Plane Truth

IF I am given enough notice and IF I am not overwhelmed with essential "stuff to be done now" I make sure my pilot son takes bags of cookies to his crew when he flies through El Paso. OK, it's only happened twice now, but I like to think it's the beginning of a tradition! And IF I get the special bags that are in every front seat pocket of every plane, that is what I use to send the cookies along.
ps - Kelly, you know I'll do the same for you!

This is the basic Nestle's chocolate chip cookie recipe, I just use the chunky chocolate chips and double the quantity of nuts (Keven's requirement), and I only chop the nuts slightly. They are really chunky cookies. I also use the guidelines for higher elevations because even though we have lots of sandy beaches around here we are not at sea level!

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie

2 ¼ cups unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup margarine (2 sticks, softened)
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chopped pecans
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl cream together butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed ingredients. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
4. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly before removing to cooling racks.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

For higher altitudes: Increase flour to 2 ½ cups; decrease sugars to 2/3 cup; add 2 teaspoons water with eggs and vanilla.

It's Almost Heaven in the Avenues

If nobody has brought you a box of premium chocolates lately and you live in the SLC area you have my permission to treat yourself! Get on over to 390 E. 4th Avenue where you will find Hatch Family Chocolates, run by Steve Hatch (a second cousin) and Katie Masterson. It's good stuff, I promise!
Deseret News ran a great story about the couple on February 10th - no doubt they had a few more customers for Valentine's Day orders this year! And "Little Chocolatiers" premiered as a special on TLC in December, with more episodes scheduled for March.

(Oh, and they also sell fabulous ice cream!)

If you need to pull a good prank on someone you can do what another family member I know did (I won't mention names, but he was the cookie monster mentioned in an earlier blog): he bought a nice box of Hatch Family chocolates, took a bite out of each one and put it back in the box. He then did a new shrink-wrap on it, added a nice bow and gave it as a gift. The receiver was more than excited to receive a box of these "Famous all over Utah" chocolates but I'm not sure the giftee is still on speaking terms with the giftor.

Brownie Points

A belated award to Bobbi who gave me this wonderful plate as a gift:



And to Ron and Linda who brought us this gift from their most recent cruise through the Panama Canal:



And look how perfectly they go together!



(You didn't notice how many truffles are missing, did you??!)

Fudgies

What could be better than chocolate?
Duh - a new baby!
Noah David was born yesterday to our cousins Sunny and Derek, and I think he looks just like his big brother Hyrum!
Sunny wowed us big time when she shared her fabulous Fudgies with us. We begged for the recipe, and were thrilled to learn that it isn't tricky at all. She made a double batch at our reunion this summer and somebody (I won't name names) cut into one pan before she even had a chance to serve them. They are addicting and dangerous.
I think I better go whip up a batch in honor of this handsome little guy's birth....

Fudgies
Melt 2 sticks of butter (or margerine)
Pour over:
1 package of crushed graham crackers
1 1/2 cups ( 18 oz jar ) peanut butter
4 cups powdered sugar

Mix all together and press in a 9x13 pan

Melt one tablespoon of Crisco with 1 (12 oz) package of chocolate chips. Spread on top and chill in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before cutting.

Chocolate ABC's

All I want is chocolate
Bring me chocolate.
Can I have some chocolate?
Do you have any chocolate?
Even a little bit of chocolate?




Feed me chocolate.
Gotta have chocolate.
Hand over the chocolate.
I want chocolate.
Just plain chocolate.
Keep the chocolate coming.


Let's eat some chocolate!
More chocolate, please.
Need chocolate now.



Oh, the chocolate.
Pretty please....chocolate?
¡Quiero chocolate!


Really, I need chocolate.
Send chocolate!
There's never enough chocolate.
"U" got any chocolate?
Vats of chocolate....
Where's my chocolate?



X-cuse me....do you have some chocolate?
"Y" isn't there more chocolate?
Zzzz....I dream of chocolate....

It's Valentine's Day ~ Indulge!

Beware The Cookie Monster

The story the way I heard it was that my sister and my mom were making Oreos for a youth fireside, but they could not keep ahead of my brother-in-law who was eating them as quickly as they put them on the platters. My mom had a great plan to foil him: secretly, she generously spread one of the cookies with toothpaste and made sure it was the next one he took.
He didn't even hesitate after the first bite, and after polishing off the cookie he remarked, "Wow, I like the mint-flavored ones the best!"



2 recipes follow - one is really easy, but the other is so much better it's worth the extra effort! If you have a cookie monster in your house make sure he gets the ones frosted with toothpaste.

Homemade Oreo Cookies
2 Devil’s Food cake mixes
4 eggs
1 cup shortening
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix all ingredients together until well-blended. Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls; place on cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes.
3. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet.
Filling: Cream together 8 ounces cream cheese, 3 cups powdered sugar, and ¼ cup butter (softened).
Frost the backs of the cookies and place together to make sandwiches.


Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla-Cream Filling

Makes 30 sandwich cookies

For the Chocolate Wafers:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room- temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the Vanilla-Cream Filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375 degrees.

In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Let Him Eat Cake!

In recognition of my sweetie's birthday today I am posting the recipe for his favorite cake. Growing up, his family's birthday cake tradition was a burnt-sugar cake, which is really good. I tried, I really tried, to make one as good as his mom's, but after the carmelizing sugar blew up one time too many (yes, I still have scars), I opted for a new tradition. When I learned he likes German chocolate cake I decided to give it a try. The recipe is straight off the box of the Baker's German chocolate you can buy in the baking aisle. It's a labor of love but he's more than worth the effort (and I always add extra pecans)!

The mess in my kitchen at 3:35pm today:



Success - 3 unbroken cake rounds



Final results: One Happy Birthday Boy!



German Chocolate Cake

1 pkg. (4 oz.) German chocolate
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cover bottoms of 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper; grease sides of pans. Microwave chocolate and water in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in melted chocolate and the vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating until well blended after each addition.
3. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir into batter. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
4. Bake 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Immediately run small metal spatula around cake layers in pans. Cool in pans 15 min.; remove layers from pans to wire racks. Remove and discard wax paper. Cool cake layers completely. Spread Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting between cake layers and onto top of cake.
5. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cover bottoms of 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper; grease sides of pans. Microwave chocolate and water in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
6. Mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in melted chocolate and the vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating until well blended after each addition.
7. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir into batter. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
8. Bake 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Immediately run small metal spatula around cake layers in pans. Cool in pans 15 min.; remove layers from pans to wire racks. Remove and discard wax paper. Cool cake layers completely. Spread Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting between cake layers and onto top of cake.

Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting

4 egg yolks
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
(don’t be cheap – use real
butter!)
1 pkg. (7 oz.) flaked coconut
(about 2-2/3 cups)
1-1/2 cups chopped pecans

1. Beat egg yolks, milk and vanilla in large saucepan with wire whisk until well blended. Add sugar and butter; cook on medium heat 12 min. or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
2. Add coconut and pecans; mix well. Cool to room temperature and of desired spreading consistency.