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Some recipes are downright magical.
Take, for example, a delicious and alluringly aromatic blueberry concoction that a 15-year-old girl named Adrienne Renny whipped up. In 1954, the young lady from Chicago won second place in the Junior Division of the Pillsbury Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest with her cake that she named for its positive effect on young men:
BLUEBERRY BOY BAIT
12 servings
Cake
2 cups (10 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup packed (5 ¼ ounces) light brown sugar
½ cup (3 ½ ounces) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
2 ½ ounces (½ cup) fresh or frozen blueberries
Topping
2/12 ounces (½ cup) fresh or frozen blueberries
¼ cup (1 ¼ ounces) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
Whisk 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until just incorporated. Reduce speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of milk. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Toss blueberries with remaining 1 teaspoon flour. Using rubber spatula, gently fold blueberries into batter. Spread batter in prepared pan.
For the topping: Scatter blueberries over top of batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl and sprinkle over batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cake cool in pan for 20 minutes, then turn out and place on serving platter or cutting board (topping side up). Cut into squares and serve warm or at room temperature. (Cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)
Our assessment: This blueberry cake is similar to blueberry muffins but richer, thanks to the two sticks of butter and brown sugar. I took some of the cake, still warm out of the oven, to the office. Reporter Ken McCall agreed to be a taste tester. So what did he think of this Blueberry Boy Bait? "It would have caught me!" he chuckled. He said he loved the amount of blueberries as well as the crunchy topping and buttery taste.
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When it comes to Ohio cuisine, few things are more magical than Buckeyes, those peanut butter goodies dipped in chocolate. Their name comes from the state tree, the Buckeye, because the nuts look like the eyes of a deer.
BUCKEYES
Make 4 dozen
½ ounce white chocolate chips
2 ¼ cups creamy peanut butter
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 cups (12 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Microwave white chocolate chips in bowl on 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, about 1 minute. Let cool for 5 minutes. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat peanut butter, melted white chocolate, butter, sugar, vanilla and salt on medium-high speed until just combined, about 1 minute. Roll dough into 1 1/4-inch balls and place on prepared sheet. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
Microwave semisweet chocolate chips in bowl on 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 1 ½ to 2 minutes. Using toothpick, dip chilled balls into melted chocolate, leaving top quarter of balls uncovered. Return balls to prepared sheet and refrigerate until chocolate is set, about 1 hour. Serve. (Buckeyes can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 1 month.)
Our assessment: I have a confession: after I moved to Ohio, I spit out the first Buckeye I tried. It had been made with a lot of paraffin wax. This recipe, on the other hand, is wax free. The result is a delicious Buckeye. "This is the very best Buckeye I've ever eaten!" reporter Kelli Wynn exclaimed.
“While I don’t normally like chocolate and peanut butter together, I do like this! The chocolate compliments rather than overwhelms the peanut butter,” my colleague Michelle Lewis said.
One more thing: After I dipped the Buckeyes in chocolate and let them cool in the fridge, I closed the toothpick holes by gently swirling the peanut butter. I do this because I think the toothpick holes look like navels.
Both recipes from the book: "Cook's Country Eats Local: 150 Regional Recipes You Should be Making No Matter Where You Live" by the editors at America's Test Kitchen; 310 pages, $26.95. Published by America's Test Kitchen, 2015.
What you get: Recipes are organized by geographic areas: New England and the Mid-Atlantic, Appalachia and the South; the Midwest and Great Plains; and Texas and the West (including Hawaii). Each recipe comes with a feature called "Why it Works," which provides tips for ensuring success. For some of the recipes, there's also information about restaurants that serve those very dishes. The book is an education into names of regional cuisine, such as Chicken Riggies (a pasta dish), Kentucky Burgoo (a spicy stew), Bierocks (meat-filled pastries) and Texas Caviar (black-eyed pea salad).
In his own words: "'Cook's Country Eats Local' is the result of almost a decade of investigation by the editors of 'Cook's Country' magazine who have scoured the country looking for local specialties. We attend local food festivals, interview local restaurateurs and cooks, and spend weeks at a time on the road, the 'Blue Highways' (small two-lane roads) that many writers have found so inspirational. What we have discovered is a whole new world of American cooking, recipes that have flown beneath the national radar for generations…" — Christopher Kimball, founder and editor of "Cook's Illustrated" and "Cook's Country," and host of "America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen"
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