Peanut Butter Fudge: Guest post by Carleen M. Loper

Today is National Peanut Butter Fudge Day. My friend Carleen Loper sent this  post a few year's ago. It's her Godmother's recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge. Thought today's holiday would be the perfect time to repost. Thanks, Carleen.

CARLEEN M. LOPER:
Plus ça Change, Plus c'est la Même Chose

Janet happened to put up a post about National Chocolate Chip Day at the very same time I was waiting for a batch of peanut butter fudge to set in the kitchen. Needless to say, I did not wait for it to entirely set before digging a knife in for a taste test. P.S. yum.

The chocolate chip. Who among us can really count the ways we’ve added its beloved and nostalgic magic to recipes?

The recipe I made today is an old family favorite. It started with my godmother, Ma Tante Rita. A lovely French Canadian soul who was my grandmother’s sister, and the relative I loved to spend the most time with growing up. Peanut Butter Fudge would primarily be found during the holidays. My mother continued the tradition, and my husband, the peanut butter freak, has carried it on to the next generation. It makes a huge batch of candy and you can separate it into nice little packages of pieces to share with multiple friends or family as you go visiting.

Today it came to mind because our young neighbor next door is having a graduation-slash-birthday-slash-going-in-the-navy party. When he was little, I knew peanut butter cups were always the candy I had to buy at Halloween to make him happy. He’s 18 now, so he’ll get a slightly more grown up version of his favorite sweet.

Ma Tante Rita’s Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients:
1 16 oz jar creamy peanut butter
1 16 oz package confectioner’s sugar
2 sticks butter
1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
1 12 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Melt the peanut butter and butter together over medium-low heat.
Mix the confectioner’s sugar and graham crackers together in a large bowl. Pour the peanut butter and butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir well. Press evenly into a 13x9 pan.
Melt the chocolate chips. I melt them in a glass bowl in the microwave at 30 second intervals/stirring with a rubber spatula as they melt for approximately 3 minutes.
Spread over the top. (It should cover completely in a thin layer).
Let set before slicing.

Carleen M. Loper lives in Massachusetts, works in a library, and loves to play in the kitchen!

Grammy Shield's Chocolate Cake

Because you can never have too many recipes for Chocolate Cake,  I welcome back Carleen M. Loper with a guest post with a fabulous chocolate cake recipe. Carleen is an Assistant Librarian at Bridgewater State University (MA). She writes humor and nature essays, as well as being a supporter of environmental causes and baking up a storm.

Carleen M. Loper: A New Tradition

My friend Joanna has the most beautiful, big brown eyes and when we were discussing cake baking those eyes got as large as chocolate saucers and she said “ohhhhhhh…you have to make my grandmother’s chocolate cake.”

To be honest, I didn’t really think anything could top Duncan Hines. (Yes. True.)  I do lots of baking, but when it comes to chocolate layer cake I didn’t even bother looking for recipes. The birthday tradition in my house growing up was the box cake, and I think the memory was as important as the taste. This recipe from Joanna has shifted my priorities. Memories are fine, but life, after all, is really about new experiences, right?

Some people may cringe at the amount of coffee. (I did, and I love all things mocha). Joanna insisted you wouldn’t taste it. Like other chocolate recipes, it simply highlights and deepens the chocolate flavor. “Really? Even with THAT much coffee?” Yes, really. Trust Grammy.

When I told Joanna I was sharing the recipe on Janet’s blog, I asked her for a little background information about her grandmother to share. Jeanne Shields loved throwing cocktail parties, went to art school, and was an avid gardener and seamstress. She had four children, lived in the same home in Mt. Penn, PA for over 50 years, and she was one hell of a baker.

I used a standard chocolate buttercream for the frosting. Joanna prefers a cream cheese frosting for a bit of tang. I love strawberries and chocolate, so that addition to the top of the cake is how I made the recipe my own for my birthday celebration this year.

Grammy Shield’s Chocolate Cake

Jeanne "Grammy" Shields

Ingredients
3 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup oil
2 1/4 cups hot coffee

Directions
Mix the eggs, sugar, and oil in a large bowl
In a separate bowl whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
Take about a cup of the flour mixture and pour into a separate bowl with a cup of the coffee, mix
Add the flour/coffee mixture to the egg mixture and stir
Add the remaining flour mixture
Mix in the remaining coffee
(Batter will be very thin)
2 9" pans/buttered
Bake 30-35 minutes at 350
Cool in pans on rack 10 minutes, then remove from pans/completely cool before frosting

When Carleen and Joanna aren't discussing recipes or perusing cookbooks, they work together at the Bridgewater State University library.

