Guardian Service Recipe: Knickerbocker Nut Bread, a September Song

In previous posts, we've put the Duplex Utility Pan to its most traditional use, frying omelets. But as the product leaflet notes, this pan was intended to handle everything from "quickie meals" and "dolling up left-overs" to baking meatloaf, loaf cake or quick bread. After a failed brownie mix experiment in our last post, I returned to the original recipe leaflet.

I assume "Knickerbocker Nut Bread" was named by the Century Metalcraft marketing department to give the recipe book  neo-colonial charm—to the best of my knowledge there's no traditional bread by this name. Though Knickerbocker is a Dutch surname dating to the colonization of Manhattan, Washington Irving's satirical A History of New York (1809) was written under the pseudonym "Diedrich Knickerbocker" and became so enduringly popular that the name has graced everything from knee-pants to Hollywood apartments to the NY Knicks since that time. Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson based their 1938 musical satire "Knickerbocker Holiday" on Irving's short stories (minus Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the two for which he's perhaps best known) and gave us the classic "September Song").

On a personal note: I'm eternally indebted to Sleepy Hollow—it's Andrew's birthplace.

Knickerbocker Nut Bread

(from the Century Metalcraft/Guardian Service "Duplex Utility Pan" product leaflet)

3 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract*

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup chopped nuts

Sift dry ingredients. Add egg, milk and nuts. Bake in buttered Duplex Pan, allowing 13 minutes to each side.

*Note, erratum: The original recipe lists sugar twice on separate lines: "1 teas. sugar" and "1/2 cup sugar". I've substituted vanilla (optional), though I suspect the authors may have intended 1 tsp. of soda... it doesn't need it. The 4 tsp. of baking powder provide all the leavening required for this quick bread to fill the pan once completed.

Additional Notes: Begin with ingredients at room temperature. Heat 1 Tbsp. butter in one side of the Duplex Pan (in open position) until butter turns light brown. 

Spoon bread batter into buttered side until almost full. Close unit, reduce heat to "low," and bake for 13 minutes.

Open the pan, butter and heat the opposite side, then close and reverse unit, baking the unfinished side for an additional 12-13 minutes (watch it—even on low heat it can burn quickly).

Unmold loaf to wire rack and allow to cool for ten minutes before slicing.

This recipe spares the fat and sugar, yet baked in the aluminum pan produces a dense, almost coffee or pound cake like consistency: a knockout served fresh for breakfast with butter and jam or cream cheese and jelly and rich enough to serve with ice cream for desert. It slices and toasts up beautifully. Wrap it in foil and it will keep well in the fridge (I'm sure for over a week... ours hasn't lasted that long). Vary with cinnamon and raisin or lemon zest and poppy seed.

Guardian Service Artifact: 1947 Advertisement

This full page ad (Better Homes and Gardens, June, 1947) features the complete line of Guardian Service Ware. Like much of the company's advertising copy, this ad stresses the cookware's stove to table "dual-purpose" design, but also its fuel economy and nutritional preservation ("Low heat top–of–stove cooking minimizes food shrinkage, insures greater savings of vitamins and minerals"). The model hostess is attractive but stolid (no gingham and frills here), a "practical–minded homemaker" who "wouldn't be without it."

We couldn't agree more.

Guardian Service Pizza

Here's a use for the 15" round tray that its makers never imagined: pizza.

The Guardian Service Round Tray was originally designed to carry all three Economy Trio Cookers (it cradles them nicely and might work well as a trivet on a large table or buffet, but to actually carry all three roasters, piping hot and loaded with food, is not as finger-tips breezy as "Doctor Homemaker," pictured below, would lead you to believe.


In the 1935 edition of Guardian Service Tested Recipes, Betty Gay suggests that "your GUARDIAN Round Tray makes an attractive cake plate. With a lacy paper doily on it, it's quite the thing."

But here's an idea to really put this tray to work: pizza—the American Classic that America hadn't yet invented back in the day that these trays were being minted by the good folks at 6000 S. Avalon Blvd in Los Angeles, CA. Some of the finest New York Pizza is cooked on big aluminum rounds and this service tray does the job nicely.

We've baked up dozens of varieties: Pepperoni/Anchovy, Margherita, "Hawaiian" (Canadian Bacon/Pineapple), Barbecued Chicken, Pulled Pork, Pear/Walnut/ Gorgonzola.... And here's New Depression cooking for you: for less than ten dollars worth of ingredients, you can cook up a 5-star Gourmet Pizza that will make you wonder why you ever eat out.


Here's a recipe I whipped up last night to clean out the cupboard, but the method's the same regardless of your choice of toppings:

PESTO PUTTANESCA PIZZA

Pizza Dough, see below

2 Tbsp. Olive oil

3 oz. Pesto sauce (minced basil, toasted pine or walnuts, parmesan and olive oil)

2, 6 oz. cans Tuna, drained and flaked

3-4 Tomatoes, thinly sliced (heirloom, organic)

1 small Onion, thinly sliced, and

3 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced sautéed in

1 Tbsp. Bacon drippings

2 Tbsp. Olive tapenade

1 Tbsp. Capers

8 oz. Mozarella Cheese, shredded

8  Anchovies, whole

PIZZA DOUGH

A crispy, chewy, tender crust. This easy recipes yields enough dough to create a medium-thick crust on the 15" Guardian Service Tray.

1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups warm water

1 envelope active dry yeast

3 cups flour (for added nutrition and texture, use half all-purpose, half whole wheat flour, or, our favorite combination: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, plus 1/2 cup cornmeal for extra "tooth")

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. olive oil

oregano or other herbs, to taste

1. Stir yeast into warm water in small bowl and let stand about 5 minutes, until yeast dissolves.
2. Lightly brush a large mixing bowl with olive oil and add the flour, sugar, salt, making a well at the center. Add yeast mixture and olive oil and stir to combine, adding more flour if very sticky, more warm water if too dry.
3. Kneed dough for 10-15 minutes and work into a ball. Drizzle dough with olive oil, cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm area, free of drafts, until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
5. Punch dough down and roll into a disc. (I've never developed a pizza dough spinner's knack—I stretch it by hand, or roll out the dough between two Silpat mats with a roller pin, then lay it out on the tray). Position dough on the tray, tacking the outer edge of the crust to the rim of the tray.
6. Spread sauce or oil over the crust, then layer with the remaining ingredients, finishing with cheese.*
7. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbling-golden-brown.
8. Let rest for a few minutes, then remove pizza to cutting board (or cut directly on the tray with a silicone pizza slicer, which won't scratch the surface) and serve.

As with all Guardian Service cookware, the aluminum evenly distributes heat, so the crust crisps perfectly (the airpockets created by the hammer-finish help too). 


*Note: If you're planning to really load on the toppings, pre-cook the crust for 5-15 minutes before adding sauce and toppings.

Welcome to the Guardian Service Ware Blog

photo: Chris Martin

We first stumbled upon a Guardian Service coffee pot in a Burbank thrift store going out of business, victim of the recent depression. The bullet-proof, vaguely aeuronautical design snared us first, but the more we researched, the more impressed we became by the esteem in which this long-defunct brand has been held by generations of chefs and nutritionists, and by the part it played in the evolution and spread of “California cooking”—meaning modern, healthy, diverse, fresh, and holistic in the post-War period.

We've since been cooking most every meal with the cookware and are always researching and improving our techniques. We're always impressed by the versatility of the cookware and the economy of energy it uses, but above all the flavor of foods prepared "the Guardian Service Way." Whether you are new to Waterless Cooking or an experienced enthusiast, we hope that the ideas and recipes presented here will help you get the most out of your Guardian Service cookware in pursuit of "Good Health, Pleasure and Profit."