Is it still cake if it’s dense, ultra-rich and more like fudge? That’s what I wondered about this recipe, a cake I made this past weekend for my husband Ed’s birthday. This cake is dark-chocolatey. The kind of dark-chocolatey that experts say is healthy to eat (can you imagine that?). I’ve baked it before and eaten it still warm, when it is lighter, more tender and more like cake.

And absolutely wonderful.

But because my kids and grandkids were coming for the birthday weekend, I made it in advance and kept it in the fridge and we ate it cold. It was thicker, felt richer on the tongue and with a more concentrated chocolate flavor, more like fudge.

And absolutely wonderful.

It’s a simple recipe, easy to make and just needs a little whipped cream to make it complete. Although probably vanilla ice cream would do just as well.

This made a festive birthday cake. But I can’t think of a better treat for Valentine’s Day.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

1 pound semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

10 tablespoons butter at room temperature

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs, separated

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon sugar

whipped cream

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter an 8-inch springform pan. Place a parchment or waxed paper circle on the bottom of the pan. Set aside. Melt the chocolate in the top part of a double boiler set over barely simmering water. Remove the top pan with the melted chocolate from the bottom pan. Add the butter, flour and salt and blend them in thoroughly. Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and blend them in thoroughly. Beat the egg whites until they are foamy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until the egg whites are stiff, but the tips still lop over slightly. Add about 1/3 of the whites to the chocolate mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Add the remaining whipped whites and fold them in gently until the batter is a uniform color. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn off the oven. Leave the door open. Let the cake cool in the oven. Remove the sides of the springform pan. Serve with whipped cream. Best the first day, slightly warm, but wonderful, denser and more fudgy when cold and a day old. Makes 8-10 servings

Selling your house may not be easy these days but I am going to recommend something that might help.

Bake banana muffins.

The aroma is so sweet and homey it makes it seem as if lots of good things happen in your house and people will want to live in it.

I baked some banana muffins the other day and didn’t want to leave my house because that banana perfume was keeping me there like a magnet to nails. For a few minutes I could still sniff a bit of it in my car because I suppose some of the baking vapors stuck to my clothes.

The reason I made banana muffins is because, as I said the other day, I buy way too many bananas. I can’t help myself. Even though I am allergic to bananas I buy lots of them. Frequently. Because I get a vicarious thrill watching other people eat them. And my husband Ed does eat a few, like a good soldier, but I always have too many leftover and have to find something to do with them.

This week I came up with these Banana Muffins. I gave a piece to my 19-month old grandson who looked at it a little skeptically and pushed it away. But then I told him it was a banana muffin and he grabbed it back with his little toddler fist and gobbled it down and then asked for more.

You can make these plain or add dried cranberries, nuts, chocolate chips, grated coconut and so on, to the batter (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup).

Banana Streusel Muffins

Streusel:

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon cnnamon

1 tablespoon butter

In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, four and cinnamon. Cut the butter into small pieces and work into the brown sugar mixture with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

Muffins:

6 tablespoons butter

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 large mashed bananas

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped nuts, dried cranberries or chocolate chips, optional

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups. Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. In another bowl mix the bananas, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until well blended. Stir in the melted butter and optional ingredients. Spoon the flour mixture into the banana mixture and stir until thoroughly blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Top each muffin with equal portions of the streusel. Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes 10

Prunes used to be the laughing stock of fruit. Really. Kids used to snicker at the thought of them because, you know, prunes are supposed to be for old folks who, um, need the fiber.

Well, confession here — I always loved prunes. Plump, moist, sweet prunes. Great snack. And when I was much younger I ate Dannon’s Prune Yogurt at least twice a week. It was made with whole milk and had a thick, pureed, stewed prune layer at the bottom.

But I think I was only one of two people who loved that yogurt (the other was my husband Ed, which is probably why we knew we were going to click romantically from the start). Because Dannon stopped making that flavor yogurt long ago.

Yeah yeah, there are some new prune yogurts out there but they’re not the old full-fat, thick-as-lekvar prune layer yogurt I remember. The only way to get that is to add some prune lekvar to some yogurt (or stew some prunes and puree them yourself).

But some good news has come for people like me who actually like prunes and don’t think they are funny at all. And who eat prunes because we like them and not because we, um, need them.

Here’s an article that speaks to the benefits of prunes. A great snack, it says because prunes are filling, sweet and satisfying and they are also high in antioxidants as well as fiber.

Give some prunes to your kids and see how they react. Don’t tell them prunes are for senior citizens. Snacks this sweet are sure to please children and their parents too.

And if you want to try prunes in recipes, start with this old fashioned dessert. It’s a winner in all respects. Great warm with a little ice cream (but plain is terrific too).

