The Global Kitchen

My 3 year old nephew came to visit and he has a serious sweet tooth so I thought it was a good time to try Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla Ice Cream.

And serious it is! Very vanilla-y which I love! It also keeps well. Seems like a lot of homemade ice creams turn rock hard or to leather. This one did not. I think that's why Alton added the peach preserves-to use the pectin as a stabilizer. It doesn't add any peach flavor.

Recipe HERE. The fudge sauce is from a jar.

This sounds weird but it's really really good! The recipe is from Rick Bayless. It's also fairly healthy as far as ice cream goes. Dairy free to boot!

If you want a kid friendly version replace the tequila with lemonade.

Recipe from Eating Well, March/April 2010 is HERE.

Alton Brown also makes a version I plan on trying but his has whole milk and heavy cream. I'm sure it's good. That recipe is HERE.

The pie is dairy free, the whipped cream is not.

The silken tofu really adds a nice texture and even supposed tofu haters like my boyfriend agree this is a great pie.

I used Kahlúa for the coffee liqueur. I'm really glad Bev Mo sells sample sizes because full bottles are expensive! But it's tasty stuff and if I were a drinker I would have bought a bottle.

It's also incredibly easy. Melt, mix, pour and chill.

Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown HERE.

My very generous parents bought me a Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas. She's stainless and her name is Tabitha. I plan on baking more whole grain breads and I'm definitely buying the meat grinder and grain mill attachments.

I wanted to break her in but we had so many leftovers I really didn't want to add to the food stock until we had gotten rid of them. But my boyfriends favorite cookie is peanut butter. I was perusing recipes and realized we had all the ingredients on hand. And since they're his favorite, more of them will probably go to his waistline instead of mine. Heh-heh.

I used THIS recipe from Bon Appetit's January 1998 issue because the reviewers mentioned how easy and chewy they are. They were definitely chewy to me but Jim said they we very good but could be chewier. I told him to just eat the dough. I definitely recommend the recipe.

The only change I made is using my silpat instead of parchment paper.

There's a lot of buzz about these chocolate chip cookies that appeared in the NY Times Dining In section about creating the perfect chocolate chip cookie (as the article notes, perfecting the chocolate chip cookie is to a baker what the perfecting the omelet is to a chef)

I'm not a dessert person but I LOVE chocolate chip cookies, whether they're Toll House or that $250 Neiman Marcus recipe.

These are as easy as the Toll House. The hard part was letting cookie dough sit unmolested in my refrigerator for 36 hours.

The end result was definitely worth the wait. The cookies do stay nice and soft and I liked the taste of salt on the outside and the sweetness on the inside.

I followed some other bloggers suggestion to measure the ingredients by weight instead of using measuring cups. It seems that everyone got better results that way. I let the dough sit for a while before scooping as it was hard as a rock when I took it out of the refrigerator. I also used an ice cream scoop to make the very large cookies. I couldn't find the Valrhona fèves so I used Guittard Super Cookie Chips which are my new favorite chips! I don't have a stand mixer so I used my hand mixer for the dough and stirred in the chips by hand.







New York Times July 9, 2008
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Jacques Torres

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Note: Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate; Valrhona fèves, oval-shaped chocolate pieces, are at Whole Foods.

A friend of mine commented on the lack of desserts on this blog. The reason is that I'm one of those weird people without a sweet tooth. I have a salt tooth, a spice tooth and even a garlic tooth but dessert just doesn't entice me.

I made this pudding for the first time a couple of years ago for a work poutluck and my coworkers have requested it for every potluck ever since. I don't mind. It's easy and I never take home leftovers. It's always a hit.

This is also the only Paula Deen recipe I have ever made. Which is probably why, after having blood work done last week, the doctor told me my blood pressure, cholesterol and gluclose levels are all perfect. Paula's recipes tend to scare me. I once saw her fry butter. Yes fried butter. My arteries clogged at the mere thought.



Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
6 to 8 bananas, sliced
2 cups milk
1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream (Cool Whip and their store brand equivalents only come in 8 and 16 oz containers. I bought a 16 and eyeballed it.)

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer.

Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth.

Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended.

Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve