RV Life - Back Issues

America’s Authentic Sweet

January has finally drawn to a close. The days start cold in most parts of the country, and warm up very little. Should you be sitting around a campfire or a wood stove some place, this is when you hear the older people doing a lot of comparing as to which winter has been the coldest in recent memory. James Russell Lowell says, “Take winter as you find him, and he turns out to be a thoroughly honest fellow with no nonsense in him, and tolerating none in you, which is a great comfort in the long run.”

There’s a lot of beauty in the winter—where there’s snow, there’s a bite to the air, and in other places the days are often soft and gray, sometimes with gentle morning mists. These are days to be inside, whether in a house or a parked RV.

The holiday goodies are long gone, but special times loom ahead of us, like Valentine’s Day, so we need to have sweets again in one form or another. Brownies are the answer. They seem to have been designed with the busy person in mind or for the one who bakes in a small compact RV kitchen because mixing the batter is so simple, brownies require a relatively short baking time, and a box of brownie mix fits in all kitchen cupboards.

Brownies are wonderful—all of them—the young Girl Scouts, the mythical elves who help with household chores, and most especially those squares of flat, moist chocolate cake. Moist and chewy, fudgy or fluffy, these sensational gooey squares called brownies are an authentic American sweet.

The name “brownie” comes from the traditional brown color of the bars. Linda Stradley, co-author of What’s Cooking America, notes that the first batch of brownies might have been created accidentally when a cook omitted the baking powder from a chocolate cake recipe.
The first known published recipe for brownies appeared in the 1897 Sears, Roebuck catalog. The first mixes came on the market in the early 1950s.

Here’s a real easy recipe that makes a lot of brownies:
1 cube of butter
1 cup of sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 large can of chocolate syrup
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, chocolate syrup, flour, baking powder and walnuts. Spread in a greased 11-inch by 15-inch cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

Make a frosting by mixing 1/2 cup of white sugar with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of cream. Boil for 1 minute. Add a package of chocolate chips and barely stir. When the ingredients are melted, remove from heat and spread on cooled brownies. Let harden before cutting into squares.

When cutting brownies there is no need to make enormous ones like those often sold in bakeries. If the brownies are small, most people can enjoy them without feeling guilty afterward. But if you want to reduce fat in a full-fat brownie mix, replace the oil and water with 1/3 cup of applesauce or plain nonfat yogurt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and replace each whole egg with one egg white. These low-fat batters are very thick, so you may need to mix a little longer than is directed on the box.

Some tips on making perfect brownies: Measure ingredients accurately, avoid over-mixing the batter, use dull aluminum baking pans, and grease the pan well.

Here’s a No-Bake Brownie recipe: Melt 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup of evaporated milk, stirring until smooth. In a small mixing bowl, combine 3/4 cup of crushed vanilla wafers, 1/2 cup of miniature marshmallows, and 1/4 cup each of powdered sugar and chopped walnuts; beat into chocolate mixture. Press into a greased loaf pan; cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm. Cut into bars.

And here’s a Rocky Road Brownie recipe: Using a mix, put the prepared batter into the pan; sprinkle with 1 cup of miniature marshmallows and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Bake according to directions; cool, then drizzle with chocolate syrup.

And here are some Coffee Brownies with a Mocha Icing: Using a mix, dissolve 1 tablespoon of instant coffee granules in the water used for the batter. Bake according to directions; cool. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of instant coffee granules in 3 tablespoons of water; put in a large bowl with 1/2 cup of soft butter, 2 1/3 cups of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla; beat until smooth then spread over uncut brownies.

HINT OF THE MONTH: If you want your Brownies chewy and moist, use a 9-inch by 13-inch pan and bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a moist crumb; but if you prefer cakey, use a 9-inch by 9-inch pan and bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you want fudgy ones, bake only until a wooden toothpick inserted about one inch from the side of the pan comes out with a moist crumb—the center will often seem unbaked, but it will firm upon cooling. For extra fudgy brownies, cool them for only 15 minutes, then cover with foil and refrigerate.