Timeless chocolate is February favorite

From our chocolate cookbook corner, we came across some traditional favorites, including recipes we’d marked off as great. From the “Toll House Heritage” cookbook (first printing in 1980), we rediscovered blender mousse, easy and delicious. From the Hershey’s 1934 Cookbook, the chocolate tea bread is lovely. The authors suggest serving it with softened cream cheese.
  We love to bake with chocolate. Our grandkids are good at helping, and it’s a fun activity to share with children. They crack the eggs open, measure out the flour and sugar and dump it into the mixing bowl. One of their favorite chocolate-baking activities is making whoopie pies -- a blast from the past. We remember making those with our own little urchins. After the soft cake rounds are baked, the kids enjoy matching them up by twos, before spreading the marshmallow filling. They’re worth the effort. 
  For a creative way to celebrate, why not bring out a plate of whoopie pies topped with colorful candles; your birthday person will be as happy as the guests who are singing, “Happy Birthday to You.”
Blender mousse
1 12-ounce package (2 cups) Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup hot milk
2 to 4 measuring tablespoons brandy, rum or almond or orange liqueurs
Whipped cream (optional)
  In blender container, combine chocolate morsels, sugar and eggs. Add hot milk and liquor; blend at medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour into pots de crème or demitasse cups and chill in refrigerator for one hour. Garnish with whipped cream if desired. Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve. Makes eight 4-ounce servings.
(From the Toll House Heritage Cookbook.)
 
Chocolate tea bread
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cup sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Hershey’s cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
  Cream butter; add sugar a small amount at a time, creaming well after each addition. Add and beat well. Mix and sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa and cinnamon; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating until blended after each addition. Stir in raisins and nuts. Turn into greased 9-by-5 inch bread pan. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for one hour or until done. Cool on wire rack. Spread with softened cream cheese if desired. (From Hershey’s 1934 Cookbook)
Whoopie pies
 1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  Preheat oven to 425 degrees. With electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture, blending well. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. Bake about seven minutes. Remove to rack, cool, and put cookies together with filling.
  Filling: Beat 1/2 cup butter or margarine and 1 cup powdered sugar together. Blend in 1 cup marshmallow fluff and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until smooth. Thin with milk if necessary.
 
Portia Little is the author of six cookbooks, including “New England Seashore Recipes & Rhyme,” “Bread Pudding Bliss” and “The Easy Vegetarian.” You can contact her at panntree@msn.com.