Hopscotch Brownies (Caramel/Butterscotch Brownies)

I began my love of the kitchen as a child. My mother would let me help her make cookies, and cakes and such. When I was about 10, friends from Ireland came to visit for the summer. With them they brought me a cookbook called "The Kitchen Wizard", complete with matching apron. A treasure of a book full of fun recipes for kids. I made sponge toffee, pull taffy, hard candies, all kinds of treats. It was a challenge though as all the measurements were in metric/grams. Managed to convert my favorites and now fortunately have a conversion scale in the kitchen.
Clearing out some old boxes I found my beloved childhood recipe book. It brought back many fond memories of the hours spent in the kitchen with my mom and friends.

This was always one of my favorite recipes. It has actually been doubled as my son has it to memory and dictated it to me. He has taken over the Butterscotch Brownie tradition in the house and has mastered it. If you wish a smaller batch cut the recipe in half.
By the way, he has announced I must credit him with mastering the perfect brownie, so I shall, as he does indeed make a perfect butterscotch brownie.

Butterscotch Brownies Recipe

1/2 cup butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs (large)
1 1/2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup crushed pecans (optional)

Melt butter in a medium saucepan at medium.

Enter in the brown sugar and stir the mixture until all the brown sugar becomes wet from the melted butter.

Put the eggs into the substance with the vanilla extract and continue to stir until neither are visible.

Add the flour, baking powder, and salt into the mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are fully mixed and the substance will appear a light brown colour that is a little difficult to mix.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Pour the mixture into a parchment paper lined 9 X 13 cakepan and make sure that the mixture covers the entire bottem of the pan.

When the oven is ready, put the cakepan into the oven for 25 minutes.

When ready, let the brownies cool and cut after about 10-15 minutes. These are really good cooled but absolutely amazing when still warm.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention how wonderful this old cookbook is. It is now out of print but is titled Kitchen Wizard by Deborah Jarvis. I must thank Ms. Jarvis for introducing me to my love of baking in a fun entertaining way. The book is divided into sections to teach kids how to prepare ingredients such as "Basic Abracadabra", and Tricks of the Trade.

The recipes are divided into fun sections such as A Munchkin Brunch, Lunch in Lilliput, Huckleberry Finn Raft Picnic, A Boston Tea Party, Smugglers Snacks, Dinner with Davy Crocket, and Eskimorsels. All recipes have fun names such as "Flying Monkey Muffins", "Playing Hookey Cookies", and Huckleberry Buckle. My daughter now uses my old Apron and Deborah is now passing this love on to another generation. If anyone ever sees a copy of this in a used book store be sure to pick it up. It's wonderful.

Traditional Devon Cream. Homemade Buttermilk Scones. A little bit of heaven on Earth

Whilst some of you know, many do not, I temporarily lived in England before my oldest was born. I had visited several times in my teens as well. Everytime I step off the plane in London I feel like I'm home. I feel so connected to Wales courtesy of stories from my beloved Grandfather of his youth.

One of my most favorite things in the world is teatime. Wafer thin cucumber sandwiches, tea and scones with cream and jam. Oh be still my heart.

The last time I had a traditional tea time snack was one evening staying at the Four Seasons hotel. I pampered myself, ordered traditional teatime fair, and a fabulous bottle of french wine. I indulged in the luxury of the room and savoured the flavours of my memories. I have yet to have found imported devon cream anywhere except one shop very very far away.

Saturday???? I FOUND IT!!! Our local grocer has started to import it. Bless his heart. Here I was calculating how much I could save if I bought no name vs brand name, penny pinching my normal modus operandi in the grocery store and there it was!!!! SCREW the budget...I was getting my real, Devon Double Cream....:heart: I have been making "mock" devon cream for several years now...it just doesn't compare.

Today I made some scrumptous buttermilk scones, put a little dollop of cream on and some strawberry jam. I went out to my backyard in the shining sun and pretended I was in my favorite park in Bath and just enjoyed both the flavours and the memories as they came through me. Silly sometimes what makes us feel good. It's been 6 years since I've been back to England and am now yearning to return.

I have an excellent Scone Recipe that I will share. They are fabulous. I am indulging in my lovely Devon Double Cream at the moment but there is also a recipe for Mock Devonshire Cream included. (although it pales in comparison to the real thing it's not bad)

BUTTERMILK SCONES

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbl sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbl cold butter (3/4 of a stick) cut into small pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbl sweet milk

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add butter pieces to dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender or two dinner knives, cut butter into flour until the mixture takes on the size of small peas. Make a well in the center of mixture. Pour buttermilk into the well. Using a fork, pull the mixture into the buttermilk to form a soft dough. Turn out dough onto a floured surface. Knead gently. Cut into shapes using biscuit cutter or heart-shaped cookie cutter. Brush tops with sweet milk and bake at 425 for 12 min or until lightly browned. Yield: 8 scones, approx. 2 1/2" in diameter Recipe can be doubled.

Variations:
1) Sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar after brusing with milk
2) Add 1/2 tsp grated orange peel to dry ingredients.
3) Add 6 Tbl currants to dry ingredients.

I like my Mock Devonshire Cream made with less granulated sugar for the same reason. I also make my Mock Devonshire Cream with less cream so it will have more of a spreading consistency rather than being so much like plain ol' whipped cream. I have also found that making it this way eliminates the need to whip the cream again just before serving.

Here's my recipe for Mock Devonshire Cream:
1 3 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 Tbl sugar
dash salt
1/4 to 1/3 cup whipping cream

In a medium-sized bowl, beat the cream cheese on high speed of an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and salt. Gradually add the whipping cream and continue beating until mixture is stiff. Store in refrigerator.You could also try adding 1/4 tsp vanilla extract to that recipe for Mock Devonshire Cream.