The Vicarious Foodie recently discovered Wild Cherry M&Ms in her local store, and did what any good pastry chef would do when faced with a new product with much potential: she went to work!
VF found a Cooks Illustratedrecipe for Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries, and smartly subbed the M&Ms for the cherry and chocolate pieces, but kept in the pecans.
She mentions that in most recipes, her cookies tend to spread out in the oven, but these look gorgeous, like they barely stretched an inch. (Maybe the oatmeal had something to do with it?)
Either way, I commend VF for being innovative. Plus, the chocolate pieces are a great contrast to the brownish cookie.
These are a deliciously light mix of savory and sweet, and they're healthy, so you'll still respect yourself the next morning, unlike the guy next to you who just downed a bag of Cheez Doodles and chased it with a pint of beer. Sweet Potato Pecan Puffs Serves 4-6 From: V Cuisine: The Art of New Vegan Cooking
You'll need: 2 medium sweet potatoes, finely chopped 6 cloves garlic, chopped 1 cup unsweetened soy milk (feel free to use regular milk instead) 1 Tbsp. olive oil 2 cups toasted and chopped pecans 2 scallions, finely chopped 1 cup parsley, finely chopped A few sprigs of basil and sage, finely chopped Salt and pepper Pinch nutmeg (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Bring the sweet potatoes and garlic in a pot and cover with water. Cook until the taters are fork-tender. Mash the potatoes and add the rest of the ingredients, saving out about half the pecans. Put spoonfuls of the mixture onto a parchment-covered baking sheet, and press remaining pecans on top.
To be completely honest, I am not usually impressed too much by nuts, even those coated in sugar and spices. I can easily make my own. So with this in mind, it was a complete surprise to me that I liked the Nutorious Nuts I sampled at the Fancy Foods Show so much.
Nutorious Gourmet Nuts started out as an old family recipe. Deliciously flavored nuts were passed out as holiday gifts to family and friends until their popularity finally pushed the nut-makers into the business world. Using only nuts and a few ingredients, like butter, sugar and spices, every batch of nuts is handmade in one of several delicious flavors that are crazily addictive:
Oooo La La Original - classic buttery sweet combination
Cha Cha Chipotle - savory and a little spicy, an updated bar snack
Door County Cherry Vanilla Crunch (my favorite!)- a sweet nut mix with the addition of some dried cherries coated in the same sugar crust
Cranberry Orange Crunch - nuts mixed with cranberries and tossed in an orangey sugar coating
Chocolate Coconutty (updated!) - amazingly addictive, with chocolate and toasty coconut.
For a foodie, especially a Slashfoodie, one of the best things about winter is that it signifies a changing of the guard, so to speak, when it comes to produce. Apples, pears and citrus replace the berries and melons of summer, opening up a whole new season of possibilities. Capogiro Gelato expresses all these possibilities with their seasonally changing menu, now geared up for winter. I was fortunate enough to sample some of the flavors from their summer line earlier this year and, this week, had the opportunity to indulge in a few of their winter offerings, as well.
While they still have their classic Italian and chocolate flavors available, Capogiro's holiday table menu is extensive, including Apple Cider with Clove Sorbetto, Castagne (Chestnut) Gelato, Cannella di Saigon (Cinnamon) and Melograno (Pomegranate). The flavors I tried were Zucca (Lancaster County Neck Pumpkin), Apple Cider with Clove, Sweet Potato with Pecan Praline, Meyer Lemon with Vodka, Moro (Blood Orange) and Pure King Leo Stracciatella.
Deb from Smitten Kitchen says that these Pecan Squares are the most fattening thing she has ever made. I don't doubt her for a second because, although it looks like she made a fairly large batch, she also used almost 9 sticks of butter in the recipe. That's 1,017 grams, 4 1/2 cups and 72 tablespoons of butter for those of you not familiar with the notion of it in stick form. Of course, the recipe comes from Ina Garten and because she is known to use at least as butter as the lovely Paula Deen, this isn't all that surprising. Ina doesn't say how many servings this makes, but if we assume that you can cut it into 54 bars (2-in. squares), you're looking at around 17 grams of fat per bar - and more if you take Ina's suggestion to dip them in chocolate!
The squares are essentially a caramel pecan pie filling that is baked on top of a buttery shortbread base. It is baked in an unusually large pan (18 by 12 by 1-in., as opposed to the more standard home baking size of 9 by 13-in.), but that does give it the advantage of being a convenient, decadent and delicious treat to bake for a big holiday party. Just don't tell anyone the nutritional stats before serving them.
This is a pie that should have been part of our nut themed day yesterday. It is also a pie that should be a hit with math-lovers, food hackers and anyone who really likes pie. This is a fractal pecan pie.
A fractal is a recursive, self-similar geometric object that continuously reproduces into proportionally smaller shapes. This particular one is based on the Koch snowflake, which is made up of triangles. To put this all into layman's terms, these guys made a giant pecan pie that used the same amount of filling that would ordinarily be found in 21 normal-sized pecan pies. The ratio of crust to filling was the same as a standard pie, so the baking time was only a bit longer than average, despite the fact that it had to be done in a custom-built, propane-powered oven. Just make sure that you have enough volunteers to help you eat all the pie (and construct the tin and oven) before baking!
The largest commonly eaten nut is the brazil nut. The 4-5cm nuts grow on one of the largest species of rainforest tree, which reaches about 30–45-m tall and 1–2 m in diameter. The nuts are grown in coconut-like shells that weigh approximately 4.5-lb and contain up to two dozen brazil nuts. The coco de mer, the fruit of a palm tree grown in the Seychelles, is usually considered to be the largest nut in the world. Also grown in a coconut-like shell, the mature fruit can reach up to 65-lbs and contains several seeds, which are also the world's largest.
