Dulce de Leche

I don't remember where I found this recipe for Latin American caramel sauce. It is simple and delicious. Serve it as a pudding. Mix it into vanilla ice cream. Use as a sauce over pound cake or a filling for pastries.

1 quart whole milk
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch cinnamon

Combine ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook without stirring until mixture boils, about 15 to 20 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon, about 45 minutes to one hour, until the mixture is caramel color and thick enough that you can see the bottom of the pan while you stir. Keep refrigerated until used.

A simpler (but more dangerous) method is to simmer an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in water to cover for about two hours. Remember to replenish the water and, if you decided to try this, beware that the can become overheated and explode. As an alternative, you can empty the can into a pie plate, cover with foil and bake in a water bath at 425o F for one hour.

Chocolate Joy Cake (the original)

This old fashioned recipe makes the best cake ever. This makes a large, moist cake (2 9" layer pans or a 13x9" oblong pan).

1. Grease and flour 2 9" layer pans or a 13x9" oblong pan.

2. Combine 1/2 cup hot water with 3 sq. chocolate (3 oz.), melted. Stir until thick. Cool.

3. Cream together until fluffy 1/2 cup soft shortening & 1 2/3 cups sugar.

4. Beat in thoroughly 3 eggs (1/2 to 2/3 cup) and cooled chocolate mixture.

5. Add 2 1/8 cups *sifted* flour, 1/4 tsp. soda, 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt.

6. Stir in alternately with 1 1/4 cups buttermilk.

7. Pour into prepared pans. Bake at 350 (moderate oven) - layers take 30 - 35 minutes, oblong takes 40 - 45 minutes, until cake tests done. Cool & finish with chocolate icing.

From Betty Crocker's Cookbook, 1955 edition.

Rizogalo

"This is Greek-style comfort food that I learned to make in Athens. The egg thickens the pudding, but if you just dump raw egg into hot rice, it will turn into scrambled eggs. Take the time to mix it in bit by bit -- this is the best rice pudding."

1 quart milk
½ cup water
pinch of salt
1/3 cup raw long-grain white rice
½ cup sugar (scant)
small piece of fresh lemon peel
1 egg

Wash the rice. Bring the milk, water, salt, rice and sugar to a boil over medium heat (not high heat) in a heavy bottomed pan, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for ½ hour, stirring occasionally. Add the lemon peel and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, for another ½ hour to 45 minutes, until the mixture is just thick enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat.

Beat the egg in a medium-sized bowl and stir in a few spoonfuls of the hot rice mixture. Add a bit more hot rice and stir again. Repeat a few times until the mixture is well-diluted and the egg is heated. Pour the egg-rice mixture into the pot, stir well and simmer for a couple of minutes. Pour into serving dishes and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cool before serving (if you can wait that long).

Sour Cream Apple Walnut Pie

I have to be totally honest here -- I haven't yet baked this pie, but I've eaten the original, and I think it is the best pie ever.

This recipe is Tamasin Day-Lewis's take on "the signature pie of the Little Pie Company of the Big Apple," she writes, "the one that made the New York company famous, the only recipe they will not give out." She says that it is as close as she could get to the original and advises, "Don't ever try to use margarine instead of butter. You'd never get the lovely buttery flavor."

Sour Cream Apple and Walnut Pie

Shortcrust pastry dough made with 3 cups all-purpose flour and ¾ cup unsalted butter (See Tamasin Day Lewis's Shortcrust Pastry Dough recipe)

Filling
10 large eating apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
A little light brown sugar
2/3 cup sour cream

Topping
½ cup sugar, half light and half dark brown
½ cup unsalted butter, cold
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
½ cup flour
¾ cup walnuts, crushed into small bits

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease a pie pan with butter, then line it with two-thirds of the rolled-out pastry dough. Let the overhang hang loose for the moment.

