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.
I baked these Blue Ribbon Brownies this week for my husband. After his first one he said NEVER make those box brownies again! I’ve tried for so long to find a good homemade brownie recipe and this was the one! Thank you so much for sharing Pufky’s recipes Christy! It’s a definite keeper!
I just baked the blue ribbon brownies and they are so moist and delicious. My husband, a truck driver, just came home early from work and was looking a snack and I said, here honey try one of these brownies and the look on his face when he took a bite was like he fell in love with me all over again. Aww, you are so good to me. he said. He will be taking some with him on his road trip tomorrow. So, thanks Christy for another great recipe and for sharing so many of your memorable stories. Have a blessed evening.
Thanks so much Christy and Susan for the brownie recipe. I will be trying this recipe soon and am also looking forward to the Hot Milk Cake and the chicken. I feel a special bond with you Susan……especially when I read your name as my name is Susan Nolan Dillon!
This was my mother’s recipe too. She would melt the chocolate squares and crisco in the oven as it was pre-heating.
Hi Christy,
Thanks so much for bringing us Susan’s blue Ribbon Brownies from her Mom. Although i am currently on Weight Watcher’s, I printed out her recipe for “in the future”. I know there will come a time when I “need” some chocolate, and that sounds like it is right down my alley!
Also, offering recipes from other readers makes us feel like being a real part of the family. I am looking forward to Hot Milk Cake and the chicken!
thanks for all you do Christy-i am not a southerner, but my daddy was from KY, so I do have a little southern blood in my soul!
I just found your blog and love it! I am excited to try the BR Brownie recipe!!
What a beautiful mother and story. I was 24 when I lost my mother in 1980 to cancer. My son was born in July 1978 and she was diagnosed in November of the same year. He was about 27 months old when she went home so he doesn’t have any real memories of her. I always told him stories of how much she loved him and showed him lots of pictures so I hope that he has something to keep with him about her.
Everyone talks about how turning 30, 40, 50, whatever is so traumatic. For me it was the year I turned 48. I realized that I had then lived one half of my life without my mother and from that point on will have lived longer without her than with her. That was hard. Even now it hits me like it just happened 5 minutes ago. She was 61, would have been 62 on 28 October. She tried so hard to hang on, she wanted so badly to receive her first SS check.
Thanks for letting me ramble. It’s good to be able to talk to others who share what I’ve experienced.
I want the hot milk cake too! I made hoe cake for supper tonight – it’s great! I love the crunchy bottom crust.
Can’t hardly wait for more of her recipes esp the fried chicken. I love chicken any way you cook it. Chicken is one meat that is good hot or cold.
sandy, First, I’m sorry about your mom but, you made me start laughing when I read about your mom wanting to receive her first SS check. I lived with my grandmother in my late teens. I use to go to the Bunny Bread store to buy our bread and snacks for the week. I saw a sign that said senior citizens got a free loaf of bread. Couldn’t wait for maw to become 62 years old so I could take her to get that loaf of bread. When she made 62, I took her to the bread store so she could get it -she did it for me of course! And God only knows how much I miss her (she’s been gone now for 23 years)and it was nice to rememberthis–so thank you