"pecan" news and stories

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.

Bake for about 25 minutes.

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.

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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.

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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!

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