Desserts

Chocolate Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies

October 5, 2011 by Charles 6 Comments

You have to applaud the marketing efforts of Nutella. Nutella is, as the box proudly proclaims, little more than sugar and a mix of hazelnuts and cocoa. Indeed, the first ingredient listed is sugar. Owing to its healthy mix of hazelnuts, the spread also has its share of fat. And yet, Nutella is branded as a necessary component of a balanced breakfast – as if it contained some vital, indispensable nutrients. In almost all of its marketing literature, Nutella is featured at the breakfast table.

In fairness, Nutella does not advocate downing spoonful after spoonful of its spread. Instead, the company notes that without Nutella, you might forego that piece of otherwise boring whole wheat toast. In that respect, …

Homemade Sea Salt Caramels

July 17, 2011 by Charles 170 Comments

These are amazing caramels!

When Caitlin and I were in San Francisco last month, we stopped in the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero. It was around 11:00 a.m. and, even though had lunch plans in an hour, we thought it would be fun to wander through the marketplace. We shared a sorbet from the Ciao Bella stand and then went across the hall to a small food store to find (something else) to hold me over until lunch.

At the checkout stand, there was a tin bin, filled with several varieties of caramels. I can’t remember the different kinds, but I do know that we grabbed two or three to have “later.”…

Low-Fat Vanilla-Pistachio Caramels

July 16, 2011 by Charles 12 Comments

After making my cream caramels, I decided it would be fun to experiment. In particular, I was curious to know if the recipe would work with low-fat milk instead of cream. Unfortunately, my adherence to the scientific method was somewhat lackluster. Instead of introducing a single variable, I introduced two: pistachios and low-fat milk.

These caramels were not as soft as the plain ones, but they were not altogether hard. I suspect, though, that it was the chopped pistachios and not the absence of cream that made these caramels a little harder. On the topic of taste, I’m happy to report …

Birds’ Nests

May 18, 2011 by Charles 10 Comments

Two years ago, Caitlin and I designed the Grim Peeper, our submission for the Washington Post’s annual Peep Contest. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the time to collaborate on any recent peep project.

And yet, I still had a bag or two of those yellow marshmallows sitting around the kitchen, chirping to be used. Around Easter, I noticed a few food blogs featuring bird’s nests, combining chow mein noodles with some of the ubiquitous bagged candy.

Though I liked the concept, the idea of chow mein noodles and chocolate did not sound appealing….

Mint Chocolate Brownies

April 11, 2011 by Charles 5 Comments

As I’ve noted before, it’s important to have a food gameplan when picking Caitlin up from the airport. That means having a restaurant and itinerary picked out in advance of pick-up.

In addition, I also like to have a snack waiting for Caitlin when she arrives – a little something to tide her over during the drive back into the city. Often, the snack is home-made, something sweet that I’ve made either that day, or the day before. Occasionally, though, time gets ahead of me, and I have to settle on something from the store.

But whether it was store-bought or home-made, I had, apparently, developed a steady habit of having a snack in the car on those airport trips. To the point where I had created a nearly Pavlovian connection between the airport and baked goods.

Sure enough, …