Sweet confection

The bottom layer of my crème de menthe bars are puffy when I take them out of the oven. But, with no leavening agent, I know that they will flatten right out when cooling. And, with crème de menthe bars, this is a good thing because they are a three-layer confection, with a moist (flat) chocolate cake layer on the bottom, crème de menthe flavored icing (hence the name) in the middle, and a chocolate frosting as the final and decadent layer. Cut into neat tri-layered squares, they have become a staple in my winter holiday cooking.

And while I could tell a story about acquiring the recipe from an old Woman’s Day magazine, inherited from Lillian Hector in my early days in Narrowsburg, and how I lost the recipe when my house burned down in 1986 and recovered it again when the bars were on a holiday table some eight years later, today I want to talk about leavening, how we puff up with the heat of baking, or in the heat of passion, but how if we have no inner core, or leavening agent as it were, we will not stay puffed. We will not be leavened.

And, at this time where the news is confusing at best, the point that I want to make is that leavening, or some substance of faith, is necessary for our well being.

And in the spirit of not knowing any answers and, specifically, not knowing answers for you, I simply ask you to think about what it is in your life that, when mixed with heat, causes you to rise and to stay risen.

Of course, I can imagine that if you consider yourself to be like the bottom layer of the rich chocolate layer of crème de menthe bars, you might argue that you don’t have to be puffed, you don’t have to find an inner core that stands on its own. You function in harmony with green icing and sweet chocolate confection. And that might be true, too. We all have our part to play.

And with that in mind, I then pass on the wisdom of it's “good to know.” It fits in with the philosophy of the early Greeks and the late Dr. Howard Patton who always told me “know thyself.”

That and passing on this recipe of Christmas treats, lest I might lose it again, undoubtedly, will get us through our day.

Crème De Menthe Bars
Cake layer:
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
½ tsp. salt
½ cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 16 oz. can of Hersey’s syrup
Cream butter and add all ingredients except flour. Mix until well blended. Add flour, mix until smooth. Pour into greased 13 x 9 inch pan and bake for 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Mint Layer
Cream ½ cup butter. Sift 2 cups of powered sugar. Add to butter. Blend. Add 2 tablespoons of crème de menthe. Spread on the cooled cake.

Chocolate frosting
Melt 6 oz. of chocolate chips, (1 cup) with 6 oz. of butter. Cool for 10 to 20 minutes and spread on top of the mint layer.

Cut into small squares and enjoy.