Chocolate Housewarming

Hi there, I'm Paula Deen, and today I'm going to hitch up the welcome wagon and show you

how we country folk make our new neighbors feel right at home

First up, the simplest sweet and savory treat that you'll ever whip up

Secret ingredient, saltine crackers. And if that's not sinful enough, my boy's all-time favorite, Two Brothers Chocolate Gobs

It takes me right back to the good old days. And last but not least, a meringue-topped chocolate-filled angel pie awaits

So pass the milk, let your sweet tooth run rampant, and welcome to the neighborhood

Today I'm going to be preparing a housewarming gift for a new neighbor that's just moved in

Here in Savannah, we always welcome somebody with something yummy to eat

And today we're going to do a chocolate housewarming basket. But before I can get started, I need to get some fresh chocolate from my friend Terry at Alp's Sweet Shop

He always has just what I need. Hey, Terry. Hey, Paula. How are you

I'm fine. How are you doing, darling? I'm doing good today. Getting me ready? We're getting you ready with some tempered milk chocolate

It just looks fabulous. Well, I know how much you like milk chocolate over dark

You know I do. And as I was coming through, I found this lonesome little pretzel

Well, you know there's only one thing to do with that. Can I? By all means, feel free

Oh, my gracious. We've been making some molded bars for you. It's orgasmic

It's fabulous. This is the best milk chocolate you can get. It's loaded with cocoa butter

It's smooth, creamy. Of course, I wouldn't expect you to tell me anything different

It's fabulous. If you had a straw, it would work out real well. Why, Terry, is your chocolate so good

Well, I can't take the credit for why my chocolate is so good. I'm a third generation

My wife's grandfather started in 1922. And the only thing I'll take credit for is I'm smart enough to know that if it's not broken, don't fix it

It's the same recipes for the last 80 years. And any special way, process that you have for melting this

A simple matter of heating to destroy the cocoa butter and sugar crystals

and then we slowly cool it down and reheat it very gently

What's the most important thing to look for when you're picking out your chocolate

Well, you can't go wrong by going to a quality chocolate shop. Check the age of the chocolate

Chocolate has a pretty good shelf life, but it does dry out, and it's more absorbent to odor than baking soda

The biggest mistake people make is putting chocolate in the refrigerator, and two days later they say, what is wrong with this chocolate

It kind of gets a whiny look. To me, the first question I ask is, where did you store it

And they said, well, right next to the broccoli and chili that I had last. And that's just what it tastes like

So now these will take about eight minutes. So if we follow it down, we should have a pretty good finished product

And this, we should see here, releasing from the mold. Uh-huh, I see it

And they pop out. Perfect. And these should have, if they set up correctly, a snap

Perfect. And that's tempered chocolate. Would you like to... You know... You know I would

If it's half as good hard as it was melted back there

Well, this allows your palate to really work it in your mouth and really get a good taste of it

So wonderful. Terry, thanks so much. You've taken great care of me

Well, it was a pleasure. Paula, you're good to go. You've got your milk chocolate, your semi-sweet, your semi-sweet chips, and your cocoa powder

Great. Good luck. Thank you, dear. It's been great being with you. It was nice having you

All right, I've gathered up all my chocolate, and we're going to go straight in to making

one of my favorite easy little candies. They're called Pine Barks, and it has two of my favorite things, salt and sweet

The combination is so, so good together. And we're going to start with just an ordinary saltine cracker that you've got in your pantry

And we're going to put them onto a lined baking sheet. And we're going to spray this a little bit because by the time we put our caramel on it

it'll want to stick if we're not careful. And we're going to lay our saltine crackers out

And it important that salt side be up And this should take about 35 saltines I love the combination of salt and sweet I don know why I just do And we going to keep lining

the pan until we have it all done. Like I said, you'll just be amazed at how delicious

this simple little candy is. And this is a good little candy that you can get into your

kitchen with your children. And they especially love it when you get to the end and we are

going to put this wonderful milk chocolate on top and let it melt all into your caramel

cookie. Now we're going to start by putting our brown sugar and butter into our pot and

we're going to let this cook for about two to three minutes. We're just going to let

those melt. So very, very simple. And we're going to start timing from the time it starts

boiling. A boil should be coming up very soon. Our brown sugar and butter is starting to

boil now, so we're going to cook that for two to three minutes. We're not going to bring

it to a certain temperature or anything. Just let it cook. All right, this is cooked for

two minutes. Now we're going to add a flavoring to it. Today I've decided I love chocolate

and almonds together and caramel. I just love almond flavoring. But now you can use vanilla

if you like. But like I said, today I'm going to use almond. And look at that just boiling

and going to town in there. And we're just going to pour this brown sugar caramel over

our crackers. Doesn't that look delicious already? We're just gonna spread this out

gently. We're gonna run them in a 400 degree oven, and we're gonna bake them for six minutes

