My experiment (long) wasRe: SC - Help with old recipe (OOP)

[Peldyn at aol.com]

STRANGE ADVENTURES IN COOKING: Episode I

It was now it was coming up on 12 of the clock and sleep so far had escaped 
me. I decided to try and make my great-grandmother's recipe. What better 
remedy for insomnia, says I?

I reread the recipe and assembled all the ingredients. I turned the oven on 
to heat at 350 and jammed  a knife in the door to hold it closed. Yeah, I 
really need a new oven. I decided to make a few changes, some later came 
about through necessity, but the change from 1 tablespoon water to 1 
tablespoon vanilla was deliberate. I took the first egg and cracked it into 
my egg seperator. Sigh, the yolk broke. I had bought 2 dozen eggs and so was 
prepared for this, but I hoped it would be the only one I broke!! I set it 
aside for the jelly and got out a clean cup and washed the seperator. The 
rest of the eggs gave me no problem at all, they seperated cleanly, to my 
relief.

I put them aside to come to room temperature and started on the butter/sugar 
mixture. I used the 1/2 pound that Adamantius recommended. I creamed them 
well together with my poor excuse for a mixer, it has only one beater, you 
should see it! I added the vanilla, mixing well.  I then sifted the dry 
ingredients together including the baking powder. It was said that the baking 
powder in those times was single acting, but all I had was the double acting 
kind. I hoped it wouldn't affect the outcome of the cake too much. Then, 
since the eggs were still too cold, I started to make the jelly. I had had 
problems deciphring the number of apples so I went with my first guess which 
was three. After peeling and coring, I used my metal box grater to grate the 
apples. I then used it to grate the lemon rind. Now was cursing time!! How do 
you get the itty bitty bits of lemon zest that have been grated off the 
grater?? I used the tines of a fork to try and jab through the little holes 
to free up the zest but got very little. Please, someone tell me, is there a 
better way? I felt like I had lost most of the zest due to it being 
permanantly stuck to that accursed grater!!! After a bit of swearing I added 
the sugar to the apples and the feeble bit of lemon zest in the pot and 
brought it to a simmer. I let it simmer until the apples were tender, about 
10 minutes. I beat the one egg and added a bit of the apple mixture to it 
mixing well and then threw it into the pot stirring as fast as I could. I let 
it simmer a little more, picking out the bits of egg that had coagulated. The 
egg addition didn't seem to have worked out well. The mixture didn't thicken 
and I detested picking out the egg bits. I put it in the fridge to see if 
cooling it down would thicken it some.

The eggs seemed warmer now so I started in on beating them. First I washed my 
lone beater in hot, soapy water to make sure there was no fat on it. I then 
tried to beat the eggs whites. I beat them for about 20 minutes on the 
highest speed of my mixer. Try as I might I could only get about half of the 
egg whites to foam. I ended up with nice stiff peaks on the top and liquid 
egg on the bottom!!! I was so tired of beating that I almost threw in the 
towel, but I kept on. I put the egg whites aside and beat the egg yolks until 
they were lemon colored and thick. I mixed them into the creamed mixture and 
then mixed in the flour mixture in halves. I ended up with what looked like a 
thick cookie dough! Not one to resist temptation I tasted it, oh yum! I love 
raw cookie dough! Now how was I going to mix the egg whites into it? 
Realizing it was darn near impossible to fold egg whites into that, I was 
glad I had failed on my egg white beating. I used the mixer and mixed the 
liquid egg whites into the dough and when I was done, it was still pretty 
thick, but of a more reasonable texture to fold in the egg whites. So I 
carefully folded them in.

Now was time to get the pan. I had only one pan that would qualify as a jelly 
roll pan and I had no parchment paper. So I greased it well and prayed to the 
Goddess of Baking! I pour and scraped the batter into the pan and spread it 
out even. I put it in the oven to bake and then checked up on the jelly. It 
had not set!!! I put it back on the stove and mixed in 1/2 teaspoon of 
cornstarch. I cooked it until it was thick and set it back in the fridge. 
While the cake was baking I sat back and licked the bowl and beater. I know, 
salmonella danger. Pfft! I laugh in the face of danger! Umm.. I did tell you 
I can't resist?

The cake took about 25 minutes to bake and rose to be about 2 inches high!!! 
I turned it out onto a towel (yes it did stick to the pan a little, but it 
was not too bad.) I had sprinked with powdered sugar and rolled it up. I let 
it cool  about 15 minutes and then unrolled it and spread it with the jelly. 
I rolled it back up and here was where it all fell apart, literally!! In 
trying to get this massive roll onto a cake plate, it split! Oh well, that is 
how the cookie crumbles, er cake splits! Since the cake was a little too long 
for the plate I trimmed off the ends and ate them. Oh my! The cake tasted 
like sugar cookies, had a texture somewhat like a cross between a sponge or 
angel food cake and a pound cake and the filling was redolent of lemon!!

This is a cake I will definitely try to make again. I think I will make it in 
two jellyroll pans though, since it was really too thick to roll up properly. 
I am not sure if I will double the recipe for the jelly or not. If I spead it 
a little thinner it will probably work for two cakes too. One strange comment 
I got from my husband was, "What did you put in the filling, appleslaw?" The 
grated pieces of apple were a bit slawlike in texture, I agree. I might try 
the food processor next time.

Well, all in all it was an interesting night, though I did go to bed with a 
tummy ache from all the cake! Did I tell you I can't resist? (wink)
Peldyn
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