Dorathe Cooked

Profile manager: Abby Glann [send private message]

Dorathe Heskett (Carper) Johnson was a prolific cook. She loved feeding her family and others and passed that love on to her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She ran a restaurant for awhile mid-century^[1], and also engaged with other restaurant owners. The result is an amazing cache of recipes. Like so many great cooks, much of what she did was in her head, so much is lost to time unless she showed those skills to others, but some she wrote down, and will be documented here as her great granddaughter, Abby documents, tries, edits, and eats them again.

Muffins

Muffins

Looking at this recipe, it reminds me of my donut recipe, so it's a bit drier than most muffin recipes you might encounter today but it makes for a delicate crumb and a biscuit-like exterior. I added a bit more moisture and an egg binder, but otherwise it is delicious and a nice, basic muffin. I got 11-12 small to medium sized muffins from this recipe.

Muffins recipe from Dorathe's recipe box

Abby's First edition:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (1 t. per cup flour/liquid generally)
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/3 c butter, melted
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 egg

Mix together and pour into greased muffin cups. Bake 12 minutes in 400 degree oven

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

This was one of the best pumpkin breads I've had. It doesn't specify whether it makes one loaf or two, but I chose to make it in two pans, as pumpkin bread is so dense and i wasn't sure how well it'd cook through before the bottom burned. Two loaves turned out beautifully. I followed the recipe nearly to a T with only a couple changes. Grandma had put down 1/2 bp, which I knew to be baking powder (she shorthands like I do!); I figured this to be teaspoon with considering the amount of soda used in the next step. The other change was the added water. I used the pumpkin I freeze for myself from our garden each year, and usually I squeeze out the water when I am going to use it, but since this recipe called for added water, I just used it straight out of the container, and skipped the water. Worked perfectly. If you use canned pumpkin, I'd use the water.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Abby's edition:

Pumpkin Bread

makes 2 loaves

• 2 2/3 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2/3 c coconut oil, softened
• 2 cups pumpkin
• 3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 2/3 cup water (if using store-bought pumpkin)
• optional-2/3 cup raisins, cranberries, chocolate chips, or toasted nuts

Cream the sugar, eggs, and oil. Add the remaining ingredients and pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Tomato Soup Cake

This recipe was intriguing. I was going to pass it by, but then I saw a timely blog post on the Kitchn and decided to give it a try. This one is neat because it is one of Lena's, Grandma Dorathe's mom. She has several in her collection from her mother that she had hand copied onto new paper as the originals are so delicate. This image is of the Arlena original:

Lena's Tomato Soup Cake

You'll see it is called "half size". If you doubled this, I think it would make a 9x13 pan. I made them into cupcakes, as it was snack time and those would cook faster. I also was out of cream cheese, so I made a sour cream frosting similar to the cream cheese this one suggests, and it was perfect. Otherwise, I kept it pretty similar.

Abby's edition:

Tomato Soup Cake

makes 12 small cupcakes or an 8x8 pan

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease your pan.

Mix together-

• 1/4 c butter, softened
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 c flour
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t cloves
• 1/4 t nutmeg
• 1/2 c. condensed tomato soup
• 1/2 c raisins (confession: I hate raisins. I used dried cranberries instead)
• 1/2 c chopped nuts (you can easily leave these out if you're allergic. I used walnuts)

Bake for around 20 minutes for cupcakes, a little longer for a cake. Grandma suggested a loaf pan. If you use one of those, it will take much longer, closer to her recommended hour, most likely, as the cake is much thicker.

Frosting:

• 1/2 package cream cheese, softened
• 1 c. confectioners sugar
• 1/2 t. orange juice
• 1/2 t orange zest

Beat until smooth and frost the cakes once they've cooled completely.

Sour Cream Cookies

These cookies were a nice, light, chewy cookie, and were perfect for family movie night. They mix and cook up quickly, and use things we always have in the house anyway. Don't overcook them, and resist the urge to press them down-they'll spread to just the right size on their own.

Abby's Edition:

Sour Cream Cookies

makes about 2 dozen

• 1/3 c coconut oil (we don't use shortening. I imagine butter or lard would work, too)
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 c. flour
• 1 1/2 t bak. powder
• 1/2 t bak. soda
• 1/4 t nutmeg

Cream the oil and sugar, blend in the egg and sour cream, then add the rest and mix until combined. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Grandma's recipe in her own hand

Sources

1. ↑ Brown, Jerry, personal recollections as told to Abby Glann, his daughter