And then we're gonna pull them out and put the most delicious milk chocolate that you've

ever tasted on top and let it melt into all those. Now, real quick, while that's cooking

I just want to give you a tip about storing your chocolates. You should always keep it in a cool, dry place

so it'll stay fresh until you want to use it as a snack or maybe in your favorite recipe

We're going to take these wonderful little crackers and we're going to top them with our chocolate now

And you can do this with several different kinds of chocolate. If you're a dark chocolate lover, by all means use that

Or if you're a semi-sweet, use that. I happen to be a milk chocolate lover

So that's what I'm using, these yummy pieces of fresh milk chocolate

And we're just going to put it across the top, and the heat from our caramel is going to start to melt our chocolate

And when it starts melting, we'll just take a spatula and completely frost our crackers

And if you want to, if you're using a thicker chocolate and it doesn't melt quick enough for you

you can stick this back in the oven just for a minute to help speed up the melting of that chocolate

and I like lots of chocolate. All right, let's check it and see

See that wonderful milk chocolate starting to melt? And we're just going to help it along

by taking our spatula and smearing it all into the crackers. How sinful looking is that

It's delectable. And after this cools, you don't even have to cut this wonderful candy

because it's already in the shape of the saltine cracker and you just pick up one cracker at the time

Doesn't that look yummy? All right, we're going to sit this to the side now

and let that chocolate return to its original hard form. And then we're going to break them apart

and we're going to eat every one of them. But you know what

I really love melted chocolate, so I can't wait. I'm going to dig on in now

This is a wonderful new way to eat a saltine cracker. Stick around because the next thing I'm fixing to make for you is two brothers chocolate gobs

And I'll tell you all about those two brothers. The next recipe I'm fixing to share with y'all is probably one of my favorites

and I call it Two Brothers Chocolate Gobs. It got its name because I used to make these for two little boys almost 30 years ago

and those little boys' names are Jamie and Bobby, my two sons

And 30 years later, they still love these as much as they used to when they were little boys

They knew that they could come in and open that refrigerator and go to the left-hand crisper drawer

and find their very favorite chocolate gobs. And we're gonna start by making the cake

We're gonna start with our sugar and our shortening. Whoa baby And we gonna just beat this until it fluffy We going to take our

spatula and just kind of push it around in that bowl because we want to make sure it gets mixed

up real, real good. Alright, and then we're going to add our eggs. Alright, and our next step is to

incorporate our liquid that goes into here. We've got one cup of buttermilk, and we're

going to add one cup of hot water, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. And we're going to just

kind of add this slowly to our mixture. This cake batter will be very, very thin when we

finish with it, but not to worry. It'll work out just perfect for you

We're going to cut that off for a minute and just let it rest while we put together our flour

Now this is flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. And we're going to sift those

together, and then we're going to add them to the rest of our cake batter. And we're going to turn

this back on and we're going to add our flour and cocoa mixture about a cup at the time

into our liquid batter. So we put about a cup in there, we're going to let that blend

together, and then we're going to add another cup until we used up all of our flour. We've

almost got it all in now, and it's getting just right. And last, we're going to add about

a teaspoon of vanilla, and then we're going to be ready to pop these in the oven, and

then we'll start the cream-filled center to these chocolate gobs. I think it's just right

And we're going to take our batter, and we're going to drop it a teaspoon at the time onto

an ungreased cookie sheet. Now, you can make your cakes different sizes, but I found that

This is just a perfect size. And this recipe does take a little while to make

but it's worth it because it makes so many. All right, we're going to slip these in the oven

And they shouldn't take long at all. The next step to our Two Brothers Chocolate Gobbs

is going to be our filling. We're going to start by making a roux. And this is just flour and milk

We're going to put our flour into our saucepan, and we're gonna slowly add the milk so it won't lump on us

