S’More is Better

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by Chewy

August 10th is  National S’Mores Day and I couldn’t be s’more excited!  Do you remember the first time you experienced this ooey gooey sugar coma inducing treat? I must have been very young, because I don’t have a clue. Coming from a long line of Girl Scouts (on my mother’s side) it was just naturally a part of my culture and DNA. Must-have- s’mores! I believe the three necessary ingredients were packed in all of our emergency kits. Kind of like the keg of brandy on the Saint Bernard dogs (I’m thinking I may have some of that in my DNA too.)

Like so many of our classic desserts, culinary transitionists are attempting to add a twist to our traditional s’more line up. Nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn’t get too crazy (I don’t want to see any anchovies added for the salty/sweet principle).  Offered for your amusement are my top ten entries for the “Twisted S’More” category.

The Turtle: Adored in candy and ice cream, what could possibly go wrong with adding pecans and caramel to chocolate and marshmallow? In this case, more is merrier!

The Oreo: A nod to another iconic confection and working with the dark-creamy-dark theme, this is created by using chocolate graham crackers, marshmallows, white chocolate and crumbled Oreos.

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Banana Split: I’m not sure how you’re suppose to stuff all of this between two crackers, so I am advocating a bowl for your safety. There are just some things you have to adjust for amateurs. Take your basic s’more and add strawberries, bananas and nuts. Also counts as a fruit serving.

The Caribbean: Nothing like bringing a bit of the tropics to your campfire setting. Starting with the classic s’more, add a ring of pineapple and sprinkle with coconut. Stick an umbrella on it and you’ve created a fiesta!

The PB&J: Two classics go toe to toe with graham crackers, marshmallow, peanut butter and jelly. Variations on this theme could involve the Reeses, skip the jelly and add the chocolate back in.

The Grasshopper: For that minty fresh feeling, replace the chocolate bar with Andes mints. I’m pondering real grasshoppers to add protein and an international flair. Remember the cicada ice cream?

Mexican: The traditional line up with a smattering of cinnamon and nutmeg. Reminds me a little of horchata.

Fruit Pizzazz: Simply add your favorite fruit to the original. What fruit doesn’t taste better with melted chocolate on it?

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Peep-O-Rama: Instead of your run of the mill marshmallow, use a sugared marshmallow peep. Grab several colors and add a rainbow to the festivities.

The Elvis: Saving the best for last, this list would not be complete without a nod to pork progression. You know I mean BACON! Made famous by the King, this concoction entails graham crackers, marshmallow, peanut butter cup and a banana slice. Where’s the pork, you ask? The chef left it out, but I am strongly advocating it’s re-addition. All in favor say “aye“. The “ayes” have it and the motion passes, bacon there is!

Now that your imagination has hopefully been stimulated, feel free to make your own list of campfire cuisine dessert combos slapped between two graham crackers. If you create any winners, be sure and share!

S’More to it Than That!

by Chewy

Why anyone would want to camp in this weather is beyond me. But, hopefully, cooler weather will finally reach us and once again our nature lovers will want to pack up the tent, and all the gear that goes with it, and hit the trails. Unless you plan on eating off the yield of the land  ( a true Man, Woman, Wild adventure), food will require a great deal of forethought. Not to be overlooked are your campfire desserts.

Growing up, we did a lot of camping.  Compared to other campers, we had pretty deluxe accommodations. A three compartment tent consisted of the children’s wing, parent’s boudoir and a spacious “no man’s land” in-between. My dad created quite the traveling kitchen and dish washing system. It was almost like home. No it wasn’t. No electricity, no indoor plumbing, no refrigeration. It is why I don’t camp today!

It was, however, a great family bonding experience and I did learn a few culinary lessons germane to the outdoors. First, baked potatoes are better if you don’t leave them in the fire too long. This results in oblong charcoal briquettes. Great for starting another fire but not so much for dinner. Second, those little white round things in the fish flesh are worms. THROW THEM AWAY! Preferably bury them a great deal of distance from the camp site. Bears don’t mind the worms and, along with the disgusting fish, will grab a to-go snack from your food reserves. Third, s’mores can pass as a complete meal if all the prior events occur. Once again, never underestimate the power of the dessert!
As delicious as they are, s’mores can become a bit mundane if your dessert selection is limited to these as a nightly ritual. After a while, the time it takes to roast the perfect golden marshmallow becomes a bit tedious leading to sloppy cooking procedures. These fall into two categories. Under cooking, a gratuitous waving of the marshmallow over the flame and the flash roast, a deliberate flaming followed by the extinguishing, either by blowing it out or wildly waving around of stick. Here’s an alternative to the procedure. Grab a flour tortilla, sprinkle some mini chocolate chips and mini marshmallows on it and wrap like a burrito. Seal in some aluminum foil and place on coals until melted. Check frequently, a lesson learned from the potato debacle. Open carefully and let cool a bit.

