Select-a-Recipe

  • Brown Sugar Pound Cake -- Herb Miller, IU Kokomo
  • Mom's Bread -- Herb Miller, IU Kokomo
  • Four Layer Chocolate Torte -- Jane Vincent, IU East
  • Sugar 'n Spice's Gingerbread People -- Warren Conner, IU Bloomington
  • Fiesta Potato Bake -- Steve Couse & Phyllis Van Horn, IPFW in Fort Wayne

    Family recipes
    One university with many bakery doors . . .
    Weekend 'baking bouts' often land on IUK desks

    By Mary King

    Herbert Miller's (pictured) baking is legendary at IU Kokomo.This Herb Millerprofessor emeritus of international business and German is almost as well known by friends and colleagues at IUK for his culinary skills as his 30-plus years of teaching.

    And for years, the confections created during Miller's weekend baking bouts have been showing up on office desks at IUK Monday morning.

    In 1960, Miller was working on his doctorate in Slavic linguistics at IU Bloomington when he was hired to become one of the six instructors who made up IUK's resident faculty.

    His cooking experience dates back to adolescence. "Since I was 14 or 15, I began cooking Sunday breakfast for my parents and older siblings," Miller said. Although a native Hoosier, Miller has lived and travelled the world over and speaks nearly a dozen languages, from Arabic to Rumanian. His interest in cooking drifted to international cuisine when he lived overseas.

    He first concentrated on soups and then breads, both staples of international cuisine. "And, in the 1960s, Columbia Records offered an international dining package," Miller added. "The company would send recipes, any exotic ingredients required and the music to accompany the prepared meal."

    Besides teaching business and foreign language, Miller has shared his culinary secrets with students in some continuing education cooking classes at IUK. His specialties are breads, cakes and pie, both fruit and no-bake types. Miller's bread recipe, titled "Mom's Bread," includes milk and honey as its special ingredients, and he alters it with various types of flour.

    During the holiday season, Miller bakes a variety of goods, including about two dozen brown sugar pound cakes, his wife Lillian's own special recipe. They traditionally deliver the pound cakes and other treats to many of their friends and shut-ins in Kokomo.

    Brown Sugar Pound Cake
    Herb Miller, IU Kokomo
    • 1 lb. brown sugar
    • 1 cup white sugar
    • 5 eggs
    • 3 sticks butter
    • 3 cups flour
    • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
    • 1 cup milk
    • 1 tsp. vanilla
    • 1 cup chopped nuts
    • 1 tsp. rum flavor
    Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Sift flour with baking powder. Add flour to batter alternately with milk beginning and ending with flour, three additions of flour and two of milk. Add flavors and nuts. Put into greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake 1 1/2 hrs. at 325š. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan.

    Mom's Bread (basic recipe)
    Herb Miller, IU Kokomo

    • 2 cups milk, scalded
    • 1 stick margarine
    • 4 Tbsp. honey
    • 3 eggs
    • 8-9 cups bread flour
    • 1 Tbsp. sugar
    • 1/2 cup warm water
    • 3 pkgs. yeast (1 strip)
    • 2 tsp. vanilla

    Prepare 4 bread pans (8"x4"x2") with non-stick spray. Whisk sugar and yeast into warm water in a small dish to proof. Pour hot milk over margarine and honey in large mixing bowl. Whisk until melted. Whisk in eggs, vanilla, yeast and 2-3 cups flour. Using dough hook, add rest of flour to form soft dough. Scrape sides of bowl with rubber scraper. When thoroughly mixed (10 minutes), scrape equal portions into pans and let pans sit in cold oven 30-40 minutes until tops of loaves are almost level with tops of pans. Turn oven on to 375š and bake 40-50 minutes until loaves are brown. Turn out on rack to cool.

    Variations: Add 2-3 tbsp. of flavoring along with the honey and replace 6-7 cups of the bread flour with other flours.