This roux will actually be our tightening agent for our filling so it won't run out of our cakes

All right, and that's getting mixed up well, so now we can add a little bit more milk

And we're gonna stir this, and when you think it's too thick, it's gonna be just right

It's gonna be like a mashed potato. And we're gonna stir this the whole time

because once it starts thickening on you, on you, it'll be thick very, very quickly. That's just perfect, so we're going to take

it off and set it aside and let it cool. And we're going to come over here and we're going

to beat our shortening and our butter together. We're going to add our sugar. We're going

to whip this until it's fluffy. And then we're going to add our roux. Now if you tasted this

if you tasted your roux, you'd say, there is no way that's going to be good, Paula

But trust me, when you get it beat into that sugar and butter, it's going to make the yummiest

See how pretty and fluffy that is? And at this point, we're going to add our vanilla

Again, about a teaspoon. All right, our filling is ready. And I already have some cakes ready and cooled from earlier this morning

And we're going to fill them with this wonderful, light, fluffy cream icing

Oh, baby, that looks yummy. Look. Look at that delicious little cake. No wonder my boys loved them. When we finish

putting together all of our little sandwiches, we're going to take them and we're going to

wrap them in a clear plastic wrap. And these go in the refrigerator. Like I said, I always

use the left hand side of the crisper drawer. If you think these are heavenly, coming up

I going to be fixing John Barrett favorite angel pie They so good

Most everybody associates Savannah with the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

written by my friend John Barrett. And I spoke with his mother

and she gave me John's favorite, favorite chocolate pie. And I've gathered all my ingredients, and we're fixing to make that pie

I started this morning with a basic meringue, which I've put into a pie pan and just shaped it like a pie crust

Now to cook it, you put it in a preheated 450-degree oven

And we're immediately going to turn our oven off. And we're going to let our meringue sit in the oven for three hours

and it will dry out and make a wonderful light brown shell for us

So my meringue shell is all ready to go. And now we can start the filling part of this wonderful pie

We're going to take our yolks that we saved from our egg whites

We're going to add our sugar, water, and just a pinch of salt

And we're going to kind of beat these until they're fluffy. and then we're going to add them to unsweetened chocolate

Now we're going to pour these in to our chocolate and we're going to whip our chocolate

and our egg and sugar mixture until it's thick and this is on top of a double boiler over a light bowl

and it's incorporating and starting to get that gooey, sinful chocolate look to it

And I think it's just about ready now. And we're going to sit this to the side

and we're going to let it cool because we've got one more step before our pie is completed

and the chocolate must be at room temperature. Our meringue is ready

and now we're about to put our delectable chocolate filling all in the center of that beautiful meringue

Our chocolate is cooled, and we're gonna put two cups of sweetened beaten whipped cream

and we're gonna fold that into the chocolate. What a combination, right

Look at that pair. And now we're gonna pour this into the center of our meringue

How luscious. The only thing about your angel pie is you do have to do a little planning

You can't make this and serve it that day unless you start very early in the morning

So we're going to put this in the refrigerator. Let it chill. Right before we're ready to serve it, we're going to take it out and put

just in case we don't have enough, we're going to put more whipped cream on it and shave chocolate

When we come back, a few things that you shouldn't do with chocolate if you want to be a sweet success

Chocolate can be real easy to eat, but sometimes it can be very tricky

So I want to tell you a few things to watch out for. When you're melting your chocolate, always, always melt it over a double boiler

Don't ever put it over direct heat because chocolate can scorch very easily

And if it's scorched, it has to go into the trash can. And I want to give you a hint as to what to look for for your chocolate

Your chocolate is very shiny when it's fresh. When it starts getting a dull look like this chocolate, it's not fresh

So always use only your shiny, freshest of chocolates. And to finish up on our tips today, I want to show you how to shave chocolate

Now we have our angel pie here, and we're going to top it with just a little bit more fresh cream

And we're going to take just a simple vegetable peeler, and we're going to just peel chocolate curls onto that whipped cream

The final touch to our pie today is going to be just a couple of sprigs of fresh mint

What a perfect topping. The basket's all ready now for the neighbor

We've got our wonderful little pine bark candies. We've got our chocolate gobs

and of course John Barron's favorite chocolate angel pie. And I hope my neighbors will love it

And until next time, best dishes.