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Grandma, please forgive me.
I just got back from visiting my family in Mississippi, and in between touring the largest home garden I’ve ever seen, being kicked out of the kitchen more times than I can count, and drinking quarts of sweet tea, I kind of stole my grandmother’s recipe for biscuits with chocolate gravy.
I’ve never been to Mississippi and not had chocolate-and-biscuits for breakfast. It’s a family tradition, but like most traditions, we all do it differently. I split the biscuit, slather it with butter, and spoon the chocolate on top. Mom chops the biscuits into small pieces, dots the plate with butter, and pours on the chocolate with a heavier hand than I do. Grandma puts a pat of butter on the plate, tops it with chocolate, smooshes the butter and chocolate together, and then dips the biscuit in that. Grandpa eschews the chocolate altogether, but uses Grandma’s method to mix butter with sorghum molasses. Grandpa’s way, lacking chocolate entirely, is obviously wrong.
Like so many family recipes, it never occurred to me until this most recent visit to ask Grandma to teach me how to make the chocolate gravy. (Her attitude about me in the kitchen was such that I didn’t even ask, but instead resorted to subtle subterfuge. The one thing I got to do all weekend? Chop pecans. Grandma needs no help, thank you very much.) My great-grandmother died without my having ever inquired after her recipe for chocolate pie. Thankfully, the chocolate pie was passed down to a cousin of mine with more sense than I, but I’ve learned my lesson. I casually asked my grandma what she put in her chocolate gravy, ran to get a notepad when she wasn’t looking, and stuffed the recipe in my purse.
It’s for posterity, Grandma! I had to do it!
I’ve printed the recipe below as Grandma dictated it to me, but (at the risk of incurring significant wrath) I’ve added a few suggestions. Serve this alongside your favorite biscuits at your next brunch or Christmas breakfast and your family will swoon. My hunch is that leftover gravy, should you have any, would be excellent on ice cream, a brownie, crepes, or on more biscuits.
Grandma’s Chocolate Gravy
Serves 6-ish
Note: The amount of liquid is approximate. The gravy should be on the thin side, but not too thin. Practice.
You will need:
1.5 c. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. flour
2-3 tbsp. cocoa powder
About 1 c. water (I bet you could use milk to get a creamier gravy)
2 tbsp. butter
Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring intermittently, until mixture bubbles, becomes very frothy, and thickens significantly, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately over warm biscuits.
Photo by thebittenword.com, available under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
When I miss my mom, sometimes I crave brownie batter.
When I was little, my mom used to make brownies from the box and let my sister and I lick the bowl or the spoon. As we got older, we would make the brownies ourselves, and the whole house smelled like warm, buttery chocolate while they baked in the oven. We would turn on the oven light and stare at them as the batter turned shiny, then crisped on top. The moment we tested them with a toothpick was always agony. Invariably, I got ahead of myself and the toothpick would come out not at all clean, and back in the oven the brownies would go. When they were finally done, we would cut them into small pieces and eat them warm out of the glass pan, usually watching a movie. The whole pan would be gone in less than a day, usually. We would spend the day running to the kitchen to cut off a square, eating it on the way out the door or back to the sofa. The next morning, the brownies would be divvied up for breakfast, because why not?
Not infrequently, brownies were part of our Friday night, pizza and a movie routine (sometimes replaced by cookie dough). The three of us would rent a movie, order or make a pizza, and gorge on cheese and chocolate while we watched the funny, predictable mating dance of girl-meets-boy.
The batter of any baking venture is usually the best part. As opposed to giving one child the bowl and the other the spoon, my mom would hand spoons to everyone and we would clean the bowl together. There’s no point in tossing perfectly good batter down the drain, after all, and no one was concerned about the horrifying effects of raw eggs. I’m still here, after all.
When I saw this recipe for chocolate pudding on The Kitchn, I immediately thought of boxed brownie batter. This recipe tastes remarkably like brownie batter once it’s done, and is a cinch to make. For those with concerns, no raw eggs need cross your lips for you to enjoy the sweet chocolate simplicity. I won’t be able to be with my mom on Mother’s Day this year, but I made chocolate pudding in her honor.
Chocolate Pudding
Serves 8, or serves 2 multiple times
Adapted from The Kitchn, who were inspired by The Minimalist
You will need:
½ c. granulated sugar
½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1 c. milk
1 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla
Whisk dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat milk and cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it just begins to bubble.
Remove half the cream to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk quickly, until the cream and dry mixture are fully incorporated. Add the chocolate mix to the pan with the rest of the cream, lower heat to medium-low, and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens. (This only take a couple of minutes).
Pour into a container, cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the pudding, and chill in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. And wish your mothers a Happy Mother’s Day.
Photo by Mevrouw Cupcake, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.
These cookies are like crack.
