Editor's Picks
JANUARY 5, 2010 12:39AM
Rate: 23
Mom (center) with her dad & the Ad Man's mom, circa 1947
I was born into that fray and thought it all perfectly normal until I was in kindergarten. I learned that most Dads left the house each day and came home for dinner. I could go over to other houses to play after school, but because of the whisper-clause, no one ever came over to my house. Only if the weather was fitting for outside play in the backyard would I be able to host friends. Most of my friends thought I lived in the yard because they never got to see my room, or even believe I had a room inside. That was cemented by the fact that mom brought us meals outside, too. All that was missing was a tent and a sleeping bag.
As an adult I realized how my mom came to be such a fabulous baker. She lived in the kitchen. She couldn't be in the living room near the Ad Man's office because the swish of the turning pages of her book would bother him. She read books in her bedroom on the other side of the tiny house, where I found her each day after coming home from school. She spent the day baking and relaxed before dinner with a book. Later, I learned that the relaxing had more to do with resting her damaged heart than just chilling.
Mom baked tons of goodies, but none more frequently than her brownies. She was the entire welcome wagon for the growing neighborhood back in the mid 1940's and would bring a plate of brownies to every new family. She baked them when requested and they became popular beyond reason. We loved when she made brownies because the crisp edges had to be carved off before being given away. The four of us fought over each edge though the pan was square. As the youngest, I got first dibs most of the time. I loved teasing my brothers and taking the imaginary largest sized edge from the square.
Thankfully, the recipe made its way into print in the 1964 Syracuse Hadassah Cookbook. Otherwise, none of us would have ever known how she made them. Most of her recipes were hand-me-downs and no one ever bothered to write them out. I still wonder how she got her strudel dough so thin and delicate. And while I watched her make rugelach often when I was a tiny kid, I do not know the ingredients list.
Undoubtedly these were oversights on her part, thinking she had lots of time to share them with us. She did not. Mom died from heart failure when I was ten. It is now fast approaching the bend in the road where she will have been gone almost as long as she was alive.
Fortunately, the brownies live on. I followed in her footsteps and made them as welcoming gifts for new neighbors when we lived in places that had neighbors. I make them as gifts. I've updated the recipe to reflect changing chocolate sources, but essentially I leave it alone. Some things deserve to be historic mom-uments, including recipes that have a heritage and taste really good.
Ada's Brownies? That would be the Ad Man's witty headline. When the recipe was to be immortalized in the cookbook, it needed a catchy title. A riff on Ate a Brownie became Ada's Brownies. You cannot imagine how many people ask me about Ada and was that my mother's real name? Um, no. Just the Ad Man's moment of Zen. Which is why he never was a Mad Men.
Happy 49.5 Million Minute birthday, Mom. Your brownies live on, and now they will be travel that magic highway, the giant world wide web, where they will live on for virtual eternity. Bon Appetit.
Ada's Brownies by Anne Stander
- 1/4 pound of butter
- 2 sq. baking chocolate
- 1 c. sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tspn vanilla
- 1/2 c. chopped nuts
My Notes
This is the original recipe written as was. Translated: 1/4 butter is one stick of unsalted butter. 2 squares baking chocolate is 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate - use the best you can find. Cut back on the (white) sugar slightly. Nuts are optional.
For gluten free: use Bette's Featherlight gf flour blend from Authentic Foods and add 1/4 tspn xanthan gum. Under measure the gf flour just slightly.
Mix everything as little as possible. Brownies don't benefit from overmixing. Less fussing makes them dense and chewy.
Comments
Happy birthday, Mom, wherever you are, and thanks for the brownies. I need smellavision.
My first advertising copy writing job was for a family business. Wish they'd had brownies cuz the pay was small....
SO rated.
SO rated.
Nuts are NOT optional. A brownie without nuts is, well......still a brownie I guess. Cool story. Great brownies. I so wish I could bake. Or at least had a woman to yell at to make them. (I kid)
Bless all those Mothers everywhere.
Bless all those Mothers everywhere.
