Fare Exchange: Great grits and chocolate cake cubed (it’s math)

It’s an overcast Wednesday as I write and the world has come to a considerable slowdown from the busy culinary season past. Even a trip to my favorite store, post-Super Bowl, yielded some most- interesting and tasty appetizers left over from the Sunday spread; i.e., cream cheese-stuffed jalapeno peppers wrapped in bacon. We return now to delicious basics.

Today’s challenges include the repeat request for recipes using farro and other ancient grains, for power salads and for the Read House’s long-ago chess pie.

Judy Grey added a new request for “a chocolate sauce, smooth and laced with liqueur, which can be given as a gift.” On the other hand, she would like low-carb recipes, “perhaps your readers’ favorites from the Atkins diet.”

In return, she offered you a hint for stretching what you have on hand. See “Just a Dash” at column’s end.

GREAT GRITS

In the wonderful variety of grits recipes that filled your winter emails, there is just one left: Baked Cheese Grits. Thanks to you, cookbook and other-book author Ferris Robinson for this one copied from a cookbook you compiled in college. This recipe was attributed to Mrs. W. Kevin Ade.

Baked Cheese Grits

1 cup grits

3 cups boiling water

2 eggs

2 cups milk

1 teaspoon garlic

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup grated cheese

Stir grits into boiling water and cook until grits have absorbed all the water. Add eggs and milk and beat until thin. Add garlic and salt and pour into greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 degrees until brown and set.

Chocolate 3 times

An envelope of clippings, bearing no name or return address, included this one from Southern Living magazine in 2015. The subject at hand was buttermilk, and this recipe elevates the tasty density of a plain pound cake to triply-good proportions.

Triple-Chocolate Buttermilk Pound Cake

Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

1 1/2 cups butter, softened at room temperature

3 cups granulated sugar

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

2 teaspoons instant espresso

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup 60 percent cacao bittersweet chocolate morsels

Shortening

Chocolate glaze

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Buttermilk glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons buttermilk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

To prepare cake: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder and table salt. Beat 1 1/2 cups butter in a medium bowl at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yolk disappears. Combine 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, instant espresso and vanilla extract.

Add flour mixture to egg mixture alternately with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed after each addition. Fold in bittersweet chocolate morsels. Pour batter into a 12-cup Bundt pan that’s well-greased with shortening and also floured. Sharply tap pan on counter to remove air bubbles.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on rack.

To prepare chocolate glaze: Combine semi-sweet chocolate morsels, 3 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon corn syrup in a microwave-safe glass bowl. Microwave at medium (50 percent power) 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until morsels begin to melt, stirring after 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

To prepare buttermilk glaze: Whisk together powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon buttermilk and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract in a small bowl until smooth. Add up to 1 tablespoon buttermilk if desired. Drizzle warm glaze over cooled cake.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

ROLLING ALONG

In the same generous envelope was a recipe for rolls from Bon Appetit magazine. These are the old-fashioned kind credited to the Parker House via “Fannie Farmer’s Baking Book” of 1984.

Parker House Rolls

1 envelope active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 large egg at room temperature

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsalted butter

Flaky sea salt such as Maldon for sprinkling on tops

Whisk yeast and warm water in a small bowl and let stand for 5 minutes. Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until just warm.

Combine shortening, sugar and kosher salt in a large bowl. Add warm milk and whisk to blend, breaking up shortening into small clumps (it may not melt completely). Whisk in yeast mixture and egg. Add flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until dough forms. Knead dough with lightly floured hands on a lightly floured surface until smooth (4 to 5 minutes).

Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt unsalted butter in a small saucepan. Lightly brush a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with some melted butter. Punch down dough; divide into 4 equal pieces. Working with 1 piece at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface into a 12-by-6-inch rectangle.

Cut lengthwise into 3 strips, 2 inches wide; cut each crosswise into 3 (4-by-2-inch) rectangles. Brush half of each with melted butter; fold unbuttered side over, allowing -inch overhang. Place flat in 1 corner of the dish, folded edge against short side of dish. Add remaining rolls, shingling to form 1 long row. Repeat with remaining dough for 4 rows. Brush with melted butter and loosely cover with plastic. Chill for up to 6 hours.

Bake rolls until golden and puffed, 25 to 35 minutes. Brush with butter and sprinkle sea salt over. Serve warm. Makes 36.

JUST A DASH

The last word of today’s column goes to an out-of-town correspondent, Judy Grey, and her daughter Rebecca. It is a delicate balance being the daughter of an accomplished cook, but the elder and younger Grey ladies have made it work. Daughter wrote: “Now that I am a wife and mother, I don’t cook like my mother.” Mrs. Grey nods happily “because my daughter now brings her specialties and stocks my pantry, refrigerator and freezer.” So then, not competition but teamwork.

Here is Mrs. Grey’s latest timesaver and leftover-clearing idea.

“I buy the packaged salad called Dole Sunflower Crunch, available in the produce section at Wal-Mart. Then I open the refrigerator. Sometimes I add avocado, grapes, nuts – anything I have on hand. There is a dressing that comes in the package and I use that or sometimes a homemade dressing. I have used so many different leftovers in this salad, stretching it as I go, that my son says, ‘Mom’s refrigerator must be empty because she has put everything in this salad.’

“I tear up kale and spinach in small pieces and add them along with blueberries and always nuts. You can also use leftover meat. The point is, use this as a base and you have a fabulous one-dish meal.”

Keep helping the rest of us create, improvise and stretch. I am counting on that every Wednesday henceforth.