The Recipe Box
Page 29
Becky shared the apple cider donut recipe she believes her mom originated in the 1970s and that was the precursor to the cider donut recipe used today. There is just something about the sweetness of the apple cider in these donuts that make them the perfect treat for a cool weekend morning breakfast (no matter the season!) or a delightful dessert.
Cherry Chip Cake
One of my most beloved recipes from my grandmother was her Cherry Chip Cake. I so loved it that I asked her to make it for me on every special occasion: my birthday, awards, holidays, a sunny day … but she pretty much just made it whenever she wanted me to know how much she loved me. It’s not only rich and dreamy, but it’s stunningly beautiful, a real showstopper of a dessert. And if you love cherries, this ain’t the pits … it’s as close to heaven as you can come! The sad thing is, when I went to look through my grandma’s and my family’s recipe boxes, I couldn’t find it. I was heartbroken. I finally found the perfect cherry chip cake recipe from Annalise Sandberg at Completely Delicious, who agreed to let me use her cake recipe. I experimented with the icing to make it my own. The link to Annalise’s recipe follows, and it is amazing!
http://www.completelydelicious.com/cherry-chip-cake-with-whipped-vanilla-buttercream/
Triple Berry Galette
Another major inspiration behind this book were my dear friends, Kathy and Nancy, who live in a stunning home overlooking the bay in Suttons Bay, much like Sam and her family. Visiting their home in the summer is Pure Michigan: boat rides, Jet-Skis, barbecues, cocktails on their deck watching the sunset, games, laughter, suntans, and, of course, baking. They made a galette one beautiful summer morning, and it remained with me forever. I asked for the recipe, which they graciously shared. They made a rhubarb galette, which was delicious, but since I use rhubarb in a coffee cake recipe later, we adapted their recipe to a three-berry galette, which sings summer!
The galette reminds me of the “breakfast pie” my Grandma Shipman used to make. It was essentially a galette, but she didn’t use fancy words like that. She would lead me into her garden, or the woods and bramble that backed our house, and we’d pick fruit for her breakfast pie. The thorns would catch my shirt and often nick my bare legs, but my grandma would say the end result was worth the extra effort in life and baking. This is a perfect summer breakfast, and the fruit can be changed to fit the area where you live; I’ve added blueberries, which I can pick just out my Michigan back door. Today, I grow all the things my grandma did: rhubarb, strawberries—and my Michigan woods are filled with fresh, wild berries in the summer. My grandmothers always told me that the simplest things in life—family, friends, faith, fun, love, and a passion for what you do—were truly the grandest gifts. This included baking (creating something you could share) and using the simple ingredients that they grew and that surrounded them in the summer: rhubarb, strawberries, wild blackberries, and raspberries.
Thumbprint Cookies
This is another family recipe with a sweet history. My family makes these a few times a year, but always at the holidays. It isn’t Christmas unless we’re all crammed into the kitchen, making dough and then imprinting them with our special touch (and favorite jam … make a homemade jam sometime, or even a freezer jam … it’s so worth it!). These cookies are nostalgic, pretty, and delicately delicious.
Ice Cream Sandwiches with Ozarks Maple Spice Chocolate Chip–Cherry Chunk Cookies
I grew up spending my childhood summers at my grandparents’ log cabin in the Missouri Ozarks. There was no TV, phone, or indoor shower/bath; all we had were fishing poles, inner tubes, books, food, and each other. It was quintessential summer. This is where I learned the stories of my family and where I learned that cooking was a team effort. These ice cream sandwiches are the perfect example of that. They defined summer at our cabin to me (and still do at my own Michigan summer cottage). The cookie dough is amazing—an amalgam, really, of favorite cookie doughs. When I was growing up, my dad always made the homemade ice cream. He loved making ice cream—vanilla was his favorite—and it was the heart of our ice cream sandwiches. We had an old hand-crank machine, and there was a dinner bell on the back of the cabin that my grandma rang to get everyone to come in for dinner off the beach/creek, and my dad would ring it when her shoulder got tired, and we’d all take our turns. My dad had two main vanilla ice cream recipes: one that is a custard-style (cooked) ice cream, and one that he re-created when machines got all newfangled (fewer ingredients). He also had a homemade caramel sauce that he liked to either drizzle in the ice cream at the end (so good!) or dab on the cookies before he put on the ice cream. It’s best to eat these sandwiches in the summer heat, each bite cooling you as the ice cream melts down your arms. They make you feel like a kid again!
Aunt Eleanor’s Two-Crust Pastry
As my grandmothers taught me, you can’t have a great life, a great home, a great family, or a great pie without a great foundation … Jeanne Ambrose again helped me out, giving me a family recipe that closely replicated my own family’s, which my grandma, mom, and dad all made with a mix of lard and butter. Jeanne’s is one she tweaked from her aunt Eleanor (I, too, had an Aunt Eleanor!), who Jeanne said she was certain learned it from her mother, Creszentia Pfeiffer Schulz (who immigrated to the United States from Germany). Eleanor was a farmer’s wife, so her original recipe made five crusts. Aunt Eleanor’s recipe is probably from the 1950s, according to Jeanne, and she likely got it from her mother at least twenty-five years prior. “Grandma had eleven kids,” says Jeanne. The pie crust is flaky and rich … and, as my grandmothers taught me, the perfect foundation!