How wonderful! It's so nice that you were able to get a written recipe from your mother. we had a beautiful, kind and gentle woman who worked in our home. She baked magical confections: chocolate cake, souffles and pop-overs. The pinnacle of her repetoire were the brownies. My friends would always ask if Mercie had baked brownies before they came to visit. She was a star! Mercie tried to teach me the recipe, but I never learned how to bake using "a pinch" of this or "a handfull" of that, or to do such and such until it looks like "this."
Feeling a bit sad and nostalgic I tried to recreate an approximation of her recipe a month ago, using the oldest cookbook I could find in the house (the Settlement Cookbook). What a fiasco!
I am so glad you are sharing your mom's recipe - bet it's very close to what I ate growing up. And I plan to use it in the next couple of weeks - perhaps when my sister comes to visit! Thank you for the memories.
Oh, tell you mom Happy Birthday! Congratulations!
Feeling a bit sad and nostalgic I tried to recreate an approximation of her recipe a month ago, using the oldest cookbook I could find in the house (the Settlement Cookbook). What a fiasco!
I am so glad you are sharing your mom's recipe - bet it's very close to what I ate growing up. And I plan to use it in the next couple of weeks - perhaps when my sister comes to visit! Thank you for the memories.
Oh, tell you mom Happy Birthday! Congratulations!
This is what heritage and family cooking is all about. Food is never (or shouldn't be) just calories and fuel. Food is life.
Brownies are my weakness and I love that these come attached to a great story. I may even try the GF variety -my chiro keeps urging me to give up wheat, maybe this will be the recipe that convinces me I can do it!
This was an incredible tribute to your mother. Love your pictures as well.
These look like perfect brownies and I will be making them. A lovely post. Your Mom definitely made her mark.
Hey, you're on the cover of Salon! Great post and another recipe. I always appreciate the gluten-free versions...not for me, but my husband. Now I just have to learn how to bake!
This piece has such a nice feel to it . . . and the brownies look divine!
Kathy - thank you!
Ginny - hehehe. I remember when Ad Man hired a small staff that the pay was really small. brownies would have been great!
Michael - walnuts! even you can make these. easy!
wana - I'll take an Ed Hardy, please.
Nelly - glad to help. let me know how they turn out. Mercie sounds like she was a wonderful baker.
sundaymorning - thank you!
melissa - these are easy and even gf, because there is so little flour, are just as good as reg. flour.
stellaa - thank you! I really miss her a ton.
mtk - thank you! what fun it is to see that. she would have liked that.
susan - thank you! wish I could share them with all of you. they came out just like they should. and smell great.
Ginny - hehehe. I remember when Ad Man hired a small staff that the pay was really small. brownies would have been great!
Michael - walnuts! even you can make these. easy!
wana - I'll take an Ed Hardy, please.
Nelly - glad to help. let me know how they turn out. Mercie sounds like she was a wonderful baker.
sundaymorning - thank you!
melissa - these are easy and even gf, because there is so little flour, are just as good as reg. flour.
stellaa - thank you! I really miss her a ton.
mtk - thank you! what fun it is to see that. she would have liked that.
susan - thank you! wish I could share them with all of you. they came out just like they should. and smell great.
Totally wonderful, LuluandPhoebe. Smells of brownies in the late afternoon with a good dose of 1950s nostalgia and none of the calories. Love your writing.
Thanks, Mary!
Oh, my.
Love your mom and love the brownies.
I'll be making those!
(thumbified)
Love your mom and love the brownies.
I'll be making those!
(thumbified)
Thanks for posting the recipe. I decided to try my hand at rugelach last year around Channukah time and made them again this year. Seriously, those rugelach dough recipes are all exactly the same. Google a few and you'll see what I mean. As far as I can tell, there is no secret family recipe on that as it seems to be such a simple dough. I made mine into pinwheels (like a jellyroll, then slice) and they were way easier than the traditional way and very pretty as gifts.
Oh, yum- I am going to have to try these. Thanks for the recipe L&P!
I wish your mom could read this and know how much you admired her. I wish she could have felt admired back then too. I'm drawn to stories like these because they break my heart, and then my heart is put back together again when I have evidence that history isn't destiny.
bell - thank you so much. you have no idea what that means to me tonight!
Ah, tasty immortality!
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