Columbus Foodie

Yes, two old recipes in one day. This one is for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge blogging event, and coincidentally, the theme this month was “Vintage Cookbooks” (where vintage = before 1980). Lucky for me, my mom recently handed down her well-used copy of that included her famous sticky bun recipe, the stuff the dreams of my childhood were made of. I’ve taken a few liberties with the recipe (like doubling the amount of butter/brown sugar in the topping, and using darn near a whole bag of pecan halves, because I like my sticky buns really chock full of nuts), but it’s got the spirit of the original. The only problem I ran into was with when I tried to remove it from the pan when it was done baking - most of the “sticky” stuff stuck to the pan, so I’m going to have to play around with that part of the recipe a bit. It didn’t affect the taste any, though.

This has to be the best yeast dough I’ve ever worked with in my life. It rose and rolled out like a dream, and if all yeast recipes were this cooperative, I’d bake with yeast a whole lot more. I’m not sure if it was because I used rapid rise yeast or because I used the dough hook on my mixer to incorporate the flour initially, but this sweet yeast dough recipe is a keeper in any case. And my mom let me borrow her pans to make this, too - a couple of 12″ deep dish pizza pans work perfectly for this recipe. A couple of other quick notes: the recipe calls for scalding the milk, but this is an old recipe, and isn’t necessary in this day and age - as long as you get it up to around 105-110 degrees, it’s warm enough to activate the yeast - make sure it’s not hotter than that, though - or you’ll kill the poor things. And also, the filling didn’t go very far. Next time around, I’d double it.

Cinnamon Rolls (aka Mom’s Sticky Buns)
recipe from “Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook (1970)”
1 cake yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp. sugar
Flour (about 6 cups)
1 c. scalded milk
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 c. melted butter

Filling:
4 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. broken nut meats

Add yeast to warm water, following directions on package. Pour half the scalded milk over salt and 1 tbsp. sugar. Cool to lukewarm and add softened yeast. Sift in about half the flour, beating thoroughly until the dough is smooth and falls from spoon in sheets. Place in greased bowl. Lightly grease surface and cover with clean, dry towel. When dough doubles in bulk, punch down. Mix remaining lukewarm milk and sugar with eggs and melted butter before adding to dough. Stir enough of the remaining flour in to form ball which does not stick to bowl. Turn out on floured surface and allow to rest 5 to 10 minutes. Knead dough until smooth and elastic and small blisters are evenly distributed under the surface. Set aside in greased bowl, grease and cover.

Let rise again; roll out on a floured board. To prepare filling: Mix sugar, butter, cinnamon, and nuts together wirth fork. Spread on dough, roll up like a jelly roll and cut crosswise into 2 inch pieces. Place on greased pan, cut side up, let rise until doubled in bulk and bake in 375 degree oven 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 24 large rolls.

Caramel Pecan Rolls: Roll dough in rectangular sheet to 1/4 inch thickness. Spread with filling and roll up as for cinnamon rolls. Melt 6 tbsp. butter in baking ban and add brown sugar to a depth of 1/4 inch. Arrange 1/2 cup pecan halves over sugar. Cut rolls crosswise into slices 1 1/2 inches in thickness. Place, cut side up, in pan. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 25 to 30 minutes. Invert pan on cooling rack and allow to stand a few seconds before lifting off pan. Makes about 30.

In this edition of the Retro Recipe Challenge, the theme was “Your Mother Should Know”, and we were asked to find recipes that were popular before our mother was born. Mine was born in 1952, which made finding a cookbook from before then kind of difficult (I think the oldest one I have personally was published in 1970). So I decided to stay with the same theme, but first did some research online to find out what food was popular in the 30’s and 40’s, and then sought to find a modern day source for a classic recipe. According to this site, club sandwiches have been around in documented literature since the end of the 19th century, but they reached their peak of popularity in the 1940’s, when they went from single decker to a triple decker.

I found a recipe for a Classic Club Sandwich on the Food Network site, making sure it included all of the customary components: white bread, turkey, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and mayo. It turned out all kinds of awesome, probably due to the great ingredients. I have no doubt it will be even better in summer with in-season tomatoes. A few notes on the ingredients and prep. First, I used Pepperidge Farm white bread, which is perfectly square and nice and thin (don’t use their very thin bread, which wouldn’t hold up to these ingredients) - it’s the perfect bread to use because it’s just the right amount of bread - with regular white bread, it’s too spongy and/or thick, and when you’re dealing with three pieces of bread in a single sandwich, would easily overwhelm the whole thing. It also cuts down on the height issue. If you have a Pepperidge Farm outlet store in town like we do, even better. Second, the turkey is the sliced turkey from Trader Joe’s, and was the perfect thing to use - nice thick slices of perfectly moist, perfectly seasoned roasted turkey. I can’t see this having worked as well with deli turkey, although I’m sure it will do in a pinch. It’s just not the same, though. The tomatoes? Were Camparis, which are the closest thing to real tomatoes this time of year. The lettuce? Romaine, but I trimmed out the tough veins of the leaves, which made a difference (a nice difference) in the texture of the sandwich overall. We used ready bacon, which didn’t make a real difference in overall results and is super-convenient. And make sure you’re generous with both the mayo and the salt and pepper. It’s important to use plenty of both for the sandwich to be really good. And for goodness sakes, break out the Hellmann’s and leave the Miracle Whip on the grocery shelf where it belongs. We scaled the recipe in half so we’d make 2 sandwiches instead of 4 (since there *are* just two of us, after all), but I’ll leave the original recipe intact below.

Classic Club Sandwich
recipe courtesy Food Network Kitchens

12 slices white bread
3/4 cup mayonnaise
8 romaine lettuce leaves
16 slices vine-ripened tomatoes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
16 slices crispy cooked bacon
16 ounces sliced roasted turkey
16 frill picks, or plastic cocktail swords

Serving suggestions:
Potato chips
Sweet Pickles

Toast the bread in a toaster, or under a broiler on both sides. Cut the lettuce leaves in half crosswise and form into 8 neat stacks.

To make a double-decker club: On a clean work surface, arrange 3 bread slices in a row. Spread 1 tablespoon mayonnaise over 1 side of each bread slice. Place a lettuce stack on top of the first bread slice, top with 2 tomato slices, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Place 2 slices bacon over the tomatoes (broken to fit neatly if necessary) and top with 1/8 of the turkey (without letting any hang over the sides). Season the turkey with salt and pepper, to taste. Repeat with the second bread slice. Carefully place the second layered bread slice on top of the first layered bread, turkey side-up. Cover with the third bread slice, mayonnaise side-down.

Pin the sandwich’s layers together by piercing them with 4 frill picks or cocktail swords through the top bread slice, in 4 places in a diamond-like pattern, all the way to the bottom bread slice. Repeat entire process with the remaining ingredients to form 3 more sandwiches.

Using a serrated knife cut each sandwich, diagonally, into 4 triangular pieces (each piece should be secured in the center with a pick or sword). Serve with potato chips and pickles.