CHOCOLATE FIX ANYONE?

My mother was a great cook and  a great baker.  I can not honestly think of any dish that ever flopped for her.

She made the most amazing brownies.  Not the cakey kind that a lot of people make, but the sweet rich chewy kind that you can't leave alone, once you start eating them.

She usually only made her brownies for special occasions, and Christmas was one of those special times when she would make a few batches and store them in the freezer to serve to guests or to us as a treat over the days of Christmas.

The thing is - her recipe even tastes better frozen, so every year she would bake and store, and every year all five of her children would raid and consume.  When it came time to bring them out of the freezer to serve to guests or to us - they were already gone.

The poor woman would get so mad at us -  every year the same thing occurred, so she started getting creative.  She locked the freezer -  which actually did work, until she forgot where she hid the key, and then of course, we all were in trouble again.
She stored them outside - that didn't work for long - you see we loved winter, so if we had to be out in it just a little bit more to find brownies, well it wasn't really a hardship at all.

Her last brainwave led to the end of her brownies ever being made for us again.  She made a triple batch and put them in a long flat plastic Tupperware container and shoved it in the drawer under the oven.  I don't really think she intended to leave them there, merely just put us off track for a bit before she moved them elsewhere.  In the meantime she decided to use the oven for several hours - I'm thinking maybe she was baking her 12 loaves of bread, which she baked every week.

That particular early plastic Tupperware container melted as did the brownies, and I do believe it was the one and only time I ever witnessed my Mother so angry that she was speechless!

God Bless You, Mom - and I'm so sorry that we all loved your brownies so much!

So today I'd like to share her recipe with my readers.  Go ahead and freeze them, but do yourself a favour and pop one of them in your mouth when it's frozen, you won't regret it.

Dale's Mom's Brownies

1/2 cup melted butter

1cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup walnuts  (optional)

Mom never put nuts in hers and neither do I.

Melt butter, add sugar, egg, vanilla and beat well.  Add dry ingredients, mix well.

Place batter in 8x8 " square pan

Bake 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

 - - - 

I made some cookies last week, I have no idea who gave me the recipe, but the first thing I said when I took a bite was " They are just like Mom's Brownies"

so here is yet another yummy recipe!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup cocoa powder

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar.

In a large bowl stir granulated sugar and oil together , add cocoa and blend well.

Beat in eggs and vanilla.  

In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add cocoa powder and stir.

Add flour mixture to egg mixture and blend well ( batter will be very sticky)

Cover and refrigerate until dough is firm enough to handle.  I leave mine overnight.

Heat over to 350 degrees.

Grease cookie sheet.  Shape dough into 1 " balls and roll in powdered sugar.  Place balls on cookie sheet and bake 12-14 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched lightly, and tops are cracked.

*** Keep batter in fridge between batches, it goes soft and gooey unless kept cool.

Yield 4 dozen cookies

Happy Baking!