We’re getting to the season for heart-shaped desserts and special sweetness, and with barely a cooking moment to spare a correspondent is asking for a recipe for an easy candy made on a base of square pretzels and topped with a chocolate candy. This nameless correspondent also is still looking for the egg casserole that is “like a cloud,” requested by one of you not long ago, and also for the small egg rounds, “perhaps like a crustless quiche,” that one can purchase at Panera.
And now to today’s business. First, we have a red flag to wave over a vinegar pie printed in this column on Jan. 20. Though our contributor copied it exactly as it appeared on the Web, our readers in the Kimball family reported that it just didn’t work. Try, instead, this one from William P. Corbin. Vinegar pie, it turns out, is much like chess pie, and often goes by that name.
Vinegar Pie
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons flour
11/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons vinegar
3 whole eggs
1 (9-inch) baked pie shell
Combine butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, vinegar and eggs. Pour into baked pie shell. Bake at 300 F for 45 minutes.
Lee Keeble of Ooltewah sent one possible answer to the quest for brownie pudding.
Brownie Dessert
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
11/4 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup cold water
Mix flour, baking powder, salt, 3/4 cup sugar and cocoa. Add milk, butter, vanilla and pecans. Pour into a 9-inch pan. Blend together 1/2 cup white and 1/2 cup brown sugar and cocoa and sprinkle over top of batter. Over this pour cold water. Bake at 350 F for 40 minutes. Great served warm with ice cream.
Martha Wunderlich of Ringgold, Ga., found another brownie pudding that has a slightly different twist from Ms. Keeble’s, though the pattern is roughly the same. She got this one from “Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 1958.”
Brownie Pudding
1 cup sifted enriched flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons melted shortening
3/4 to 1 cup chopped California walnuts
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
13/4 cups hot water
Sift together flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, cocoa and salt. Add milk, vanilla extract and shortening. Mix until smooth. Add nuts. Pour into greased 8- by 8-inch pan.
Mix brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over entire batter. Bake in a moderate oven, 350 F, for 40 to 45 minutes.
And here’s another pudding from Ms. Wunderlich’s collection, this one made with rice.
Old-Time Rice Pudding
1/2 cup rice
4 cups milk
1/2 cup white sugar or 2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup seeded raisins
Combine rice, milk, sugar and salt; pour into greased 11/2-quart baking dish. Bake in a slow oven, 300 F, 1 hour, stirring several times. Add lemon peel, nutmeg and raisins; continue baking 2 to 21/2 hours. Makes 6 servings
TO Reach Us
Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send.
* Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750.
* E-mail: janehenegar @tvn.net
* Fax: 423-668-5092.