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When you think éclair, you think campfire right? Although taking some forethought, a campfire éclair provides an alternative dessert on a stick (the traditional campfire cooking utensil).  You’re going to need some refrigerated bread stick dough (such as Pillsbury), vanilla pudding (grab a 4-pack of the already made snack packs)  and a container of chocolate cake frosting. Wrap your dough around the end of your stick in a coil and roast over fire until golden brown (golden brown is the ultimate goal of all fire roasted items).  Gently slide your bread coil off the stick. You now have a ready made center receptacle for the pudding. Spoon it in or get all fancy and pipe it in through a plastic baggie with tip cut from corner. Spread with the chocolate frosting.

Our final entry is shortcake-on-a-stick. You can make the dough ahead of time and bring it with you if you have sufficient refrigeration. If not, save this for the patio campfire. For the dough you will need 2 cups of Bisquick, 4 tablespoons of melted butter and ¼ cup of heavy cream. Mix and roll dough into 1 ½ inch balls. Flatten balls to ¼ inch and wrap around the end of your prerequisite stick. Then roast over your fire until when? Yup, golden brown. Crumble into a bowl and cover with those fresh berries you foraged from the woods. Remember, not ALL blue berries are blueberries!

After a hard day of pitching the tent, swatting the bugs, inflating the air mattresses, swatting the bugs, hanging the food (remember the bears, raccoons and other critters like people food too), finding a water source, swatting the bugs and FINALLY getting that fire started, you can bask in the warm glow and  relish your golden brown dessert!

Uprising at the Leavening Corral

by Chewy

Have you ever made the mistake of using baking powder instead of baking soda (or vice versa)? I have. Did it make a difference? I’m not sure. Can it make a difference? Apparently so, or why would they differentiate between the two. Want to know the details? Too bad, I’m going to tell you anyway.

Both baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents. When they are added to baked goodies before cooking, it produces carbon dioxide which causes them to rise. To muddy the waters a little, baking powder contains baking soda. To go all chemistry on you, (an Alton Brown-Good Eats moment) let’s take a look at their individual makeup, what the differences mean to your baking, and under what circumstances you use each.

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Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. Dipping into pure baking soda, you will find it has a bitter taste. When combined with an acidic ingredient (yogurt, chocolate, honey, buttermilk, etc) it neutralizes. This results in a chemical reaction that produces bubbles of CO2 (carbon dioxide). Since this reaction starts immediately upon combining the ingredients, these recipes need to baked at once or fluffy will turn to flat. Baking soda also tends to become unstable at higher temperatures, so typical recipes would be those that don’t require long baking times, such as cookies or pancakes (ah, now you’re seeing the bubbles, right?).

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Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), cream of tartar (an acidifying agent) and starch ( a drying agent). These ingredients change both the taste and the results. There are a couple of purposes for the cream of tartar. Since it is an acid it gives an overall neutral effect and recipes don’t require an acidic ingredient. It also acts as a second leavening agent and kicks in when the sodium bicarbonate becomes inactive after long exposure to heat. The starch absorbs extra moisture and prevents the sodium bicarbonate from acting too quickly. Coming in two types, single acting powders are activated by moisture and must be baked immediately, and double acting powders reacts in two phases and  can stand for a while before baking. Examples would be, cakes, muffins, biscuits and non-yeast bread (banana, zucchini, etc).

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By now you have figured out that these two items are NOT interchangeable. But here’s where all this knowledge comes in. In a pinch, you can exchange baking POWDER for baking SODA but you’ll need more of it and this may (will) affect the taste (bleak!). It’s a four to one strength exchange, so 1 teaspoon of soda would require 4 teaspoons of powder. If only it were that simple. You then have to figure in acidic ingredients, neutralizing, blah, blah, blah. Just go buy a box! You cannot substitute baking soda for baking powder. That being said, you can make your own baking powder if you have baking soda, cream of tartar and corn starch. To make 1 teaspoon of baking powder, combine ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon cream of tartar and ¼ teaspoon corn starch.