Prune and Apricot Crumb Pie

3 cups mixed dried pitted prunes and dried California apricots

water

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Crumb Crust

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the prunes and apricots in a saucepan. Cover the fruit completely with water and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer the fruit for about 10 minutes or until the fruit is softened. Drain the fruit but reserve the liquid (should be about 1/2 cup; add more if necessary to make 1/2 cup liquid). In a saucepan mix the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add the 1/2 cup reserved liquid. Stir ingredients and cook over low-medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Add the cooked fruit, lemon juice and butter. Stir ingredients until the butter has melted. Spoon the fruit mixture into the pie crust. Scatter the crumb crust on top. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Makes one pie serving 8 people

Crumb Crust:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks

Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl. Work the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture is crumbly. 

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens! It’s your 200th. And even though you lived long ago and wrote about what was happening back then, in the 19th century, what you had to say still seems fresh, new and relevant today.

You spoke out for social justice. You showed how unfairly balanced your society was between the haves and the have-nots. You wrote about how poor children were made to work and beg. And your stories portrayed how people can speak in high moral tones about “good values” and yet be mean-spirited and behave like brutes.

It rings true even now, in the 21st century.

I raise my tea cup to you. 

And for anyone who loves the writings of Charles Dickens, here’s a recipe for scones to go with that tea, a fitting way to celebrate the birthday of the great English master storyteller.

Scones

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2-1/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teasoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel

6 tablespoons butter

1 large egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon peel in a bowl. Add the butter in chunks and work into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture is crumbly. Mix the egg and buttermilk together in a bowl. Pour into the flour mixture. Mix into a soft, uniform dough. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1/2-inch. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter. Place the circles on the cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the scones are browned and well risen. (You can also cut the dough in half, roll each half to 1/2-inch thickness and cut each into 6 wedges, for triangular shape scones). Makes about 12

Want to lose weight? Or at least not gain any?

People give you all sorts of advice. And there are zillions of diet plans and books out there. And after a day like yesterday, eating awful, salty, fattening foods while watching the Superbowl, I could sure use some help in this area, as I am sure zillions of others can.

So I think I will follow some advice I heard a few days ago that made such good sense I have to pass it on.

The advice was from, of all people, a professional baker: cookbook author, Paula Shoyer, who wrote “The Kosher Baker: Over 160 Dairy-free Recipes from Traditional to Trendy.” She was talking about desserts but the philosophy applies universally. Here’s what she said:

“Desserts need to be so good that you’re satisfied.”

Food, anything you eat, needs to be so good that you’re satisfied. If it isn’t good you keep eating, even if you’re not hungry, because your mouth, tongue, brain are waiting for something the food isn’t giving you.

Food has to have the right balance of ingredients, the right taste and texture, it has to taste natural and satisfy all your senses and if it does, it is good and you feel fulfilled, gratified, content and without need for more because what you have already eaten is enough. It’s like a good book whose plot and characters keep you interested and the story moves along as it should until at last there’s a plausible and appropriate way to finish things and it’s time for The End and you don’t need more than the memory of the good read you just had.

Paula mentioned this fabulous bit of wisdom in the context of her children scoffing down an entire package of store-bought cookies. They would never have eaten as many of their Mom’s well-made, tasty, additive-free, home-made cookies. 

“They were still looking for that buzz,” she said. Which they never got from the packaged cookies, which lacked that balance, that goodness, that special quality that would have satisfied.

So friends, eat well. Follow Paula’s advice. Don’t eat an entire bag of chips or cookies looking for the buzz. Make something homemade, judiciously seasoned, gently sugared, light on the fat and salt. Real stuff — butter and sugar but less of it, with just enough salt to bring out the best in the other ingredients, not to mask flavor of inferior goods. 

Like this fruit galette (btw, Shoyer uses margarine to keep her desserts pareve for use with meat meals, but you can use butter for dairy or vegetarian meals or if you aren’t kosher):

Paula Shoyer’s Fruit Galette

dough:

1-1/4 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold pareve margarine, (frozen for at least 30 minutes) cut into 6 pieces

1 large egg, separated

3 tablespoons ice water, divided

Filling:

3 cups fresh fruit (berries, plums, peaches or apricots cut into 1/2-inch pieces)

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon sugar for top of galette

To make the dough: place the flour, salt and margarine into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse 10 times or cut the margarine into the flour and salt by hand using two knives or a pastry cutter. Add the egg yolk and one tablespoon ice water. Pulse 5 times or mix gently by hand. Add another tablespoon ice water and pulse 5 times or mix again. Add the last tablespoon of water, a little at a time, pulsing or lightly mixing the dough for 10 to 15 seconds until it looks like clumps of couscous. The dough does not have to come completely together. Gather the dough into a ball. Take a large piece of plastic wrap and sprinkle some flour on top. Place the dough on the floured plastic, wrap the plastic around it and then flatten. Place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the rack on the lowest shelf of your oven.

