Family recipes brings sweet memories of Mamaw Dorthia

Autumn Baker of Bruce shared a family favorite recipe that she is sentimental about.
Her husband, Craig’s, mamaw (Dorthia Baker) always made biscuits and chocolate gravy for breakfast for him as a child.
“I never had that growing up,” said Autumn.
“My first visit to Bruce, Mamaw made them for me and ever since then we have enjoyed them for breakfast on Saturdays,” she said.
Their children love having the chocolate gravy over biscuits for breakfast.

“We made it Mamaw’s way earlier in our marriage, but have changed it to a thicker consistency due to our preference,” she said.
“The chocolate gravy recipe brings so many precious memories of watching Mamaw stand in her kitchen mixing and sharing stories with her great grands while I listen in,” she said.
“We have many different sweets that come to mind when we think of Mamaw,” she said.?

Her chess pie, with the option of making it chocolate, was another one she mentioned.
Autumn described Mrs. Baker as a very resourceful women who learned to use all she had. “If she had a cup of greem beans left over in a pan, she would freeze them to add to other leftovers to make stew for another meal,” she said.
Mrs. Dorthia made a book of handwritten recipes to pass on, and Autumn is so happy to have it.

Chocolate Gravy
Ingredients:
1 cup self rising flour
1.5 cups sugar
4 heaping Tbsp. cocoa
powder
4 Tbsp. butter
.5 cup cooking oil
4 cups water
Directions:
Put everything except water in a skillet. Heat on high while whisking to remove lumps. When mixture begins to boil/thicken, add water and continue to whisk until mixed. (You can add additional water to lessen thickness as desired.) Continuously scrape bottom of skillet to keep from sticking. About 20 seconds of boiling is sufficient, then remove from heat.
Yields: 6-7 cups (1 large skillet)

Chess Pie
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
4 Tbsp. meal
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
5 Tbsp. milk
1 stick oleo
1 1/2 Tbsp. vinegar
Combine all except milk. Beat well, the longer the better. Add milk, beat again. Pour in unbaked shell. Bake 45 minutes, 350°. Put small bits of oleo on top of pie to brown and make pie taste better. (May add cocoa for a chocolate chess pie.)