I'm often surprised to realize that many of the groceries I buy can be simply made at home. I tend to presume that cottage cheese just grows on supermarket shelves, for example, or that making vanilla requires complex machinery. So while it may be more convenient to throw these items into your cart than to cultivate them in your own kitchen, try making any of these eight treats at home the next time you're feeling bold.
My love affair with scones started early, when my family and I would head to Central Park in the summers to go see Shakespeare. Year after year, the little refreshment stand outside the Delacorte Theater would house a pile of delicious scones (with currants, I think) that my mother would wipe out every visit, for us to eat over the upcoming weeks.
Over the years, I never found a recipe that came close to those perfect Scottish treats, but I think I might have found one that could be darned close, with a little tweaking. The other night I made vanilla bean scones -- and I wasn't even looking for the perfect scone recipe, but rather to use up a vanilla bean so that I could make extract. Double plus!
These scones are incredibly simple and easy to make (I used a dough cutter to mix it all, rather than fingers and a knife), and they're perfect for the people who like a plain treat. But these are also scones just asking for a little flair -- some sort of fruit or extra flavor to make the scone pop. (This is why the recipe is teamed with a DIY jam, but that's only one possible option.) Add your preferred flavor and shape as you please -- you can make them round, like the recipe asks, or roll out a circle and cut with a pie cutter to create triangles, as you can see above. Then they're just nestled into a pan, and quickly baked.
If you have a recipe that you prefer, please share it below!
It sits alone and untouched at the end of a long buffet table -- a bowl full of apples and bananas, maybe a seedy orange tossed in as an afterthought. Don't let your fruit salad meet this awful fate, spruce it up instead!
Continuing in the trend I've established this week of featuring baked goods that are off-limits to me right now, I bring you a delicious-looking chocolate and vanilla pound cake (at least, I'm assuming that it's pound cake, based on the shape and tell-tale gleam of baked butter). Baked by Flickr user Eunnycjang, I would have a very hard time turning down a slice of this cake if it were sitting in front of me. Sadly, there's no blog post or recipe attached to this image on Flickr, so I can't tell you where to go make this beauty. However, if you've got a favorite recipe for a cake like this, shout it out in the comments.
A former Slashfoodie herself, Nicole is the extraordinary baker behind Baking Bites -- a recipe blog for anyone with flour on their sleeves and a taste for the divine. She stepped away from the kitchen (actually, the horse stable) to chat with us a bit about life since Slashfood, and why her brownies are fudgier than mine. What have you been up to since leaving Slashfood? I write Baking Bites now. That's pretty much what I've been doing food-wise since I left Slashfood. It's not a very exciting answer.
So are you dedicating more time Baking Bites now? Well, before I wrote for Slashfood, I had a blog for a couple of years called Baking Sheet, which I updated a couple of times per week. I kept that going while writing for Slashfood, but after I left, I changed the name of the site and made it more formal. I dedicate more time to my personal blog now than I did while I was writing – and before I was writing – for Slashfood.
It's clear from reading about you that you love to cook everything, so why a site mainly baking? Because I like baking. All cooking is great, but for me, baking is really interesting. I like the flavors and how everything comes together. I love the magic and the science of the oven. Cooking for me is ... I don't want to say it easier, because I don't find baking difficult, but it is just not just as interesting to me usually. You can go from grilling a chicken to grilling a steak, but baking a cake is a little more special.
Anything happening in the kitchen today? Not at the moment. Last night I made a lemon cake and later I might make some flatbread. The flatbread isn't set in stone yet. I'll make a list of things that I want to make but it changes. I'll get a whim for something with mint or vanilla and I'll totally change my mind.
We've been baking cookies like crazy around these parts, all December long. I'm giving my rolling pin and baking sheets a break today and dipping into the archives to bring you some cookies from our archives.
Looking for a recipe that will look gorgeous on your buffet? These Cranberry-Cherry Icebox Ribbons are alternating stripes of red and white and are awfully nice to look at and will be tasty to boot.
All the comments I've gotten on the Autumnal Casserole post have led me to believe that there are a lot of you out there looking for alternatives to the traditional Thanksgiving side dishes. So I thought I'd post another one of my favorites. This one originally came to me via 101 Cookbooks. Heidi found it in Artisanal Cooking by Terrance Brennan. It is a sweet potato puree that is flecked with vanilla and orange zest and it so good that you might think it belongs in a pie instead of along side your turkey.
I first made it two years ago to take along to my family's Thanksgiving buffet. I put the bowl down on the table and got hijacked into a conversation with my aunt. When I finally got back to the table half an hour later, the bowl was nearly empty. Last year I made it for Christmas dinner. While we were waiting for my dad to carve the turkey, my mom and I stood in the kitchen together and scraped the bowl of the food processor clean with our fingers, just so as not to let any of this puree go to waste.
