Chocolate Drops

It's is finally a new year! I am ready for new and exciting things. I usually don't do New Year's Resolutions because I am too lazy to keep them but this year I thought I would try to make and keep a few. Starting off simple with just a little bit of exercise every week and drinking less soda. I am also going to try to update my blog more regularly. No promises. Especially since January is almost already over... Perhaps I should start in February.

For my first baking adventure for the new year I decided to go easy. I pulled out the wonderful 1940's Christmas Cookies pamphlet from Wisconsin Gas & Electric. They are nice and easy to follow! And usually turn out great. I want to start on a good note.

I had a whole bag of walnuts so had to use those. A little bit of online hunting revealed that 1 square of chocolate equals 1 ounce and that sour milk is 1/2 a tablespoon of vinegar then whole milk added to the 1/2 cup line. And sour milk looks and smells gross so don't think too much about it.

I hate chopping chocolate. Can't tell you why but I find it annoying and messy.

When you are melting chocolate in the microwave, take your time! Do it 15 seconds at a time and mix in between heatings or you will end up with a bubbling mess that is only good for the trash.

So light and fluffy! I'm kind of concerned that these are going to be too soft. I might have to chill them in the fridge for a while.

Well, these actually didn't need any chilling. They stayed together quite well on the tray, ready to be topped off with an walnut.

The smell of cookies is in the air!! I should bake more often... 

It was way too cold to go outside for a picture so I had to actually clean off a table. Boo. 

Little chocolate clouds!

These are amazingly light and airy!! Adding baking soda and sour milk causes a cool chemical reaction which creates cloud cookies! I added chopped walnuts in addition to the one on top. For variety. It was too easy to eat too many of these. Just sit down and start snacking and soon the bag will be empty. The one change I would make would be to add mini-chocolate chips to the mix. I definitely felt that there wasn't enough nuts in the cookies but I think mini chips would be even better. Keep an eye out for an update!

My Rating: Keeper! Must try again with mini chips.

Dylan's Rating: Sooo good! Sooo light. I could eat the entire bag. Can I eat the entire bag?

Chocolate Brownie Pie

I still have no idea how I ended up with several packages of ready made pie crust in my freezer. Apparently I was going to make a ton of pies. Homemade pie crust is always the best but the ready made ones are a very good and super easy substitute. I have used both brand name and generic and I find that they are both equally good. So, I had pie crust but I was also craving chocolate. I blame that on the red wine. This combo Chocolate Brownie Pie is from the 1955 Gold Medal Jubilee 1880 - 1955 Cookbook.

Looks easy enough. I've had cream pies, fruit pies, and nut pies but not a brownie pie. I'm not certain how the brownie will taste combined with the pie crust.

I had everything on hand except the pecans. Since we are staying in I raided my nut collection in the freezer. Roasted hazelnuts go well with chocolate. Done! Barely had enough dark corn syrup to make it.

Usually I cheat and heat the chocolate in the microwave but I decided to follow the directions. I had enough time and nothing better to do. If you do use the microwave keep a very close eye on it and only heat in 15 second increments, stirring after each one. It is very easy to ruin chocolate...sometimes several times in a row.

 Didn't have a rotary beater so I busted out the hand mixer.

 Yum...hazelnuts and chocolate...

Looks like a pecan pie! I am incredibly bad at pie shells. I cannot make a crimped edge to save my life and they always turn out a little wonky. Or drip all over my oven. This looks like a good start.

My kitchen smells heavenly!! As I thought. My pie shell looks terrible. Fine in one corner, too long in another, somehow one side even shrunk.

 After letting it cool off, the pie deflated a bit. Still smells so good!

The inside looks like a brownie! Sounds silly but I was not expecting it to be cake-like. I thought it would be more like a fudge brownie. What a pleasant surprise!

Oh wow! This was great! Lighter than a brownie and because it is technically a pie, you can add Cool Whip or whip cream to it. And yes, the very first picture has more Cool Whip than pie. So what. The hazelnuts were amazing in it but pecans would probably be wonderful as well. I'll have to try that next time. Dylan's preference would have been pecans. Walnuts would be good also...maybe chocolate chips...

My Rating: Amazing! I'm trying to decide when to make my next one.

Dylan's Rating: (After I stared at his plate) What? There's still half a pie left.

Chocolate Cherry Cordial

Between work and my surprising new side gig, dog sitting, I have not been able to spend as much time as I want baking lately. Consider this a late Valentine's day treat. Who doesn't love chocolate cherry cordials! Cherry cordials actually remind me more of the holidays than valentines but they look very valentines-y.

This recipe was requested as payment for the cookbook Hershey's 1934 Cookbook. It is a 1971 reprint and contains a whole section on life in the 30's, "A decade of mixed blessings."

Canning looks so exciting in the 30's! You have to wonder if she is canning something chocolate...why would you can chocolate?

