What's a Hen Got to do With It? : The Mud Hen Bar

PROJECT PATISSERIE: Adventure #11

What’s a Hen Got to do With It: The Mud Hen Bar

“What in creation is a mud hen?” That’s what I was asking myself when I came across the Mud Hen Bar recipe in my Amish cookbook. The funny thing about Amish cookbooks is that there’s not a picture to be found in them so (to paraphrase a certain California Representative) I had to bake it in order to find out.

We have a flock of chickens at home. I’ve seen them in all conditions- including very muddy, but they never reminded me of a dessert. I’ve also heard of mud puppies, which I mistakenly thought was Southern vernacular for an alligator (it’s apparently a salamander) - but a mud hen?

Never one to give up on the pursuit of useless knowledge, I turned to the internet. It turns out that there is such a thing as a Mud Hen- it’s apparently the common name for the American Coot, a water bird that looks a bit like a duck crossbred with a chicken. If you’re having trouble visualizing such a creature, dear readers, imagine a duck’s head on a chicken’s body, but with smoother feathers- that’s a Mud Hen. One photograph did show the American Coot as having a brown and white coloring. Mud Hen Bars are brown and white- so maybe that’s the connection?

It turns out Mud Hen Bars (we’re talking about the dessert now, not a place where the American Coots congregate over beer) are a Southern dessert. I got very excited because the American Coot is found in parts of the South, but then I kept reading and learned that they are also quite common as far north as British Columbia. Finding myself at a loss, I formed this hypothesis: a Southern baker/ ornithologist with a penchant for the American Coot named a dessert after it- that’s my shot in the dark. Alas, this may just be one culinary mystery that will have to be left unsolved.

Culinary enigmas aside, I recall introducing friends and family to this dessert at a recent party as Mud Hen Bars, or Muddy Hens, or some variation thereof. My family must have been equally puzzled by the name as they very quickly became known as the “ooey-gooey bars” probably thanks to the marshmallows.

These are quick and very easy to make. While they look like a gooey mess, and they are a bit gooey, the funny thing about these guys is that, after being refrigerated, they taste like brownies. It’s the darndest thing and quite fitting for a dessert with such mysterious origins to have an equally mysterious taste.

A word of warning: these are very sweet. In addition to the chocolate, marshmallows, and then the brown sugar used in the meringue topping, the recipe calls for an additional cup of sugar for the batter. On the next go round I think I’ll try to scale back on the sugar in the batter and see if the results aren’t better.

The Mud Hen Bar (a.k.a. The Ooey-Gooey Bar) Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix together ½ c. of melted butter and 1 c. of sugar. Beat in one whole egg and two eggs yolks (save the whites.) Add 1 ½ c. flour, 1 tsp. baking powder,  ¼ tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Mix thoroughly and the spread the mixture in a greased 9 x 13 pan. 

Scatter 1 c. of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 c. of miniature marshmallows over the batter.

In a clean bowl, beat the two left-over egg whites until stiff peaks form, and then slowly add 1 c. of brown sugar. Beat just until incorporated. Spread this over the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares. 

The Mud Hen

                                          

                                                    ...and the Mud Hen. Does anyone get the reference?