Lemon Loaf & Fudge Brownie Bites....

I still cannot believe that I am even considering letting these two recipes out....they are not Donna Reed Originals....these puppies come from my great grandmother Agnes Bole....her daughter, my nanny Louise MacKay decided to re-write all of her mothers recipes in one place....the cursive is simply luxurious, I wish more students wrote in cursive....at any rate, great grandmother passed it down to her daughter and she passed it down to me....I am oh so grateful that I have this iconic representative of the kitchens of my maternal heritage....the other day when making a lemon loaf....it smelled so delicious, I wondered if this was the same smell that my great grandmother smelled when she would use the same recipe.......I wondered what her oven looked like, her kitchen floor.....she lived on a farm, so it's not completely unrealistic to think that she may indeed have even churned the butter herself...I also wondered what kind of shoes she was wearing....and most importantly.......I wonder what her apron looked like.....

Lemon Loaf
6 tbsp butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice

Cream butter and sugar together.  Beat in eggs and milk.  Add rind of lemon and mix thoroughly.  Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and blend into batter.  Spray a loaf pan with pam.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees......never put batter in a cold oven......bake for about an hour.  Mix together 1 tbsp of lemon juice and 1 tbsp of sugar, pour over hot loaf.  This glaze crystallizes into the sweetest crust which is a subtle accompaniment to a dense lemony loaf.  Enjoy!


I guess I have to thank my 2011 AcDec'ers for this blog posting as they are the ones in which I was baking for.  Tonight was the first round of debates and I wanted to set the bar high so I baked some of my best in anticipation of their debating skills being of the highest quality.....I am looking forward to more debates and perhaps this shall be a new ritual where I bake for AcDec'ers and blog about it!  It has been some time since I have been on here, so thank you twenty-eleven AcDec'ers for inspiring me yet again.....

Brownies
I guess this technically is not exactly my great grandmothers recipe as you will find out I did slightly alter the recipe to fit my own personal agenda!

1/2 margarine
8 tbsp chocolate chips
1 see's milk chocolate candy bar
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

You want to start by melting the margarine and chocolates together on low in a small pan.  Yes you must use see's milk chocolate candy bars, this is really what makes them so dang tasty.....and as an added bonus by purchasing your see's milk chocolate candy bar you will be supporting the 27th year of academic excellence!

While the chocolate is melting mix the sugar, vanilla and eggs together.  Once chocolate has reached a silky smooth consistency (this can take anywhere from 15 - 20 minutes....it is not something you want to rush....I suggest listening to Billie Holiday whilst you are stirring the melting chocolate.....) once the chocolate magic mixture is ready to go add it to the sugar mixture.  Mix well.  Add flour and salt.  Blend well.  You will end up baking this in a 350 degree oven as well.....what makes these two recipes match so nicely is that you can have a batch of each going at the same time.  Yesterday I made 2 loaves of bread and 3 rounds of brownies.....for the brownies I made two batches in the mini-muffin tin (worked out nicely for the masses) the last batch was put in a circular pan all in one shot.  Trust me when it comes to mass baking and maximizing of time, the mini-muffin tin should not be your weapon of choice......Below are the infamous 3rd patch in which my husband will be taking to work......

Enjoy!

p.s. 15 minutes for mini-muffin tin
p.p.s. 33 minutes for circular tin