The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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As if you haven’t had enough sweets over Halloween, today’s column is all about desserts!

Peggy Lane is the incoming “First Lady” of ESU. I was lucky to meet her as she toured the Gazette and she mentioned this cake that her grandmother made. Of course, I begged her to please send the recipe to me because not only do I love cake, but Almond Joys are my favorite candy bar!

Here’s Peggy’s Granny McDoniel’s delicious and easy cake recipe. It’s built in three layers. Peggy says you can use low fat or fat free condensed milk, but it will affect the richness. She also recommends not to substitute brand names because it will make a difference.

GRANNY MCDONIEL’S ALMOND JOY CAKE

1 Chocolate Fudge cake mix (Betty Crocker)

1 12-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

2 1/2 cups sugar, divided

24 large marshmallows

14 oz. bag of shredded coconut

1 stick butter (no substitutions)

12 oz. chocolate chips (Nestle)

3/4 cup almonds (whole or slivered)

Layer One: Prepare and bake the chocolate cake as directed in a jelly roll pan or extra large cookie sheet. Peggy says if you use a regular cake pan that the middle layer will crush the bottom layer and ruin the effect. She bakes in the jelly roll pan about 24 minutes, testing doneness with a toothpick.

Layer Two: In a saucepan over medium heat, mix together 1 cup of Pet milk, 1 cup of sugar and the marshmallows. Heat until melted, stirring frequently. Mix in the coconut, and spread it onto the hot-out-of-the-oven cake. Let this cool before you ice it.

Layer Three: In a heavy saucepan, bring to a boil 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup Pet milk, and 1 stick of real butter. Just as it starts to boil, stir in the chocolate chips and reduce heat to low. Stir until all of the chips are melted.

To finish it up you have some options. You can put whole almonds on top of the cake spaced so that there will be one almond per slice. You can spread out sliced almonds so that every bite will have some in it. Or, you can do almonds on one half of the cake and none on the other, creating a combination Almond Joy/Mounds cake!

Place almonds according to your personal preference and ice the cake. Peggy says to spread it out quickly. Serve your decadent dessert with some fresh hot coffee or ice cold milk. Yum, yum, yum!

Roger Hartsook had told me about this next recipe back when we were working on “The Best of Murphy’s Menu” cookbook. I finally got a copy for you, and, as I understand it, this is the creamiest, the smoothest, the most delicious shortbread recipe ever.

This is Roger’s mom Beverly’s family recipe! He says you have to use real butter and you have to follow the directions explicitly or you will not get the desired result. He knows of cooks who have tried margarine, tried shortcuts, and they always go back to the original.

MS. BEVERLY’S SCOTCH SHORTBREAD

1 lb. of butter

1 cup of sugar

4 cups all purpose flour

Let the butter sit out until room temperature and very soft. Mix the butter and sugar on low to medium speed for one hour. One hour. After one hour, mix in the four cups of flour until well incorporated. How are you going to beat this for one hour? Let the stand mixer do it!

Press the mixture into a large, rimmed cookie sheet. Roger says that it should fill it up just fine and that there’s no need to be gentle with the dough. He says, “I remember Mom slamming the whole tray on the kitchen counter when it was needed.”

Once you’ve got the dough into the pan, cut it into squares and prick each square deeply with a fork. Bake the shortbread at 375º F for 25 minutes, and re-cut the squares all the way to the cookie sheet as soon as you pull it out. If you let this cool before you cut it through, it will break into a million pieces.

Once the shortbread has cooled, gently break it along your cuts into squares. Store in an airtight container, and serve with tea, coffee or (my favorite) hot chocolate. It’s a dense, rich cookie — a special treat!

As soon as Santa Claus brings me a KitchenAid stand mixer (stainless steel, tilt head, 5 quart, splash guard) I’m going to make this recipe.

Blake Eyman of Emporia had brought in several unique cookbooks a while back, one of which caught my eye. “Maui’s Marvelous Munchies” was the title and it was a collection of recipes from people in a particular Hawaiian community. There were two really nice cookie recipes, and here they are!

HAWAIIAN COOKIES

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup coconut

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

Cream the butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add flour, baking soda and powder, and mix until well blended. Stir in the oats, coconut, chips and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350º F for 12 to 15 minutes.

That same cookbook had this recipe, too. Not sure whose grandmother it came from, but since all grandmothers are wonderful cooks it doesn’t matter.

GRANDMOTHER’S COOKIES

1 cup butter

1 3/4 cup sugar

4 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

Cream butter and sugar together. Sift the flour and baking soda together and add that to the creamed mixture. Stir in the rolled oats. Roll into balls and flatten with the palm of your hand. Bake at 350º F until light brown.

Aloha! Some nice desserts for you from your friends and neighbors. Next week is going to be interesting: I’ve asked for stories about best (or worst) holiday table decorations. Speaking of holidays, have you got your taste of Home Tickets yet? We’re only doing so many seats, and we don’t plan to sell at the door, so pick them up soon.

The challenge now is a great Thanksgiving side dish. Sure, you got your green bean casseroles and sweet potato pies, but what else?!? Send that fabulous recipe to murphysmenu@yahoo.com or Murphy’s Menu, PO Drawer C, Emporia. Let’s get cooking!