Candy Cane Chocolate Loaves

Week five hundred. Five hundred weeks since I first wrote about standing in my kitchen at 5:47 AM making grits for Marcus because he was tired of cereal. Five hundred weeks of cooking and writing and grieving and celebrating and standing at stoves in three different kitchens — College Park, the church, and now Cascade Heights. Five hundred weeks of Mama's recipes and my own recipes and the slow, steady evolution of a woman who started this at thirty-five with a sick mother and two children and a mortgage she felt every month and is now forty-four with a published cookbook and a nonprofit and a blended family and a father in a wheelchair and a magnolia tree outside her kitchen window.

Christmas Day. The table holds nine: me, Derek, Marcus, Keisha, Jasmine, Isaiah, Zoe, Curtis, and Mama's empty plate. The meal: everything. Turkey, ham, dressing, mac and cheese, Isaiah's greens, Zoe's cornbread in Mama's skillet, Keisha's beans, cobbler. The table groaning. The table holding. The table doing what tables do: bearing the weight of love and food and the people who carry both.

After dinner, Curtis asked to hold the cookbook. He'd held it before — in January, when it arrived. But this time he held it differently. He turned to the Folgers can chapter. He read it. Slowly, with his one good hand turning pages, his lips moving with the words the way they move when he talks to Mama. He finished the chapter and looked at me and said, "You didn't stop."

You didn't stop. Three words from a man who communicates in single syllables and food criticism and the occasional "hm." Three words that contained nine years of grief and a dead wife's last request and a living daughter's promise kept. You didn't stop. The three words are the review. The three words are the Folgers can and the fried chicken and the five hundred weeks and the ten thousand meals and the magnolia tree and the line. You didn't stop. I didn't, Daddy. I didn't stop. I won't stop. The stove is on. The table is set. The line holds. Five hundred weeks. And counting.

Five hundred weeks deserved something sweet on that table — something that looked as festive as the moment felt. I’d made the cobbler because Mama always made the cobbler, but I wanted one thing that was purely about celebration, about color and joy and the fact that we were all still here. These Candy Cane Chocolate Loaves have become my Christmas morning ritual: the smell of dark cocoa and peppermint filling Cascade Heights before the family arrives, before the turkey goes in, before Curtis takes his place at the table. Slice one alongside your coffee or set it out with the desserts — either way, it tastes like a promise kept.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 58 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 18 minutes | Servings: 16 (two loaves, 8 slices each)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup finely crushed candy canes, divided
For the glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons whole milk
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease two standard 9x5-inch loaf pans and line them with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides for easy lifting.
Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until no cocoa clumps remain.
Mix wet ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together both sugars, eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract until smooth and fully combined.
Bring the batter together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold gently with a rubber spatula until just combined — do not overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of the crushed candy canes.
Fill the pans. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans, smoothing the tops. Tap each pan lightly on the counter to release air bubbles.
Bake. Bake for 55–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each loaf comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Tent loosely with foil after 40 minutes if the tops are browning too quickly.
Cool. Let loaves cool in the pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then lift out using the parchment overhang and cool completely on the rack before glazing, at least 45 minutes.
Make the glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and peppermint extract in a small bowl until smooth and pourable. If the glaze is too thick, add milk one teaspoon at a time.
Glaze and finish. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled loaves in a back-and-forth motion. Immediately scatter the remaining 1/4 cup crushed candy canes over the wet glaze. Allow the glaze to set for 10 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Candy Cane Chocolate Loaves — Five Hundred Weeks and the Table Still Holds