Making Whoopie Pies - Oh La La Darlin

Making Whoopie Pies

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until combined. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a handheld, then add egg, beating until combined well. Reduce speed to low and alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, scraping down side of bowl occasionally, and mixing until smooth.

Spoon 1/4-cup mounds of batter about 2 inches apart onto 2 buttered large baking sheets. Bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched, 11 to 13 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack to cool completely.

Filling

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 cups marshmallow cream such as Marshmallow Fluff

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat together butter, confectioners’ sugar, marshmallow, and vanilla in a bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Spread a rounded tablespoon filling on flat sides of half of cakes and top with remaining cakes.

First Lady of Hunting Sure Can Cook - Mama's Chess Pie, Pumpkin Pie Cake, and Tennessee Apple Pie (which you drink sparingly)

Women in the Woods, Chicks in Camo, Babes with Bullets – call it what you like, but females who hunt are fast growing in number. Even the Wall Street Journal featured on the front page, Tennessee native, Brenda Valentine of Puryear, who is known as “The First Lady of Hunting.” Brenda is the most recognized and respected female hunter in the world, but to hear her tell it, her passion for nature and the great outdoors was simply part of her genetic makeup. Born in rural northwest Tennessee, Brenda’s family hunted not for the sport of it, but rather to put food on their table. Fundamentally, it was part of her culture and she was quick to learn her way around the woods; the instinct and behavior of wild animals; and it didn’t take her long to hone her shooting skills.

 Those lessons learned, coupled with her passion for the great outdoors, have taken her around the world and back to Tennessee many times. She is an award winning author, television celebrity, photographer, seminar speaker, corporate spokeswoman, wife, mother, grandmother, and role model for her industry. Many describe her as the world’s best ambassador for introducing and promoting hunting in an ethical manner to women, children, and novice hunters. She is quick to share her respect for the wonders of nature, the laws of conservation, and the rewards of her sport with one and all. Her husband, Barney, their two daughters, Scarlet Orr and Melissa McElroy and their husbands, along with Brenda’s four grandchildren are all at home in the great outdoors.

Teaching others to hunt brings her more joy than the hundreds of honors and championship titles she has earned over the years; but she’s certainly got the credentials to match with anyone. Brenda has hunted seven countries including six African safaris; probably forty states, most of them dozens of times with New England still on her bucket list. Having enjoyed the challenge of hunting many species, she proclaims that the whitetail deer and wild turkey remain her favorite game animals.

 When she’s off the professional circuit, you’re apt to find Brenda back home in Tennessee driving the tractor, riding her horses, putting up vegetables from the garden, working on treestands, cooking, or shooting bows and guns with her grandkids. Every fall she hosts her own Ladies Bowhunting School and the Brenda Valentine Ladies Hunt for whitetail deer. And every fall, after a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner together, the family piles into the truck and towards the woods they go, camoed, and heeding the call to the wild blue yonder – it’s just family tradition.

Tennessee Apple Pie

Partake sparingly on special occasions!

1/2 gallon apple cider

1 quart of apple juice

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 cinnamon sticks

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool to lukewarm and remove cinnamon sticks. Stir in 1-1/2 quarts of clear moonshine and store in pint fruit jars.

Basic Chess Pie

I always double or triple this recipe and make several pies because my husband will grab a fork and eat an entire pie before they get cool. My momma made this almost every night for supper since we always had plenty eggs and butter on the farm. I do recall her using molasses instead of sugar when we were out, and she called it molasses pie.
3 big brown eggs (if you have 'em)

1-1/2 cups white sugar

1 stick butter (no margarine)

2 tablespoons cornmeal

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Small pinch of salt

Stir all together or you can use a mixer. Pour batter in an unbaked pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until it turns brown and the center barely jiggles. For variation add coconut, chocolate, pineapple, raisins, nuts, etc. Sarah Ealey Johnson, Buchanan TN

Pumpkin Pie Cake

Bottom Layer

1 box yellow cake mix (reserve 1 cup for topping)

1 egg

1/2 cup melted butter

Filling

1 (30-ounce) can of pumpkin pie mix (not plain pumpkin)

2/3 cups milk

2 eggs

Topping

1 cup reserved cake mix

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

 

Mix the bottom layer ingredients and spoon into a 9 x 13 inch glass or metal baking pan. Smooth out with back of spoon. Whisk together the filling ingredients and pour on top of bottom layer. Mix the topping ingredients together. If they’re rather “wet’ spoon them on top of the previous two layers and gently spread as best you can with a fork. If the topping is rather “dry” then flatten spoonfuls into your palms and simply flatten them out. Place them on top of the mixture, covering as much of the filling as possible. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven (325 if you’re using glass) for 40-50 minutes. Check at 40 minutes as this tends to burn on the bottom rather easily. It’s done when the middle only “wiggles” when shook . . . a knife should come out fairly clean in the middle of the dessert. Serve plain or with whipped cream and/or caramel sauce. Enjoy!

Catfish Hotel (Shiloh Tennessee) serves up Lemon Rub Pie & Battlefield History

 

Hagy’s Catfish Hotel has been serving fish on the banks of the Tennessee River since the early 1930’s at the site next to Shiloh Battlefield where the Hagy family landed and laid claim to several acres of bottom land in 1825. Catfish Hotel’s Lemon Rub Pie

MamMaw Hagy added this dessert to the menu in the late 1930’s. Prepared using only the freshest ingredients, this sweet and tangy pie is the perfect ending to a hearty Southern style catfish dinner.
When the Delta Queen steamboat traveled up the Tennessee River, the ship’s chef would call one day before the boat docked at the Shiloh battlefield and order 25 Lemon Rub Pies to go. The cooks would squeeze lemons and bake through the night to insure the pies were ready when the boat landed.

1 9-inch unbaked pie shell

1-3/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon self rising flour

1 tablespoon self rising corn meal

4 eggs

1/4 cup melted butter (measure after melted)

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons grated lemon rind

1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine sugar, flour and corn meal. Add eggs, melted butter, milk, lemon rind and lemon juice. Beat until blended. Pour into unbaked shell. Bake 35 – 40 minutes until top is golden brown.

Brown Sugar Ice Cream Sandwiches OR over Grilled Peaches OR with Caramelized Pineapple OR any way you like it!

Brown Sugar Ice Cream

4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 cups half-and-half or light cream
1 -1/2 teaspoons vanilla

In heavy saucepan, whisk egg yolks and sugar till thick. In another saucepan, bring cream and half and half just to a boil over medium heat. Gradually whisk the hot cream into the egg mixture in a thin stream. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, till custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 6 minutes). Do not boil! Strain into a bowl; add vanilla and let cool to room temperature Cover and refrigerate over-night. Pour into freezer and follow directions for your freezer. It’s yummy all by itself or with fresh or grilled peaches, caramelized pineapple, or atop a slice of apple pie. Make an ice cream sandwich by placing a scoop between two homemade rum raisin cookies. Enjoy!