The rest of the world's largest nuts tend to be of the inedible variety. The world's largest pecan, for example, is located in Brunswick, Missouri and is 7-ft. high. x 12-ft. long, and weighs about 12,000-lbs. The world's largest peanut is in Ashburn, Georgia
Incidentally, the world's largest nutcracker is located in Germany. The device stands about 19 ft high and can crack any nut up to the size of a coconut (which is a drupe, not actually a true nut).
Raw nuts make a tasty and satisfying snack. They are a little on the bland side, so it is not hard to stick with the recommended daily serving of a dozen or so nuts. Roasting and salting the nuts really increases their appeal, and you'll probably find yourself eating at least a handful or two before trying to find something to wash them down with. Adding sugar to the roasted, salted nuts makes them dangerously addictive.
Fortunately, candied nuts are also very easy to make. All you need to do is toss the nuts in some egg white and coat with a generous amount of sugar and spices. For this recipe, I used cinnamon and allspice, which combine with the flavor of the pecan to produce a result that tastes exactly of fall and the holiday season. In fact, a batch of these nuts would make a wonderful gift for family or friends, though you'll want to make two so you can keep some for yourself.
Researchers at Loma Linda University in California have just completed a new study that indicated eating pecans can reduce the risk of heart disease, adding another food to the ever growing list of things that are good-for-you. Published in the Journal of Nutritional Research, scientists say that part of the positive effect was attributed to a high vitamin E content in the nuts. To simply put the results, phytonutrients (nutrients found in plants) in the pecans help to prevent oxidation of fats in the blood ("a process akin to rusting"), which is a good thing for your body.
This is good news for anyone who likes pecans, since the nuts are often overlooked in favor of almonds and other nuts that are slightly lower in fat, although the majority of the fat in pecans is unsaturated.
If you want to get a few more pecans into your diet, try adding them to salads or eating a handful as a snack. For a slightly less healthy - but possibly more delicious - way to eat a few more pecans, try:
The 18th (I think) round of Sugar
High Friday is being hosted by Chandra of Lick The Spoon. The
theme is one not unfamiliar to us here at Slashfood: cooking with booze. The official title is "Candy is
Dandy...But Liquor is Quicker." My contribution is a sweet potato pie with bourbon, topped with pecans and maple
syrup. The recipe comes from Alton Brown and his episode of Good Eats dedicated to sweet potatoes. A transcript of the
episode, including the pie recipe, is available through the Good Eats Fan Page. That recipe doesn't
include bourbon, but I happened to have a bottle of Baker's on the shelf, and,
well, you know, it seemed like a good idea. Since this was the first time I made this recipe (or sweet potato pie, for
that matter), I didn't want to tinker with it too much, so I only used two tablespoons of bourbon, around half a shot.
It could probably have used a little more, as the bourbon flavor is rather faint. Still, it's one of the best sweet
potato pies I've tasted. I'm not ashamed to say that the crust was store-bought. I'm still an amateur in the baking
department, and, since I always manage to make a huge mess anyway, I figured I'd make it easier on myself. Truth be
told, I still managed to scorch a pot and dirty an extra pie pan. But that's all in the past now. What I'm left with is
my favorite type of pie, and a killer version at that.
A
few months back, I posted about a map that showed regional names for soft drinks: pop, soda, etc. Well, I recently came
across a similar map
designed to show how people in different parts of the U.S. refer to their long sandwiches. The map is part of a larger
project called the Dialect Survey,
created by a linguistics professor at Harvard. Other regional food pronunciations include caramel (do you use three
syllables or two?), mayonnaise (man-aze or may-uh-naze?), pecan (pee-cans are for truckers), and lots more. I also
found the alternate names for milkshakes pretty interesting
(cabinet? velvet?).
Only a few days ago, I posted about Georgia and Alabama squabbling over the rights to a
state fruit. Well, now it would appear that a couple of Florida politicians are bickering over which pie should represent my great
home state. State Rep. Mitch Needelman of Melbourne (southern Florida) along with Rep. Ken Sorensen of Key Largo both
feel that the key lime pie should be the state pie, according to a recent story in the Miami Herald. Rep. Dwight Stansel
of Wellborn (northern Florida) thinks that pecan pie is a better suited icon for our illustrious state.
As a
lifelong Floridian, it's a tough choice and I'm fond of both of them.
Alicat from Something so Clever can invite me over for
breakfast anytime. Her banana coffee
cake is made extra moist with cream cheese incorporated into the batter, in addition to butter and mashed bananas.
It is topped with a crunchy streusel of cinnamon, sugar and pecans. A coffee cake, unlike its name suggests, is not
necessarily coffee flavored nor does it usually contain coffee. It is meant to be served with coffee, much as a tea
cake is intended to be served with tea. These cakes are not usually served for dessert as they are perceived to be
homey and simple, perfect for a sweet breakfast or coffee break during the day, though many are quite rich with butter
or sour cream.
To be completely honest, I am not usually impressed too much by nuts, even those coated in sugar and spices. I can easily 
The largest commonly eaten nut is the 
Researchers at Loma Linda University in California have just completed a new study that indicated eating pecans can 
A
few months back, I posted about a map that showed regional names for soft drinks: pop, soda, etc. Well, I recently came
across a 
Soy and chickpeas might help stroke victims
The world of pie and tart crusts
Starbucks launches the Piadini 
