Nostalgic recipes

Throwback recipes celebrate culinary history

of retirement age, ‘I ’m but I’m not one to stay home and alphabetize the spices, and I’m not a television watcher,” said Bonnie Phillips of St. Joseph, who worked at Whirlpool Corporation for 30 years, as well as at other jobs such as Bit of Swiss Bakery. Part of this inability to sit still may harken back to her childhood when she moved with her family 13 times in 17 years, living in numerous American cities such as Richland, Wash.; Steam Boat Springs, Col.; and Reno, Nev., as well as in Lhoksaumawe, Indonesia (in Aceh), and North Sumatra.

In some places, it was refined antebellum mansions like those in Vicksburg, Miss., where in other places the family was surrounded by jungles and rice paddies.

“My mother was always packing,” she recalled.

Though at times there were no televisions, phones or even radios in some of the places they lived, when Phillips did live in a location where she could turn on the television, she’d watch old black and white episodes of Julia Child’s first cooking series.

Though we’re used to numerous TV food shows and even a food channel, Child was one of the first female chefs to have a show. Surprisingly, she wasn’t the first TV chef, though. That was Friedman Paul Erhardt, a restauranteur who had a thick German accent, 40 million viewers and was commissioned by Walt Disney to create and bake a giant cake in honor of Donald Duck’s 50th birthday.

The family was living in Niantic, Conn., a seaport city on the Atlantic Ocean, when Philips, who was around 8, became fascinated by both Julia Child and cooking. She had an old black-and-white portable television in her room and always tuned into “The French Chef” when it was scheduled to be on. Watching these old episodes now makes you realize how far television cooking shows have come, but back in the day, Julia reigned.

“I remember my mother saying ‘who else but Bonnie would spend their Saturday mornings making croissants?’” said Phillips. “I remember the broken down, old, nonstick baking sheet that I used to make them.

“I always had a culinary background, but I’m not formally trained.”

Besides an avid interest in food, Phillips is also a member of the International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, & Teachers of Handwriting (IAMPETH). IAMPETH is an organization dedicated to the promotion of excellence in penmanship, the exchange and dissemination of knowledge in the fields of handwriting, engrossing and all letter arts, as well as encouraging the development and growth of the art in both schools and the public at large.

As someone who loves word processing programs and computers, I’m always amazed at how authors of yore turned out weighty tomes. Phillips and I discuss how authors such as Anthony Trollope, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens wrote their lengthy manuscripts by hand in cursive. Trollope, who wrote 47 novels, would write 2,500 words in the morning before going to work for the post office, a job he held to pay the bills. Besides becoming a bestselling author, he is credited with introducing the pillar box also known as the roadside letter box to Great Britain. IAMPETH laments that cursive writing, once part of the curriculum, is no longer part of many school curriculums, but that is changing. Now there are about 20 states requiring it be taught once more.

Given this personal history, it’s not surprising that at this stage in her life Phillips has decided not only to return to her past interest in cooking, but also to the recipes from her youth.

She chose to make toffee using a 125-year-old recipe belonging to Marie Doebeli, a family relative. Everyone loved it and from there, it wasn’t a long step to packaging her candy in tins, adding ribbons and selling it at the St. Joseph’s Wednesday Night Market at Court Place Plaza, across from Silver Harbor Brewing, which runs from 4-8 p.m. She sells it under the brand name Doebeli Toffee.

Toffee can be tricky to make, requiring candy- making equipment, and Phillips says she often sells out before the end of the evening. I learned about her venture when I was contacted by Bernadette Lynch, who opened The Lark & Pear in Sawyer, where she sold her baked goods. It, too, was a retirement project and the business thrived for years before Lynch decided to close it. Since she and Phillips are good friends and I had written a story for the HP on her business, she thought I might be interested in Doebeli Toffee. And, of course, I was.

I don’t have her recipe for the toffee, but Phillips shared recipes from the 1930s belonging to her grandmother, Geraldine Francis Schmuhl. It was from her grandmother that she learned to make candies like the toffee and other sweets. If the name Schmuhl sounds familiar, her grandmother was born in Hagar Shores.

“The house where she was born is still there,” said Phillips.

