Patisserie Chezbonneau was invited to liven up a special gathering in the ASD MS/HS Library on September 16. Representatives from the Qatar National Library were on campus to help ASD teachers sign up and have access to the new library. Chezbonneau spent a bit of time Monday evening cranking out three Magnolia recipes to share.

Walnut Brown Sugar Squares – Butterscotch Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies – Black Bottom Cupcakes.

CAN’T FIND THIS RECIPE AVAILABLE ON THE WEB

 Well……. This was the third recipe of the night. Why did I choose to bake it on THIS night? Because, in the words of Magnolia, “This is one of the easiest and quickest recipes in the book” (p. 83). I thought that I just HAD to offer a bit of variety and hoped that all would work out. IT DID!

If you LOVE brown sugar, as I do, you gotta love this recipe. Half (more or less) of the volume is made up of two ingredients – brown sugar, walnuts. There is jus barely enough flour and one egg to hold the sugar and nuts in place.

SECRET INSIDE? Why did I call this the most “French” of theses “traditional American pastries”? Becauzzzzze, the walnuts came from our walnut trees at Chezbonneau, France. Our neighbors gathered them for us last autumn. My wife cracked them all (shame on us lazy ones!) this summer and WE ate them just now. Luckily, she is happy to share this family treasure with others. And I know a number of people were glad she did.

Based on hallway feedback, I’d say this was the second most popular recipe of the day. If you sampled some of this desert but didn’t leave a comment on the blog, I invite you to do so while your memory buds can still taste the sugar.

LEARNED: Simple can be sooooooo good. Don’t mess up simple with fancy anything – or else have a very good reason for doing so.

DETOUR: Luckily, nothing went wrong. I didn’t forget and leave anything out of the recipe because there was almost nothing to forget.