Vintage Recipes-It Came From The 70s Addition Kitchen Sink Cookies

I was born in 1978 so I have no memory of one of America's more turbulent, and certainly kitschiest decades, and for years despite my love of vintage I had no interest in the 70s.   I think this may be because it is the decade I was born in and that most vintage lovers tend to reach farther back to decades before their birth.  However, there are some 1970s things I do love.  Here are two brief examples:


The hilarious and strangely existential educational short What is Nothing?

and the decades high point, in my opinion, Ricardo Montalban's Chrysler Cordoba commercial:

(If I ever win the lottery I don't want a fancy sports car, I want a Chrysler Cordoba)

I also love the cookies that are the subject of this post .    They are the first things I ever baked as a child and they come from the 1971 cook book Diet For A Small Planet 

It is a hippie dippie vegetarian tome that I found languishing in my mother's kitchen.  It has a number of recipes in it and argues that a meat free diet is the  solution to world hunger.   I can't remember my self or my mother ever making any of the recipes besides these cookies, but they are delicious, and loaded with the kind of crunchy health food store ingredients that I  imagine where very popular in the 70s.  While they are certainly not low calorie they do offer more protein and nutrients then the average cookie.   Most importantly they are really, really, really tasty.  They are also, despite the long list of ingredients, very easy to make.  Personally I like to eat them for breakfast,  but they'd be good any time of day.  So without further ado here is the recipe one of the best things to come out of the 1970s, in my opinion anyway:


Kitchen Sink Cookies from Diet for A Small Planet 

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup milk powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. each ground nutmeg and cloves (we go a little easier on the cloves)
2/3 cup raisins
3/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut 
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts, chopped 
1/4 cup sunflower seeds 
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup oil or melted butter (I use oil)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses 

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Beat the eggs, add oil, honey and molasses in a small bowl by hand. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and stir till moistened. If mixture is too dry, mine usually is, add a few drops of milk and mix again until the dough coms toether   Drop by spoonfuls onto unoiled cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, watch closely they cook quickly.

Vintage Tea Party Recipes

I'm not quite sure why but every spring I get the urge to make tea party food.

Finger sandwiches, cream scones, cake, deviled eggs etc.  All foods with a distinctly retro feel to them, and all easy to make.   In just a few hours you can easily assemble a tea party feat that will make you feel as if you stepped back in time.


Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Softened cream cheese, about 3-4 ounces
whole grain or whole wheat bread with the crust cut off, about one loaf
1/2 seedless cucumber sliced very thin with a mandolin slicer (I just got one ad it makes such a difference)
salt and pepper

Spread the cream cheese on one half of the bread.   Top with a few paper think slices of cucumber season with salt and pepper.  Cut into triangles or squares.



Radish Tea Sandwiches with Lemon butter

High quality unsalted butter, very soft
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
4-5 radishes sliced paper thin with a mandolin slicer
white bread with the crust cut off, about one loaf

Mash the soft butter together with the lemon zest and juice and salt and pepper to taste.  Spread the lemon butter on 1/2 half of the bread and top with the radish slices.  Cut into triangles or squares.


Cream Scones from Tea and Sympathy

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 375 .  Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.  Pour in the cream and mix with a fork until it just comes together.  DO NOT OVERMIX! Dump onto a floured surface and pat out with your hands until about an inch thick.  Cut out circles with a biscuit cutter and place on a parchment lined sheet.   Bake 12 minutes rotating at the half way point.  Serve with raspberry jam and clotted cream.  You really need clotted cream for these.   Some gourmet grocers in the US have it or you can buy it online. These are really only good the day they are made.


Deviled Eggs 

I use a different recipe every year.  This year I tried this one.





Victoria Sandwich from Tea and Sympathy (This is the ultimate tea party cake)

Cake
2 sticks unsalted butter, very soft
1 cup sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

Frosting
1 stick butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract 
2 cups powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
1 -2 tbsp milk

Raspberry jam (the best you can find)

Preheat the oven to 350.
Cream the butter and sugar in the electric mixer until very light and fluffy.  Beat the eggs in one and a time, scraping down after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.  Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in with a spatula.  Mix until smooth.

Divide between two 8 inch cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes until a tester comes out clean.  Cool on a rack before frosting.


Buttercream Frosting
Beat the soft butter and confectioners sugar together until fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla.  Add enough milk to achieve a good spreading consistency.


Assemble
Place one cake on the cake stand and spread the top with all of the buttercream frosting.  Spread on a nice layer of raspberry jam.  Top with the other cake slice.  Sift confectioners sugar on top.

Vintage Recipe-Lemon Ice Box Pies

Starting in the 1920s when refrigerators became a staple in well appointed private kitchens

Ice box dessert recipes started cropping up in home cokes recipes files.   

These simple deserts, often made without a stove at all, but always with a long rest in the ice box, rely on whipped cream, cookies, and/or  fruits to make a cool tasty treat.

Sadly these delicious summer desserts have largely fallen out of favor.   It's really too bad because they are SO easy to make and truly delicious.  One of my favorites is this Lemon Ice Box Pie.  I use an ever so slightly modified version of the recipe from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, but there are many versions.  It's a perfect recipe for welcoming warmer days.  I make it every summer, in fact I think I may have shared the recipe on this blog before, but here it is again!


Lemon Ice Box Pie From the Magnolia Bakery

For the lemon curd

12 egg yolks at room temperature 
3 tbsp grated and minced lemon zest
1 cup fresh lemon juice 
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut in small pieces

Separate the eggs while they are cold, placing the yolks in a large sauce pan.  Reserve the egg whites for another use, you can store them in a zip lock bag in the freezer and thaw them at a later date to make pavlova or another egg white recipe.   Let the yolks sit in the pan until they come to about room temperature, 30 min to an hour.  Whisk the lemon juice and zest and the sugar into the yolks.  Place the pan over medium low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the curd is thick and bubbly, about 20 min.  Remove from the heat and immediately whisk in the butter,  one piece at a time.  Transfer to a container and refrigerate until cold, several hours or overnight.

For the crust
1 box Nilla wafers
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Grind the cookies in a food processor and add the butter and process until moist crumbs form.  Press into an ungreased glass  pie pan and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.  

For the filling

Chilled lemon curd 
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Beat the cream in a chilled bowl with chilled beaters until stiff peaks form.  Fold in the lemon curd and pour the mixture into the crust.   Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Garnish
Blueberries 
Lemon slices

Decorate the finished pie with blueberries and lemon slices. Enjoy!

This pie can be stored for about a week in the refrigerator, if it lasts that long.    If you want to simplify things you could use store bought lemon curd, but I think its really fun to make your own.