Where iz efferyone?

It is just that I had a bumper crop of strawberries this year and have a lot
of strawberry jam and jelly. Chocolate and strawberries do have a history.
Maybe we should all come to your house and you could make it for us! Naw,
it is a challenge.
"Fred Williams" wrote in message
...
On Monday 10 December 2007 16:40, Granby wrote:

The only expression that comes to mind is one by Mme Anais "oh my
toez"
hips whateffer!! This sounds to die for. Will get stuff and try it
and if works we will have this for our new Christmas tradition.
I often have a glass of wine while cooking but I think not on this
one!!!!! Could you use strawberry rather than raspberry do you
think?Thanks Fred. "Fred Williams" wrote in
message ...

Well, you could, but I've never tried it. When you taste the
original,
you just don't ever want to change anything. Of course you might feel
that way about the strawberry version too. There is a long history of
chocolate and strawberries ! Yeah it would work I think.

--
Regards,
Fred
http://www.fredwilliams.ca/thesecretofmoney.html

On Monday 10 December 2007 22:52, Granby wrote:

It is just that I had a bumper crop of strawberries this year and have
a lot
of strawberry jam and jelly. Chocolate and strawberries do have a
history.
Maybe we should all come to your house and you could make it for us!
Naw, it is a challenge.

If you have all that jam and jelly, maybe we should come to your place
(:-))
I could make a video of it, but some people have slow connections and
it gets to be time consuming. I'm getting ready to make it today for a
pot luck lunch I'm having tomorrow at the figure skating school. They
like the squares there, but skaters don't eat much of them. You notice
you seldom see a fat figure skater, right?
But it's Christmas and people do eat some of these. They told me last
year that I cut the squares too big. Hmmmm I've been known to eat half
a batch of these in a day... and the other half the next day.(:-O) Of
course I don't do that anymore.

--
Regards,
Fred
http://www.fredwilliams.ca/thesecretofmoney.html

wonderful, to melt the white chocolate, turn on your drip coffee maker
warmer, put it in a metal container and let it set for a few minutes, best
way to melt anything that needs soft melting, Soft, who will now go eat a
salad as penance for reading this
Fred Williams wrote in message
...
On Monday 10 December 2007 11:34, Booker wrote:

I agree! I'll swim an extra couple thousand yards or meters to make up
for it.

Granby wrote:
Heck with will power, post the recipe!
"Fred Williams" wrote in message
...

Well I guess I'd better post it then... Now lets see, I've got a
copy
of that somewhere here... OH, yes, read everything first so you know
what's coming and there'll be no surprises. maybe you'll want to read
it several times to be familiar with what is needed.

"Double Chocolate Buttercream Squares"
or..."Chocolate heart attack bombs"

Pre-notes:
Now there's the base, the filling, the buttercream layer, and the
Decoration, so 4 layers really. It's a moderately difficult recipe,
but I'll add description in detail to get you through the hard parts.
The base is a rich chocolate brownie mix baked separately first and
then cooled. The filling is just raspberry jelly, (NO SEEDS!). If you
can't buy that where you are you can make it from raspberry jam by
heating it till it pours and straining it. You can add a little lemon
juice, (like from half a lemon) while it is heating. But don't thin it
too much, because it should still set fairly firmly when cooled.

Ingredients:

Base:
4 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate 1/2 cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar 1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla 4 eggs
1 cup flour (butter and sugar to
grease the pan)

Filling:

1/2 cup approx. raspberry jelly (no seeds)
1/2 lemon (the juice from it only)

Buttercream:

3 oz. White Chocolate 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water 2 eggs
1 cup butter (softened but not melted)

Decoration:

1 oz. Semi-sweet chocolate 2 tsp. Butter

Directions for the Base:
Spread a thin layer of butter, (no substitutes), in a 13x9 inch
rectangular cake pan.Add just enough granulated sugar to stick to the
butter you spread and coat the bottom of the pan. (If you can get
the "special fine" grade of granulated sugar, that is best, but not the
powdered sugar. It's untested and I don't know what it would be like.
Experiment at your own risk)! This will make a dry glaze on the bottom
of the squares which is quite nice and it will also prevent them from
sticking to the pan. Set the greased pan aside.
Melt the unsweetened chocolate and the butter together in a
saucepan
over a very low heat. (Officially you should do it with a double
boiler, especially if you're a clutz in the kitchen,(;-)) but if you're
patient and careful there should be no problem doing this directly over
low heat. Just *don't* let it bubble or burn. As soon as it's melted
remove it from the heat and stir in the sugar. Blend it then add the
salt, vanilla, and eggs. See that this is well mixed, just with a
spoon by hand is fine.
Now add the flour and stir only enough to see that it is well
incorporated. You do *not* want to develop any gluten. Then gently
spread the batter in the greased 13x9 inch pan. Bake this layer by
itself at 350 degrees F. for 25 to 30 minutes. It should spring
lightly back in the centre when touched by an impeccably clean finger.
Sometimes the edges get a little overdone and if so, it can't be
helped. People usually don't complain, or you can trim those egdes off
before serving if it's a posh affair.
When done, remove this from the oven and allow it to cool. when
reasonably cool I like to stick mine in the fridge to chill it, but it
may not be necessary. If it's going to be in the fridge for very long,
seal it with plastic wrap. Do not remove it from he pan until you're
done! It's just that you don't want this drying out! If it's well
sealed you can keep it in the fridge overnight, but for best results do
this all in the same day.

