Chocolate Dipping Sauce

2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp superfine sugar
5 oz semisweet bakers chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp Canadian Maple Whiskey

Boil the cream and sugar together over medium high heat.  Stir often.  Once mixture comes to a boil remove from heat and stir in bakers chocolate.  Mix until smooth.  Add in Canadian Maple Whiskey.

Serve warm.

Makes about 1 cup.

Flavored Sugars

Flavored sugars are super easy to make.  A variety of herbs, spices, edible flowers, citrus fruits or an aromatic blend of any of these can be combined with either granulated, superfine, or any type of sugar you may want to experiment with.  I use flavored sugars to add a punch of flavour to hot or iced tea, coffee, hot chocolate, smoothies and punches.  They can be added to zest up your cakes, cookies, squares and puddings. Spoon some over your grapefruit in the morning or add just a touch to your bowl of hot oatmeal.  Sprinkle a little in your plain cream cheese spread or drop some in a jar of fresh chocolate dipping sauce.   

For every 1 vanilla bean pod, whole or sliced and scraped, use 2 cups of sugar.  Let sit in airtight container for about a week or two.  


"For flavored sugars, combine 2 tbsp. of chopped fresh mint, or grated orange or lemon rind, with one lb. of superfine sugar in a tightly closed jar for a week.  Sift before using in tea."

Betty Crocker's Guide to Easy Entertaining, Wiley Publishing Inc. Copyright 1959

Brethren Cheddar Bread

Brethren Cheddar Bread
An Old Recipe From The Hancock Shaker Village, Hancock, Massachusetts

Makes 4 loaves (each 7 3/8 x 3 5/8 x 2 1/4)

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 cups coarsely shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dill weed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups milk

Sift together into a large mixing bowl the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until crumbly - about the texture of uncooked oatmeal.  Stir in the shredded cheese and the dill.  Combine the eggs and milk, then add all at once, stirring just enough to moisten the dry ingredients uniformly.  Divide batter among 4 very well-greased 7 3/8 x 3 5/8 x 2 1/4-inch loaf pans and bake in a hot oven (400 degrees) for 35 to 40 minutes or until loaves are nicely browned and sound hollow when thumped.  Coll loaves upright in their pans on wire racks for 10 minutes, then invert and remove from pans.  Slice fairly thick (about 1/2-inch thick) and serve.

Taken from Recipes From America's Restored Villages. by Jean Anderson.
Published by Doubleday & Company, 1975