I can only imagine that my use of ketchup in this recipe might offend (or at the very least confuse) anyone not accustomed to the vinegar-laden dishes of the Pennsylvania Dutch. I’ll even state for the record that I put ketchup on my eggs, on my toast, and even put it on steak when I was young (sorry, Dad.) I’ve had some great meatloaf in my time — my mother-out-law’s is killer — but this dish of ketchup-laden decadence will always be my favorite. How can you top the gooey tomatoey brown sugar topping?

Meatloaf

For meatloaf:

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 cup tomato ketchup
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

For topping:

• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup ketchup

Combine all meatloaf ingredients in large bowl and toss with fingers until well-combined. Press mixture into standard loaf pan and bake at 350° F for one hour.

Place brown sugar in small bowl and break apart any lumps. Add ketchup and stir briskly with fork until mixture is thick and homogenous. About halfway though cooking, spread topping on top of meatloaf.

Serves 6-8.

Easy as pie (easier, actually) and healthier than store-bought, toaster pastries are a fun breakfast surprise. They also make an excellent midnight snack, which is how I found myself making them late one night. Of course, when making pastries at an odd hour of the night, one should be careful to properly crimp the edges. I must say, though, that the browned jelly goo slid nicely off the pan and made a delightful treat.

Toaster Pastries

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe butter-crust pie dough*
• Jams and other fillings, to taste

Make your pie dough according to your preferred recipe and allow it to chill for one hour. Divide into 8 parts and roll each into a square (for rectangular pastries) or circle (for half-moon shaped pastries) approximately 3/8″ thick. Spread filling on one half of the dough, leaving a 3/4″ margin on 3 sides. Lightly dampen margins with water and fold empty side over to seal. Transfer to lined or greased baking sheet and crimp edges with floured fork tines. Dock the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape. If desired, coat lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

To par-bake for later toasting: bake in a 350-degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Freeze.

For a soft crust: bake as-is in a 350-degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Serve hot or cool on wire rack.

For a crisp, browned pastry: chill crimped, docked dough on sheet pans in freezer for 20 minutes or in refrigerator for one hour. transfer directly from freezer/fridge to a 425-degree oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Serve hot or cool on wire rack.

Filling suggestions: strawberry or blueberry jam, apple butter, peanut butter mashed with a bit of cocoa powder, Nutella, lemon curd, well-drained ricotta cheese and sun-dried tomato paste, b’stilla filling, the goo portion of a favorite strudel, and anything else you can imagine might do well with a butter crust – sweet or savory.

Icing: if you’d like to ice your, er, toaster tarts, combine four parts confectioner’s sugar to 1 part water, milk, or juice and smear on top after baking.

*Might I suggest this one? Substitute an equal amount of butter for half of the shortening/lard.

When I’m not craving fresh vegetables (as is my habit during the summer), I’m lured to the comfort of my favorite classics. Crème brûlée whips up easier than one would think, and this one has a special surprise – a layer of molten chocolate under the crispy sugar crust and smooth custard.  It’s not as fast or as easy as microwave comfort cake, but it’s well worth the extra effort.

Vanilla Crème Brûlée with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp simple syrup
• 1/2 cup grated bittersweet chocolate
• 2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
• 11 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Melt the chocolate in a small glass bowl, either over a double boiler or in the microwave. Whisk in simple syrup and pour into the bottom of 6 ramekins. Chill. Preheat oven to 300° F.

Place the cream and half and half into a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the scrapings and shell of the vanilla bean. Set heat to medium and slowly bring to a boil. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yolks, and 5 tablespoons sugar. Remove vanilla pod from cream and slowly whisk into the eggs, a spoonful at a time until the eggs have come to temperature. Set cream and egg mixture inside a larger bowl that is half-full with ice water and continue to whisk until mixture has cooled.

Pour custard into prepared ramekins.  Lay a cotton towel in a large roasting pan and arrange ramekins in pan so that sides are not touching.  Set pan onto oven rack and carefully pour water around ramekins so that the final water level reaches halfway up the side.  Gently slide pan into oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until just set.  Remove from water bath and chill 3 hours or overnight.

To serve, sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar on top of each custard and caramelize with a kitchen torch.

Makes six custards.

Truly, there is nothing French about this soup.  It is, however, a take on French Onion Soup, and so the name seems fitting.

On a lazy, hot summer night or a chilly winter afternoon, nothing beats fast, tasty comfort food, and this certainly qualifies.  It’s onion soup without the onion (and sans crouton), but it’s just as ooey gooey and flavorful.

French Mushroom Soup

• 4 cups beef broth
• 16 ounces canned chopped mushrooms, drained
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 pound sharp provolone cheese, thinly sliced

Preheat broiler.  Combine broth and seasonings in a large microwave-safe bowl; stir to combine.  Add mushrooms.  Microwave on high 5 minutes or until just bubbly.  Remove.  Ladle into oven-proof soup bowls or mugs and top with cheese.  Broil until cheese is just browned.  Serve immediately.

Serves a hearty meal for two.

Image by Flickr user Pabo76

Happy belated holidays to one and all! After the semester ended, Mer and I got to work on our holiday baking. We split our projects between family traditions and our own take on other bloggers’ recipes. Our other projects included Mer’s Date Squares, our version of the Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies from Never Bashful with Butter, and our version of the Ginger-Cinnamon Caramels posted at The Kitchn at Apartment Therapy.

Concluding our Holiday Baking Recap are my Magical Mint Cookies. This recipe holds a special place in my heart and stomach, as it is the first recipe I ever remember “creating”. I tweaked a basic cookie recipe to use ingredients that I had on hand, and served the results to the girls that my mom worked with. The cookies looked disgusting – flat, wrinkled, and brown – but damn, they tasted good. While they haven’t gotten any prettier over the years, my Magical Mint Cookies have become a holiday tradition.

