The Pie Edition: Kentucky Derby Pie

Why in the world am I posting this in November, instead of May? Because my brother loves it and it has replaced a cake as his birthday dessert. And his birthday is coming up soon. And everyone loves this pie. And it's time to get crackin' on those special desserts for holiday parties. Who doesn't love chocolate, pecans and bourbon? Really.

Kentucky Derby Pie

1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar 
3 large eggs, well beaten
3/4 cup light corn syrup (Karo)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
2 tablespoons of the best bourbon
9" unbaked pie shell

Make your favorite recipe for a pie shell. If you wimp out and buy one, don't tell me about it. Learn to make one -- they are so much better tasting. Anyway, have it ready and waiting for your scrumptious filling.

Cream the butter and sugar, about 5 minutes will make it nice and fluffy. Add eggs, corn syrup, salt and vanilla and blend well. Stir in the chocolate chips, pecans and bourbon by hand. Pour into the prepared pie shell, and bake in a preheated 375 degree Farenheit oven (350 degrees if using a glass pan) for 45 minutes or so ... the center should barley jiggle and it should look baked through and deep golden brown. Serve slightly warm with whipped cream. Traditionally served on Kentucky Derby Weekend in Louisville, KY ... or at my brother's annual birthday dinner. Enjoy whenever you like!

The Best Things are Simple: Chocolate Crunch Bars

I have a bajillion cookbooks, but a few are standouts that have recipes that are made over and over, year after year. Sometimes I go a couple of years without making one of my favorites, but always return eventually. These bars, which I haven't made for a couple of years, is one of those recipes. Julia called to ask for the recipe today, and now I want to make them again. It's a recipe that's so simple, with ingredients that can be pulled from the pantry at any time and made very quickly. Thin, crispy, and full of chocolate and nutty goodness, they are a nice cookie to have with homemade ice cream in the summer, or with a pot of tea in cooler weather.

Chocolate Crunch Bars
 from The Fine Arts Cookbook II, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a jelly roll pan

2 squares of unsweetened chocolate
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped

Combine the chocolate, cocoa and shortening together in a small heavy saucepan over low heat just until the shortening is melted, stirring well. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool slightly. Slowly add the sugar and mix well. Then, add the eggs, one at a time, blending well between each addition. Stir in the salt, vanilla and flour and blend until just combined well. Don't overmix. Spread the batter evenly and thinly in the pan, then sprinkle with the nuts. Press the nuts gently into the surface so they don't roll off. Bake in a 350F degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes. Remove and cut immediately into long rectangles. Cool a minute, then remove the thin bars to a rack to finish cooling. They will crisp as they cool. (Which is why they are cut immediately after removing from the oven -- much easier and less messy then.)

Makes 2 dozen or more

Picnic Cake: Chocolate Sheet Cake

Need a cake for a crowd, picnic, reunion or other summer event? Sheet cakes are the answer. Here's one from my friend Nancy in New Braunfels, TX:

Mom's Chocolate Cake
from The Houston Chronicle

For the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk mixed with 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl. In a saucepan, combine butter, oil cocoa and water; bring to a boil, remove from heat. Pour the boiled mixture over the dry ingredients and mix. Add buttermilk and stir just until blended. Add eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat well and pour into a greased and floured 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until at toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool.

For the frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa or 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 tablespoons buttermilk
16 ounce box confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine butter, chocolate or cocoa and buttermilk in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Add the powered sugar a little at a time, beating well between additions; add salt and blend well. Add vanilla and mix. Frost cake after it has cooled completely.

Birthday-Worthy Brownies

Liz asked for the recipe for Cream Cheese Brownies to make as a birthday cake substitute for a friend. These are truly a worthy, gooey stand in, and they take no time at all.


CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES

butter a 7 x 11 or 9 x 9 pan

preheat oven to 325 degrees

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

1/3 cup butter

3 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a saucepan over very low heat, then turn off the burner.

Then add in order given, beating after each addition:

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix well by hand until combined. Spoon half the brownie batter into the prepared pan, then make the cream cheese filling:

8 oz. bar of cream cheese at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/8 tsp. salt

In a mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and sugar, beating well, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and salt and blend until well mixed and creamy. Spread over the mixture in the pan, then top with the remaining brownie batter. Swirl through the batters with a knife. 

Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Don't overbake!

Friday, November 4, 2011: Roast Chicken and Hot Fudge Pudding Cake for Cold Nights

One of my knitting friends, Beedle Hinely, shared a recipe for roast chicken that is to die for. We love to make roast chicken during the cold months: no meal is as comforting or as satisfying on a cold fall or winter night. Enjoy! For dessert, something gooey and chocolatey seems just right. How about an old-fashioned Hot Fudge Pudding Cake? Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

ENZO’S MOTHER’S CHICKEN

Roasting Chicken – 5 to 8  lbs.

Salt

Sage

A lemon, quartered (leave rind intact)

One or two red onions, quartered

Fresh rosemary sprigs

Olive oil

4 or 5 russet potatos, halved

Butternut squash, peeled and cubed

A red pepper, seeded and cut in eight pieces

2 or 3 heads of garlic, separated but not peeled

6 to 8 carrots, peeled and left whole

Pepper, garlic salt

Several hours ahead of roasting: Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold running water and pat dry. Refrigerate on a platter to allow to dry thoroughly.

Peel vegetables and set aside.

Dust cavity of the chicken with salt and sage. Stuff with the quartered lemon, 1 red onion quartered, and some of the fresh rosemary.

Rub the chicken skin with olive oil, and sprinkle with garlic salt. Brush the bottom of the baking pan with olive oil, and lay several rosemary sprigs in a bed in the center bottom. Lay chicken on top of rosemary.

Toss the second quartered onion, the potatoes, the red pepper, the butternut squash cubes, carrots, garlic lightly in olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Arrange vegetables around the chicken, and sprinkle with pepper and garlic salt. Roast in a 375 degree oven (with rack in quarter of the oven),  until done, based on weight of chicken. Baste chicken occasionally with pan juices, and turn vegetables a couple of times during roasting.

Roast for 2 to 3 hours, based on weight of chicken. Use pop up timer or thermometer to determine when the chicken is done.

* * * * * * * * * *

HOT  FUDGE PUDDING CAKE

To be served warm

1 cup flour

¾ cup sugar

2 tblsp. unsweetened cocoa

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup milk

2 tblsp. Melted shortening or butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

1 ¾ cups hot water

Oven 350 degrees

Measure flour, sugar, 2 tblsp. Cocoa, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Blend in milk and shortening. Pour into ungreased square 9 X 9 pan.

Stir together brown sugar and 1/3 cup cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pur HOT water over batter, and place in preheated 350 degree oven for 40-45 mins.

While warm, spoon cake into dessert dishes and top with whipped cream or ice cream.

8 servings

One Year Ago Today: The Beginning - Guittard Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

One year ago today, this blog was born. Although none of us are prolific posters, it's important to have a space where we can celebrate small things. So far, FOOD dominates our posts ... that's not much of a surprise, is it?

Here's our FAVORITE celebratory cake; now you can find the recipe 24/7. We seem to make this more often than any other. So often, in fact, that the aging recipe is permanently taped to inside of the spice cabinet door! It's also the cake that appears in the masthead photo for this blog.

GUITTARD CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 3/4 c. butter
• 1 2/3 c. sugar
• 3 lg. eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 c. water
• 2 c. unsifted flour
• 2/3 c. Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa (Guittard is BEST, but Ghiradelli is good too)
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Sift together the dry ingredients and set them aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat well (for several minutes). Add the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the water.

Pour the batter into well-greased and floured cake pans lined with wax paper. Makes three 8" layers, or two 9” layers. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool on wire rack; remove from pan after 6 minutes to finish cooling.

White Chocolate Frosting

6 tablespoons heavy cream

4 ounces white chocolate, chopped (baker’s)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

Bring cream almost to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add white chocolate, stirring until completely smooth. Stir in vanilla and water. Cool, stirring occasionally. Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add powered sugar and beat for at least 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. On low speed, add white chocolate mixture and blend until desired consistency is reached.

Frosts and fills a 9” layer cake.

Note: Dark chocolate curls are beautiful on top of the cake!