Peco Drops

I am back to wandering through Wisconsin Gas and Electric's Christmas Cookies pamphlet. I had never heard of Peco Cookies and the ingredients sounded interesting. A quick Internet search brought me zero information of these. They either weren't popular or just forgotten.

I'm guessing that the 'Peco' is a combination of peanut (from peanut butter) and coconut. 

An intriguing combination of ingredients.

I love coconut but am not a fan of graham crackers. This will be interesting.

This makes a thick dough.

Looking good so far...

These baked up nicely but looked a bit dry.

 I wasn't certain what to expect from this recipe but was pleasantly surprised. They were delicious! Although they looked dry they were nice, chewy and moist and did not taste like graham crackers at all. Bonus! They are fairly dense but have a great flavor. They must have just been forgotten with time.

My Rating: Yum! I'll keep it.

Friends and Family Rating: "Yummy!" "These are great."

Blueberry Butter Pastry Squares

I realized I hadn't done a blueberry recipe yet and I have bags of blueberries from my folk's garden in my freezer (right next to my collection of frozen bananas). This simple recipe comes from the 1961 version of The New Antoinette Pope School Cookbook.

This is a 2 pager. Sorry for the weird picture colors. I thought they matched....

 There is not a lot of variety in baking ingredients. On the good side, once you purchase everything for one recipe you pretty much have everything for several more.

 There does not appear to be enough blueberries here...

 That was an easy pastry to throw together. I read the directions and I know what size pan to use but it still looks small.

 Looks so lovely! And my kitchen smells amazing.

 The recipe recommended a couple of different ways to serve the cake. I thought I would try the plain cake with a dusting of powdered sugar.

 Then I added the Orange Icing listed right under the pastry recipe.

Yum! This had the consistency of a pound cake with a light burst of blueberry. It is a dense cake. The cake bakes up with a nice light and crisp top that was delicious with just the powdered sugar! The icing moves it from a coffee cake-like breakfast cake to an after dinner cake. I would add more blueberries next time and flour them so they don't all sink to the bottom. My personal preference is the powdered sugar version but if I were making the icing, I would add orange zest. The icing was not very orange-y.

My Rating: Keeper! with a few adjustments.

Friends and Family Rating: "Amazing." "Could use more fruit."

Pineapple Raisin Drops

Sometimes you just have to grab and try the strange. This gem came from the Christmas Cookies booklet put out by the Wisconsin Gas & Electric Co. I've already made several of the recipes and they have turned out great. Expectations are high!

The crushed pineapple is something different. And I had to buy more raisins. I'm not even a fan of raisins!

 Everything looks normal, except for the pineapple...

 Easy recipe. Came together quickly and easily!

 The pineapple pieces have already disappeared in the batter. I am guessing that they will not add any flavor.

 They baked up so pretty!

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. As expected, the crushed pineapples did not add any flavor but did add a ton of moisture to the batch. All in all these were great! I am not a fan of raisin cookies but I would gladly make these again.

My Rating: Surprisingly delicious!

Friends and Family Rating: "Yum!" "You did the impossible. You made raisin cookies that I actually like."

Banana Nut Cake

Am I the only person that has a freezer full of frozen bananas? I can never finish the entire bunch by the time they start to get too brown so they end up in the freezer with all the others. I am not a big fan of banana bread or banana muffins (too boring) and have been looking for another way to use them. The New Antoinette Pope School Cookbook from 1961 offered up this Banana Nut Cake.

 Pretty much the same ingredients as banana bread but it has icing!

 Another difference is the cake flour. But everything else...same old same old.

 It came together very easily...once I full defrosted the bananas.

 Looks like a cake! Smells delicious!!

 Instead of paying attention to the icing itself, I just followed the directions and ended up adding to much liquid. Way too much icing, not enough cake.

 My banana decorations would not stay put!

 Still looked pretty when cut! Yeah!!

I may not be a big fan of banana bread but I love the smell of it filling my apartment! I messed up the icing but that's okay. It tasted like banana bread but much lighter. The cake flour made a huge difference! I also loved the extra bit of moisture and sweetness that the icing added.

My Rating: Yum! I'd make it again for a brunch.

Orange Slice Bars

I am sticking with desserts but decided to move away from chocolate.

But I stayed with the Cookies (all kinds) from 1963. This one promises to be good with summer drinks.

Chopping up the pound of orange candies seemed to take forever! I had to constantly stop to wash the sticky mess from my hands and the knife. I used pecans as the nut meats.

It looks so cool mixed together however I'm curious about the coconut. It could be good or not. Don't get me wrong. I love coconut! But mixed with orange candies?

The pre-baked pan looks a bit boring.

The baked result didn't change much. Still beige. Still boring. Where are the bright orange candies?!

The edges got a touch too browned but they turned out quite nice! They are a little difficult to cut. I blame that on me. My oven is touchy and overcooked these just a bit.

These were an interesting take on cookie bars. They were crunchier than I anticipated and a bit bland. The orange candies were nice bursts of flavor but overall they were not very exciting. The candies did not melt down, as I expected, so you will have to be careful because they will stick to everything.

My Rating: Okay but very beige.

Friends and Family Rating: "Interesting" "I think it pulled my filling out..."