Heavenly Hash Cake - AMAZING!

On July 4th weekend, we had a party for our youngest son and future daughter in love.  They were recently engaged and they were home from Denver for the weekend, so it seemed like the perfect time to celebrate with all their Nashville friends.

Cortney and Tyler asked me to make their favorite desert - Heavenly Hash cake so of course I did.  Everyone has probably had something called heavenly hash in their life, whether it is candy, ice cream, or some other kind of desert.  Heavenly hash usually involves marshmallows, but not this cake!  Instead, it uses angel food cake and unbelievable chocolate mousse.

This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks called St. Louis Days, St. Louis Nights.  Our oldest daughter gave it to me for mother's day while she was attending college in St. Louis.  I have had it for many years and some of my all time favorite recipes are from this book.

The good think about this cake is that you can use a ready made angel food cake from the grocery if you don't want to bake one yourself.  That eliminates a lot of steps right there.  The rest of the cake is a fabulous chocolate mousse that is made from scratch and worth any and all effort put into making it.  Here is what you need:

12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips
4 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large angel food cake (store bought if preferred)

Melt chocolate chips over low heat; beat the egg yolks and add them to the chocolate after you temper it.  Do this by adding a little of the warm chocolate to the yolks and stirring thoroughly.  Now, add the yolks to the chocolate and mix completely.  It will be almost fudge like.  This keeps the yolks from scrambling.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites; add 2 teaspoons of sugar.  Beat until stiff peaks form.

In another bowl, beat the whipping cream and set aside.

Add the egg whites to the chocolate and egg yolk mixture.  Stir and add the chopped pecans, vanilla, and salt.  Don't be alarmed.  The egg whites dissolve into the chocolate mixture.

Fold in the whipped cream.

Cover the bottom of a large greased bowl with 1/2 of the angel food cake broken into chunks.

Cover with half of the chocolate mixture (if you can keep from eating it all).  Add the remaining cake broken into chunks.  Cover with the remaining chocolate mixture.

Refrigerate overnight.

Oh. My.  Goodness.  This is beyond good.  It is amazing.  Since I am gluten free, I cannot eat it with the cake, so I save a little of the mousse and eat it by itself.  SOOOOOOOO delicious.

This is a recipe that is fabulous to take to a pot luck dinner or for when you are having company.  It does make 12 servings, so you may not want to make it just for yourself (unless you intend to eat it all and it is that good)!

Heavenly Hash cake is so good, that I made it twice in 4 days for Tyler and Cortney to enjoy.  Yes, you want to make this one for sure - especially if you love chocolate.  Enjoy!

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

When someone asks you to make a favorite recipe for them - always oblige.  There is nothing like showing someone you love them this way.  donna

Bad Name, Great Recipe - Mud Hen Bars, Great for Super Bowl Sunday

This my friends is a Mud Hen Bar.  A What?  A Mud Hen Bar.  A what?  You read that correctly.  What exactly is a Mud Hen and why would anyone name something so delicious such an awful name?  I wish I knew.  Truly.  This is something you will want to make in the very near future.  They would be excellent for Super Bowl Sunday!  They are easy to make and so, so good.

I tried to do some research on why they would be named Mud Hen Bars, but with no luck.  Seems there are many people on the world wide web asking the same question.  Evidently the recipe has been around for years and years with no information about how the name came to be.  This is what I did find.  There is a Mud Hen, New Jersey, a minor league baseball team in Toledo, Ohio, named the Mud Hens, and a Mud Hen is a bird that lives in the marshes, is very round with long legs and has trouble launching itself into flight.  Now, I see no connection to any of these other than the fact that the original recipe could possibly have come from Mud Hen, New Jersey.  Even then, I think I would have come up with a better name.  Seriously, Mud Hen does NOT sound inviting in any way and they are really, really good!

I found this recipe on one of my favorite sites, Plain Chicken.  I read over the ingredients and knew these would be good because I have been making a cookie bar called Chinese Chews for years and they are somewhat similar. (I'll share that one some day).   Now there's another name - Chinese Chews.  Where did that name come from?  Makes you wonder and they are just as good as Mud Hen Bars.

Here is what you need to make these delectable treats:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 whole egg
2 eggs separated
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

First, beat the white sugar and butter together until creamy.  Beat in 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks, keeping the whites for later.  Mix in the flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla.  Spread cookie batter into a lightly greased 9x13 pan.

Sprinkle the marshmallows and chocolate chips on top of the unbaked cookie crust.

(Are you thinking s'mores yet?  That's what I thought, but kind of yes and no.)

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  A stiff peak must stand on it's own.

Now, fold in the brown sugar.  This is your meringue.  Folding means stirring from the bottom up and over the top, not just mixing.  Be gentle.

Spread the meringue mixture over the marshmallows and chocolate chips.  Bake for 30 minutes.

It looks kind of flat when you first spread it on, but looks like this after it is baked.

That lovely merengue gets nice and puffy and brown and kind of crunchy.  Oh my.

Let cool in the pan and cut into squares.  Serve.  Try to keep from eating them all in one sitting.

These bars are sweet, I am warning you now.  But, holy cow they are good.  My only idea would be to add chopped nuts and maybe even some coconut if you like either or both.  Wowsa.  That would make them over the top good.

You have a nice layer of cookie base, just a hint of chocolate chip cookie, but not quite because of the melted marshmallows in the middle with the chocolate chips.  The texture of the meringue is heavenly with all that brown sugar in it.  They are chewy bars that you will just have to make to understand how good they are.

Yeah, you need to make these.  They would be a real hit for Super Bowl Sunday.  Dan LOVES them. If you're like me and don't really care about the game, but do love the good eats, these are for you!  They will make your day.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Even though the name is not particularly appealing for a recipe, don't pass it by.  Names can be deceiving.  ; )