Take a large piece of parchment and sprinkle it with some flour. Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and place it on top of the parchment. Sprinkle some flour on the dough and place a second piece of parchment on top. Roll out the dough until it is 12-13 inches wide, trying your best to keep the shape round. Peel back the top parchment and sprinkle some more flour once or twice while you are rolling. Place the dough round on a baking sheet.

To make the filling: place the fruit in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar and cornstarch. Sprinkle on top of the fruit and mix gently. Place the fruit in the center of the circle and spread it outward, leaving a 2 or 3 inch border on the outside. Take one small section of the dough border, about 2 inches and fold it over the fruit, leaving the fruit-filled center open. Pick up another 2 inch section of the border and repeat, pressing one section into the next to seal it, so you end up with dough pleats.

Beat the reserved egg white and brush it all over the dough. Sprinkle with the remaining teaspoon sugar. Bake for 30 minutes. Move the galette to the middle rack in the oven and bake another 10 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes. Makes 8 servings

Why was old-fashioned Date-Nut Bread baked in a round pan?

Yesterday, when I posted about my cousin’s Date-Nut Bread, I mentioned that her mother and mine made this stuff inside a coffee can or other, smaller cans. And then I remembered that even the commercial loaves were cylindrical, so the slices came out round.

Why was that?

When you make Banana Bread or Lemon-Cranberry Bread it’s usually in a loaf pan. I use a bundt pan for a big recipe.

Anyone know why Date-Nut Breads are cylindrical?

Anyway, I also mentioned yesterday that my mother had a great recipe for Date-Nut Bread. I searched my files and — I found it! This bread was sooooooo delicious. She made me sandwiches using this as the bread and a layer of cream cheese in the middle. Oh, do I wish I had some right now.

Although my mother baked Date-Nut Bread in a one-pound coffee can the batter also fits nicely inside a standard 9”x5”x3” loaf pan. It is a terrific snack for anytime, and makes a perfect treat for Tu B’Shevat.

Mom’s Date-Nut Bread

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup golden raisins

1 cup chopped dates

1 cup chopped nuts

2 tablespoons melted butter, margarine or vegetable oil

2 tablespoons Madeira, Port or Sherry wine

1 large egg

1 cup boiling water

cream cheese, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9’x5”x3” loaf pan (or a one-pound coffee can). Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Add the raisins, dates and nuts and toss the ingredients to coat the fruit with the flour mixture. In another bowl, combine the melted butter, Madeira and egg. Pour the boiling water into the fruit-flour mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the egg mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Slice and serve plain or with cream cheese. Makes one loaf

If your mother baked Date-Nut Bread when you were a kid you’re probably over “that certain age.” Not that I’m sure what that age is, but I am at it, for sure and so is my second-cousin Marlene, who lives in Haifa, Israel.

Both our mothers (who were first-cousins) made Date-Nut Bread and it wasn’t a dessert. It was for “just in case company comes.” Or for school lunch sandwiches, 2 slices smeared with a fat layer of cream cheese.

I have no idea why Date-Nut Bread fell out of favor. Just one of those 20th century popular things that came and went like Jello Mold and Beef Wellington.

I never baked one for my children, which is too bad, because after my cousin sent me the recipe and I thought about the sandwiches from the old days, I remembered how delicious those lunches were.

My mother always baked Date-Nut Bread in a coffee can. Marlene uses smaller cans. She baked up a batch for Tu B’Shevat, which falls this year next Wednesday, February 8th. It is customary on this minor Jewish holiday to cook and eat foods that contain one or more of the Seven Species that were abundant in Israel in biblical times. 

Like dates.

Which makes old-fashioned Date-Nut Bread perfect for this holiday. Or anytime really.

Marlene says that her recipe began with one in The Elegant But Easy Cookbook by Marian Fox Burros and Lois Levine. I don’t have a copy of that book, but Marlene has also changed the recipe somewhat. Here it is as she gave it to me, with changes noted in the ingredient list.

I’ll have to scout out my Mom’s recipe and compare it. 

