orange marmalade triple brownie torte

Sugar recently turned twelve, and to celebrate, we invented a cake as sweet and original as she is.  It got so many raves that I thought I'd share it with you .... the recipe, that is, since the cake itself is now just crumbs and a happy memory.

**

First, work up an appetite.  You're going to need it, along with a high tolerance for sweet things!

Next, set out four large eggs to come to room temperature.  (Or, if you're in a hurry - not that I'm ever in a hurry for brownies or anything - cover them with warmish water to bring them to room temperature.)

Melt 3/4 cup butter in a small saucepan, and stir into it 3/4 cup cocoa (Wilbur's is best, if you can get it).  Remove from heat and allow to cool at least somewhat.

Rub the sides of three 9" round cake pans with shortening, cut out parchment paper (wax paper will do in a pinch) in circles to fit inside the bottoms, and turn the oven on to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Into a large bowl, break the four eggs and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. salt.  Beat until eggs are frothy and lemon-colored.  Gradually cream 2 cups of raw sugar and 1 tsp. of real vanilla into the beaten eggs.  Quickly fold in the butter-and-cocoa, then a cup of whole wheat flour and a half cup of chocolate chips (or more chocolate chips, if you have a death-by-chocolate wish), just till evenly blended.

Scrape it into the three cake pans somewhat evenly (I didn't spread the batter out, and so got uneven sides) and bake 10-15 minutes, or until the edges begin to look just a bit dry, and the center is no longer wet.  Cool in the pans on cooling racks.

Now make the icing!

[Caveat:  I kind of wing it on icing.  Sometimes - say, for instance, this time - I've forgotten to buy a new bag of confectioners' sugar, so I have to adjust the recipe a bit for the amount I have.  Or maybe I want the orange-flavored buttercream icing but I think cream cheese would taste good, too, so ... I tinker.  And then I don't always remember what all I added, or how much.  So the recipe I give you is an approximation, at best.]

Cream a couple of tablespoons of butter with a few ounces of cream cheese and a tablespoon of orange juice.  Add confectioners' sugar (say, 2-3 cups) until the consistency is right.  Then, freelance!  I added about 20 drops of sweet orange oil, and the chopped zest* of one orange.  We wanted an orange tint to the icing, too, so added a few drops of yellow food coloring and one drop of red.

Taste test, to see if you need to add more sweet orange oil (probably - can't get enough of that), or orange juice, or zest, or who knows - maybe vanilla?

Now, take your cooled brownie layers.  Spread marmalade on the biggest one for your bottom layer. Actually, learn from my mistake, and spread the marmalade on all three layers.  Next spread a layer of icing over the marmalade - yes, it will be messy, and no, it won't necessarily look pretty.  Doesn't matter.  You and your lucky guests will be so enraptured by the flavor that no one will notice messy icing incidents.  Ice all three layers before stacking.  That's what I didn't do, and ended up with a slightly leaning tower of brownie, as a result.  If you marmalade and ice them all on solid ground, you can stack them up the way you want, and (I'm guessing) they are more likely to stay in place!

And voila!  You have created your Orange Marmalade Triple Brownie Torte!  Slice thinly (although the zest and the chocolate chips can make that tricky), because not everyone can finish a standard-size slice.

Brownie Layers
4 large eggs
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup cocoa
2 cups raw sugar
1 tsp. real vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Marmalade

Icing
butter
cream cheese
orange juice
confectioners' sugar
sweet orange oil
orange zest
food coloring

* I don't own a zester.  Well, actually, I might have one somewhere in that drawer, but I don't use it.  I guess I'm not fancy enough to figure out how it works, or maybe I just bought a lemon.  ;)  I use my vegetable peeler, instead, and then chop it.  So, no cute spirals of zest for me, boo-hoo.  If you know how to do that, I think they'd look nice on top, maybe with some chocolate chips sprinkled artfully about.

** Those are not peas on Sugar's cake.  They look just like peas, but they're actually fondant balls.  She thought it would look festive to make little green balls and put them around the edge, and I blush to confess that it did not occur to her mother, either, that they would look just like peas.  It wasn't until they were on, and presented for admiration to Spice and Nice, that these helpful sisters pointed out how just like peas small green balls can look.  Some tears were shed, but all three girls really like fondant (notice that I am not included in that list), so the "peas" stayed.

my alter ego

This morning after breakfast I shared a few pieces of Toblerone (dark, from the local Amish dent & bent grocery) with my Farmer over coffee and I remembered my very first Toblerone....

