Mennonite Monday - Cake or Buttermilk Brownies

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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Since I made a recipe that used used buttermilk last week and had some leftover, I thought it would be good to make a recipe that would help me use up some buttermilk.  I turned to the Cake or Buttermilk Brownies (pg 20Y) and found a great recipe that takes less than an hour to make and makes a large pan of brownies.  


Cake or Buttermilk Brownies
Sift: 
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt


Bring to a boil and then mix into dry ingredients: 
1 1/2 sticks oleo (margarine) 
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup water


Add: 
1 teaspoon soda to 1 cup buttermilk and add to batter. 


Add: 
2 eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla


Mix together with spoon.  Pour into jelly roll pan.  Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Frost while hot. 


Frosting: 
1/2 stick oleo
3 tablespoons milk 
1 or 2 tablespoons cocoa 
Bring to a boil and add 2 3/8 cups powdered sugar, and add 1 teaspoon vanilla.  1/2 cup nuts may be added after brownies are frosted.  (Another recipes called for 1/2 cup margarine, 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup buttermilk.) 

 I was a little skeptical about mixing this recipe by hand because I love my Kitchen Aid mixer, but since the recipe said it should be mixed by hand, I decided to give it a try.  I'm glad I did because I can honestly say that it was easy to mix by had.  

 I threw all of the ingredient into the pot to start heating while I measured the other ingredients. 

The mixture did not boil like water does, but it was easy to tell it was bubbling under the light brown bubbles.   

 Pouring the boiling mixture into the dry ingredients. 

 At this point the batter was pretty thick, but still easy to mix. 

 Adding soda to the butter milk. 

 Adding the buttermilk to the batter.  

 It took a little bit of stirring to get the buttermilk mixed in, but it made the batter much thinner and a little lighter in color. 

 Adding the eggs and vanilla. 

 The batter completely mixed together. 

 Pour the batter into the pan.  I decided to spray the pan with Pam just to be safe, so the brownies didn't stick.  

 While the brownies were in the oven, I started the frosting. I used the same pot that I had for the batter to minimize dirty pans. 

 It did not take long to reach a boil.  

 Adding the powdered sugar.  

 And the vanilla. 

 The frosting thickened very nicely.  

 When the brownie was done, I did a toothpick check to make sure it was cooked through and the toothpick came out clean.  

 I spread on the frosting right away, which seemed to work well because the frosting was warm and was easy to spread.  

 The final product. 

I couldn't help but eat a piece while it was warm and it was wonderful.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been a scoop of ice cream.