Le Top Chef Series: Wholesome Brownies

Happy bakers in the kitchen!

…submitted by guest contributor: Dawn

“Wholesome” Brownies from Jane Brody’s Good Food Book (with comments from Dawn)

1  6-oz. package (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 scant cup quick-cooking rolled oats
¼ cup wheat germ
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt, if desired
½ cup chopped walnuts
2 eggs
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Makes 8 inch square pan (I usually double the recipe and put in a 13 X 9 pan, or a cookie sheet to make thinner brownies which are not as chewy as those made in a 13 X 9 pan).

1. In the top of a double boiler or in a small heavy saucepan over very low heat, melt the chocolate chips and the butter or margarine. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir the mixture until it is smooth. Set it aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the oats, wheat germ, dry milk, baking powder, salt and nuts. Set the mixture aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, and mix in the brown and white sugars and the vanilla until the mixture is thick.  Stir in the melted-chocolate mixture. Fold in the oats mixture until it is just blended. Pour the batter in a greased 8 inch square baking pan.

4. Bake the brownies in a preheated  350F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is crisp but a toothpick  inserted in the center of the pan comes out slightly moist. Set the pan on a rack to cool completely before cutting the cake into 5 strips in each direction. (Cut in these small portions, only 85 calories each.)

Editor’s Note: This is one recipe that Dawn tells me she has made many times, so it must be good!! Should I be on the look-out for any in my mailbox? 😉

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Coming Up for Air!

Design Manager, Anna managing kids coming and going at our crazy-fun go-see!

January and February are always exciting months here at le top! During this time we finalize our new collection for the fall and winter – yes, we have to work that far ahead! – then we put together everything to show off our designs to buyers for the season. What does that take? In a word – lots!!! Our first step is getting in all our samples, and “fluffing” them (my word) for taking care of any little problems, hanging, pricing, tagging and finally shipping out a set of everything to our sales representatives located all over the United States.

Second big challenge – photography! This crazy fun task starts with a ‘go-see’ – fashion terminology for model tryouts (I think I promised a little “more” about our go-see a couple months ago when I  first wrote about this. Sorry it took so long – I’m only now coming up for air). This is always pure madness! The go-see is held at our corporate offices – and this year we had a huge turn-out – 128 darlings! Loads of energy – I wish I could bottle and sell it! We joke that we do our own version of “American Idol” – since Karen, our art director, Charly, and I all sit at a table and ‘see’ all the little cuties one by one as they try on our new styles. We look at how the clothes fit and whether the child seems to like doing the modeling – then we have to make some really difficult decisions! Once we have our cast, we start planning our actual photo shoot. Our fabulous photographer, Marcy Maloy met with Charly and me to discuss the details of sets, lighting and all the little details that go into making our magical photos.

This season all the stars aligned and we have great photographs and a very exciting collection! Our sales representatives are showing the samples to store buyers – and they love it! Of course the new fall collections will not be in stores until June, July and August – but here are a few sneak peeks from the photo shoot!

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