Fudge Four O'Clocks with Nutella Frosting

Sorry!

I've been slacking a bit. Back from visiting family and then back to work.  I pulled out the blanket I'm crocheting and tried to learn a few new stitches. I admit, I've been obsessed with crafting lately, it's creative like cooking and baking, but without the calories! Lets not talk about the 5 new quilts I've planned on making...and I've never quilted before!  Should be fun...but on to the baking...Fudge Four O'Clocks, it sounds like something Audrey Hepburn would have in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I was going to make Brownies from the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cook Book, but the recipe for the Brownies is almost the same as the one for Fudge Four O'Clocks, and well, the Four O'Clocks have frosting!. I could also argue that the deciding factor was the 1950's picture...and the fact that I had a jar of Nutella in my cupboard just waiting for something chocolatey to be put upon :)

The recipe is quite simple with not a lot of ingredients, which I love. I think improvements on this recipe would be with the type of chocolate one uses. I just used some no name semi-sweet chocolate chunks that I had, nothing special, but it was still yummy. So better chocolate would make this even more wonderful!

Once you've gathered together your ingredients and have melted the chocolate, pour it over the shortening.

And stir until blended well. It wasn't blended smoothly, most likely because the chocolate was only moderately warm, so I heated it for a few seconds in the microwave. Viola!

Beat the eggs until yellow and thick and then gradually add in the sugar.  Pour the chocolate mixture in with the eggs and sugar along with a bit of the flour.

Add the flour and milk to the batter, and once mixed well, stir in the nuts.

Pour the batter into two 8X8 inch pans that are greased and lined with waxed paper.   Oh...the batter seems very runny. I'm not sure if all brownie recipes are like that since I don't make a lot of them.

Well...I remember my mom using waxed paper all the time for things like this. Birthday cakes were amazing things way back then. Sure they were lined with waxed paper to bake, but...BUT!!...they also had pennies, nickels, dimes, and the luckiest of quarters inside and all of them were wrapped in waxed paper and baked inside the cake. Each slice was a surprise to see what money you might find! I love those days, no one was worried you might accidentally choke on a dime...as kids, we knew what was in there. Ahh, the good old days of being able to eat dirt!  Haha, I digress... I didn't have waxed paper so I used parchment paper instead.

When I first took them from the oven they seemed a bit gooey...more gooey than a brownie hot from the oven should be, so I baked it another 10 minutes.

The frosting I used is from Remodelaholic's website and it's so yummy. It came out a bit thick, so I added a tiny bit of milk and then tried to spread it...oiy! It was like trying to spread fridge cold peanut butter and it was pulling up the fragile top of the brownies!  I added a bit more milk and thinned it up quite a bit more and spread it over the top of the thicker frosting to give it a cleaner look.  You can see it in the picture, it looks like there are 3 layers. But honestly, this is one accident I would do again! It was creamy and decadent!

I definitely recommend these!

Fudge Four O'Clocks
Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook - 1950 (pg 743)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 ounces chocolate, melted
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup nuts, chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt chocolate and pour over shortening. Mix well
2. Beat eggs until thick and lemon colored.
3. Add sugar gradually, beating well with each addition.
4. Combine mixtures (chocolate/shortening and egg/sugar) and add a little of the flour.
5. Sift rest of flour, salt, and baking powder together and add, alternatively with the milk.
6. Add chopped nuts.
7. Spread in 2 8X8 inch pans which have been greased and lined with waxed paper
8. Bake in a slow oven (325 F)  20 minutes
9. Cut into 32 bars 1X4 inches.

Nutella Frosting
(from Remodelaholic - click link above to visit!)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup Nutella
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• one shake salt
• splash of milk (if needed)

 

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat the Nutella and butter together until smooth.  
2. Add the sprinkle of salt and the first 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, beat until combined.  
3. Continue to add the powdered sugar a 1/2 cup at a time, beating between additions, until creamy and smooth.  
4. Add a small splash of milk if necessary.