Note: This is a repost from June 2007.  This recipe for strawberry pie is just too good not to share again!

My Mom is a Baker, with a capital B. There were always baked goods in our house. I think her love language must of have been Baking Sweets. Luckily, my Dad’s love language appears to be Eating Baked Love Offerings.

Of all the things that my Mom baked, one of my all time favorites is her strawberry pie. One of the major advantages of living in California is that it is a veritable cornucopia of strawberry goodness. Philip and I had the good fortune to live in the same region once during strawberry season, taking advantage of the bounty with many a pie.

Suzanne at Blessed Among Men and Kristen of Small Treasures hosted a Strawberry Festival on June 27, 2007  on their cooking blog The Virtual Kitchen.  In honor of the occasion, I shared my mom’s strawberry pie recipe. Besides, any opportunity to combine SAT vocabulary words and overused blogisms into a phrase like “veritable cornucopia of strawberry goodness” is too good to pass up.

My Favorite Strawberry Pie

My mother made this gingerbread cake many, many years ago.  I was in college or late high school,  I don’t remember exactly. We thought she’d misplaced the recipe, but then it turned up and she shared it with me.  I’m not sure why, but I never made it.  The recipe just sat in my box, waiting for just the right time.

The day before Pipsqueak was born, Pumpkin Girl and my mother made this gingerbread cale.  After an afternoon of just sitting around, chatting with my mid-wife and some of her assistants, waiting for anything to actually happen, we went down to the kitchen to enjoy some dessert.

I did mention Pipsqueak was born at home, didn’t I?  No?  Heh-heh.  He was – thus allowing me to sit in my room, chatting with my midwife and eating homemade gingerbread for dessert.

In honor of this, The Day Before Pipsqueak Turns One, I present to you the recipe for what is certain to become a late-October tradition.

I was fortunate to attend a junior high that had required home ec and industrial arts classes. We learned to cook and bake, sew, draft (technical drawing), and work with wood and metal. Several of my projects from those classes still survive! Actually, I just took possession of them again, as we upsized our house while my parents have been downsizing. Hmm, I think I feel another blog post in that!

I was looking for a recipe in a magazine the other day and I came across my original copy of a recipe from my junior high cooking class. It’s for “balloon buns” – a quick and simple snack.

Check it out –

Can you see the discoloration around the drawing of the balloon? That’s because you can measure your dough right on the balloon, so that’s years of grease traveling across the page!

I thought I’d share this recipe, not because it is any great culinary achievement, but because it is something kids can learn to make. And because balloon buns make me smile.

(I doubled this recipe for our family, and the only thing I actually measured was the biscuit mix and water. After forming the dough circle, I just spread butter on them and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar without measuring.)

“It’s called a sugar snow, because a snow this time of year means that men can make more sugar.  You see, this little cold spell and the snow will hold back the leafing of the trees, and that makes a longer run of sap.”
-Pa Ingalls in Little House in the Big Woods

In mid-March, after a couple of days of near 70 degree weather, we got several inches of snow, followed by another warm up and even more snow.  We woke up one morning to this:

In anticipation of the sugar snows, I went out and bought some pure maple syrup to make maple sugar candy, just like in “Little House in the Big Woods”.  It’s surprisingly simple and quick to make and very, very yummy.

Here’s our syrup, bubbling its way up to 236 degrees F.
(Don’t you love the drip pans covered in foil?  Classy.  Goes so well with the granite countertops and hardwood floors.)

Pumpkin Girl stirs the slightly cooled syrup.

Thirty minutes later, the hardened and unmolded candy sits ready to be eaten!

Here’s the complete recipe:

Maple Sugar Candy

You will need:

8 1/2 oz pure maple syrup (regular pancake syrup won’t work)

candy thermometer

candy mold

Directions:

Lightly grease the rim of a heavy 1 quart sauce pan with butter to prevent maple syrup from boiling over.

Pour maple syrup into sauce pan.

Over medium heat, cook maple syrup until candy thermometer reads 236 degrees F (approximately 10-15 minutes).

While maple syrup is heating, put hot tap water into a two cup glass measuring cup.  When syrup is almost 236 degrees, pour out water and dry measuring cup completely.

Transfer syrup to the warm glass measuring cup with pour spout, using rubber spatula to remove as much syrup from sauce pan as possible.

Place candy thermometer in the maple syrup and cool syrup to 200 degrees.

Use a small wire whisk to stir the maple syrup in the measuring cup until it begins to thicken and turn cream.  This is only going to take a couple of minutes, so be ready.  Don’t allow syrup to get too thick.

Place the candy mold on a cool surface and carefully and quickly fill each candy cavity to just full with thickened syrup.

Let the maple candy cool in the mold at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Gently push on the bottom of each cavity to loosen each maple candy and carefully remove pieces, one by one.

Remove any rough edges that remain on the candy (and eat them).

This recipe is Pumpkin Girl’s specialty. It’s best eaten the same day, so make it for a crowd or only make half. Though it is still tasty when reheated a day or two later.

Apple Dumpling Bake

2 tubes (8 oz each) refrigerated crescent rolls
2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup Mountain Dew
ground cinnamon
vanilla ice cream

Unroll crescent rolls and separate dough into 16 triangles. Cut each apple into 8 wedges. Wrap a crescent dough triangle around each apple wedge. Place in a greased 13″x9″ baking dish.

In a bowl, combine sugar and butter; sprinkle over rolls. Slowly pour soda around rolls. Do not stir. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake, uncovvered at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream.

Serves 16

Here’s Pumpkin putting the sugar mixture over the rolls:

And pouring the soda:

The finished product: