Three Generations of Chocolatey Goodness July 17, 2007

There are experiences in life from which we take memories, emotions, pains, and joys. Those chance meetings brought about by Providence, not coincidence. These are usually times when we are challenged, uplifted, or impacted in some other meaningful way. Then there are those experiences from which we take more tangible benefits. Such as the best brownie recipe, ever. My grandmother, who is a fantastic cook, has passed this recipe to my mother, and now my mother to me. Barbara Burton’s Brownies come from a pastor’s wife my grandmother met when my mom was 15 years old. The youth group was in Minnesota performing a musical called “Tell It Like It Is”, wearing patriotic gear. Barbara Burton was the wife of the pastor of the tiny host church, and she wowed them all with this recipe. At the groups request, she made the brownies several times through the week, serving about 75 people each time! Boy, talk about a dedicated pastor’s wife, she changed the lives of all those students and parents in a sweet and memorable way (yes, pun intended). These are the great memories I love to hear. Favorite recipes carry with them more than just a good taste. They carry meaning and importance beyond the need to fill your belly. I will certainly make these brownies for my kids, and even more certainly I will share the story with them of how the Burton->Bardin->Bradford->Hunter chain brought them these irresistible treats!

Combine 2 sticks melted butter, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa in medium mixing bowl. Add 4 eggs, one at a time (3 for fudgier brownies).

Add 2 tsp. vanilla, 1 1/4 cup flour, 1 cup chopped nuts (optional).

Bake in a 9×13 in., greased baking sheet at 350 deg, 25-30min.

Serve with ice cream, fruit, coffee, etc.

Dad’s Chocolate Chip Cookies April 30, 2007

I haven’t done much creative cooking in the last week, but I have made some delish cookies recently. It amazes me the comfort that a particular food can convey at just a taste. I feel that way about my dad’s cookies. He adjusted the recipe over time to come up with, in my opinion, the best chocolate chip cookies, EVER!! Now, these are a tad different from many other recipes for C.C. cookies. But really, how many recipes are there, and how many has any one person tasted? Well, any normal, non-professional baker person, I suppose. It’s funny, part of my memory of these cookies is the notepaper the recipe is written on. I can describe it without looking at it: half-sheet size, green print from some auto glass company, the ingredients and amounts written in pencil in my dad’s blocky handwriting, the instructions in blue ink in my mom’s hand. By the way, there are no instructions for oven temperature or baking time. I had to figure that out on my own: 350 deg. for 8-9 min. I realize now what kind of genius my dad really was. He was way ahead of the commercial cookie companies (Pillsbury, Nestle, etc). He used to make huge batches of the cookie dough, fill 2-3 cookies sheets with balls of dough, cover them with wax paper and stack them in the freezer. Easy, just pop one in the oven after school, and we were happy campers! But, I developed a bad habit of eating frozen balls of dough, and now I almost can’t eat it unless it is frozen! You should try it sometime. It is an un-baked-good experience everyone should have.

Chef Ken’s (Dad’s) Chocolate Chip Cookies

12 oz. BUTTER     8 oz. sugar     8 oz. brown sugar

4 eggs     2 tsp. vanilla (Mexican vanilla, if you can!)

20 oz. flour     2 tsp baking soda     2 tsp. salt

24 oz. semisweet choc. chips (or, 19 oz. chips, 16 oz. pecans)

Cream butter and sugars with mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, mix thoroughly.

In separate bowl, whisk or sift together flour, soda, and salt. Add to sugar/egg mixture.

Lastly, add chocolate chips and pecans (if using).

Drop by 1/2 tbls. onto lighly greased cookie sheet, bake at 350 degrees, 8-9 minutes, or until soft in the middle, more brown around the edges. Serve warm with milk or coffee. Be careful, they are lighter, so it’s easy to eat toooooo many!

Dessert for Fifteen April 13, 2007

So, tonight I am making dessert for fifteen. Pretty daunting, for me, as I’ve only made cookies for that many people. Sadly, cookies were vetoed by my dessert-minded husband. Apparently, cookies are snacks, not dessert. Did you know that? I didn’t. Anyways, the flavor of the evening is cherry dumpcake, the way my family makes it, sans pineapple (blech!). In the past, I had considerable trouble, and at least one total failure, concerning dumpcake. How, you ask? How does one mess up the EASIEST dessert ever? I have no idea. If I knew, I wouldn’t have messed it up, would I? But, one significant variable has changed since the last time I made cherry dumpcake: I have an oven younger than 50 years, with electric coils instead of a leaky gas contraption that gets outrageously hot on one side and lukewarm on the other. Obstacle overcome? Let’s hope so, for the sake of the poor folks who have to eat it!

And for the recipe:

2 cans high quality cherry pie filling (the sweet stuff)

one box yellow cake mix (Jiffy for a small batch, Pillsbury, etc, for a large batch)

1 stick butter or margarine.

Smooth pie filling into lightly greased baking dish. Sprinkle yellow cake mix evenly, thinly across cherry filling. Cut butter into small chunks, space evenly across cake mix. Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 min, or until golden brown. If you like it really crunchy, broil for just a second before removing from oven. (Actually, I had an unexpected chance to change the cooking method. I ended up cooking it in two layers of the cake topping. The first was too thin and the butter didn’t spread out, so I had little lines of powder, even after the 20-25 min. So, I added another layer of cake mix, more butter, and cooked it at 300 for almost 40 minutes, while we ate dinner. It was perfect!)