At the rate I'm going with my post...I'll be ready for the next holiday; which is Mother's Day! Not doing too well on facebook either, or twitter, for that matter, and forget about Google + which I'm still figuring out, just randomly Google + ing people I don't even know, and try to keep up with friends that I do know!
Aside from the fact of 'social media'...which I seem to be 'anti-social'...I will still carry on with my food blog because I made so many friends there, and consider your friendship as if you lived close by!
Does it happen to you like me, sometimes?...you open up an old unforgotten cookbook, and suddenly see a fabulous dish or dessert that in the past you thought about making it?...but now, in the present, knowing the book is over 20 or 30...maybe even 40yrs old, and you know you have to make modifications...big time! A challenge is what it is; otherwise you will have to stick to more recent recipes, which are on the lighter side; and you can actually see photos...which in some of these old books you're lucky if you have diagram of some drawings and illustrations.
If I remember correctly, I have made a similar amazing decadent and rich brownies with the cream cheese marbleized swirls and posted it on my blog, in the past couple years (not looking for it now) This is Maida Heatter's recipe who's last copyright was in 1992; but I haven't seen any more of her books, since then...she might have even passed on!
Good thing that I always have the basic ingredients on hand, because I made this at the last minute's notice...allowing myself a couple of hours. I took this to my son's house...even though they are all 'health conscious'...a piece or two of brownies is a comforting simple dessert!
Besides the fact that my son Joe is an artist, and has a full time job; he has a huge project that he is involved with, and is the founder of it... cleaning up our beaches in Palm Beach county...called,
BE OCEAN
which you can find on facebook!
This surely is a proper balance of light and delicious dinner: Steamed, and sautéed Kale...Baked Spaghetti, and Baked Salmon, (rubbed with a raspberry spice rub)...yumm!
Maida Heatter's Santa Fe Brownies from one of Maida Heatter's chocolate dessert cookbooks.
Cake Ingredients
| 1 ½ c | | unbleached flour |
| 1 ½ t | | baking powder |
| ¾ t | | salt |
| 6 oz | | unsweetened chocolate |
| 6 oz | | semi-sweet chocolate |
| 8 oz | | unsalted butter |
5 | | eggs 4 eggs |
1 ¼ c | | sugar 1 cup sugar |
1 ½ c | | brown sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar |
1 T | | vanilla 2 teaspoons |
8 oz | | walnuts optional |
Line a 9-by-13 pan (with vertical sides, if possible) with aluminum foil.
Put a few dabs of butter in the pan and put it in the oven to melt the butter. Then use some crumpled plastic wrap to spread the butter over the foil Spray pan with Pam, or other brand name veg. or butter spray, and also the aluminum foil as well.. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. no need to sift!Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. you can melt it in the microwave oven, adding a few drops of water to the chocolate. Follow instruction for melting chocolate!Mix the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the chocolate mixture, then the dry ingredients.
Stir in about 2/3 of the walnuts. Set aside 2¼ cups of the mixture, and spread the rest in the pan.
Cream cheese topping ingredients (This may be doubled for very cheesy brownies.) I did not double the ingredients (no need to)
| 12 oz | | cream cheese |
| 3 oz | | butter |
| 1½ t | | vanilla |
¾ c | | sugar 1/2 cup sugar |
3 | | eggs 1 egg |
Warm the cream cheese and butter to room temperature. Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Then beat in the vanilla and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Pour the cheese mixture over the chocolate in the pan. Soften the remaining 2¼ cups of cake mixture by stirring it briskly. Then pour it over the top of the cheese mixture in the pan. Cut diagonally through the top two layers to marblize them. Lay the remaining walnuts on top.
Bake for 75 minutes. If you doubled the cream cheese, bake for about another 30 minutes.
When the top is sufficiently brown, put some foil on it, especially around the edges, to keep the cheese from burning. Total bake time is 35-40 minutes. The instruction for bake time in the original recipe is totally incorrect!Put the whole business in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, turn the cake out of the
pan onto a board, peel off the foil, and carefully
cut the cake into small pieces. Wrap the pieces in wax paper to keep them from sticking together.
As soon as brownie cools down, you can lift it out with the foil that is hanging over, and start cutting up the brownies; as I have in my top photo shown!
The more I learn about these Kodiak Cake's, the more I'm convinced this business is destined to become a Super Successful Shark Tank Product. First off you need a superior and healthier product to compete in the multi-billion dollar Pancake and Waffle Mix Industry. Next you'll need a razor-sharp marketing edge that absolutely makes your product stand out above-and-beyond any competition. Also, as with all Successful Shark Tank products, it helps to have a great story how you're business first began, and yes, the Kodiak Cake's also has a very interesting story indeed.
I first started writing this article (I had it half way done) with the assumption Kodiak Cake's first began by then 8 year old Joel Clark, who was selling this now famous flapjack and waffles mixes door-to-door out of his wagon. Although part of the story is true, it was his Mom who first began selling the Kodiak Pancake Mixes under the Baker Mills business name, the last names of both her Mom and Grandmother. The actual "Whole Wheat Hot Cake's" recipe was developed by Wallace Christofferson, the Family's Grandpa who perfected the now famous breakfast product over many years of trial and error. It looks like both Brother's Jon and Tim Clark, have also played vital role's in making the Kodiak Cake's a success.
