Desserts - grace grits and gardening

Simple Pecan Fudge

December 9, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Fudge was one of my Daddy’s all-time favorite desserts. Momma stood at the stove all night (it seemed) stirring together chocolate and milk and sugar. She always used the recipe on the back of the Hershey’s cocoa canister. You know, the canister that hasn’t changed since forever? Two hours later after it reached the right temperature and set, it was yummy. Daddy said so. I never really knew because by the time it was ready, I had fallen asleep.

Today I’m sharing a simple pecan fudge recipe inspired by one I found on Allrecipes. With only four basic ingredients, this may become your new favorite holiday treat. This recipe is quick and won’t dirty up your kitchen. ‘Tis the season when everyone needs a quick dessert recipe, and let’s be honest, no one has extra time to waste slaving away in the kitchen.

Simple Pecan Fudge

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup chopped pecans

Method

With your microwave set on 50% power, melt chocolate, milk and butter in a large glass bowl for approximately 4-5 minutes, pausing to stir every minute. (Microwaves vary so heat only until melted and smooth.)
Once the ingredients are thoroughly melted and combined, mix in pecans. (You can substitute walnuts or almonds, or eliminate nuts altogether.)
Spread chocolate mixture onto a piece of Glad Press and Seal Wrap that has been lightly sprayed with cooking oil. Shape into a log approximately one inch thick. Top with a second sheet of wrap and seal the edges.
Place in the refrigerator to set (which only takes about an hour).
Cut into squares.
Enjoy!

Pack a few pieces of this rich, creamy fudge into decorative tins and voila(!), an simple, delectable gift.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Simple to make. Easy to eat. #Fudge #holidaybaking #chocolate #ohyum [/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

The Strangeloves – I Want Candy

Velvet Elvis Poundcake and FREE EGGS!

December 2, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

(This post is sponsored by Great Day Farms. All opinions are my own.)

Y’all. Before I get to this amazing Velvet Elvis Pound Cake recipe, I want to let you know I have ten dozen Great Day Farms eggs to give away just in time for Christmas baking! If you are like me, you can always use extra eggs, especially free ones. I went through almost three dozen eggs preparing my Thanksgiving meal. Almost every dessert and casserole calls for eggs.

But first…

Let’s talk about the yummiest pound cake ever. I present the Velvet Elvis Pound Cake.

My Momma (who rarely cooks these days) made this pound cake last Christmas, and it was so heavenly that I made it for Thanksgiving last week.

According to the recipe Momma found in the Dallas Morning News, it was Elvis’s favorite. I know what you’re thinking and no, it isn’t a peanut butter and banana poundcake. The texture is smooth like velvet (so velvety I’ve named it the Velvet Elvis Pound cake).

This cake is truly perfect from the edges to the center. It’s made with cake flour and whipping cream—therein lies the difference.

Who knew?

Well, Elvis did.

You’ll want to add this to your holiday baking menu. It’s a Christmas worthy dessert and my new favorite.

Velvet Elvis Poundcake

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick 1/2 cup butter, softened
4 eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 cups cake flour sifted twice
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together on medium speed - about 3 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in half of the cake flour.
Add whipping cream.
Beat in remaining cake flour and vanilla.
Pour batter into a buttered and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean, approximately 60 - 65 minutes.
Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
While you enjoy it, think of The King.

Now here’s more about the egg giveaway. Courtesy of Great Day Farms, I will be giving away one dozen eggs to ten winners. Contest ends December 9. Winners will be announced periodically during contest. There are several ways to enter, just follow the instructions below or on the Grace Grits Facebook page by clicking HERE. Thank ya, thank ya very much!

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Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Velvet Elvis photo courtesy of Jamie Dwyer – http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamidwyer/2474408252/

Milky Way Cake

November 4, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

If you are following along, you may remember I am recreating recipes from Keiser’s Kitchen, a recipe book created by the Keiser Elementary School PTA moms in 1969. A few weeks ago, I made the Yum Yum Cake. It was delicious. If you missed it, you’ll want to go back and check it out. This week’s dish is the Milky Way Cake. With company coming for Halloween weekend, it sounded like the perfect choice. Plus, I had a bag of those fun-sized Milky Ways. What a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy…

After having made only two of these vintage recipes, here’s the thing I’ve realized—the art of cooking has drastically changed. In only forty years, ingredients have evolved. Recipes are written differently. Like everything, there are trends in cooking. Foods go in and out of style, and the language of food changes.

I was reminded of the importance in handing down recipes. These recipes are part of our family stories.

I experienced this first-hand while making the Milky Way Cake, mainly because this recipe was contributed to the Keiser cookbook by my Aunt Lavern. For those of you who never knew her, Aunt Lavern had a sweet, generous spirit, loved family, friends and God, and was a fabulous cook. She even owned a little restaurant one time—her southern, down-home cooking was that good.

As I began making this cake, I imagined Aunt Lavern mixing the batter. I remembered the smells of her comfy kitchen. Several times I wanted to ask her questions, especially while trying to get the icing to “soft ball stage”. Even though my icing boiled over onto my stove and made a huge sticky mess, the cake turned out amazing. I think she was helping me.

The ingredients were basic.

I am no baker, but I truly believe this is the most beautiful icing I have ever made. It was smooth and creamy and rich like fudge.

Ummmmm.

Look at my lovely, giddy taste testers!

So you want the recipe, right?

Here it is…

Milky Way Cake

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

4 Milky Way candy bars
1 stick oleo I used unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Milky Way Icing

2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup marshmallow cream
1 stick oleo I only used 1/2 stick in the icing

Method

Melt candy bars and 1/2 stick butter. Set aside.
Cream sugar and 1/2 stick butter in large bowl.
Add eggs.
To the sugar/egg mixture, alternatively add flour and buttermilk until mixed together.
Add melted chocolate/butter mixture and mix well.
Add pecans.
Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.

Milky Way Icing

Mix sugar and milk and cook in a double boiler until soft ball stage. Add chocolate chips, marshmallow cream and butter. Stir until melted.

Notes

Candy bars in general are much larger these days. Be sure to buy "regular" sized Milky Way bars. Or two "fun-sized" bars = one regular candy bar.
In the icing, I couldn't bring myself to add an entire stick of butter so I reduced the butter to 1/2 stick. This may be why my icing was fudge-like, but I thought this was the best part!

Here’s a helpful YouTube video that explains soft ball stage…