These cookies, once baked, are impossible to eat individually. You can try, and I’m sure it would be a valiant effort, but you will fail. You will go back for “just one more” so many times, you’ll lose count. I love a good chocolate chip cookie as much as the next girl, but this butterscotch… I may never make regular chocolate chip cookies again. I’ve seen the light; I’ve converted; I’ve been shown the way. The yellow brick road is actually made of butterscotch.
I can think of a million reasons to make these cookies. I made them to thank someone who watched my cats when I was out of town. I took a dozen or so with me that weekend, and my mother, sister, and I demolished them in an evening of homemade pizza, cupcakes, and queso. I still had some left when I got home, so I finished the rest with as much self-control as I could muster while I hosted my own one-woman Sex and the City marathon. You can make them for an office party, a picnic, a birthday gift, a night in with the girls, or when you’re feeling the teeniest bit gluttonous.
Chocolate Butterscotch Chip Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes bout 4 dozen cookies; serves 1-48.
You will need:
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. (2 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar (Martha uses dark, all I had was light. Use what you have.)
2 eggs
1 c. butterscotch chips
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350.
Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to cream butter with both sugars until pale yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, and vanilla, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined.
Stir in chips. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, about 2″ apart. Bake in batches until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Watch carefully, and remove from oven just before they look done. Let them set for a minute on the cookie sheet, then remove to cool on a wire rack. In my experience, they keep for five days in an airtight container.
Photo by idovermani, available under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
I haven’t had the baking bug in quite awhile. I could bore you with all of my reasons and excuses, but instead, I’ll bribe you with chocolate!
The making of these tiny pots of chocolate cream was precipitated by my waking up with a sudden determination to bake something, but this elusive “something” needed to meet several criteria.
The baked good needed to be something that Handsome and I could consume in a short amount of time, with a relatively low level of calorie-guilt. It needed to be something simple– no recipes calling for chilling overnight, or blanching the almonds before toasting, peeling, and re-toasting them, all in the service of eventually candying them as a garnish. I needed something simple, straightforward, and with a tad of elegance.
Enter my mother’s Betty Crocker Cookbook. Amid the recipes for Cherries Jubilee and Grasshopper Brownies was sandwiched a recipe for pot de crème. (Spoiler alert: this is not that recipe.) Flipping through this cookbook was enlightening; Betty takes a lot of shortcuts compared with the all-organic, gluten-free, free-range, Atkins-friendly bloggers of today (all of whom I love dearly and worship faithfully, btw). Betty is all about the pudding packet and the canned pie filling. As I giggled at the subversiveness of using shortening in a pie crust and canned pears for a special company-quality dessert, I remembered a recent post from The Kitchn about using a packet of Jell-O to flavor frosting. The cake they use to demonstrate this technique is every eight-year-old girl’s fantasy. The final product is covered in sprinkles, candles, candies, and glitter.
My pot de crème is not that. But the recipe comes from the fine bloggers at The Kitchn, who lately have won my heart and are my new favorites. Their recipe is simple, easy to follow, and has five ingredients. A quick Google search also informed me that I didn’t need fancy ramekins to make pot de crème; I wound up using four white ramekins and two small IKEA juice glasses. My eggs are free range, but my chocolate sure ain’t Scharffen Berger. And my heavy cream is definitely the store brand. This fancy, intimidating, French-so-it-must-be-impossible recipe came together in about ten minutes with so little effort, it may as well have been the pudding packet.
*Note: I have no photos for this post, because I ate all six little pots of goodness before I could photograph them in daylight. You’ll just have to imagine how beautiful they were.
Chocolate Whiskey Pots de Crème
Adapted from The Kitchn
Makes 6 servings
You will need:
2 c. heavy cream
5 oz. dark or bittersweet chocolate
1/4 c. honey
4 egg yolks
3 tbsp. whiskey (don’t use a smoky variety)
Preheat the oven to 300, and bring 4 cups of water to a simmer in a small pot. Set out six ramekins in a 13×9 cake pan.
Bring the heavy cream to a simmer over medium heat.
Meanwhile, chop the chocolate into tiny pieces. (Note: 5 ounces of chocolate is a weird amount, as bars are 4 ounces. I used one bar and added about a tablespoon of chocolate chips I had on hand. It was fine.)
Combine the eggs, honey, and whiskey in another bowl and whisk about two minutes, or until it starts to thicken.
When the cream starts to simmer, remove it from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted.
Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture slowly, whisking constantly to bring the eggs up to the temperature of the chocolate without cooking them. Once the mixture is fully combined, divide among six ramekins (or juice glasses, or small jelly jars, or pretty coffee mugs). Pour the water into the baking pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake 30-40 minutes, and remove from oven while center still jiggles a little.
Cool at room temperature at least one hour before serving. Store in fridge up to four days.
*Note: when I let them cool for an hour, the texture was very loose, like pudding. (Not that anyone minded.) I chilled the others overnight, and the texture set properly for a much firmer dessert. Do what makes you happy. They taste delicious right out of the fridge, though!
