Common Cuisine |

I grew up calling these Texas Sheet Cake. Last year I moved to Texas and discovered they just call them brownies here. Doesn’t matter what they are called, frosted bars of chocolate cake are divine.

• 2 C flour
• 2 C sugar
• 1 stick (½ C) butter or margarine
• 1 C water
• ¼ C cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ cup buttermilk or sour cream
• 1-2 tsp vanilla, to taste

Frosting:

• 1 stick (½ C) butter or margarine
• 6 Tbsp milk
• ¼ C cocoa powder
• 1 lb powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Generously grease and flour a 12″ x 18″ (jelly roll) pan, or line with foil and grease foil. Sift together flour and sugar.

In small saucepan, heat ½ cup butter, water and ¼ cup cocoa powder to a boil; add to flour and sugar.

Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk; add to flour mixture. Stir in eggs and vanilla.

Bake 20-30 minutes until done.

Meanwhile, mix frosting: In small saucepan, combine ½ C butter, milk, and ¼ C cocoa powder and bring to a boil. Stir in powdered sugar. Frost cake while still hot.

Makes about 2 dozen 3″ squares.

• 3 cups peanut butter crunch cereal, crushed to 1 ½ cups
• 1 ½ C quick cooking oats
• ¾ C packed brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ C (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1/3 C corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 C peanut butter
• 2 T powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 13″ x 9″ baking dish. In large bowl, combine cereal, oats, sugar, salt and margarine. Add corn syrup and vanilla; stir until mixed. Press mixture into prepared dish. Bake 13 to 15 minutes until bubbly. Cook in pan on wire rack.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and powdered sugar in small saucepan, stirring until smooth. Spread over cereal layer. Chill 30 minutes or until set. Cut into bars and store in airtight container. Makes 48 little squares, or 24 generous ones.

This year I joined a group called MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). At our final meeting of the semester, we assembled a craft that was a gift jar of cookie mix. I haven’t tried the Five Layer Bars yet, but have assembled more jars as gifts. The ingredients in the jar are just so pretty, and they are all my favorite things: chocolate chips, butterscotch, coconut and pecans!

For our Christmas party, my table group had a cookie recipe exchange. Here are our recipes from that fun night of yummy holiday treats!

Valerie brought Death by Chocolate.
Wendy brought Peanut Butter Bars.
Brandee brought Peanut Butter Cookies.
Gracie brought Apple Jack Cookies and Pumpkin Chip Cookies.
My contribution was Peppermint Bark.

I could get used to this business of sharing fun recipes! Hope everyone in the group has a fun holiday.

from the kitchen of Brandee Faughn

• ½ C butter, melted
• ½ C peanut butter
• ½ C granulated sugar
• ½ C brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 ¼ C flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream together butters and sugars. Add egg and vanilla, then dry ingredients. Beat well.

Roll dough into balls, then create criss cross pattern with fork, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 8 minutes.

from the kitchen of Gracie Hinton

• 1 C light brown sugar
• ½ C shortening
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ Cups flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 C chopped unpeeled apple
• Whole pecan halves (optional)

Cream together sugar and shortening. Beat in egg. Sift together dry ingredients and add to mixture. Beat until well blended. Stir in apples. Drop in the shape of a ball on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon and pecan on top.

from the kitchen of Gracie Hinton

• 2 ½ C sifted flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice
• ½ C sort shortening
• 1 ¼ C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 28oz can pumpkin
• 1 C chopped walnuts
• 2 pkgs (12 oz ea) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 ½ C quick cooking oats
• butterscotch morsels (optional)
• Heath Bar crumbs (optional)

Cream shortening. Add sugar and eggs one at a time. Add pumpkin and mix well. Stir in all dry ingredients, then oats. Gradually stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by Tablespoons on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes. Sprinkle butterscotch morsels and Heath Bar crumbs on top.

from the kitchen of Wendy Patranella

• 1 pkg yellow cake mix
• 1 C chunky peanut butter
• 1/2 C butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1 C (1 oz) semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Beat a medium speed with electric mixer 1-2 minutes. Press half of mixture into bottom of ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes; remove from oven.

Sprinkle with chocolate morsels and drizzle with condensed milk. Sprinkle with remaining cake mixture.

Return to oven for 30 minutes. Let cool, and cut into bars. Makes 24 bars.