Recipe Notes: June 2017

Iowa Loose Meat Sandwiches
4 June 2017

Recipe from Cook's Country, August 2014

This sandwich is inspired by the signature sandwich from the Maid-Rite fast food chain most of whose franchises are in Iowa. I've never had one but the it seemed worth trying. It is a simple ground beef sandwich similar to a sloppy joe but seasoned differently.

The sandwiches took only 20 minutes to make. The ground beef is steamed in a sauce pan with water, mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper. That's all there is to it. It is served on a bun (homemade slider buns in our case) with some mustard and onion.

The sandwiches have a very loose texture, as implied by the name, and so you will want to have a fork handy when you eat them. They're OK, but not great, so I don't know if I will make them again. The flavor of the beef is front and center which is a point in their favor.

Skillet French Toast
8 June 2017

Recipe from the New York Times

Even though I am happy with a recipe for french toast that I used last year, this similar recipe looked worth trying. Perhaps what drew me to it was the article which described "the slosher", fixing french toast without a recipe. That is the way I have done it most of my life though of late I have tried various recipes rather than just sloshing ingredients together.

I halved the published recipe and made 6 slices of french toast, with a little batter left over. The batter includes one egg plus one egg yolk, whole milk, vanilla (optional, but I included it), and salt. I used homemade cinnamon raisin bread: I had some in the freezer and I've seen french toast made with this kind of bread on restaurant menus. I cooked the french toast in a preheated cast iron skillet, two slices at a time, with the burner set to "4". I also followed the instructions to sprinkle the second side of the bread with cinnamon sugar. The toast is cooked in butter.  I fixed a dinner of french toast with bacon in about 45 minutes.

Cooking two slices at a time in a preheated cast iron skillet solved problems I have had in the past with uneven cooking. The recipe included some nice directions for cooking with butter and also for testing when done. However, using cinnamon raisin toast did not work well. There were just too many flavors competing for your attention and too much cinnamon. Diane didn't know what kind of jam to use! (I used maple syrup.) This recipe is worth trying again but with a simpler bread. 

Chocolate Sheet Cake
12 June 2017

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2017

I don't have much experience making cake. Since Diane doesn't like cake I have to eat it all, and as good as it is, a 13" x 9" cake takes too long to eat and I would get sick of it no matter how good it is. However, when I saw this recipe I was sufficiently impressed to give it a try, despite the challenges.

The cake was easy to make. It took 35 minutes to make the batter then 40 minutes to bake. The frosting took about 30 minutes to make. The dry ingredients were mixed. Milk, bittersweet chocolate, and cocoa are heated to melt the chocolate.  Oil, eggs, and vanilla are whisked in followed by the dry ingredients. The mixture is then baked. To make the frosting, milk chocolate (I didn't have enough so added some semi sweet chocolate. The least expensive way to purchase the milk chocolate: chocolate chips.) are heated over boiling water until smooth then butter is added. The frosting is chilled and then spread on the cake when the latter is cool.

Diane still doesn't like cake, this one she thought was too rich and, "it's cake". I liked it. The crumb has a good chocolate flavor, was moist, and was not too sweet. The milk chocolate icing complemented it well and had a nice smooth texture. I also got to share it at a meeting the day after I made it and so I didn't have to eat it all myself. It kept well in the refrigerator and so was good until it was gone.