The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook (5 page)
Read The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook Online
Authors: Georgia Varozza
¼ cup melted butter
Thoroughly mix together dry ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and stir lightly just until dry ingredients are moistened. Mixture will be thick and lumpy. Grease a skillet or griddle using a mix of butter and oil for best taste, and drop batter a tablespoon at a time onto the hot skillet, spreading the batter with a spoon. Cook the pancakes until they are golden and then turn and cook until the other side is browned.
You can substitute 2 cups buttermilk and 1 tsp. baking powder for the powdered buttermilk and water
.
1 package frozen Tater Tots or hash browns
8 oz. Velveeta cheese, cubed
6 eggs
¼ cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup ham, cubed
Grease or butter a 9 × 9-inch casserole dish and place a layer of Tater Tots over the bottom. Next, layer on the Velveeta cheese.
Whisk together the eggs and milk and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the Tater Tots and bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle the ham over the top; return to oven for another 15 minutes or until eggs are completely set.
2 cups fresh or frozen corn (thawed, if using frozen)
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup flour
1 tsp. salt
⅛ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. baking powder
2 T. heavy or light cream
4 T. butter or oil (you may need more)
Mix together the corn, eggs, flour, salt, pepper, and baking powder. Add the cream and mix well again.
In a heavy frying pan or skillet, melt the butter and drop corn mixture by spoonfuls into the hot grease. Brown both sides, turning once. Serve plain or with maple syrup.
Some Amish families still make use of ice houses to see them through the hot summer months. In winter, families will cut blocks of ice and store them, covered with sawdust, in well-insulated ice houses. They place the ice in the top compartment of their refrigerators; as the ice slowly melts, the cold water streams down the back into a catch basin and the air inside is kept cool.
3 cups cold water
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
Mix together all ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. (If the heat is turned up too high the cornmeal will stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.)
You can serve it up into bowls at this point and eat it like a porridge or put it in a loaf pan and set in the refrigerator until chilled. Then cut it in slices and fry in bacon drippings or oil until golden on each side.
2 cups cottage cheese
2 eggs
½ cup milk
2 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Mix together all ingredients and drop by rounded teaspoonsful into oil to cover. (You can use a deep-fat fryer or a deep, heavy skillet.) Drain on paper towels and eat plain, with pancake syrup, or with powdered sugar.
1 cup cottage cheese
4 eggs
½ cup flour
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup oil
½ cup milk
½ tsp. vanilla
Mix together all ingredients until well blended. Fry on a lightly greased griddle.
3 cups cold water
1 tsp. salt
pat of butter
1 cup cracked wheat
Bring water, salt, and butter to a boil. Slowly add cracked wheat, stirring while adding. Cover and simmer on low heat for 20-30 minutes.
You can make your own cracked wheat by coarsely grinding wheat berries
.
4 T. butter
4 T. flour
2 cups milk
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
In a medium saucepan, melt butter on medium-low heat. Add flour and whisk while adding so the flour doesn’t become lumpy. Continue whisking the flour/butter mixture while adding the milk. Continue to stir until mixture just comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat and add hard-boiled eggs and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon over toasted bread.
You can easily make a larger batch of creamed eggs if you’re feeding a lot of people by simply doubling this recipe, but if eggs are limited, you can get away with only 6 eggs for a double batch
.
2 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
5 T. shortening
1 cup milk
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture until it is completely incorporated. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk all at once. Stir with a fork until well mixed. The dough will be quite soft.
Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated 450° oven for 15-20 minutes.
2 eggs
½ cup milk
½ cup flour
½ tsp. salt
pinch of nutmeg (optional)
2 T. butter
2 T. powdered sugar for dusting
Place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet or heavy frying pan with sides inside oven and preheat oven to 475°.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until light and frothy. Add milk and stir. Gradually whisk in flour, salt, and nutmeg.
Remove skillet from oven and reduce oven temperature to 425°. Melt butter in hot skillet so that the bottom and sides are completely coated with butter. Pour the batter into the skillet and immediately return to oven.
Bake at 425° until puffed and lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately, either plain or with maple syrup.
You can easily double this recipe if you have a larger frying pan
.
2 cups flour
1½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups buttermilk
¼ cup butter, melted
Thoroughly mix dry ingredients. Add remaining ingredients. Stir lightly to just moisten dry ingredients. Mixture will be thick and lumpy. Drop by tablespoons onto lightly greased griddle, spreading batter with spoon. Turn cakes as soon as browned on bottom. Cook until other side is browned.
Old-fashioned buttermilk resulting from churning butter is quite unlike store-bought cultured buttermilk. It’s thin and slightly watery, with “flakes” of butter floating in it, and has a sour taste. But old-fashioned buttermilk makes the best buttermilk pancakes you can imagine. Rich, buttery, and light. Yum!
2 cups milk
½ cup shortening
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2¼ tsp. (1 package) active dry yeast
2 T. warm water
7 cups flour, more or less
powdered sugar
Bring the milk and shortening to the boiling point but do not boil. Turn off heat and stir in sugar and salt; cool to lukewarm. Beat eggs and add to the milk mixture.
Dissolve the yeast in 2 T. warm water. Let stand till slightly bubbly and then add to the milk mixture.
Sift and measure the flour and then add enough to the milk mixture to form a soft dough that can be handled easily. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Put in the refrigerator overnight.
In the morning, roll out the dough to ¼-inch thickness and cut into 2-inch squares. Make a slit in the center of each square. Cover with a towel and let rise for ¾ hour.
Fry in deep fat until golden brown. While still warm, roll in powdered sugar.
Most Amish homes raise chickens for meat and eggs. If you don’t have access to “home-grown” eggs, buy free-range brown eggs at the store. You can taste and see the difference.
Four-Week Refrigerator Bran Muffins
6 cups ready-to-eat bran cereal, divided
2 cups boiling water
1 cup shortening or butter
1½ cups sugar
4 eggs
1 quart buttermilk
5 cups flour
5 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
raisins or nuts (optional)
Place 2 cups bran cereal in a bowl and pour in the boiling water. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, cream together the shortening or butter, sugar, and eggs. Add to the butter mixture the buttermilk and the now-cool cereal mixture.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and then add that to the creamed mixture and fold until the flour is moistened. Fold in an additional 4 cups
dry
bran cereal.
Store batter in covered container in refrigerator. Keeps 3-4 weeks. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400° and fill well-greased muffin tins
⅔
full. Bake for 20 minutes or until done.
Raisins or nuts can be added to the muffin batter just before baking.
2 cups whole wheat flour
6 cups rolled oats
1 cup coconut
1 cup wheat germ
1 T. salt
½ cup water
1 cup oil
1 cup honey
2 tsp. vanilla
Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Blend liquid ingredients and then add to the large bowl and mix thoroughly. Spread out on 2 greased cookie sheets and bake at 250° for 1 hour, or until dry and golden.
Store in covered container.
4 cups grape juice
½ cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch