Jocelyn's Chocolate Fudge Bars (Fudge Mint Co

* Exported from MasterCook *

JOCELYN'S CHOCOLATE FUDGE BARS (FUDGE MINT CO

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Chocolate

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 Stick Butter
2 oz Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
Squares
1 c Sugar
2 Eggs
1 c Flour
1/2 ts Salt
1/2 ts Baking Soda
1/2 ts Vanilla Or Peppermint
Extract
1 c Chocolate Chips
Glaze------
1 c Powdered Sugar
1 tb Milk -- or more
1/2 ts Peppermint Extract

Melt the butter and the unsweetened chocolate. (You
can put them in a stainless steel bowl and stick it in
the oven while it's preheating. )

When the bowl is cool, add the sugar, beat in the
eggs, mix in the flour, the salt, and the baking soda.
Add the vanilla. Spread into a greased jellyroll pan
(that is, 11x17). It won't be trivial; you'll have to
use a knife or something to spread it smoothly into
all four corners.

Sprinkle with the chocolate chips, and bake at 350 F
for 8 minutes or so. ("Bake until done. " When
they're done, they pull away from the pan just a
little bit and have a dull glossy look to them. )

Glaze: Mix up the ingredients. It should be like a
glaze that will pour, thickly. Add a couple of drops
of food coloring if desired. When the cookies come out
of the oven, spread the glaze. Cool slightly, and cut
while still warm. (If you wait too long, the glaze
will crack when you try to cut the cookies. )

Notes: You can skip the glaze, if you like. (For
example, you might not want peppermint cookies, or you
might want to use those miniature baking M&M's. ) If
you don't glaze them but still want peppermint
chocolate cookies, use the peppermint instead of the
vanilla. (Or in addition to it, for a slightly
different flavor but still good. )

This is Mom's recipe. It was quick and easy enough
that she could make up a batch of cookies while
getting breakfast on the table, when one of us four
kids piped up and said "By the way, it's my turn to
bring cookies today. "

She also has an anecdote about one of our schoolkids
being allergic to oranges, so she made a batch with
orange food coloring so he could have something orange
anyway. You could try the same trick for Halloween
cookies...

If you don't want them to be thin bar cookies, then
use a smaller pan (9x13 or 9x9) and bake them longer.

Okay, here's the "horror story" part. I got the recipe
from my mom the other day, and decided to make them up
(sans mint & glaze) that night. I'd been reorganizing
the kitchen lately, and had a bunch of plastic
canisters for all of my staples, but hadn't labeled
everything yet. I thought I had the flour. Well, it
certainly wasn't sugar, and I knew it wasn't the
Krusteaz Deluxe Basic Cookie Mix, so it had to be the
flour, so I used it. There was something a little odd
about it - but I've got unbleached flour, whole wheat
flour, graham flour, and cake flour, so I figured it
had to be one of the odd ones.

It wasn't. There was something grainy and a bit of an
odd flavor to the cookies. Can you say "Masa Harina"?
I'd used corn instead of wheat flour!

My next door neighbor Selene, and my SO's daughter
Maria, and her little friend Devin like them, but
nobody else will eat them.

I tried the recipe again tonight. I made the plain
batch, no mint or mint glaze, and used mini-M&M's
instead of the chocolate chips. I've tried them -
they're perfect in every way - and if I just imagine
them with peppermint, they're exactly as I remember
them.

A final footnote: I am quite serious about working to
spread them all the way to the corners. It'll be a
thick batter, so just keep at it; it'll make a thin
layer. That's a good thing, because it means they
cook fast, so don't give up.

[P. S. At least that's how they turn out (thick and
hard to spread into the
corners) when I make them, using the mixer. Your
mileage may vary, especially if you're using margarine.

Recipe By : "C. Baden" <hazel@NETCOM. COM>



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