Blue Ribbon Brownies – From Susan Spencer
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These Blue Ribbon Brownies are already a family favorite – just waiting for your family to try them!
I dearly love getting to hear about your treasured recipes and the wonderful people who made them for you. A few months back I sent out a call for submissions to Southern Plate subscribers with a special email address to submit these to. I’m not currently taking submissions but will send out another call to subscribers when I open it up again (I have so many I want to share already). Today Susan shares her dear mother’s recipe for Blue Ribbon Brownies along with some wonderful stories to go along with them. I feel as if I knew her now and I know you’ll enjoy meeting Pufky, too. Stay tuned because I’ll share more of Pufky’s recipes soon!
Christy,
Let me begin by saying how much I enjoy reading your blog, and trying out your recipes. I first discovered you when you appeared in Southern Living some months ago. My current favorite recipes of yours are your cinnamon rolls, and your slow cooker chicken and wild rice. YUM! Then … when I read your cookbook, I felt like I was reading about my own family. You cook like I like to cook, and like my family likes to eat. No fancy ingredients, just good home cooking. Reading your book made me miss my parents and grandparents desperately, but brought back so many wonderful memories of family meals shared.
I am pleased to share with you some family recipes from my Mom, Mary Catherine Nolan. Known to her friends and neighbors as Mary Kay, Mom was lovingly known as “Pufky” to her family. You see, when Mom was just a baby, her Uncle Jack decided that her cheeks were as plump as a cream puff! “Cream Puff” eventually became “Pufky”, and the name stuck until she passed away almost four years ago, at the age of 79.
Mom was an amazing cook and baker. There were five of us kids at home, so with seven people around the dinner table every night, and grandparents every Sunday, she had plenty of people to practice on! One favorite family tradition was that on your birthday, you were able to choose the menu. My birthday dinner was always the same: Picnic Chicken, Macaroni & Cheese, string beans, and Hot Milk Cake, with strawberries and Cool Whip! Her Picnic Chicken is so delicious, and is wonderful served either hot or cold.
If you were lucky enough to know Mom, you were probably the recipient at some point in time of a plate of her “Blue Ribbon Brownies”. If you were new to the neighborhood, just had a baby, suffered a death in the family, or were experiencing any other one of life’s moments, Mom baked you a batch of her brownies. Most times, she even had a batch or two in the freezer “just in case”. They are simple, chocolately, and oh-so-good! And by the way … I re-named them “Blue Ribbon Brownies”. To Mom, they were just brownies. After she won a blue ribbon for them in a baking contest (photo attached), I decided they needed a new name!
I hope you are able to try a few of Pufky’s recipes in your own kitchen … I’m sure you and your family would enjoy them.
Best wishes for a happy, healthy 2011 to you and your family! God Bless.
~Susan (Nolan) Spencer
Ingredients
- 1 cup shortening
- 4 eggs
- 4 squares unsweetened baker's chocolate
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup nuts
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Melt shortening and chocolate together. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Beat eggs, add sugar and beat until creamy. Add chocolate mixture and blend. Add flour mixture, vanilla and nuts. Bake in greased 9x13x2 pan. Bake at 350? for 25 to 30 minutes. Check with toothpick.
Thanks for posting this Christy, and Susan thanks for sharing it! My Granny makes brownies a lot like this and they are sooo yummy! I’m lucky enough to still have my Granny who actually made these brownies the other day! She said they were hard, but they were moist and yummy just like when I was a kid! 🙂 Hope you have a fun weekend Christy!
God Bless!
By shortening, did you use butter, crisco, or margerine? In some recipes it seems to make a difference. Thanks for sharing…
Mom always used Crisco. She used the kind in a tub, but now they have those handy sticks of it. That’s what I use!
Christy, I just want to commend you for all the wonderful recipes you post. It’s so nice to have a cook who can use what she has on hand to make wonderful food.
I also have a story about a nickname lol. When my youngest sister was born(last of 10 kid’s and I’m the oldest) I looked at her and said she is just so soft like Butter. Well my sister is 56 now and everyone still calls her Butter instead of her name which is Darlene. Amazing how something so goofy sticks. Keep those great easy recipes coming and thank you again Christie.
Dianne Bauer in Wisconsin
Thank you for sharing your memories with us, and allowing us to make them ours too!
What is baker’s chocolate? Is it regular cooking chocolate?
I do love brownies although after one disastrous attempt I’ve never made them again and when you get pre-made brownies there’s always the possibility you may get the more cake-like brownies or the real fudgey type brownie. Those are my preference. 🙂
Su – “Bakers” is the brand name of the chocolate … it’s eight little squares wrapped in waxed paper … might have a different brand where you live.
Oh, Christy! Thank you so much for being so thoughtful of all your chocoholic Southern Plate Family members this week!!! I am in ‘chocolate heaven’ and floating high on a chocolate cloud!!! Enjoy the posts that go with them, too!! Thanks to you I’m gonna have a great weekend and I don’t even have to leave home! ~snickers~
Susan, your mom sounds like she was blue ribbon as well as her brownies. I am sorry she has passed , but you have wonderful memories to treasure. My mom always gave us our birthday choice as well. I think it is all these little things we remeber even mor ethan one big drama. I will watch for Christy to post the chicken recipes as I neve rseem to tire of chicken. Thank you for sharing.