The other day as I cleaned the pantry, I was dismayed to find that I had a lot of expired food. I take a certain comfort in emergency preparedness, but clearly the food needs to be rotated more frequently. I threw out dry beans, some crackers and cereal, but I kept canned goods, though perhaps there should be a big pot of goulash soon.
I came up with some expired butterscotch chips that had fallen to the back of the cupboard and decided to make “Oatmeal Scotchies,” the standard package recipe. However, in scanning through the fall cake recipes on the Better Homes and Gardens website, I found a listing for Butterscotch Chip Oatmeal Cake and decided to make that instead. We thought it was delicious. Here’s the recipe:
Butterscotch Chip Oatmeal Cake
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 ¾ cup boiling water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, cut up and softened
2 eggs
1 ¾ cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp orange peel
1 12-oz package butterscotch pieces
¾ cup chopped pecans
Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.
Place oats in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over oats and let stand 10 minutes.
Add sugars and butter to the oatmeal and stir until the butter is melted.
Add eggs; blend.
Add combined dry ingredients.
Stir in 1 cup butterscotch pieces.
Spread in pan. Sprinkle remaining pieces and pecans over top of cake.
Bake 40 minutes. Serves 20.
If I were to review the cake on the website, here’s how it would read:
I rate this recipe 5 stars. My husband and I both just LOVED it. I thought it was too much sugar, though, especially since butterscotch pieces seem sorta rich to me, so I cut back to 2/3 cup each of white and brown sugar. I like to cut the saturated fat when I bake, so I used egg substitutes, but with my first try I did use butter for the “to-die-for” quality. This moist, dense cake will become a fall standard at our house. (Oh -- and you don't need to grease and flour the pan; a spray worked just great.) KW
The duck float is pretty effective! I had canned pears in my pantry for about 3 years. I finally just threw them away. Canned just doesn't compare to fresh.
ReplyDeleteYes, the ducks are great -- the drake on the big side and the hen on the small. It was hard to get good pictures of them, though.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I just have to admit to myself that we aren't going to eat something we have purchased. I either throw it away, or if it's not expired and I just don't want it, I give it to the food bank.
Great sounding cake. It's waaaay too rich for me, though. I'll enjoy it vicariously through you.
ReplyDeleteExpiration dates on cans is strange. I've opened some past their "destroy" date and had no problem. I do think that storing cans in a dark place, that doesn't get too hot or cold is the trick.
In 2005, when my mother went to a nursing home, my brother & I cleaned out her home. She kept an enormous quantity of food in a gigantic pantry. The big problem was that she didn't rotate anything. In the back of the pantry, there were cans of pineapple with black ooze dripping from the cans and down the shelves onto all that was below. The acid in the canned pineapple had eaten through the cans & they exploed. Cleaning the pantry shelves was a nightmare.
Moral to the story is that cans with acidic foods don't have a long shelf live.
Boy does this sound good! I'm going to print off your recipe. Thanks!
ReplyDelete