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I was 22 years old, flying to Japan after college for my first Real Job*.  When the Korean Air flight attendants brought around the duty-free catalogs, it seemed like the thing to do, given my new identity as a globe-trotting sophisticate, to order something.  Ah-ha!  Here was something chocolate, something affordable (my Real Job had not yet netted me my first paycheck), something imported and exotic.  [It rather betrays my true identity as a rube, doesn't it, that I'd never even heard of Toblerone before this!] 

So I bought some.  I ate it in-flight, feeling so grown-up, so urbane, so in-the-know.  A fitting start to my new jet-setting career.

*[my Real Job turned out to be, in retrospect, a hilarious misnomer.  I spent two years in the backwaters of Japan, "teaching" high school English through the Japanese government's JET Programme.  I did spend time in the classrooms, and even, on occasion, got to do some lesson-planning, but most of my time was spent catching up on any reading I hadn't gotten done in college, doing crossword puzzles, creating bitmap art on Windows Paint, and customizing the appearance of my new laptop, with a little worksheet-creation, hangman-playing and pronunciation-modeling thrown in for good measure.]

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Fast-forward sixteen years ... I am sitting at a worn kitchen table in my century-old farmhouse, overseeing the education of my children in rural Pennsylvania, dressed in a hand-me-down sweater and jeans that pre-date some of my children.  Some sophisticate I turned out to be.

The contrast amused me this morning, as I drank my generic decaf coffee brewed the pre-Keurig way in a plain old drip coffeemaker.  But as I wrote this post, I used thesaurus.com to help me find "urbane", and saw that sophisticate as a verb means to adulterate, to cheapen, contaminate, corrupt, degrade, falsify, taint, make impure, water down ... and I realized that sophistication has never really been the goal of my heart at all.

There is nothing I want more, truly, than to be unalloyed, pure, undiluted - aimed hard & undistracted at my Maker.  And there is nothing harder, for me, than just being who He made me to be, and not who I think you'll want me to be.

During the past four months, I have gradually emerged - been freed, really - from the depression that has cocooned me for over a year.  Part of this has been through teachings on God's design for us, and part of it was, I believe, the depression itself:  born of weariness in mask-wearing, it gave me respite, a space in which to rest, and heal.

The depression itself, it seems, was a means to freedom.  Which reminds me, again, of the chrysalis.

A jar waits on a shelf.  One chrysalis hangs empty, a story of freedom attained.  Two remain, and what they contain, whether dormant butterfly or wasp, or nothing, only God knows.

I wait, too.  Only God knows His design for me, and whether sophisticate or rube, or something yet unimagined, He will bring it about in His good time.  This I know.

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unbelievable chocolate

Friends, I should totally be making supper, but instead I am writing to tell you about some unbelievable "homemade chocolate" that I just made.  You.  Have.  Got.  To try this!

(and please don't tell Janet Gehman, my favorite high school English teacher, that I just wrote and published a sentence with that kind of incredibly made-up punctuation in it.  . . . on the other hand, she just might approve!)

Okay, credit where credit is due:  this recipe comes from homemade mommy's blog.  I don't know anything else about her but believe you me I am going to find out.  Anyone who invents something this easy, this mind-blowingly yummy, this healthy deserves my investigation!

Enough build-up.  I am unkind to linger.  Here is the recipe:

Homemade Chocolate

1/2 cup coconut oil (the more expensive is supposedly better but just use what you have and research that later)
1/4 cup honey (raw is best)
1/2 cup cocoa (if you know someone in southeast PA, have them ship Wilbur's cocoa to you)
1/2 tsp. vanilla (please, I beg you, do not use imitation vanilla in this.....)
dash of salt

Mix:  warm the oil and raw honey if necessary, but if you're impatient like me you can just mash it all together with a wooden spoon.  Spread on wax paper and chill.  If you melted, you'll have to line a pan with wax paper and pour it in - see, sometimes being impatient actually saves you time!!  Even out the edges with a knife as it chills.  Eat the trimmings.  So important to have the edges even, isn't it?  And so easy for them to get wobbly.  Trim frequently if necessary.  Go ahead and feel virtuous about the honey and coconut oil.

If there is still some left by the time it's chilled (after all those trimmings), cut into bite-sized pieces and eat 'em up!!!  I mean, store in airtight container and ration out a single piece daily, to be consumed mindfully and with gratitude.