Strawberry Shortcakes
I believe that my mom and my grandma made the best homemade strawberry shortcakes in the world. And I still do! But now Gary has even improved their recipe, taking part of a popular St. Louis recipe, mixing it with the Ozarks one, and adding his own inspiration. Growing up, my family would head out and pick strawberries in the heat of summer, putting a fair share directly into our mouths. But, besides the fresh strawberries, the shortcakes are the secret weapon, and people truly have their opinions on what makes the best shortcake! I tend to prefer a shortcake like my mom, grandma, and Gary make (of course!): one that is firm enough to complement the strawberries but soft enough to soak up all those delicious, sweet juices (which are the best!). These are a sort of biscuit-meets-shortcake.
Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping
Both of my grandmas believed, as I wrote in the book, that every recipe box should contain a coffee cake recipe. And this is a summer family favorite! We pick rhubarb fresh from our garden in Michigan and eat this fluffy cake topped with cinnamon streusel on our screened porch on summer weekends (with lots of coffee!). A version of this delicious recipe was reintroduced to us later in life by an innkeeper at a local Michigan B&B.
Apple and Cherry Turnovers
These simple turnovers (OK, one is a bit more complicated to make) remind me of being a kid. And you can substitute nearly any fruit! My dad made the apple turnovers every single Christmas, and when I eat them, I remember his unabashed joy and childlike wonder that remained every holiday season, no matter his age. And the cherry turnovers—especially in Michigan in the summer—can’t be beat. Make the apple turnovers when you have extra time, and the cherry ones when you’re short on it.
Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
When I say there is one family recipe that people go absolutely bonkers over, it’s these pumpkin bars—created by Gary—with cream cheese frosting. They are decadent, to say the least, and embody the taste and spirit of autumn. They’re incredible just out of the oven, but just as great the next day (if they last that long).
Happy Baking … and Eating!
Acknowledgments
As always, heartfelt thanks to my agent, Wendy Sherman, who’s been alongside me every step of this journey since day one. Her optimism, faith, and determination have allowed me to do things I never imagined I could.
&
nbsp; Thank you to my editor, Laurie Chittenden, who makes each book infinitely better (and is also a blast to work with!); Lisa Bonvissuto, for her support and seamless assistance; my publicist, Katie Bassel; my publisher, Jen Enderlin; and the entire team at St. Martin’s.
Huge hugs to Carol Fitzgerald and her team at The Book Report.
Thanks to Becky Crane and her sister, Laura Bale, for opening their hearts and their own recipe boxes to me. The stories of their lives growing up on an orchard with a pie pantry, as well as the stories, love, and relationship of their parents, Lue and Bob, informed the soul of this novel. I can never thank them and the Crane family enough for their support.
To my readers: Over the course of the last few years, you have attended events, sent emails, posted photos on social media, and essentially shared as much of your lives, families, histories, and elders with me as I have with you. That is a rare gift, and I know I’m blessed.
And to Gary. I would not be here—literally, figuratively, personally, professionally—without you. I’d start singing Wind Beneath My Wings now, but then you’d start crying, or dancing, or trying to call Bette Midler, and it would just deteriorate pretty quickly. I love you more than anything in this world.
Also by Viola Shipman
The Charm Bracelet
The Hope Chest
About the Author
VIOLA SHIPMAN is a pen name for Wade Rouse, a popular, award-winning memoirist. Rouse chose his grandmother’s name, Viola Shipman, to honor the woman whose heirlooms and family stories inspire his writing. Rouse is the author of The Charm Bracelet and The Hope Chest, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages and become international bestsellers. He lives in Saugatuck, Michigan, and Palm Springs, California, and has written for People, Coastal Living, Good Housekeeping, and Taste of Home, among other publications, and is a contributor to All Things Considered. You can sign up for email updates here.
Connect with Viola:
Facebook: @authorViolaShipman
Twitter: @viola_shipman
Instagram: viola_shipman
Goodreads: Viola Shipman.
Thank you for buying this
St. Martin’s Press ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on the author, click here.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue: Apple Crisp
Part One: Peach-Blueberry Slab Pie
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Part Two: Cider Donuts
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Part Three: Cherry Chip Cake
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Part Four: Triple Berry Galette
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Part Five: Thumbprint Cookies
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Part Six: Ice Cream Sandwiches with Maple Spice Chocolate Chip–Cherry Chunk Cookies
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Part Seven: The Perfect Pie Crust
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Part Eight: Strawberry Shortcakes
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Part Nine: Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Part Ten: Apple and Cherry Turnovers
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Part Eleven: Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Epilogue: Apple Crisp
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Also by Viola Shipman
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
THE RECIPE BOX. Copyright © 2018 by Viola Shipman. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.stmartins.com
Illustrations by Cameron MacLeod Jones
Cover design by Danielle Fiorella
Cover photographs: woman © Laura Blost / Trevillion Images / engraving © Olga Miltsova / Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Shipman, Viola, author.
Title: The recipe box: a novel / Viola Shipman.
Description: First edition. | New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017044469 | ISBN 9781250146779 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250165329 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Domestic fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3619.H5788 R43 2018 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017044469
e-ISBN 9781250165329
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
First Edition: March 2018