Brownies from Scratch

Ada's Brownies by Anne Stander

1/4 pound of butter
2 squares baking chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Melt butter and chocolate and set aside to cool. Cream sugar and eggs. Add vanilla, then flour, salt and nuts. Add butter and chocolate mixture. Bake in greased, floured 9-by-9-inch pan. 350 degrees for 10 minutes, then 300 degrees for about 25 minutes.

My Notes

This is the original recipe written as was. Translated: 1/4 pound butter is one stick of unsalted butter. Two squares baking chocolate is 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate -- use the best you can find. Cut back on the (white) sugar slightly. Nuts are optional.

For gluten free: Use Bette's Featherlight gf flour blend from Authentic Foods and add 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum. Under-measure the gf flour just slightly.

Mix everything as little as possible. Brownies don't benefit from overmixing. Less fussing makes them dense and chewy.

Recipe courtesy of Lisa Stander Horel at Salon.com

Elizabeth Golden's Dip

Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing or Dip

1 cup of crumbled blue cheese - about 4 1/2 ounces
1 cup light sour cream - I use no fat
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
pepper to taste

Quick Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

Quick Pear Streusel Coffee Cake By Gale Gand From her grandmother on her mother's side, a great baker in the Austria-Hungarian tradition, Gail found this great ample streusel coffee cake recipe in her card files. And here it is revised with a little twist from using pears instead of apples. For the cake: Unsalted butter, for the baking dish 1 1/4c. All purpose flour 2 1/4tsp. baking powder 1/2c. Sugar 1/2tsp. salt 1/2tsp. ground cinnamon One at large egg 1/2c. Whole milk 4tbsp. unsalted butter, melted 2 ripe pears (Bartlett's are preferred,) unpeeled cored and chopped approximately 1 1/2c. For the streusel topping: 1/2c. Sugar 1/4c. All purpose flour 3tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut up 1tsp. ground cinnamon Heat the oven to 400°F.Butter and 8inch square baking dish. To make cake combine the flour with the baking powder, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In separate bowl, beat the eggs and then mix in the milk and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the pears and mix well. Pour this into the buttered baking dish. To make the streusel, mix with the sugar, flour, cold butter and cinnamon in a bowl by the pinching them together with your fingers until well combined. Sprinkle over at the top of the batter. Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes until it is golden and dry on top. Cool in and the pan and then cut into squares. This cake keeps for to four days covered at room temperature Recipe courtesy "Gale Gand's Brunch," written by Gale Gand with Christie Matheson, Clarkson Potter, 2009.

A good recipe for Kugel

Here's a recommended recipe for kugel--something I've never made.