Although I love old recipes, I am not the person who gets excited to do a bunch of research. This kind of updated recipe is right up my alley. Just old enough to be vintage but not too old to understand.

I confess...I did not use Hershey's chocolates.

 I don't have a double boiler so a pan on a boiling pot will have to do. The mix of semi-sweet and milk chocolate is interesting.

While that is melting, I got to work on the centers. My kitchen is small enough to do 2 things at once.

It's like play dough! I was very tempted to switch out the vanilla and almond flavoring for rum or brandy. Maybe next time...definitely next time!

 So cute! All ready for their chocolate coats. There was enough filling for just under 4 dozen cherries.

 So tempting to just eat spoonfuls of the chocolate. But I resisted.

The shallow pan made rolling the cherries very easy. I should have let the chocolate cool a bit more because it started to melt some of the fillings. I was not able to swirl the chocolate for a decorative touch.

 After a short time in the fridge and a couple of days on the counter, they are finally ready!

Well, unfortunately the centers never liquified. They are delicious but not exactly what they are suppose to be.

These were so easy and quite delicious but the cordials never formed. I suspect it was human error and that I left them in the fridge a little too long. Personally I thought the chocolate was a little too thick in part of the cherries but that came from rolling them. I have a chocolate mold for chocolate covered cherries that I will probably use next time. I loved the taste of the mixed chocolates!

My Rating: Keeper! But I'll try some other flavors next time. Just for fun.

Friends and Family Rating: "Amazing!" "Wow, these are so good."

Chocolate Pecan Wafers

I'm back! Moving took much longer than I anticipated but I am finally settled. The new place is much closer to work! Yeah! Unfortunately the kitchen is much smaller. Boo..oh well!
A couple of weekends ago my family and I went to Yorktown to tour the replica of the Santa Maria and decided to stop at the local used bookstore. I found a 2 delightful 'new' cookbooks including Aunt Jenny's Favorite Recipes.  I decided to stick with something simple to start again, the chocolate pecan wafers.

Aunt Jenny was a character in a popular radio program in the 1940's that gave out housekeeping advice. All the recipes feature Spry, a brand of vegetable shortening. Shortening was still a fairly new product and so many cookbooks came out to promote this healthy alternative to lard.

 Spry makes everything better!

Starting with something simple in my small kitchen and I had all the ingredients.

 There is not a lot of flour in this cookie... Sadly I could not find Spry.

 Obligatory mixing photo. Yum! Shortening, sugar, and eggs!

 It looks much better with the chocolate added. Sorry the picture is kinda bad. I still have to figure out my kitchen lighting.

A whole tray of little turds. Ha ha ha

Aunt Jenny has special instructions on how to flatten your cookies.

 The only towel I could find had a pattern but it was a easy way to flatten them. I ended up only flattening half of the batch. I wanted to see how they were turn out un-flattened.

 I have missed the smell of baking!!

The flattened and un-flattened cookies turned out basically the same. Thin, crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. Delicious! A smaller batch than what I normally get out of an old recipe.

These were delicious! I would just skip the flattening part entirely next time. It was unnecessary and a bit annoying. Make sure you chop up the pecan nice and small.

My Rating: Keeper!

Friends and Family: Mixed reviews. "They are okay." "I love the texture. Crispy and chewy!" "Delicious"

Wheaties Nougat Bars

A friend was telling me about a dessert he remembered from childhood. It was a type of no-bake cookie with flaked cereal. I don't think this was it but it was as close as I could get. 

Betty Crocker provided me with this snack recommended for after a midnight supper and promises it is "also delightful with ice cream."

I should have placed the bowl of wheat bran flakes towards the front to make it look healthier.

I used a make shift double boiler. It was not fun. I would recommend just using a regular pot and not bothering with trying to use a double boiler.

So thick! And so difficult to mix! I definitely got a nice arm workout.

There is so much stuff in this mix that I was concerned it would not stay together. I have my doubts about this one. I don't think there is enough marshmallows to make bars, a delicious crumble but not a bar.

Add a nice chocolate layer to hide the bran flakes.

It is really difficult to let it sit and cool. With cookies you can sneak a warm one and no one knows! Kinda hard to do that with a bar.

This little bars are dense! You will need a very sharp knife to cut them. I like the rough edges of the sides better than the cut centers.

This was suppose to make 32 bars. I did not make quite that many but it was close. These are so full of stuff that you will want to make them bite-sized.

All in all not bad. They are not my favorite but I was surprised on how good they were. I do not like whole wheat bran stuff (I am a fan of mushy white bread) but the cereal gave the bars a nice heartiness to them. The chocolate was amazing! Without the top layer these bars would be in the trash. Don't add too thick of a layer or it will overwhelm all the other parts but you must add a nice layer of good quality chocolate. I used dark. So good.

My Rating: Not bad but I probably won't make again.

Friends and Family Rating: "These are pretty good." "Do the Wheaties make them healthy?"