Blue Ribbon Brownies – From Susan Spencer
I dearly love getting to hear about your treasured recipes and the wonderful people who made them for you. A few months back I sent out a call for submissions to Southern Plate subscribers with a special email address to submit these to. I’m not currently taking submissions but will send out another call to subscribers when I open it up again (I have so many I want to share already). Today Susan shares her dear mother’s recipe for Blue Ribbon Brownies along with some wonderful stories to go along with them. I feel as if I knew her now and I know you’ll enjoy meeting Pufky, too. Stay tuned because I’ll share more of Pufky’s recipes soon!
"Pufky"
Christy,
Let me begin by saying how much I enjoy reading your blog, and trying out your recipes. I first discovered you when you appeared in Southern Living some months ago. My current favorite recipes of yours are your cinnamon rolls, and your slow cooker chicken and wild rice. YUM! Then … when I read your cookbook, I felt like I was reading about my own family. You cook like I like to cook, and like my family likes to eat. No fancy ingredients, just good home cooking. Reading your book made me miss my parents and grandparents desperately, but brought back so many wonderful memories of family meals shared.
I am pleased to share with you some family recipes from my Mom, Mary Catherine Nolan. Known to her friends and neighbors as Mary Kay, Mom was lovingly known as “Pufky” to her family. You see, when Mom was just a baby, her Uncle Jack decided that her cheeks were as plump as a cream puff! ”Cream Puff” eventually became “Pufky”, and the name stuck until she passed away almost four years ago, at the age of 79.
Pufky and her Blue Ribbon
Mom was an amazing cook and baker. There were five of us kids at home, so with seven people around the dinner table every night, and grandparents every Sunday, she had plenty of people to practice on! One favorite family tradition was that on your birthday, you were able to choose the menu. My birthday dinner was always the same: Picnic Chicken, Macaroni & Cheese, string beans, and Hot Milk Cake, with strawberries and Cool Whip! Her Picnic Chicken is so delicious, and is wonderful served either hot or cold.
If you were lucky enough to know Mom, you were probably the recipient at some point in time of a plate of her “Blue Ribbon Brownies”. If you were new to the neighborhood, just had a baby, suffered a death in the family, or were experiencing any other one of life’s moments, Mom baked you a batch of her brownies. Most times, she even had a batch or two in the freezer “just in case”. They are simple, chocolately, and oh-so-good! And by the way … I re-named them “Blue Ribbon Brownies”. To Mom, they were just brownies. After she won a blue ribbon for them in a baking contest (photo attached), I decided they needed a new name!
I hope you are able to try a few of Pufky’s recipes in your own kitchen … I’m sure you and your family would enjoy them.
Best wishes for a happy, healthy 2011 to you and your family! God Bless.
~Susan (Nolan) Spencer
Ingredients
- 1 cup shortening
- 4 eggs
- 4 squares unsweetened baker's chocolate
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup nuts
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Melt shortening and chocolate together. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Beat eggs, add sugar and beat until creamy. Add chocolate mixture and blend. Add flour mixture, vanilla and nuts. Bake in greased 9x13x2 pan. Bake at 350? for 25 to 30 minutes. Check with toothpick.
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Ingredients
- 1 cup shortening
- 4 eggs
- 4 squares unsweetened baker's chocolate
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup nuts
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Melt shortening and chocolate together. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Beat eggs, add sugar and beat until creamy. Add chocolate mixture and blend. Add flour mixture, vanilla and nuts. Bake in greased 9x13x2 pan. Bake at 350? for 25 to 30 minutes. Check with toothpick.
*Susan was very generous in sharing Pufky’s recipes and after reading this I’m sure you’d like more of them! I’ll be sharing more in future posts. Be sure and subscribe to Southern Plate by email so you don’t miss them. Thank you so much Susan! What an honor to get to know your dear sweet mother. Gratefully, Christy
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jan 15 2011. Filed under Chocolate, Dessert, Guests.
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Susan, your mom sounds like she was blue ribbon as well as her brownies. I am sorry she has passed , but you have wonderful memories to treasure. My mom always gave us our birthday choice as well. I think it is all these little things we remeber even mor ethan one big drama. I will watch for Christy to post the chicken recipes as I neve rseem to tire of chicken. Thank you for sharing.
Oh, Christy! Thank you so much for being so thoughtful of all your chocoholic Southern Plate Family members this week!!! I am in ‘chocolate heaven’ and floating high on a chocolate cloud!!! Enjoy the posts that go with them, too!! Thanks to you I’m gonna have a great weekend and I don’t even have to leave home! ~snickers~
What is baker’s chocolate? Is it regular cooking chocolate?