Life these days is simple. My life has slowed down since I graduated from college. I don’t have to worry about turning in papers, or staying out of the gossip mill, or driving four hours a week between my house and Handsome’s. I’m working retail, which (while not my dream job) has its benefits when it comes to stress. I just don’t stress about work, and I rarely work more than three days without a day off. My hours are set, and I am in the enviable position of being required to work a minimum number of hours a week, so my hours are in no danger of being cut. I have no trouble paying my bills, and even have some cash left over to (for example) bake a batch of cupcakes whenever I want.
I’m also more comfortable in my home, now that I don’t commute between cities. I’ve settled into our apartment and am thinking about changes I’d like to make to it. I go to the library frequently, checking out silly books for pleasure reading. (The Sookie Stackhouse series will eat up so many hours of your life, but it is so worth it. These books are like cupcakes: you can’t have just one, even though you probably should.) I have a routine, a schedule. Life outside of school is much calmer for me. My life isn’t perfect, but it’s perfect for me and I have so much to be thankful for.
Right now, I’m thankful for Martha Stewart. Why?. Her One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes, that’s why. Dump ingredients in a bowl, mix, bake. Simple. I have several books of cupcake recipes and cute ways to decorate the little buggers, but today I wanted something simple. It’s been awhile since I baked anything, so going back to basics seemed like a good idea. I was right: basic, simple, straightforward, no-frills chocolate cupcakes were the perfect thing.
I halved the recipe since Martha’s original makes 18-24 cupcakes, and while the thought of eating all of those sounded sort of diving, my clearer head and desire for a slightly smaller waist prevailed. I used her Chocolate Frosting recipe as well, which combines butter, cream cheese, sour cream, and melted chocolate for the most decadent frosting you’ve ever had in your mouth. It’s also pretty easy. I made the whole recipe, unsure of how much I would need. I had plenty left over, so I froze it (after, of course, testing several spoonfuls). You should probably halve the frosting recipe, but I’m going to post it as I made it, in all its much-too-much glory.
Martha Stewart’s One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
Slightly adapted, and halved, from recipe in MarthaStewart.com
Makes 9-12 cupcakes (Made 11 for me)
You will need:
3/8 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/8 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
3/8 c. warm water
3/8 c. buttermilk
1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil (Martha uses safflower oil, but I didn’t have any. It was fine.)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 and line a regular muffin tin with paper liners.
Sift all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add all wet ingredients and beat with electric mixer until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, distributing batter evenly.
Bake approximately 20 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back when touched.
Cool cupcakes in muffin tin completely before frosting. Frost with Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Frosting (below).
Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Frosting
Adapted from MarthaStewart.com
Makes enough to frost all the cupcakes you just baked, and then some. Proceed with caution.
You will need:
2 1/4 c. confectioner’s sugar
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
6 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
3/4 c. sour cream
Sift sugar, cocoa, and salt into a bowl.
Beat cream cheese and butter in separate bowl on medium-high speed until smooth. Reduce speed and add sugar/cocoa/salt mixture slowly. Add melted chocolate slowly and beat until combined. Add sour cream and beat until smooth. Frost cupcakes and enjoy. Enter sugar coma in 3.. 2… 1…
Postscript: Life is not always simple for others. The sister of a good friend has recently been diagnosed with a terrible illness, but she is fighting hard. Please keep this family in your thoughts, and bake a batch of cupcakes for a friend who needs them.
I have a confession to make.
I stole my mother’s old copy of The Joy of Cooking.
That’s a lie. She gave it to me. In any case, I have it now.
I wanted brownies the other night, and I happened to have a leftover bar of chocolate from making the ganache for my mom and sister’s chocolate cupcakes with ganache, so I started going through my cookbooks and stumbled upon the recipe for Brownies Cockaigne.
I will tell you up front that these are not the most chocolatey brownies you will ever eat. They are not the most fudgy, and probably not even the best. I’ve made them twice and for whatever reason, they turn out lighter in color than I expect. That’s a bit of a brownie turn-off for me, but I went with it. They got the job done, and that’s maybe the best thing about them. But they satisfied my craving for chocolate, Handsome ate them all, and they made me happy, so here you go. Brownies Cockaigne.
You will need:
1/2 cup butter
4 oz. chopped bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans (I omitted this)
Preheat oven to 350.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler, then remove from heat and cool.
Beat the eggs with the salt until they are “light and foamy in texture.”
This is what we decided was "light and foamy"
Add the sugar gradually and beat until well creamed, then add vanilla.
In a “few swift strokes,” fold in the cooled chocolate by hand (Joy says so).
Fold in the flour by hand. Stir pecans in gently, if using.
Ready to go into the oven
Bake in a 9×13 pan at 350 for about 25 minutes.
There’s a recipe for fudgey, chewy brownies in this month’s Cook’s Illustrated, and I can’t wait to try it. I’ll let you know how it compares!
