Chocolate Chip Cake.

I was going to post this about a week ago, but I got sort of distracted by packing. I found this recipe in my mother's old Betty Crocker cookbook several years ago when my brother decided to make a random cake one day. I was greatly disappointed to find out it's not in the new version of the Betty Crocker cookbook. It's a pretty simple recipe, although the filling is a bit tricky, but, more importantly, it's absolutely delicious.

Chocolate Chip Cake:

Cake -

2 cups flour
1 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
½ cup granulated sugar
3 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. soda
½ cup shortening
11/4 cups milk
3 eggs
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
11/2 tsps. vanilla
Butterscotch Filling (below)
¼ cup finely chopped walnuts
Chocolate Chip Glaze (below) and salt.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 round layer pans, 8 or 9 inches. Measure all
ingredients except filling, walnuts and glaze into large mixer bowl. Blend ½ minute on low speed,
scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes high speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pans.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Fill layers
with Butterscotch Filling, sprinkling nuts over filling. Spread Chocolate Chip Glaze over top of
cake.



Butterscotch Filling -

½ cup light brown suger (packed)
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup water
1 Tbsp. butter

Stir together sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir in water. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture
thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Blend in butter. Cool.



Chocolate Chip Glaze -

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsps. Butter
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup

Heat all ingredients over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted. Cool slightly.


NOTES:

I do the filling as I'm letting the cake cool.

I suggest you follow the recipe EXACTLY when doing the filling. If you don't do it JUST right, the filling tends to be a bit too squishy or a bit too hard, and therefore somewhat uncooperative when being put into the cake. I know this from experience.

I'd try the butterscotch filling for your first attempt, because it's delicious, but feel free to substitute any kind of filling and/or topping for this cake. It's hard to ruin.

Mushroom And Bacon Quiche.

I would probably make this recipe once a week if I could. It's great for a get together, and delicious straight out of the fridge the next morning (it's like pizza, that way).

Mushroom & Bacon Quiche:

Crust -

• 1 and 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons shortening
• 3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

Sift the flour and salt together into a bowl. Cut the butter and shortening into the flour with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add three tablespoons water and mix with a fork and then you fingertips until the dough can be gathered into a ball. If the dough is very crumbly, sprinkle a few drops of water over the dough, adding only enough to make the dough stick together. Wrap the dough in wax paper and chill in the refrigerator one hour before rolling out.

Roll the chilled dough out on a floured board and fit it into a nine to ten inch quiche tin or nine inch pie plate. Cover the pastry with a sheet of aluminum foil, pressing it firmly around the sides and over the edges of the pastry. Fill with uncooked rice or dry beans (to weigh down the crust) and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 7 minutes. Carefully remove the rice or beans and aluminum foil (I find this most easily done by just removing everything in the foil). Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork and continue baking 5 minutes more. The crust should not brown but should be only partially baked. Let the pastry cool before filling and baking the quiche or pie.



Custard -
(you'll really only need about half of this, so feel free to halve the recipe)

• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• Pinch of nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible)

Beat all of the ingredients together with a wire whisk until blended (you can set this aside until you're ready to pour it into the crust, but give it another good whisk right before you do).



Filling -

• 1/2 lb. bacon
• 1/2 lb. mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• About 1/2 recipe of custard (above)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cook the bacon until crisp; drain and crumble. Wash the mushrooms, dry thoroughly and slice thinly. Heat the butter and cook the mushrooms over moderately high heat until the liquid given off by the mushrooms has evaporated. Season with salt, pepper, and parsley. Add the bacon and spread the mixture over the bottom of the pastry shell. Pour the custard mixture over the filling (I suggest to about 1/2 inch below the top of the crust). Bake in the preheated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes until the custard is set, puffed, and nicely browned.


NOTES:

You don't have to do everything in this order, but I would definitely suggest doing the crust, first. If you want, you can do the bacon after you put the crust in the fridge, just to get that part out of the way.