll House baked beans, chocolate cake, crumb pudding, and, of course the original Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe. Many historic recipes you don’t find anywhere else.

Read more about the Nestle Company’s Toll House chocolate chips at Very Best Baking.com

his holiday season, many are looking for money saving ideas. One easy way to save money on gift giving is

caramel corn makes a great gift from your kitchen

to make your own gifts in the kitchen. Homemade holiday treats are a wonderful way to say how much you care to everybody on your gift list. They’ll appreciate the gift even more, knowing you made it yourself.

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There’s nothing like a delicious blueberry cobbler on a warm summer evening. Try topping it with homemade vanilla ice cream and it takes you right back to a childhood spent in the country.

Ingredients

2 1/2 c frozen or fresh blueberries
1/4 to 1/2 c sugar to taste
2 tbs butter
1 1/2 c packaged biscuit mix
1 tbs sugar
2/3 c milk
1 tbs melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c boiling water

Blueberry Cobbler Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat blueberries and 1/4 c sugar to bubbling and until sugar is dissolved. Stir in butter.

Place this blueberry mixture into 8×8 baking dish.

Combine biscuit mix and 1 tbs sugar. Add milk and melted butter. Blend until smooth.

Spoon biscuit mix over hot blueberries.

Mix 1/2 c sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Sprinkle this topping over batter.

Pour boiling water over the entire mixture.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until done.

Variation: You can also try this with double the biscuit mixture if you’d like more crust.