I attended a lecture on Thursday evening entitled 1940's Wartime Cooking: Recipes and Rationing and was able to sample three items from Josephine Gibson's Wartime Canning and Cooking Book (1943). I've talked about the lecture in my other blog (link above), but for here I'm simply going to supply the recipes since they were photocopied and made available, and talk about the three sweets we enjoyed. As far as sweets and confectionary goes, sugar, butter, and milk were heavily rationed. It didn't mean that these things wouldn't end up in baked goods, but it also meant that recipes like these would either nix them, or cut them by half or thirds. So, I'll be starting with my least favourite and ending with my favourite, and I'll copy them exactly as they are in the book, as per my photocopy versions. Victory Chocolate Cake
Even though this one is my least favourite, it's not a bad cake at all. It wasn't frosted, just dusted with confectioners sugar, which was nice. It was also baked in a loaf pan.
Sift flour, measure, add soda and salt, and sift together twice. Cream shortening until soft. Add brown sugar gradually and continue creaming until light and fluffy. Stir in corn syrup slowly. Add egg in two portions, beating well after each addition. Stir in melted chocolate and vanilla. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk and stir gently to mix after each addition. Line a tube pan, 9 inches in diameter, or loaf pan 9x5x2 1/2 inches, with waxed paper. Grease sides of pan and over waxed paper. Pour in batter and bake in a moderate oven of 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan at least 10 minutes before removing to cooling racks. Frost with any desired frosting. Honey Nut Brownies These were really good brownies, like really good and I've baked my share of brownies from various company boxes as well as from scratch. I've had better, but not by much.
Melt butter and chocolate together. Add honey. Add to well beaten eggs. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and stir into first mixture, being careful not to overmix. Add chopped nuts and vanilla. Spread 1/3 inch thick in a shallow pan, the bottom of which is lined with paper. Bake in a slow oven of 300 degrees F. for 25 minutes, or until done. Invert pan, remove wax paper and cut into squares. Chocolate Chip Honey Cookies These were so, so good. They weren't as good as the homemade Nestle Tollhouse cookies that my grandmother baked and that I still bake, but yeah, second best by far.
Cream butter and honey until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt twice. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; then add vanilla and blend all well. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Chill and drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Bake in a moderate oven of 375 degrees F. for 12 minutes.
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