Toss the apple slices into a bowl with a small scattering of sugar and the sour cream, then mix with your hands until everything is well amalgamated. Pile this mixture into the pie shell, packing it tightly and mounding it up toward the center.

For the topping, process together the sugars, small bits of cold butter, syrup and flour. Add the walnuts when you have stopped the processing, and stir them in. Take lumps of the mixture on the palm of one hand and flatten them out with the other palm, so you have a flattened layer rather than a crumble top, and cover the surface of the apples bit by bit. Join the topping to the dough edge before you cut off the overhang.

Cook for 20 minutes before turning the temperature down to 350 F and cooking for another 30 to 40 minutes. Check that the top layer is not darkening too much and if it is, cover with a layer of wax paper or foil and continue cooking. The pie will smell ready when it is ready.

Day-Lewis is of the firm belief that apple pie is best when left to cool for at least 3 hours after cooking, so if you want it warm or hot, work out your cooking times accordingly and reheat very gently, she writes. Serve warm and a la mode, with homemade vanilla ice cream, she recommends.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Tarts With Tops On: Or How To Make the Perfect Pie by Tamasin Day-Lewis

Eudora Welty's Onion Pie

I heard actress Sela Ward talking about Eudora Welty's Onion Pie -- she says she makes it for the holidays every year and it is always a big hit. Southern writer Eudora Welty contributed her recipe to the Jackson, Misssissippi Junior League cookbook, "Southern Sideboards," many years ago. She said that she brought it back from France, and that these pies are served hot at the wine festivals along with each bottle of wine. I haven't made this dish and probably never will, but I wouldn't mind trying a slice.

Onion Pie

Crust:
Lump of butter the size of an egg
Rounded teaspoon lard
Heaping teaspoon baking powder
Salt
Fairly heaping cup of flour (sift before measuring)
Cold sweet milk
1 egg yolk

Filling:
3 large sweet Spanish onions
1 large tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon flour
salt and pepper
2 eggs
1 cup whipping cream

Procedure
Crust: Work together the softened butter, lard, baking powder, salt, and flour. Add enough cold sweet milk to make a good firmdough. Well beaten yolk of an egg may be added if desired. Line an 8 inch pie plate with rolled pastry.

Filling: Shave onions fine: fry in butter to a nice brown, really brown and much reduced. Add flour. Stir well: salt and pepper to taste. Beat the eggs till pretty light; mix with cupful cream; fold them into the fried onions gently until perfectly mixed. Pour into the crust and bake about 30 minutes or till brown and puffy at about 400 F. Serve at once.

http://groups.msn.com/ChristianDebateII/recipes.msnw?action=view_list&row=13&viewtype=2&sortstring=

Tamasin Day-Lewis's Shortcrust Pastry Dough

From Tamasin Day-Lewis's book, Tarts With Tops On: Or How To Make the Perfect Pie.

3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsalted butter, cold
2 to 2½ tablespoons ice-cold water

If you're using a food processor: Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a food processor, then cut the cold butter into small pieces on top of it. Process it for 20 to 30 seconds, then add ice-cold water through the top, a tablespoon at a time — 2 to 2½ should be enough for about 10 ounces of dough — with the machine running. If the paste is still in crumbly little bits after a minute or two, add a tablespoon more water, but remember, the more water you use, the more the crust will shrink if you bake it blind. One solution is to use a bit of cream or egg yolk instead of water. The moment the dough has cohered into a single ball, stop, remove it, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

If you're making pastry dough by hand: Sift the flour into a large bowl with the salt, add the chopped butter, and work as briskly as you can to rub the fat into the flour. Use the tips of your fingers only, rather like running grains of hot sand through your fingers. Add the water bit by bit as before; wrap and chill the dough.

If you're making a double-crust pie, divide the dough into roughly two-thirds and one-third. Then scatter a bit of flour on your work surface, roll your rolling pin in it, dust the palms of your hands, and start rolling. Always roll away from yourself, turning the dough as you go, and keep the rolling pin and work surface floured to prevent sticking.