Peanut Butter Fudge: Carleen M. Loper guest post

Today is National Chocolate Chip Day, and yesterday I posted a Chocolate Chip Recipe Round-Up. My friend Carleen Loper was already in the process of maximizing the 'chocolate chip' holiday with her Godmother's recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge. I had to ask her for the recipe!

CARLEEN M. LOPER:
Plus ça Change, Plus c'est la Même Chose

Janet happened to put up a post about National Chocolate Chip Day at the very same time I was waiting for a batch of peanut butter fudge to set in the kitchen. Needless to say, I did not wait for it to entirely set before digging a knife in for a taste test. P.S. yum.

The chocolate chip. Who among us can really count the ways we’ve added its beloved and nostalgic magic to recipes?

The recipe I made today is an old family favorite. It started with my godmother, Ma Tante Rita. A lovely French Canadian soul who was my grandmother’s sister, and the relative I loved to spend the most time with growing up. Peanut Butter Fudge would primarily be found during the holidays. My mother continued the tradition, and my husband, the peanut butter freak, has carried it on to the next generation. It makes a huge batch of candy and you can separate it into nice little packages of pieces to share with multiple friends or family as you go visiting.

Today it came to mind because our young neighbor next door is having a graduation-slash-birthday-slash-going-in-the-navy party. When he was little, I knew peanut butter cups were always the candy I had to buy at Halloween to make him happy. He’s 18 now, so he’ll get a slightly more grown up version of his favorite sweet.

Ma Tante Rita’s Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients:
1 16 oz jar creamy peanut butter
1 16 oz package confectioner’s sugar
2 sticks butter
1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
1 12 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Melt the peanut butter and butter together over medium-low heat.
Mix the confectioner’s sugar and graham crackers together in a large bowl. Pour the peanut butter and butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir well. Press evenly into a 13x9 pan.
Melt the chocolate chips. I melt them in a glass bowl in the microwave at 30 second intervals/stirring with a rubber spatula as they melt for approximately 3 minutes.
Spread over the top. (It should cover completely in a thin layer).
Let set before slicing.

Carleen M. Loper lives in Massachusetts, works in a library, and loves to play in the kitchen!

Orange Chocolate Bundt Cake: Carleen M. Loper guest post

Today I welcome Carleen M. Loper. I 'met' Carleen through a Facebook group: Picture This. Our group is all about taking photos. Of course, as any group goes, there are also other shared interests. Chocolate is usually one of them!

Carleen M. Loper is an Assistant Librarian at Bridgewater State University (MA). She writes humor and nature essays, as well as being a supporter of environmental causes and baking up a storm.

CARLEEN M. LOPER:

Janet saw my Facebook photo of an Orange-Chocolate Bundt Cake, and because she's human, she immediately wanted a slice. As it goes with recipes, I adapted my recipe from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen version, and she in turn had adapted hers from Ina Garten's Barfeoot Contessa Parties! original. Cooking and baking are all about making food your own!

I'm a volunteer with a land trust, and we have programs that include "light refreshments." Tomorrow morning residents will hopefully be inspired to help the environment when they hear a local river restoration specialist. I do my best to bribe attendance with fabulous baked goods. At the last event, a little old woman with a babushka-vibe about her piled about ten pieces of my banana-carrot bread into her satchel. If she attends again, she may want to look out for the ooey-gooey factor of this cake!

Adapted recipe: cut the sugar down to a little under one and a half cups. Left off the ganache -- not needed. Cake is very chocolatey and very delicious!

Orange Chocolate Bundt Cake

Ingredients
1/2 pound sweet butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 extra-large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup grated orange zest (from 4 large oranges)
3 cups flour, plus 2 Tbsp
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract
 2 cups good dark chocolate chunks (or dark chocolate chips)

Syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour 10-inch Bundt pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, then add orange zest.
3. Sift together 3 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.
4. In another bowl, combine orange juice, buttermilk, and vanilla.
5. Add flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately in thirds to creamed butter, beginning and ending with flour.
6. Toss chocolate chunks (or chips) with 2 tablespoons flour and add to batter.
7. Pour into pan, smooth top, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make syrup: In small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook sugar with orange juice until sugar dissolves. Remove cake from pan, set on a rack over a tray, and spoon orange syrup over the cake. Allow cake to cool completely.