Here’s a trivia question for you; Which one lasts longer, baking powder or baking soda?
Baking soda can be passed down as an inheritance (aka, forever). Baking powder has a shelf life of about one year. If it gets wet or is stored in a humid environment it will lose potency. If you are unsure of it’s age or efficacy, simply put some in a glass of water. If you get bubbles, get baking. No fizz means a trip to the store and if I have to do that, I’m heading to the bakery.

OOPS!

by Chewy

There is no doubt that some accidents have lead to great discoveries and inventions. Everything from Isaac Newton’s apple knocking, to glue that wouldn’t stick post it notes, to burr covered dogs leading to Velcro. Things are the same in the culinary world as well and those “oops!” have lead to some masterpieces. One example, if you are to believe the story, is salt water taffy (Taffy, A Sticky Situation) where the Atlantic Ocean recreated the whole taffy industry.

I also picture a scenario where prior to a dinner party, the hostess places the dessert in the middle of the table as a center piece. Just as she is lighting the candles, her adroit husband, open wine bottle in hand, trips over the dog and splashes some on her dessert. Startled and upset she drops the match and whoosh……flambé is invented. It could have happened.

There are some more reliable mishaps that have ended up being quite the sensation. Take for example the chocolate chip cookie. Did you grow up thinking this came from the Nestle labs, slapping the recipe on every package of their chocolate morsels? The last part is accurate but the recipe comes from a failed baking experiment. Credited to Ruth Graves Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn (has a nice ring to it) in Whitman Mass, the now famous Toll House cookie recipe was really a work of substitution. Legend has it that in 1930, Ruth ran short of baking chocolate and decided to use smashed up pieces from a bar of semi-sweet chocolate. Adding these to her dough, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the chocolate did not melt into the batter as planned. Nestle later acquired the rights to the recipe and became a global giant.

Another misstep occurred in 1905 in San Francisco. Eleven year old Frank Epperson wanted to make soda pop and mixed soda powder with water. Using a stick to stir the concoction, he accidentally left it on the porch overnight. The next day, Frank discovered it had frozen solid with the stick still in it. Fast forward 18 years, Frank decided to market his childhood invention. Meeting with instant success, he patented the idea. Originally dubbed the “Eppsicle”, his children implored and convinced him to rename it “Popsicle”. The original 7 flavors have now grown to 30; the most popular flavor being classic orange.

St. Louis has long taken great pride in our next entry, the ice cream cone. During the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair an ice cream seller ran out of dishes. A nearby Syrian pastry vendor, Ernest Hamwi, rolled his pastry into a cone so the ice cream could be scooped inside. An instant hit, it has competition on originality. Appears and Italian immigrant, Italo Marchiony, had also paired these two items and acquired a patent for it earlier in the year.

photo by becco

Our final entry comes from down under. One hundred years ago, Lord Lamington (governor of Queensland at the time), accidentally dropped a cake in some melted chocolate. It was then decided to cover it with coconut so it wouldn’t look so messy. Thus the Australian Lamington was born, and enjoyed ever since.

The lesson we can take away from these legends is always to keep an open mind. Never fear to cook outside the lines, improvise, substitute and experiment. If mishaps occur, and they will (Kitchen Klutzes Unite), trust your eyes, nose, ears and mouth and smear it, dust it or slather it with an interesting ingredient. Perhaps your gaffe will make the “famous desserts created by mistake” list.

  

Vanilla Bean, the Next Black-market Item

by Chewy

     It’s just one continual nightmare when it comes to dessert ingredient shortages.  I think we’re coping fairly well with the chocolate shortage and my cacao tree is being nurtured and fed and sung to daily (for optimum production). I’ve stock piled my Twinkies in an underground vault and they should stay fresh for decades. I’ve turned to alternative sugars (more about this later) to offset the  possible diminished  production of cane sugar. But this one may put me over the edge as I have no idea how to cope. There is a significant vanilla bean shortage! The HORROR!

     If you’ve read my blog on vanilla, you are aware that there are 4 major producers of the vanilla bean. Two of these, Mexico (the origin of the vanilla bean) and India are not pulling their weight.  Due to a poor harvest, production of the beans fell 90 percent in Mexico and Indonesia last year. That means the responsibility to provide fell to Madagascar and the monopoly begins. In fact 40 percent of the world’s supply was shipped out of Madagascar due to deferred orders from these other areas. As with all monopolies, this means cashing in  and wholesale prices have soared from $25 per kilogram to $35-$40 in two months. Cha-ching!

