While bringing up the dashboard for my two blogs I was struck with the thought that Baking for Life may have disappeared since it has been relegated to the mothball section of the internet. No time or desire to put that direction. No big loss in the grand scheme of things, but I had a twinge of regret now that I might be resurrecting the blog after having abandoned it for so long. Magically it appeared, poor thing!
I was cleaning out one of our overly cluttered areas of the house the other day and came across a paper bag with some of my mother’s older cookbooks. Some are careworn, laden with my mother’s imprints as well as mine as a kid, Aside from ironing in the afternoon after school, one of my jobs was to make dinner before my mother arrived home from her long commute at the end of her work day. We had 3 female college students boarding with us so the dinner needed to be plentiful, As I flipped through the pages, certain recipes caught my eye, I was transported back to the specific production of the recipes. Some which were well used had food stains around the print. Wonder what I was thinking while putting the ingredients together? Wow!
But I digress. Tonight I used one book, from 1973, to make brownies. When one is overcome with the urge to eat chocolate sometimes it is better to give in to it. One of the things I remember while working for a weight loss program, which rings true, is to satisfy the urge or else you’ll go through a lot more food trying to scratch that itch.
I’ll indicate at the end of the recipe how I altered it. Yes, you can still count on me fiddling around with the ingredients!
Whole Wheat Brownies ‘Family Favorites from Country Kitchens’ cookbook c 1973
1/2 c butter or margarine
1 c brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cocoa
2 Tbsp melted butter or margarine
1 c chopped walnuts
Cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a tine, beat till well blended after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
Gradually stir in whole wheat flour and salt. Combine cocoa and butter or margarine, blend well. Add cocoa mixture and nuts to flour, butter, egg mixture. Mix well, spread into greased 9″ square pan.
Bake 45 minutes @ 325°. Cool on rack cut into 16 bars.
**** Now I substituted 1/4 c ground Kashi Go Lean Crisp cereal with 1/4 c unbleached flour because I did not have whole wheat on hand. I also substituted 1/4 c coconut oil for 1/2 the butter / margarine.
The brownies took about 20 to bake in my convection oven so keep track of the bake time, check for doneness way in advance of 45 minutes.
I think I’ll try Pumpkin Pie Squares next from this book. They look delightful. You’ll see!
Until next time we meet , eat… enjoy … mangia!
BAKING on LIFE 