I do love brownies although after one disastrous attempt I’ve never made them again and when you get pre-made brownies there’s always the possibility you may get the more cake-like brownies or the real fudgey type brownie. Those are my preference.
Su – “Bakers” is the brand name of the chocolate … it’s eight little squares wrapped in waxed paper … might have a different brand where you live.
Thank you for sharing your memories with us, and allowing us to make them ours too!
Christy, I just want to commend you for all the wonderful recipes you post. It’s so nice to have a cook who can use what she has on hand to make wonderful food.
I also have a story about a nickname lol. When my youngest sister was born(last of 10 kid’s and I’m the oldest) I looked at her and said she is just so soft like Butter. Well my sister is 56 now and everyone still calls her Butter instead of her name which is Darlene. Amazing how something so goofy sticks. Keep those great easy recipes coming and thank you again Christie.
Dianne Bauer in Wisconsin
By shortening, did you use butter, crisco, or margerine? In some recipes it seems to make a difference. Thanks for sharing…
Mom always used Crisco. She used the kind in a tub, but now they have those handy sticks of it. That’s what I use!
Thanks for posting this Christy, and Susan thanks for sharing it! My Granny makes brownies a lot like this and they are sooo yummy! I’m lucky enough to still have my Granny who actually made these brownies the other day! She said they were hard, but they were moist and yummy just like when I was a kid!
Hope you have a fun weekend Christy!
God Bless!
Thank You so much Susan for sharing this. The most treasured recipes I have are those from my Mom and my Mother In-Law. I will place this one with those. Those old family recipes are so special to me because they bring back so many memories when I prepare them. I think back to watching my Mom in the kitchen when I was young and how much Love she put into everything. I think the process of cooking and feeding people, for me, is more therapeutic than a bus load of Dr. Phil’s. Someone, most often, is responsible for giving us that gift. I am bringing my Mom over today to watch the game. Mom is a huge football fan. I have just enough time to make a batch of these brownies before the game. Thank you again Susan for sharing some of the Love with all of us. And thank you Christy for giving us a place to share it.
God Bless
~Roger~
I enjoy reading your posts. I love to cook so I have tried lots of the recipes. Keep it up. I feel like you are family.
Thanks
I’m looking forward to the hot milk cake recipe…
Me too!!
This is the only place on the internet where I find something good to eat and something to feed my soul, as well.
Funny how I always get tears in my eyes, too…..and not from chopping onion! 
If you look at the side of your cocoa can, it will tell you how to substitute cocoa for bakers chocolate.. ( in case you can’t wait until you go to the store to make these)
Thanks for reminding me. I usually have cocoa in the cabinet, but not bakers squares.
Is it okay to use butter instead of shortening? I know the results won’t be as fluffy, but is it otherwise an okay substitute?
Wonderful recipe, wonderful memory, thank you so much for sharing. Your mom was such a beautiful lady, please share more of her treasures! While reading your post I took a trip down memory lane and started thinking about my grandmother, what a nice serendipity.
I WANT THE “HOT MILK CAKE” RECIPE !!!!!
Dear Susan, Thank you for sharing this wonderful story about your dear Mother. I grew up with home cooked meals by my wonderful Mother, grandparents at our house for lunch every Sunday after church. During the summer, lots and lots of fresh vegetables from the garden. As I look back now, these are priceless treasures in my life. God bless you and I look forward to trying the brownies and other recipes from your Mother.
Dear Christy, Thank you for all of the love that you share with us, from your heart and from others!! God bless you and your precious family.
Pam
Do you melt crisco and chic in microwave or stove top?
Hot milk Cake brought back many memories. Being Swiss we had a 9 am lunch, dinner at noon and a 3pm lunch and supper in the evening. Lunch was carried to the men in the field and always consisted of a hot milk cake, cheese, bread and jam. Thank you Susan for sharing stories about your mother.
My Mommy pasted away when I was 6. When I get to missing her I go smell Ground Cloves, I aways keep on hand. And all this talk of Mothers has made me miss her. Now before you get to thinking “Poor Thing” I had a wonderful Step-Mother, which I called Mom that raised all three of us. She was a wonderful cook and I have may fond memories of her. I love reading about everyones familys. Thanks for sharing the wonderful Brownie Recipe, it’s as Great as you said it was.
Regina, I always melt the shortening and chocolate in a double boiler (my Mom’s!) on the store. I’m sure would be fine to melt it in the microwave though.
