I was too busy to make Halloween sweet treats, but I plan on making cookies for Thanksgiving. Here are some cookie cutters for the season:
Copper Gifts (pilgrim, pilgrim hat and turkey shaped cutters)
Cookie Cutter Shop (they have squirrel cutters)
I took the train into Boston on Saturday to attend Podcamp Boston and on the trip home picked up some chocolates from Serenade Chocolatier in S. Station. Their flagship store is in Brookline.
The truffles are quite large and very rich. The chunky, cocoa dusted chocolate was seemingly in two layers, the super-creamy ganache interior and a harder chocolate exterior. They were tasty, but not quite worth the $2.50/piece price tag. Don’t get me wrong, handmade chocolate is tastier and more labor intensive than the candy off the store shelf, but truffles are quite easy to make by hand–no tempering required.
Perhaps that’s what I’ll bring to a party I’m attending next weekend.
Many of you have asked where I purchased my 3-tier cupcake carrier. I found it at Kmart earlier this year — it’s from the Martha Stewart Everyday collection. Unfortunately they don’t seem to carry it any longer. So for those in need of easy cupcake transport, here are some other suggestions:
Cupcake Courier
Crate & Barrel cupcake carrier
Onieda cupcake carrier
King Arthur cupcake caddy
Bill Buford was a guest on On Point yesterday. His New Yorker piece on Extreme Chocolate is in the October 29 issue.
Welcome to Offbeat Eating. The concept for this site has been in the back of my mind for years and finally went live this month! As part of the build process I searched to find some interesting graphics for the site. And I found them in the grocery store — in the form of the sardine cans that decorate the site.
My challenge to you readers: What should I make with my many cans of sardines in tomato sauce?
I’m reading up on the creaming method vs. two-stage method of cake mixing. I’m starting with CookWise and will then move on to more baking books.
It’s easy enough to find excellent recipes for chocolate or vanilla cakes, but I’d like to be able to create my own [tasty] cake recipes for fruit flavors and other non-mainstream ingredients.
These are the cupcakes from the last entry’s recipe — maraschino cherry cupcake injected with lime jello and frosted with lime buttercream. They taste even better frosted.
Brought these along to today’s Craftland meeting for a snack between inventory mailings and website updates.
I adapted this maraschino cake recipe from my 1947 edition of the BH&G Cookbook. That recipe called for shortening — I did an even substitute with 1/2 cup of butter and left out the nuts. I filled them with lime jello and they will spend the evening chilling. Tomorrow I frost.
Of course I tasted a cupcake fresh out of the oven and was happily surprised at how tender these cakes turned out. I was a bit worried as it’s a one-bowl recipe and the flour mixture spent a total of 4 minutes in the mixing bowl. With only egg whites it’s slightly dry, but the jello should take care of that.
Frosted pictures tomorrow.
I was first introduced to the crunchy, caramel-filled Lion Bar while spending a semester in the Netherlands back in 1994. I had been living on fries with mayo, filled almond cookies and pounds of hazelnut chocolate. It was by accident that tasted my first Lion Bar. The cafeteria was out of Nutella so I couldn’t prepare my usual dessert of chocolate spread slathered on fresh bread. In desperation I purchased a Lion Bar in order to get my chocolate fix that evening. It was an affair that continues to this day.
Luckily you can find this candy at most larger grocery chains in the import aisle. Earlier this year there were reports that Nestle would stop making Lion bar due to poor sales, though there haven’t been any updates to that story…looks like the Lion Bar lives on.
It’s that time of year when eggplant is bountiful and cheap. I’ve been throwing the purple, white and graffiti variety into everything from pasta dishes to salads. I haven’t made any Baba ganoush yet, perhaps this weekend.
Here’s a list of some of dishes that look tasty:
Eggplant Croques Monsieurs
Eggplant Fritters
Red Thai Curry with Eggplant
Thai-style Pork with Eggplant
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