Bob Dylan Fudge Bars

The PBS station out of Duluth runs a cooking special every few months during their pledge drives. They put together a cookbook based on a theme and local people submit recipes. They then choose about ten recipes to be featured on the special which aired today. The theme this time was "C is for Comfort." One of the instructors at Hibbing Community College is a co-chair of Dylan Days in Hibbing. He writes an editorial for the Hibbing Sunday paper every week and I always make a point to read it. He also has a blog that I check out every few days. He submitted a recipe and was featured on today's show. I'm his stalker.

The weekly food section of the Duluth News Tribune featured some of the recipes this past week. As I was reading through it, I recognized Aaron Brown's name and read through the recipe and realized I had everything to make it, so I did. The recipe is from Bob Dylan's mother - Betty Zimmerman, who died in 2000. I'd have to imagine that she made them for her son. Wouldn't you?

Bob Dylan Fudge Bars

1/3 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup cake flour (or 1 cup regular flour minus 2 Tbsp)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
1/4 chopped nuts, optional
chocolate frosting

Cream the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt until fluffy. Add cocoa to the well-creamed mixture. Hand-mix the flour, baking powder, and milk to the mixture. Mix in nuts if you wish. Pour mixture into a greased and floured 9x9 inch or 8x10 inch pan. Place in a 350 degree oven. Bake about 25 minutes until the sides shrink from the sides (I did the clean toothpick test). Remove from oven and cool. Frost with chocolate frosting. It makes 16 bars.

I didn't have a can of frosting, but made cocoa frosting from my Betty Crocker cookbook - it was great. Simple to do and so much better than the canned stuff. The bars were excellent. I ate two of them with a glass of milk right after I frosted them . I'm trying to buy less mixes and actually cook and bake from scratch, so I was very game to try this simple recipe. I will definitely make them again.

Odds are you have the ingredients on hand to make them too. Give it a try!