Christy,
Thanks for the wonderful recipes you post and the stories with them. They come with lots of love you can tell. I have also enjoyed the videos you have posted recently.
Blessings to you and your family.
Cindy
I love the stories on this site and thank you for sharing the recipes. This story made me think of my grandmothers. They both died when I was 11.
What a beautiful mother and story. I was 24 when I lost my mother in 1980 to cancer. My son was born in July 1978 and she was diagnosed in November of the same year. He was about 27 months old when she went home so he doesn’t have any real memories of her. I always told him stories of how much she loved him and showed him lots of pictures so I hope that he has something to keep with him about her.
Everyone talks about how turning 30, 40, 50, whatever is so traumatic. For me it was the year I turned 48. I realized that I had then lived one half of my life without my mother and from that point on will have lived longer without her than with her. That was hard. Even now it hits me like it just happened 5 minutes ago. She was 61, would have been 62 on 28 October. She tried so hard to hang on, she wanted so badly to receive her first SS check.
Thanks for letting me ramble. It’s good to be able to talk to others who share what I’ve experienced.
I want the hot milk cake too! I made hoe cake for supper tonight – it’s great! I love the crunchy bottom crust.
Can’t hardly wait for more of her recipes esp the fried chicken. I love chicken any way you cook it. Chicken is one meat that is good hot or cold.
sandy, First, I’m sorry about your mom but, you made me start laughing when I read about your mom wanting to receive her first SS check. I lived with my grandmother in my late teens. I use to go to the Bunny Bread store to buy our bread and snacks for the week. I saw a sign that said senior citizens got a free loaf of bread. Couldn’t wait for maw to become 62 years old so I could take her to get that loaf of bread. When she made 62, I took her to the bread store so she could get it -she did it for me of course! And God only knows how much I miss her (she’s been gone now for 23 years)and it was nice to rememberthis–so thank you
I just found your blog and love it! I am excited to try the BR Brownie recipe!!
Hi Christy,
Thanks so much for bringing us Susan’s blue Ribbon Brownies from her Mom. Although i am currently on Weight Watcher’s, I printed out her recipe for “in the future”. I know there will come a time when I “need” some chocolate, and that sounds like it is right down my alley!
Also, offering recipes from other readers makes us feel like being a real part of the family. I am looking forward to Hot Milk Cake and the chicken!
thanks for all you do Christy-i am not a southerner, but my daddy was from KY, so I do have a little southern blood in my soul!
This was my mother’s recipe too. She would melt the chocolate squares and crisco in the oven as it was pre-heating.
Thanks so much Christy and Susan for the brownie recipe. I will be trying this recipe soon and am also looking forward to the Hot Milk Cake and the chicken. I feel a special bond with you Susan……especially when I read your name as my name is Susan Nolan Dillon!
[...] Picnic Chicken – from Susan Spencer Everyone so enjoyed hearing Susan’s story about her mother, lovingly known as Pufky, that I wanted to bring you another one of her special [...]
I just baked the blue ribbon brownies and they are so moist and delicious. My husband, a truck driver, just came home early from work and was looking a snack and I said, here honey try one of these brownies and the look on his face when he took a bite was like he fell in love with me all over again. Aww, you are so good to me. he said. He will be taking some with him on his road trip tomorrow. So, thanks Christy for another great recipe and for sharing so many of your memorable stories. Have a blessed evening.
I baked these Blue Ribbon Brownies this week for my husband. After his first one he said NEVER make those box brownies again! I’ve tried for so long to find a good homemade brownie recipe and this was the one! Thank you so much for sharing Pufky’s recipes Christy! It’s a definite keeper!
[...] make them from scratch by using your own recipe or Susan Spencer’s Grandmothers recipe for Blue Ribbon Brownies. The peanut butter icing will take on the star of the show so go with whatever you prefer and [...]
[...] Blue Ribbon Brownies [...]
Sharon and Paula – So glad your husbands loved Mom’s brownies! My hubby loves them too, but I need to omit the nuts. If not … he picks them out!
[...] Blue Ribbon Brownies [...]
[...] Blue Ribbon Brownies [...]
when they were in the freezer -were they already baked or in the pan all ready to be bakes ?—thanks for sharing- love family handed down recipes
I LOVE this recipe! It’s the recipe we used as kids growing up in Maine. Just thinking about it brings back great memories. Thanks. I’m off to bake some now.
I make the desserts for everyone at work for my co-workers. I got a request for brownies, so I pulled up your site and knew I would find what I needed! I am so excited to try this recipe and know it will be amazing! Thanks to Susan for sharing and Christy for posting it!