As a special bonus, these cookies freeze extraordinarily well. I like to keep a batch in my freezer all year, and I toss one or two into the microwave for 30-45 seconds to warm them up and make them gooey when I’m in the mood for a treat. they also make great ice cream sandwiches!

Magical Mint Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 10 oz. mint chocolate chips or chopped mint chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Slowly beat in eggs and vanilla. Beating with a wooden spoon or with mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients one cup at a time until just combined. Stir in chips.

Using a small small disher, drop dough onto greased or non-stick cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-9 minutes, but do not overbake – cookies will be very soft. Cool on pans until cookies have firmed and can be transferred to wax paper without the edges collapsing. Cool completely before storing.

Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Meredith says:

“My family isn’t much for baking, and we don’t have a holiday cookie tradition at all. What we do have are Date Squares.

Date Squares are actually one of the original, orange-book Betty Crocker recipe known as “date bars”, with very minor tweaks accumulated over the years. My grandmother would make them for breakfast whenever my Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob would come and visit for a weekend, so there would be an easy, quick breakfast available, since Sue and Bob were usually bopping around on errands while they visited. Sue thought they were the best things ever, especially since they’re sort of healthy for a cookie, and the rest of them enjoyed them, too.

As the years have gone by and the few food traditions my family does possess have been distributed to the different branches of the family, date squares seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle. Since I’m the first person to think of making them for years, this one is now mine. I took a pan to my family’s Christmas dinner, and they were a big hit. So, now you get to try them.

They’re a great bar cookie, landing somewhere between brownies and granola with fruit. They’re not too sweet, and great for breakfast, dessert, or any time you need a treat that won’t make you feel too overly guilty, and they’re definitely a wholly American recipe right out of the Donna Reed era that deserves to be remembered.”

Date Squares

Ingredients for filling:

• 16 ounces dates (Dromedary brand works best)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Ingredients for crust and topping:

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 c oats

Chop dates finely (sharp scissors or kitchen shears are the perfect tool for this.) Add chopped dates, water, and sugar to a wide heavy-bottomed sauce pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened and turned a deep brown color. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease or line a 13×9″ pan. In a medium bowl, cream together brown sugar and butter. Add remaining ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined.

Layer half of the oat mixture in the bottom of the pan, covering the bottom completely and pressing firmly to ensure a dense base. Smear the cooled filling on the crust and lightly crumble the remaining oat mixture on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Cool before slicing into squares. Makes 18-24 squares.

Image by Roboppy.

I’ve been asked a number of times over the years about scaling down recipes to serve one person. I’ve recently uncovered notes on recipes I used when I was single and lived alone, and I’ll post them here from time to time.

I’ve spent my weekend reflecting on the very busy (and long) week that just ended. All of that introspection has left me craving comfort foods. Part of that crazy week involved pulling something in my neck doing yard work, so my normal comfort foods that involve actual cooking are out of the question. Fortunately, I have a recipe that requires very little work, and the only cooking required involves a microwave, which is about my speed right now.

This cake is certainly unconventional, and it doesn’t look entirely edible at first, but it is definitely delicious. The cake itself is not very sweet – you can adjust the overall sweetness to taste by altering the amount of brown sugar.

Microwave Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, divided
• pinch salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 heaping teaspoon powdered milk
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee, cooled
• 5 tablespoons granulated brown sugar
• 1/4 cup hot tap water

In a microwave-safe bowl, stir together flour, white sugar, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, butter, vanilla, powdered milk, and coffee. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over top and follow with remaining cocoa. Gently pour hot water over top. Microwave, uncovered, for 4 minutes on high. Let stand for 1 minute before removing from microwave.

The cake will have puffed up around the sauce that forms from the brown sugar, cocoa, and water glaze. Serve warm – but be careful not to burn your mouth!

Serves 1.

Creamy cucumber salad is yet another tradition I grew up with. We picked up some gorgeous cucumbers at a local farmer’s market this weekend, and I think I’ll throw this together for Mer’s lunch tomorrow.

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

• 4-6 medium cucumbers, peeled and sliced into medallions
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced thin
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Whisk vinegar and sour cream together in a large bowl. Toss with vegetables and refrigerate overnight. Stir well before serving.

Serves 4-6.

Image by Smitten

About 3 years ago, a friend of mine asked me to find a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe for her, called Wurgles. She described it as:

“[Dumplings] made of mashed potatoes (with some flour to help them take shape?), then baked with lots of butter and milk on top. [The milk and butter] sort of resorbed into the potatoes, so there were pockets of dairy goodness, and it was dappled-brown on top.”

My research over the years has failed me, but I believe that I may have finally hit on something. This is a combination of a few recipes that I’ve found. They’re not dumplings per se, but I believe that the effect is the same. Anything firmer would essentially be gnocchi.

If anyone has heard of Wurgles and has a more accurate recipe, please let me know!

Wurgles (Mashed Potato Casserole)

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds white potatoes, washed and peeled
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 pound butter
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup celery, finely diced
• 1 cup onion, finely diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and potatoes, and cook until fork-tender. Drain.

Sauteé celery and onion in 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat until soft and lightly colored. Cool.

Mash potatoes with 1/2 pound butter and 1 cup milk. Stir in flour, breadcrumbs, vegetables, and then beaten eggs. Turn out into a greased 13″ x 9″ baking dish; do not smooth surface (peaks will encourage browning).

In a small saucepan, heat remaining milk and butter until butter is completely melted. Stir thoroughly and pour evenly over potato mixture. Bake 30-45 minutes, or until top is nicely browned.

Serves 4-6.