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From: bridgette
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 8:29 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Need your detective help...
Hello there!
I am wondering if you can use your sleuthing skills to dig up any information about the Charlmont restaurant
in the department store that used to be in Scranton, Pennsylvania, called The Globe Store? Any recipes or
links to information would be great. Also, do you have any recipes on Woolworth's lunch counter items?
Thanks for your time and I can't wait to see if and what you come up with! Have a great day!
Hello Bridgette,
Everything I have regarding Woolworth’s lunch counter, including links to recipes, is here: Woolworth's
UPDATE: I have been fortunate enough to obtain scans of a large portion of the Woolworth's Recipe Manual.
If you want a Woolworth's recipe, please check here: Woolworth's.
If it's not there, email and I will check the manual for it.
The only things that I can find regarding the “Charl-Mont” in Scranton are very brief mentions that it was in The Globe,
and mentions of it in the obituaries of people who once worked there.
One thing that I did find from my search is that “Charl-Mont” was a chain, with restaurants in department stores
in several cities around the country, including Kansas City, Missouri; Fort Worth, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
There is a lemon pie recipe from the Tulsa, OK restaurant here:
Tulsa World
The restaurant also appears to have been associated with the candy company of the same name.
I’ll post this in the hope that a reader can assist.
Phaed
From: Jana
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2014 8:05 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Help?!
Hi there- I have been desperately looking for a recipe I lost in a house fire. It was from
Princess Diana's family and it was called Althorp Crumble. I recall it was made with apples
and had a wonderful crunchy toping that had a little baking powder in it I believe. It was
served warm with either cream drizzled on it or vanilla ice cream. I cannot find it anywhere.
Lots of apple crisp recipes out there but none that are just like this one.
Hoping you might help! Thank you so very much! My best, Jana
Hello Jana,
Where did you get the recipe originally?
Sorry, I cannot find any recipe called Althorp (apple) (crisp/crumble). I cannot find any apple (crisp/crumble)
recipe that mentions any connection with (Lady/Princess)(Diana/Di). I also had no success finding any apple
(crisp or crumble) recipe that mentioned any connection with Althorp (Diana’s home) or with Diana’s family,
the Spencers. Sorry.
I did find a recipe with the name “Diana’s Apple Crisp”, but this recipe is from a cookbook called “Laurel’s Kitchen”,
and there is no indication that the Diana in the recipe name is Princess Diana. See:
Diana's Apple Crisp
Phaed
-----Original Message-----
From: David
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2014 10:33 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Mrs. Keaton's Bakery Cream Puffs
There was an old bakery in Waco, Texas, called Mrs. Keaton's Bakery that had
a pastry they called a cream puff, but it was not the traditional choux
pastry cream puff. It was more like a fried yeast donut, but not greasy. It
was not dense, but neither was it full of large holes. It was rectangular
with rounded corners, almost oval shaped (in my memory - it has been a few
years). It had a cream filling and a very light fluffy maple frosting about
1/2-inch thick. Generations of Wacoans remember it fondly, and many would
like to have the recipe. I am not sure what year it closed, but I recall
seeing an ad in the newspaper offering to sell their recipes back in the
1970's I think. I was hoping you might have a lead on a similar pastry by a
different name. It might have been of Czech origin, but I do not believe
they sold kolaches like a Czech bakery most certainly would. A couple of
Waco bakeries offered something similar but they fell short, and are no
loner available. Thank you.
David
Hello David,
Sorry, I had no success. Lots of people have been looking for this recipe,
as evinced by the posts on message boards:
Chowhound and Texas Cooking
The recipe book for Mrs. Keatons Bakery was advertised for sale in the Waco
newspaper back in the 80's. I have kicked myself many times for not
responding to the ad. Mrs. Keaton, the daughter-in-law of the original Mrs.
Keaton, passed away in 2010 I believe. The cream puffs were not really cream
puffs in the traditional sense as I have found out while searching for a
recipe. More like what you would find in a doughnut shop but very light and
tasty. Similar cream puffs showed up at a Czech bakery on Waco Drive back in
the 90's but the maple flavored icing was oily, not light and fluffy like
the original. After that bakery closed Jack and Jill Doughnuts started
serving a similar icing on their products that was closer to the original.
Since it changed hands they do not do that anymore. I have not lived in Waco
since 1995 but was born there and well remember birthday cakes and visits to
Mrs. Keaton's for the cream puffs as a special treat when I was a child. I
sure wish I had gone more often as an adult.
Your request is problematic because there is no cream puffs recipe anywhere
on the web that mentions Mrs Keaton's Bakery. Your description is not
helpful in searching for a similar recipe with a different name because it
gives nothing unique that allows me to identify these particular cream puffs
from a recipe's text, which rarely includes a description of appearance.
You might try looking at the pictures of Czech cream puffs here:
Google Images - Czech cream puffs
or maple cream puffs here:
Google Images - maple cream puffs
I did find an old Czech cream puffs recipe in the cookbook "Old Czech
Recipes For Today's Kitchens," but it does not fit your description.See below.
I'll post this on my site, but I think the only hope you have is to find
that cookbook that was offered for sale in the newspaper. You might go to
the library in Waco and look at newspaper back issues on microfiche for that
time period. That's tedious, but it may be the only way to find out who
offered it for sale and perhaps who bought it. You might also try to locate
living relatives of Mrs Keaton. You might look at the 2010 newspaper issues
for her obituary, which might list surviving relatives.
Phaed
Smetanove Mechurinky
Cream Puffs
1/2 cup butter
1 cup hot water
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
Add the butter to the hot water and bring to boiling point. Add
flour and salt all at one time. Stir rapidly and constantly until
the paste leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from the fire and
when cool add the eggs one at a time, beating until thoroughly
blended with the paste mixture. Drop by spoonfuls on a greased
baking sheet about two inches apart or bake in muffin pans.
During baking, the dough expands to twice or more its original
size. Bake in a hot oven 425 degrees until puffed and golden
brown for 25 minutes. This makes about 12 medium sized puffs.
When cool slit the side, fill with whipped cream, crushed fruit,
or custard. If desired, sprinkle the top with powdered sugar.
Custard Filling
1 cup rich milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
2 egg yolks
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. butter
Heat milk in double boiler. Mix cornstarch, salt, and sugar
with a little milk .Cook until it thickens. Add egg yolks and cook
a minute longer. Beat well. Add vanilla and butter. When cool
place the custard mixture in the puffs.
==============================================================
Thank you for trying. As you may have guessed by the similarities, the post
you copied in your email was one I made a few years ago. Several have tried
to find the recipe and even offered to pay for it. I am pretty sure it is
not available in public records. I read Mrs. Keaton's obituary at the time
she passed away, but did not want to contact the family right then. Besides,
it had been years since they had sold the recipes, and I have not lived in
Waco in 20 years. The sites you referred to both show traditional cream puffs
made with pate a choux dough. A kolache is the closest Czech pastry I know of
but it is baked, not fried. It might not have been Czech at all. Some of the
employees were Czech and there are a number of Czech communities in Texas as
well as German. I could just use a cream filled donut recipe if I could figure
out how to make the frosting. It was way too light to be a buttercream, but it
was not a 7-minute or marshmallow cream either. Not sticky and not shiny.
Spreadable and holds its shape (it appeared to have been applied with a spatula),
but very light and fluffy. Possibly a maple flavored whipped cream, but I don't
think that type of frosting crusts over, and would have to be refrigerated.
This frosting did crust over lightly by the next day (assuming there were any
left overnight which was rare). I have a ton of recipes, and experience baking
and making donuts, but not much experience making frostings.
David
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