Directions for Filling:
Ok like I said if you can't find raspberry jelly, without the
seeds,
you can heat up some raspberry jam and add the lemon juice then strain
it, perhaps in stages until you have enough. You may even make a
little more if you want, but not too much.
If you have the proper jelly, fine, but you still have to heat it
up
and add the lemon juice, which just gives it that extra zing. If you
want, you can leave out the lemon juice, but I think it makes it
better. Nevertheless you have to heat the jelly anyway to make it pour
and form a smooth, not too thick, layer on top of the base. You can do
this by pouring it onto the cool base and spreading evenly quickly
because it should set to a jelly when cooled. Don't panic and create
thin spots. Stay calm and maybe keep a little in reserve to fill in if
thin spots develop. If you wind up with thin spots, well, it's not
perfect, but odds are nobody will notice.(:-)) When you have this
spread on the base evenly, put it back in the fridge for a little
while.

Direction for the Buttercream:
Now this is the tricky part. Yo uhave to melt the white chocolate
extremely gently! Even a double boiler with the water boiling is too
hot. I do this: I boil a good bit of water in a pot that allows a
soup bowl to fitin the top of it like a double boiler. The level of
the water must not touch the bowl. Take the water off the boil and
right off the stove. Put the chocolate pieces in the bowl and set the
bowl in the top ofthe pot and cover with a lid of plate or whatever you
have handy. It will take a few minutes but they should melt nicely and
the volatile oils will not evaporate off. If they do that, you're left
with a lumpy mess that will never flow. However if that happens, don't
despair. There is plenty of butter in this layer and it should
re-incorporate or disolve the white chocolate. It's happened to me
before I came up with the gentle heating technique and they were always
delicious regardless. I just want you to know that if the white
chocolate refuses to melt and forms a lumpy, crumby mess, then that's
what has happened; you've over heated it over-heated it for too long.
You might try taking a little of the butter, a tiny bit, and see if it
will dissolve the white chocolate in the bowl with a little stirring,
or you could just add the lumpy mess to the butter mixture later and
let it disolve at that time.
So not your white chocolate is slowly melting in the covered bowl.
Good. Now take a small saucepan and combine the water and sugar in it.
Bring this to a boil and continue to boil for one minute to make a
syrup. Take it off the heat and it can just stand on a trivit or
cooler, (not your counter).
Next, beat two eggs in a large bowl until frothy, uniform texture.
Now
very gradually add the hot syrup while beating. COntinue to beat this
at a high speed for 5 minutes. An electric mixer is a big help here.
When you're done this beating the mixture will be thick, fluffed up and
a uniform light lemon yellow colour.
Now you're going to add the butter a little at a time. It must be
very
soft, but not melted. You should have this soft butter ready ahead of
time so you don't have to mess with the microwave and get it over done
and have to start over. If you're using a microwave to soften the
butter, remember that it can melt in the centre without showing any
sign of it on the outside. So soften it in gentle stages and cut into
smaller pieces as you go. It's important.
So you're adding the butter slowly and beating it in at each
addition.
You'll notive the volume of your fluffy egg mixture reduces quickly.
This is normal. Don't worry about it. As you get close to having all
the butter added, it will look like a sorry, buttery mess. Again,
don't worry. It's supposed to at this stage. As long as it's a fairly
well mixed buttery mess, it's OK.
The white chocolate should be melted by the time you have added
all the
butter, so mix the melted white chocolate in and you should see that
buttery mess smooth right out and become a thick butter cream... like
magic.
Now get the base and filling assembly out of the fridge and spread
the
buttercream on top. You're almost done.

Directions for the Decoration:
In a clean small pan melt the butter and the semi-sweet chocolate.
As
soon as it's melted, take it off the heat and drizzle it in long thin
streams, lengthwisem over the squares that are still in the pan. As it
cools it should solidify into thin parallel lines... and you're done.
Let the decoration cool to solidify and you can cut these into small
squares, or larger as you like.
You can put the squares on a serving dish, or freeze them for
later
consumption, (they freeze well), but don't stack them on top of each
other because the buttercream is too soft to support the weight.

Enjoy! But remember that I am not forcing you to make or eat
these
things. Any weight gain is on your own head,... or hips or tummy, or
wherever.(:-)) Best of the season to you.



--
Regards,
Fred
http://www.fredwilliams.ca/thesecretofmoney.html

that is funny I was just thinking of making just the brownie part, soft
Booker wrote in message
...


Fred Williams wrote:

Enjoy! But remember that I am not forcing you to make or eat
these
things. Any weight gain is on your own head,... or hips or tummy, or
wherever.(:-)) Best of the season to you.


Just tape it to my butt.

It sounds decadent. I may try it, but cheat by using my favorite brownie
mix from Costco. Just so I can get it done in this year, rather than
taking two years to do it.

I am NOT the cook of the house...!

Julie