    FLAVORING FLOUR
    Wholewheat Molasses Whole wheat flour
    Buckwheat Maple syrup Whole wheat and 2 cups buckwheat
    Oat Molasses or maple syrup Whole wheat and 2 cups oatmeal
    Corn Molasses Whole wheat and 2 cups corn meal
    Rice Corn syrup 2-3 cups rice flour
    Bran Molasses Whole wheat and 2 cups all-bran cereal
    Rye Molasses Whole wheat and 2 cups rye flour

    Jane Vincent Four Layer Chocolate Torte
    Jane Vincent, Division of Nursing faculty, IU East (pictured)
    Serves 12
    • 2 boxes regular brownie mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)
    • 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
    • Mix according to directions‹except use 2 whole eggs per box. Stir in nuts.
    • Grease and line bottoms of 9-inch round glass cake pans with waxed paper. Use 2 cake pans for each boxed mix. Spread mixture to cover the entire bottom of pans.

    Bake at 350š for 20 minutes.

    Cool on racks. Carefully remove waxed paper. Place first layer on decorative cake dish.

    Topping:

    • 2 cups whipping cream
    • 1/2 cup brown sugar
    • 1 heaping Tbsp. instant coffee powder.

    Whip cream until it begins to thicken. Gradually add brown sugar and instant coffee. Beat until spreading consistency. Spread between layers and on top layer. Do not ice sides. Sprinkle a few walnuts on the top. Chill overnight. Enjoy!

    This recipe has won raves from our guests. It is easy to prepare, glamorous to serve, and most of all, delicious!

    Warren Conner

    Sugar 'n Spice's 'dough persons'
    Warren Conner's "dough persons" (pictured) are a staple 350 days of the year for students, staff and visitors to the IU Bloomington campus. The Sugar 'n Spice Shop in the Indiana Memorial Union sells some 25,000 "Gingerbread People" each year. That's a legion of six dozen a day. The Sugar 'n Spice has been in business since the late 1960s.

    Gingerbread People
    Warren Conner, IUB

    Preheat oven to 350š degrees. Blend until creamy:
    • 1/4 cup butter or shortening
    • 1/4 cup white sugar
    • 1/2 cup brown sugar

    Beat in:
    • 1/2 cup dark molasses
    • 1/2 cup eggs

    Sift:
    • 3 1/3 cups all purpose flour

    Resift with:
    • 1 tsp. baking soda
    • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
    • 2 tsp. ginger
    • 1/2 tsp. salt

    Add the sifted ingredients to the butter/shortening mixture in about three equal parts. If the dough is stiff, add 1/4 cup water. Roll the dough on a floured surface to the desired thickness. Decorate before baking with raisins, red-hots, bits of candied fruits, indicating feature or buttons. Bake at 350š degrees for 8 minutes or longer according to the cookie's thickness. Test for doneness by pressing the dough with your finger. If it springs back after pressing, they are ready to be cooled on a rack. If desired, a confectioner's sugar icing may be applied to further decorate the cookies.

    Steve Couse Phyllis Van Horn

    Getting ready for the holidays at IPFW
    Aramark, a new food service company at IPFW this year, is busily preparing for the holidays. Employees are making gourmet holiday cookies and selling them in The Fort cafeteria. To help students, faculty and staff either escape finals or celebrate the end of them, a special holiday prime rib dinner, including "fiesta potato bake," will be served during the week of Dec. 16. Steve Couse (left) is the production manager for Aramark and Phyllis Van Horn (right) is the lead cook. Other special menu items during December include butternut squash soup, smoked turkey and pepper pasta salad, pasta roll-ups and special holiday desserts.

    Fiesta Potato Bake
    Steve Couse, Phillis Van Horn, IPFW

    • 2 cups cubed turkey
    • 6 medium potatoes, pared, sliced thin
    • 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
    • 2 tsp. seasoned salt
    • 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
    • 1 medium onion, sliced thin
    • 1 cup green bell pepper
    • 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
    • 1/2 cup milk
    • 2 Tbsp. butter/margarine

    Preheat oven to 350 F. Place half of the turkey in buttered, deep 2-quart casserole. Cover with half of the potatoes. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. flour and half of the salt and pepper. Top with half of the onion slices and half of the green and red peppers. Combine remaining 2 Tbsp. flour with milk; pour half over layered ingredients. Repeat layers with potatoes, onions, remaining turkey, green and red peppers, salt and pepper. Pour remaining milk over top; dot with butter. Cover and bake in oven 45 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 30 minutes or until potatoes are done.

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