#cookery

Anthony Bourdain Goes to Gaza

Nope. Not that woman of the year - this woman of the year:

Simply because I am about to share with you Katharine Hepburn's brownie recipe.

Very easy and so perfect, that two days ago I doubled the quantities - as I almost always do. I found this recipe on the New York Times' fabled cooking website about ten years ago and never looked for another brownie avatar. Ever.

For an 8x8 baking pan, you will need: 1/2 cup (70 gr) cocoa - preferably either Van Houten or Ghirardelli, unsweetened; 1 stick (115 gr) butter - Irish, if at all possible, because this simple recipe deserves the best sourced ingredients to truly shine; 2 eggs; 1 cup (200 grams) sugar; 1/4 cup (30 grams) flour; 1 cup (130 grams) roughly chopped walnuts; 1 tsp vanilla extract; pinch of salt.

Notes: I always substitute the vanilla extract with a hefty swig of alcohol - whisky, brandy/cognac, Bailey's (a bit too sweet, though) and for the best results, Kahlúa. While not entirely kid friendly, it deepens the chocolatey flavor profile, allowing for a finer, moister texture and the spirits evaporate during the baking process, anyways. Likewise, walnuts can be replaced with chopped almonds, pecans or even pistachios, if you feel adventurous. However, all the rest remains strictly the same.

Preheat the oven to 325 Fahrenheit (160 Celsius).

In a small saucepan, melt the butter (low heat), progressively incorporating the cocoa powder. Stir until smooth, remove from heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes, but not more. Transfer to a large plastic or ceramic bowl (no metal, it fouls the taste). Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla extract/alcohol.

In a separate bowl, stir in the sugar, the flour, the nuts, the salt. Add the cocoa mix and stir until just combined. Do not overmix!

Pour into greased 8x8 pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes max. The brownies should remain gooey, but not jiggly in the center . Let cool. Cut into bars.

You are welcome.

This month’s recipe offers a preview of Special Collections’ Fall exhibit: Faster and More Fun: American Home Cooking in the 1920s, which will open September 21, 2026!

Marie P. Hill. Fun in the Kitchen: A Record Cook Book of Easy Recipes for Little Girls. Chicago: Reilly & Lee Co., 1927. Gift of Eunice Burns. 

Fun in the Kitchen is one of several books in this exhibit that exemplifies authors’ and publishers’ efforts to make cooking seem like a fun activity that was practically a kind of leisure, with updated appliances and the novelty of temperature-controlled gas and electric ranges. 

In this book, author Marie Hill offers “easy recipes for little girls,” with pages decorated by drawings of girls with bobbed hair in oversized aprons and whimsical depictions of cats, monkeys, and toys.

An inscription on the front paste-down of JBLCA's copy reads “To Jan / Love Dad / 1927.” Jan, or Janet as she writes her own name in the book, apparently prepared several of the recipes. Her descriptions are not verbose, but she described the Chocolate Blanc Mange as “good” and recorded that it was eaten by “Janet, Grandpa, and Grandmother.”

Chocolate Blanc Mange from Fun in the Kitchen: A Record Cook Book of Easy Recipes for Little Girls (1927)  Two cups milk Two tablespoons corn-starch One half cup sugar One fourth teaspoon salt Three tablespoons cocoa One half teaspoon vanilla Mix the corn-starch, sugar, salt and cocoa together in the top of the double boiler. Smooth out this mixture with a little of the cold milk. When all the lumps are removed add the rest of the milk slowly.  Put two cups of hot water in the bottom of the double boiler and place over a lighted burner. Put the top part of the boiler in the lower part.  When it begins to thicken on the bottom, stir constantly until it is all about as thick as custard.  Take from the stove and add vanilla. This should be smooth, but if it isn’t, strain through a strainer. Let cool a few minutes and pour into a large serving dish or into individual glasses. When cold set in the ice box or a cool place.  Serve with cream. 

Each recipe in this book is credited to a little girl between the ages 8 and 12, so I decided to call on a child assistant to take the lead on this recipe. To a 21st century parent (at least to this one), age 8 seems young to operate a range, so I wasn’t prepared to leave my assistant chef entirely to her own devices. However, she measured and mixed the cornstarch, sugar, salt, and cocoa (perhaps not quite to Fanny Farmer’s level-measurement standard, but close enough for purposes of pudding) and poured in the milk. However, she rather lost interest during the (admittedly prolonged) stirring and waiting stage. I called her back when the pudding began to thicken and she excitedly stirred in the vanilla, and was eager to try to results, which she declared “great!”

But more often than not I just make a sandwich and salad, or get a buddha bowl at the grocery, or get takeout, or whatever. Because I’m tired and distractible and intimidated, or don’t want to go to the grocery store, or whatever. And I don’t want to cook. I have a longer commute home from my museum, and by the time I get home, I just want to eat quickly. Meal prepping works, but I end up doing it infrequently

But I want to want to cook. And save money. And be healthy. And be more human in expanding the things that reliably give me joy.

Behold

(photos slightly edited so as to not doxx me)