Brown Gravy

 Ingredients 

• 22g beef Better Than Bouillon 
• 12g chicken Better Than Bouillon 
• 2 ¼ cups water
• 4 Tablespoons butter (although beef or chicken drippings would be best)
• 2 ozs AP flour
• ⅛ tsp onion powder
• heaping ¼ tsp black pepper
• ¼ tsp Accent (MSG)

Instructions 

1. Dissolve the beef and chicken Better Than Bouillon in the water. Set aside.
2. Combine the flour, onion powder, and pepper. Set aside.
3. Melt the fat over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the flour mixture. Stirring frequently, cook until the roux is just about the color of peanut butter.
4. While stirring, slowly pour in half the liquid. Once it is incorporated into the roux, add the remaining liquid.
5. Stir in the MSG.

Tuxedo Cake

 Adapted from “Tuxedo Cake - Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake” by Bonni Bakery

MAKE SURE TO PROOFREAD THIS RECIPE. WAS HASTILY TRANSCRIBED.

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Cake (this makes 3 cakes)

    

Note: I have replaced the original cake recipe with Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake:

• 3 cups sugar 
• 315 grams all-purpose flour 
• 1 ⅛ cups (90g) HERSHEY'S Cocoa 
• 2 ¼  tsps baking powder
• 2 ¼ tsps baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ teaspoon instant espresso powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cup milk
• 168 grams vegetable oil
• 3 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cup boiling water

For the Chocolate Mousses 

Note: This is 1.5x the amount called for in the original recipe.

• 6 Large Egg Yolks
• 3 cups Heavy Cream (divided equally into 2 bowls)
• 3 tablespoon Granulated Sugar 
• 2.5 Tablespoons superfine sugar
• 3 tablespoon Cornstarch
• 2 teaspoon Vanilla
• 5.25 oz/150g Dark Chocolate
• 90g Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate*
• 60g Hershey’s Milk Chocolate*
• 6.75 oz/195g  White Chocolate*

For the Chocolate Ganache

• 3 ozs Hershey’s Milk Chocolate*
• 2 ozs Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate*
• ⅓ cup Heavy Cream 80g / 80ml
• ½ tsp espresso powder

Instructions

Make the Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease three 9-inch cake pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, HERSHEY’S Cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder in the bowl of a stand mixer.
3. Add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.
4. Stir in the boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Cool completely and then wrap each cake individually and refrigerate.

Make the Chocolate Mousses

1. In a food processor, process both types of chocolate together until they are very fine. Set aside. Next, process white chocolate until very fine. Set aside in a separate bowl.
2. Put egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar and cornstarch and whisk until they become slightly thick and pale.
3. Pour one of the bowls of cream into a saucepan with the vanilla and warm over medium-low
4. heat until it is scalding hot (180°). This means it is giving off steam and there are tiny bubbles appearing on the surface. Don't let it boil.
5. Drizzle a little of the hot cream into the egg yolks and whisk it in.
6. Keep drizzling a little more, whisking the whole time, until all the cream is added. Then pour the entire mixture back into the saucepan and return to the heat.
7. Heat the mixture, whisking constantly (but not vigorously - just enough to keep it moving and avoid burning) until it begins to thicken.
8. Remove from the heat and put half of the mixture into the bowl with dark/milk chocolate and
9. half in with the white chocolate. Mix 2.5 Tablespoons additional superfine sugar into the dark/milk chocolate mixture.
10. Mix each bowl until the chocolate (and sugar) has completely melted.
11. In a separate bowl, whip up the reserved heavy cream until stiff peaks form.By the time you have whipped the cream, the custard mousses should have cooled to room temperature. If they are still warm, let them cool completely, then split the whipped cream evenly between the two chocolate mousse mixtures and fold it in gently until completely combined.
12. Pour the dark chocolate mousse on top of the bottom cake layer in your dessert ring and smooth it out with a spatula. If your dark chocolate mousse is still very liquid, put it in the fridge for a few minutes after pouring.
13. Once the dark chocolate mousse has set up, place a second cake on top of the dark chocolate mousse.
14. Pour the white chocolate mousse on top of the second cake and smooth it out in the same way. 
15. Put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add the third cake layer on top, then return to the fridge to set for at least 4 hours.

Make the Chocolate Ganache

1. Once the cake has been chilling for at least 4 hours, remove it from the fridge and release it from the cake ring. Return to the fridge while you make your ganache.
2. In a food processor, process both types of chocolate and place it in a bowl.
3. Heat the cream and espresso powder on medium heat, just until scalding (tiny bubbles just starting to form). Don't let it boil. Remove from the heat and pour the cream over the chocolate. Let it sit for a minute.
4. Mix the cream and the chocolate together until completely melted, glossy and smooth. Let it cool completely to room temperature. It should be thick enough that it won't just run off the side of the cake, but thin enough to spread out into a nice smooth layer on top of the cake.
5. Spread the ganache on top of the cake and use a spatula or knife to spread it out to the edges.

Candied Maple Bourbon Pecans

Ingredients 

• 3/8 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup maple sugar
• heaping ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg white
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1teaspoon bourbon
• ⅛ cup maple syrup
• 1 pound pecan halves

Directions 

1. Preheat the oven to just under 250 degrees F
2. Mix white sugar, maple sugar, and salt together in a small bowl.
3. Whisk egg white, water, vanilla, and bourbon together in a large bowl until frothy. 
4. Pour pecans into the egg white mixture and then pour the maple syrup over the pecans. Toss to coat.
5. Slowly pour in sugar mixture and stir until pecans are evenly coated.
6. Spread onto a parchment-lined baking sheet; Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Stir pecans and rearrange into a single layer. Continue to cook, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes, until pecans are evenly browned, another 30 to 50 minutes.*

*Baked to perfection: I baked for 10 minutes on the bottom rack. Stirred, rotated, and baked on middle rack for 15 minutes. Stirred, rotated, and baked on the bottom rack for 15 minutes. Stirred, rotated, and baked on middle rack for 10 minutes.