October 1963 - Harvest Time

I'm about a third of the way done with the Holly Glass Muffs in blue and gray.  Hopefully I'll have one completed by next Sunday.   

In the mid-month posts I've shared the best of the different sections like Making Cents, other patterns in knit or other needlework, the interesting ads or some of the recipes.   This month I made one of the recipes from the Harvest Time section.

This month's section feature's pies, gingerbread and molasses and included Spicy Molasses Doughnuts, Struesel Gingerbread, Fig-Pineapple Twist, Molasses Popcorn Balls, Molasses Cookies, Molasses Taffy, Orange Zabaglione and Molasses Peanut Brittle.   This section includes a description of how molasses is made and some of the different kinds of molasses.

I haven't baked much in the last few years and most of the baking has been with alternative flours like coconut and almond flour so I was hesitant to take on any of the recipes that had yeast.  I also don't like molasses much so those recipes were out too.   I wanted something fairly simple from the list that I had most of the ingredients for.  I chose Mellow Pumpkin Cake.

The only ingredient I had to buy was buttermilk.  We had a can of pumpkin and and some flour and sugar left over from previous recipes.   I didn't think I had shortening but technically coconut oil is a solid at room temperature so I decided I'd try that.

Ingredients out on the counter I discovered that I only had 1 cup of white sugar.  I had Sucanat though so I used that for the last half cup.  Since Sucanat still has it's molasses content I thought it sort of fit in with the theme.

Step one is creaming the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.    After mixing a bit, I started to worry.   The coconut oil didn't feel light and fluffy and the Sucanat wasn't really mixing in.    I continued on though and ended up with what felt like a lot of batter for a 9x9 pan.    It all went in to a lined and greased pan and into the oven.  

I took it out and let it rest for a bit while I continued to watch The Great British Baking show. 

I can hear Mary saying "Oh dear.  It's a bit under baked."   You can tell because the middle sunk while it was cooling.   It's still edible though and has a crisp outside that's pretty tasty (I've had a few pieces..)

So the 1963 recipe was a good one.  I think it was the baker's skill in this case that made not perfect but still edible.  

Next week I should have a Winter Glass Muff done with a pattern review for it.

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