G is for "Gobs"

Grandmothers teach us all sorts of lessons about how to behave, how to play, and how to learn.  My paternal grandmother taught me how to enjoy the little things in life.  She made me appreciative for things like warm buttery toast, a corn maze, a hand-written note, and the great potential in a deck of cards.  She modeled humility and selflessness.  She valued friendship and love over any material object and showed us how to put family first.  She could put together an expansive Thanksgiving feast for twenty while laughing away in the kitchen.  And let me just add that if canning were an Olympic sport, she'd have a lot of gold medals.  For the homemade bread, the potato salad, the savory venison sandwich spread, and the myriad of desserts, I must get my hands on her recipe box!          

Sadly, my beloved Grandma passed away after a serious stroke during the last week in August.  She spent her last five years in a wheel chair at a nursing home, but she didn't let these obstacles hold her back.  She was the president of the residents committee, visited with loved ones daily, wrote letters regularly, and remained eternally optimistic.  She was a strong, admirable woman and lived a happy, fulfilling life.  

I've cried all over my keyboard just typing these two paragraphs because I can barely begin to explain how much I will miss my Grandma.  I can, however, bake.  Sometimes when words escape me, my mind is racing, and my emotions are running rampant, I find it very comforting to spend a while in the kitchen.  

This week I made one of my Grandma's most famous desserts: gobs.  You may know them better as whoopie pies, but to me and my cousins, they will always be gobs.  Grandma made these treats for us every summer and stored them in the chilly coal bin in the basement.  My brother and I would emerge from the basement with a gob in our grasp and Grandma would pour us big glasses of milk.  We ate those sticky sandwiches while sitting next to her on the glider out on the front porch.  It was unforgettable.      

   

Grandma Diehl's Gobs

1 c. cocoa

1/2 c. hot water

1 c. butter

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

4 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Mix together all the ingredients in a mixer.  Grease cookie sheets and drop mixture in equally sized blobs.  Take the back of a spoon, dipped in hot water, and smooth each clump out.  Bake 7-9 minutes at 350 F.  Cool the gob pieces and ice with white frosting or vanilla ice cream to make little chocolate sandwiches.  You can sprinkle a bit of salt on top of them if you like.  Freezes well.  Makes about 30 gobs.

Grandma's Vanilla Icing

2 c. confectioner's sugar

1/2 c. butter, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla

milk

Mix together in a mixer with enough milk to make a consistency like cake frosting.  Add milk 1 Tbsp. at a time.