Her father owned a farm across the Paw Paw River from Sarett Nature Center on Schmuhl Road.

“I have a lot of these old recipes,” said Phillips, “but I decided to focus on making Marie’s toffee, at least for now.”

The recipes Phillips gave me were all old and, thankfully, written in cursive. Some were splotchy and torn, like they had been used many times.

The one for Upside Down Cake called for butter the size of a walnut. But what did that mean? A quick Google search indicated that it’s a measurement equal to about two tablespoons. The same recipe also called for the use of a cast iron spider. I’d never heard of one before and certainly didn’t have one among the mess of kitchen equipment I have in my cabinets.

It turns out iron spiders are also called three legged skillets because they typically have three legs and a long handle. Designed to be used when cooking over open flames (and no, that doesn’t include modern gas ranges), the long handle gave the cook a little distance from the fire. Remember, this was a time when women making dinner over an open hearth wore long skirts and yes, having them catch on fire was not unusual. An article in Lancet, the British medical journal published in 1860 (and rerun in Racket, an online magazine that also is no longer published), it is estimated that 3,000 women in one year died by their skirts catching on fire. That’s roughly equivalent to the number of women murdered in the U.S. in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another thing to keep in mind when people talk about the good old days.

Phillips remembers her Grandma Schmuhl using the peaches she had canned for her Upside Down Cake. I used canned peaches from the grocery store. I imagine Grandma Schmuhl’s tasted better.

As for the three-legged skillet, the price of iron spiders is about $175, but a cast iron skillet will do. That’s what I used.

Grandma Schmuhl’s Sunny Silver Pie

1/3 cup cold water 1/2 teaspoon tablespoon gelatin 4 eggs 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice Grated rind of 1/2 lemon 1 cup sugar Few grains of salt (similar to a pinch) 1 cup whipping cream

Set gelatin to soak in 1/3 cup water.

Place 4 egg yolks, lemon juice, lemon rind, and 1/2 cup of sugar in the rounded bottom of an enameled bowl.

Set the bowl in a larger pan of boiling water. Whisk the water while the water is in the larger pan, whip the egg yolks egg yolk mixture until it becomes firm and creamy. When it reaches this stage, turn the heat down and fold in the gelatin.

Beat egg whites until they’re very stiff and combined with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Then fold into your mixture.

For filling in a large baked pie shell to set in the refrigerator for two hours.

Whip the cream and spread on pie just before serving.

Grandma Schmuhl’s Upside Down Cake

1 1/2 cups brown sugar 2 tablespoons butter 1 pint peaches or any other type of fruit you have on hand 2 eggs 1 cup sugar 6 tablespoons boiling water 1 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Melt the brown sugar with butter in a frying pan.

Lay on sliced peaches or other fruit.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Beat egg yolks together and then add the sugar and boiling water.

Slowly add the flour mixture and one teaspoon of vanilla.

Beat the egg whites and fold into batter.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.

Grandma Schmuhl’s Dream Bars

1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter with brown sugar, mixing well. Stir in flour and mix until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Firmly press mixture into a greased 13-by-9-by-2inch pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes only. Remove from oven. Set aside and make topping.

Coconut Nut Topping

3 eggs 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar 1/4 cup flour 1 teaspoon double acting baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups coconut, flaked 1 cup chopped pecans 1 teaspoon vanilla

Reduce heat in oven to three 325 degrees.

Beat eggs until foamy, gradually add brown sugar, mixing until thick.

Sift together 1/4 cup flour, baking powder and salt. Blend into the egg mixture.

Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Spread over baked mixture.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool and cut with a sharp knife.

Jane Ammeson can be contacted via email at janeammeson@gmail.com or by writing to Focus, The Herald-Palladium, P.O. Box 128, St. Joseph, MI 49085.

Grandma Schmuhl’s Upside Down Cake is made with fresh fruit in a cast iron skillet.

Jane Ammeson photos

Grandma Schmuhl’s Dream Bars are a shortbread covered with a rich coconut and nut topping.

Doebeli Toffee is made using a 125-year old family recipe.

Photo provided

After 30 years at Whirlpool Corporation, Bonnie Phillips has started Doebeli Toffee, making candy from scratch.

Photo provided

Jane Ammeson