Date-Nut Bread

1 large orange

boiling water

2 tablespoons shortening or melted margarine or vegetable oil

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg, beaten

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped dates (or use one full cup)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (leave out if using 1 cup chopped dates)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9”x5”x3” loaf pan. Grate the peel of an orange into a bowl. Squeeze the juice from the orange into a measuring cup and add enough boiling water to make one cup. Pour into the bowl with the peel. Stir in the shortening, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar and stir until the shortening has melted. Beat in the egg. Add the flour and stir to blend ingredients. Fold in the dates and nuts. Spoon the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. If you use round cans, add batter to the halfway mark and time the bread according to the can size. Makes one loaf

If desserts were football, who would win the Superbowl: brownies or chocolate chip cookies? 

Brownies seduce you from the first dizzying perfume they give off as they bake to the last caress of tender crumbs on your lips. They are edible magnets of melted chocolate mixed with just enough ingredients to give them some form. Brownies are winners for sure. 

But chocolate chip cookies! Mmmm. Buttery and tender, with a compelling crisp edge and oozy half-melted, half-firm chocolate melting on your tongue. Aren’t they the champions of all cookies, outshining all others? The classic you call on when you want to be on top of your game?

At a bake sale, which outsells the other, brownies or chocolate chip cookies?

If you serve either or both, brownies or chocolate chip cookies, are any left over and if so, which ones?

Maybe it’s time to find out. Serve both on Superbowl Sunday. Or on Valentine’s Day. Or anytime. Here’s a recipe for Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies. But there’s another recipe for classic fudge brownies here and click on the link above for a recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies ever. 

Then let me know which won.

Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 cup butter

2 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped nuts

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Put the chocolate and butter together in the top part of a double boiler set over barely simmering water. Stir 3 to 4 minutes or until the chocolate has melted. When the butter and chocolate have melted and are blended, stir in 2 cups sugar and 3 eggs. Whisk ingredients thoroughly.

Add the flour, salt, nuts and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and stir in the ingredients with a large wooden spoon. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla until thoroughly blended. Place blobs of the cream cheese mixture over the top of the chocolate batter. Cut through the cheese, making swirls and designs with the chocolate.

Bake about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool. Cut into bars with a sharp knife dipped into hot water. Refrigerate brownies. Makes 32 to 40 brownies.

So which wins the Superbowl of desserts, brownies or chocolate chip cookies?

Do women watch the Superbowl?

Well I can’t speak for all women of course but yes, I do. And so does my sister-in-law Eileen. Ed and I go to her and my brother Jeff’s house on Superbowl Sunday and the four of us yell at the TV and eat a lot of things we don’t ordinarily eat, just like a lot of other people across the country.

I once hosted a Superbowl day at our house and invited several friends and some family. A few of the women were sort of disappointed that I hadn’t scheduled an alternative activity for when the men were watching the game. 

Is this the usual? I have loved watching football ever since I went to a Big 10 college and even though my alma mater, Northwestern, was usually the worst team in the league, it was still great fun on a Saturday afternoon to go to a game and cheer the team on.

Anyway, I don’t have to worry anymore about who watches the game or not since I am the guest now. But if you are having people over for Superbowl, or really any other time, and you need a good dip, try this one. Men and women will both enjoy it and it’s perfect with chips, crackers or crudites.

Chutney Cheese Dip

3 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 cup finely grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

1 tablespoon butter at room temperature

1/4 cup chopped mango chutney

1/4 cup ground nuts such as almonds

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

dairy sour cream, plain yogurt or milk if needed

Mix the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, blue cheese, butter, chutney, nuts, curry powder and cayenne pepper by hand or in a food processor. Blend thoroughly until the ingredients are a uniform color. For a creamier dip blend in some sour cream, yogurt or milk. Use as a dip with chips or crudites. Makes about 1-1/2 cups

What to do with leftover bananas?

I’ve become an expert at that. Because I love to buy bananas. I love how they look, especially when they are light yellow with green tips so I know they are firm inside and perfectly sweet. I never buy any that are dark yellow or that have brown freckles.

I used to love to eat bananas too. Plain or with sour cream or yogurt. And especially, in Banana Cream Pie, which I can only fantasize about now.

Because I became allergic to bananas.

How is it possible to be allergic to bananas?

I don’t know but I am.

So now I can only buy them, and gaze upon them longingly and hope that my husband Ed will eat them, which he does, but never as many as I buy. There are always leftovers.

I now have more recipes for Banana Bread than anyone and I am working on some for Banana Muffins.

If you have leftover bananas, try this recipe. It makes a good snack, or dessert (maybe add ice cream or fudge sauce). 

Banana-Coconut Bread

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup butter 

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup orange or ginger marmalade or apricot jam

3 large very ripe bananas

3 large eggs, beaten

1 cup packaged coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan (about 8 cups). Mix the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until well blended. Add the marmalade and bananas and blend them in thoroughly. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Fold in the coconut. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Makes one bread serving 12-16