Do share the recipe.  Share the chocolate, too, if you're sufficiently generous.  (and I know you are, or you wouldn't be reading this blog!!)


Ahhh ... doesn't life seem a little bit brighter, now that you can make your chocolate, and eat it, too?

open letter to sugar

Dear unfinished bag of Dove dark chocolate morsels, 
hidden in a little-used cabinet in my kitchen,


If you are feeling neglected, it is because I have forgotten about you.  

I would apologize, but I'm not really sorry.  I know we have had some good times together.  I used to count on you to give me a quick spurt of energy, and I'd come to you for reward or comfort when life was difficult.  I didn't think I could ever live without you.

But you know what?  I have been paying more attention to you lately, and I have found you out for the liar and cheat that you are.  You do give a little energy/comfort/reward ... at first ... but in the end you steal more than you give.

You stole my energy.  You stole my clarity of thought.  You stole my contentment.  You taste good but you are just not worth it.

Once I found you out for who you really are, I just lost my taste for you.  I've found some new foods (namely, protein & complex carbohydrates) that are treating me better than you ever did.

And I think I've found myself again.  

So, good-bye, Dove dark chocolate morsels.  Thanks for nothing.  I'm moving on.

Free at Last,

a recovering sugar junkie


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(click here for the first post in my sugar freedom story, and here for the next post ...)

Peanut Butter Cheerio Squares

You know why I like these bars?  Because to me, they taste like all the goodness of childhood (that's the Cheerios, peanut butter & honey) sweetened by nostalgia (that's the chocolate topping, an adult addition).  I don't know why you'll like them, but I'm pretty sure you will, judging from the reaction they got this week at our moms' group.  Think of them as a rice krispie bar with a makeover .....

Peanut Butter Cheerio Squares


Bring to a boil and then remove from heat:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup dark table syrup

Meanwhile, measure into a large bowl:
1 cup peanuts
6 cups Cheerios

After the honey mixture has boiled, add, stirring well:
1 1/2 cup peanut butter

Pour over the cereal and nuts, stirring until evenly moistened.  Press mixture into 9x13" pan.


Melt over low heat and spread over squares:
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips

When the chocolate has solidified, cut into squares.  This, I have found, takes a lot of hand/finger strength.  Be patient, and sample as necessary.  Don't worry if your lines aren't straight - the bars will still taste good, and your friends will appreciate the proof that you are human.  Store at room temperature.

my very own brownies

These are indeed my very own brownies, but I do want to give credit where credit's due:  I started out using Irma Rombauer's "Brownies Cockaigne" recipe in The Joy of Cooking.

But you know me, I had to substitute cocoa and butter for the baking chocolate, because that's what I usually have on hand, and then I had to mess around with the flour a little to get a consistency I liked, and then I experimented with different brands of cocoa and started using whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose because why not make it "healthy" since you can't even taste the whole wheat under all that chocolate!  Oh yeah, and the peanut butter chips and optional Wilbur buds are the finishing touch.

So here they are, made so often I don't even have to look it up (yay, me):


My Very Own Brownies

Grease (I use butter wrappers saved for this express purpose) a 9x13" pan.  I use glass but I assume that is not a crucial point.  You can also set your oven for 350 degrees if you like to preheat.

3/4 cup butter (need I say, not margarine?)
3/4 cup Wilbur brand cocoa (it really does make a difference, trust me)

Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa.  Set aside, off the heat.

4 eggs, room temp
1/4 tsp. salt

Beat the eggs & salt until "lemon-colored and frothy" (courtesy of Irma)

2 cups raw sugar (a.k.a. demerara sugar)
1 tsp vanilla

Keep beating, and slowing add the sugar and vanilla till so that it gets smooth.  (I hope you're using an electric mixer for this.  I do.)


Now, abandon the electric mixer and fold in the cocoa/butter mixture, which has partially cooled by now.  Then, before that's entirely incorporated, also fold in:

1 cup whole wheat flour (King Arthur's is what I tend to have around for bread-making)
1 cup Reese's brand peanut butter chips (no imitation comes close)
[optional:  a handful of Wilbur buds / Hershey kisses stuck in upside-down, pre-baking, one per brownie]

Once all the goodies are folded in, coax it out of the bowl into your prepared pan and slip it into the oven to fill your home with intoxicating aroma.  Check it around 25 minutes but it may take as long as 30 - it's done when it's dry to the touch in the middle and has begun to pull away a bit at the edges - but before the edges shrivel and turn hard.