     There are a couple of reasons for this failure of production. According to Nick Peksa (Mintec business development director), “The stocks in the world are being run down and we are getting to a point now where we are likely to see the price suddenly shoot upwards”. Point taken, as you get older you just don’t reproduce like you use to. Additionally, cultivation process from planting to storefront can take up to six years. Throw in the labor intensive fertilization process and harvesting and you create the second most expensive spice next to saffron ($2270.00/lb).

     So how will this affect John Q Public? First, vanilla is the most expensive ingredient in ice cream and according to Peska, “It could push the price of ice cream up by around 10 percent”.  So as summer approaches and we experience our annual gas hike, so will go our vanilla ice cream. Additionally, you can expect other food production, medicines and perfumes to experience an increase in cost as well.

     I am at a loss as to where to turn for relief. Having fallen in love with the vanilla bean and incorporated its use in the kitchen and else where, I am loathe to give it up.  The only substitute I have come across is  Castoreum, the exudate from the castor sacs of mature beavers see (vanilla extract recipe) and I am giving serious consideration to adopting a fertile pair and cornering that market. Until then, I have placed my order for vanilla beans, which should be arriving in an armored truck any day.

AND YOU THOUGHT IT WAS JUST VANILLA

     Vanilla. The default flavor for ice cream,  prerequisite for most baking, medically used in aromatherapy,  dabbed behind the ear as an aphrodisiac and infused in all types of air fresheners, this single commodity can be readily identified with one whiff. And let the drooling commence. Whether your think of vanilla as boringly bland or simple perfection, there is no doubt the impact this single bean has had on the world.

     A vanilla bean is the seed bearing fruit of an orchid blossom. History credits the ancient Totonaco Indians of Mexico as the original cultivators and the mythology behind it reads like a Shakespearian tragedy. It starts with parental interference of two lovers  culminating in their capture, death and intermingled blood hitting the ground resulting in the vine of the vanilla orchid. Romeo and Juliet just got a standing ovation. After those painful beginnings, the Totonaco people were not going to just GIVE away this creation, so the Aztecs invaded, conquered and demanded they do so. Just to prove you reap what you sow, the Aztec were defeated by Spain’s Hernando Cortez who absconded not only with the vanilla beans but also cacao. Combining these two resulted in a beverage fit for a king, literally, as only the rich could afford it. And you thought vanilla was expensive today. At least nobody dies at the grocery store and our kitchens are not invaded.

     The vanilla orchid had an exclusive contract with the local Melipona bee for pollination. Really exclusive as efforts to cultivate outside of Mexico failed until 1841 when it was discovered that hand pollination provided the desired results, but without the romance. Sigh. This procedure allowed for expanded cultivation and today there are four main areas of the world that provide and export vanilla beans. Each territory offers its own unique qualities and attributes and these should be kept in mind when purchasing vanilla beans. Off the east coast of Africa is an island, Madagascar, that offers the largest  production globally. Designated the Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, it has no connection with Jack Daniels, but refers to the Bourbon islands and is thought to be the highest quality with attributes of sweet, smooth and creamy.  The second major producer, Indonesia, offers a vanilla that is woody and phenolic. Okay, let me digress for one moment. I had to look this up too as the one and only time I have ever seen or used the word phenolic,  was in the previous sentence. American Heritage dictionary states it is of, pertaining to, containing, or derived from phenol. Clear now? Back to subject, the distant third place goes to our vanilla origins, Mexico with a creamy, sweet and spicy sensation. Tahiti lands fourth with a fruity, flowery and anisic (Really? Anisic? Who tastes like this?) description.

     When purchasing vanilla beans you should keep a few things in mind. First they are sorted by quality and grade. Grade is mostly determined by length of the bean. Longer bean, more vanilla flavor. I like it when they keep things simple. If you decide to make your own vanilla extract, it should be noted that most are made from grade B beans. Moisture content is also significant, with grade A having 30-35% moisture content and grade B 15-25%. Of course, as discussed, desired flavor qualities as designated by growing location is vital . Especially if you are looking for something phenolic or anisic!

     The whole process from planting to market can  take from 5-6 years. Throw in the labor intensive hand pollination and you  have designed the second most expensive spice after saffron. Nothing replaces that distinctive flavor, that “peculiar bouquet” that magnifies both commercial and domestic baked goods. There is no doubt vanilla is an enhancement to life itself!

by Chewy-bacca-nista