Take it out and let the pan cool on a rack.  (The stovetop always worked well for me until the day I turned the wrong burner on.  Let's just say we did not have to use the fire extinguisher, but there are scorch marks on my vinyl flooring and I am now short a glass cake pan.)


Now, from personal experience, I happen to know that you can actually eat these right out of the pan, but it's a lot less messy after they've cooled.


Enjoy!!

fresh perspective

It doesn't take much to get my eyes off the ground.

a night out at the pottery studio
pizza made by friends' hands & baked outdoors in a clay oven
a suncatcher for me to paint, gift from my daughter
husband's hand on mine
children dropped off happy at Grandma & Grandpa's
us, let loose from schedules, lunching with newspapers spread
cheese from the Savory Gourmet
a drive through the park, looking for (and finding!) mushrooms
the "ahhhhh" of a quiet house
a great illustrated book on pottery techniques
nap on the livingroom floor
chocolate for tea, and mushroom leek cheese
the possibilities of two unplanned days


All these, consecutively, work wonders.  I pray God the days' refreshment will translate into something more lasting - patience, maybe? for the multitudes of wrinkle-makers sent for my refinement.

In the meantime, gratitude, deep and sweet.

Thank you, God above.  Thank you, potter friends.  Thank you, daughter of mine.  Thank you, "Ba."  Thank you, my Farmer, my hero, my friend.

Thank you, God above.

quick tip

Today was definitely a napping day; by "quiet time", my morning iron pill had long since worn off.

I tried out a tip from Gene Stone's book, The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick:  before you nap, drink a cup of coffee (or eat chocolate, my favorite all-natural source for caffeine).  Then, when you wake up from your nap, the caffeine will have hit your system and you'll be bright-eyed and busy-tailed (instead of groggy and grumpy, as occasionally happens here - say, when my nap has been interrupted by excessively cheerful daughters bounding down from their quiet time to pounce on their prone momma).

I am here to tell you that it works!!

I ate one of the Newman's Own Dark Chocolate Espresso Bars leftover from my birthday splurge (they're single size, unlike the Lindt) while reading Godric (itself almost a form of caffeine) and then, reluctantly (by then I was caught up in my book), lay down.

Twenty-five minutes later, I woke up, refreshed and raring to go!!  We'll see how long it lasts.....but for now, I'm definitely feeling "squirrely-er" than I did half an hour ago!

notes on ice cream

First off, it was brought to my attention that the recipe for Frozen Maple Cream, although convincingly yummy-sounding, was a tad involved for summertime cooking.  I heartily concur, and want to offer the following research on said recipe:

Skip the gelatin part.  Just mix up all the other ingredients and throw it into an electric ice cream maker (I use a Sunbeam model with a base that you keep in the freezer.  Love it!).  This makes a smaller quantity because you haven't whipped the cream.  (No matter; next time I'll just add a cup of milk to the recipe, I think.  It was a little too sweet, also, but the extra milk will take care of that.)  Easy enough?

Next on the agenda is the amazing Chocolate Mint Ice Cream that I just invented (oh, clever, clever me!).  I will give you the involved version (which I did) and the simple version (which I invite you to try and let me know how it turns out .... unless I get to it first!).

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream (involved version)


Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, till almost boiling:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup sugar
dash of salt

Whisking constantly, slowly pour half of the hot chocolate mixture into:
1 egg, beaten

Slowly pour the egg/chocolate mixture back into the hot chocolate.
Add:
2 cups cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. mint extract

Refrigerate till cold.  Freeze in electric ice cream freezer according to directions (mine takes 40 minutes to get "soft-serve"; I usually then put it in the freezer for a few hours to harden it to "dippable")  I promise you that if you are a chocolate mint fan, you will not regret "slaving over a hot stove" for this one!  And if you run into any texture problems with the egg, just blend it all before chilling it, and it will be smooth as silk.


Chocolate Mint Ice Cream (simple version - untested, remember?  let me know how it gets...!)

Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, till almost boiling:

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup chocolate chips

2/3 cup sugar

dash of salt

Add:

2 cups cream

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. mint extract

Refrigerate till cold.  Freeze in electric ice cream freezer according to directions (mine takes 40 minutes to get "soft-serve"; I usually then put it in the freezer for a few hours to harden it to "dippable").  And if you run into any texture problems with the egg, just blend it all before chilling it, and it will be smooth as silk.

There you have it - just in time to win you accolades at your Independence Day party.  Enjoy!