Give up your sweet potato casseroles and try this puree. It will convert even the most devoted of the mini-marshmallow fans.
Well, I told you about the cherry smoothie I made from the summer cherries I put into the freezer for safe-keeping. A lot of good those will be to me in the fall since I subsequently used them all for a liquid breakfast every morning thereafter until they were.
What I didn't tell you is what I did with the cherries I kept fresh on the counter. You, my Slashfood faithful friends, suggested clafouti to spare my fingers the chore of pitting cherries, as well as a multitude of recommendations for what I should do with the result of my gluttonous run at the market. I took the advice of a few and made...
I got an ice cream maker for my birthday this summer. I have no idea what possessed me to ask for one, since I very rarely eat ice cream anymore, but I did. Now I have one and I love it. The gorgeous, shiny thing is sitting on my countertop.
As soon as I got it, I made vanilla ice cream. I have, my friends, now mastered vanilla ice cream. The question now, however, is what flavor should I make next? I have though about sticking with basics like chocolate or strawberry, but isn't that boring? I have to be choosy because I can't make a lot of ice cream - my freezer is already overflowing with other stuff, and like I said, there's only so much ice cream I can eat.
So, Slashfoodies, what should I make? If you have a favorite recipe, let me know!
Imperial Exclusive Vodka from Emperor Brands L.L.C., made in France, is 40% abv. / 80 proof. This super premium vodka is made from a secret recipe that has been handed down for generations. This is a very clean and clear vodka made from the finest French grains and ultra pure and smooth Normandy water, then distilled five times. Many vodkas have as much taste as a glass of pure medicinal grade alcohol. In other words, none. They have had every trace of taste filtered out until there is no character left. That is not the case with Imperial Exclusive Vodka.
When I first tried this spirit I immediately noticed the aroma. Faint but very evident hints of butter, sweet caramel or toffee, the slightest trace of vanilla. I was trying to place the exact scent when it struck me. It was like the faintest touch of the best part of the aromas from the gorgeous movie theaters I vaguely remember from my childhood. Not the cookie cutter places that have two dozen tiny theaters crowded under one roof that you find today. Perpetually grimy and lacking soul. No, I mean the grand old places that only played one movie for a week or two before the next came along. The ones that were spotlessly clean, had comfy, red velvet chairs to sink deep into; and ushers to help you to your seats. Walls decorated with hand-painted murals and thick velvet curtains thirty feet high that spread across the walls right before the lights dimmed to soften the acoustics of the room.
Best Life magazine has the recipe for Thomas Jefferson's Ice Cream. It only has four ingredients (heavy cream, eggs, sugar, and a vanilla bean) but who says that ice cream has to be complex? Though the actual preparation is a little bit more involved than the four ingredients would have you believe, it's great to see a recipe with such basic ingredients.
But it has eggs. Oh oh. I wonder if Andy Rooney would approve?
OK, that title is slightly misleading I guess. This recipe from Meg over at Megnut.com is actually for a Mean Chocolate Chip Cookie. She asked for chocolate chip cookie receipes from her readers and then took the average of all the recipes and created her own recipe. The measurements are rather...exact?
A lot of you gave me some tips for trying to find great-tasting teas that would help me cut down on my daily sugar intake. Thanks again. I took everyone's advice and went on a little tea shopping spree this weekend, and here's what I bought and how they taste.
I went with reader advice and bought two different kinds of Good Earth: Original and Vanilla Chai. Both are nice. The original has a strong cinnamon taste, and while the chai has a strong vanilla flavor and aroma to it, it also has a lot of cinnamon and other spices. But they both taste good. I've had some cinnamon-flavored teas that, well, just tasted like someone took 30 or 40 sticks of Big Red gum and boiled them. These taste really great. I also bought a variety pack of Celestial Seasonings. I've had some flavors of this brand in that past I wasn't too thrilled with, but it's a good tea to keep on hand. I'm going to buy some other brands too and see how they are.
And the best news? With these teas I've cut down from 4-5 packets of sugar to only 1 or 2! Most excellent.
Entries have closed in the Drinkable Desserts contest that Bailey's is running to promote their new flavors of the creamy liqueur. Unfortunately, this means that you no longer have the chance to submit your own concoction to be featured in an upcoming issue of Gourmet magazine, but looking to the positive side of things, you still get to try the drinks and have a say in what recipe wins the contest. Between now and January 31st, a selection of different drink recipes will be featured each week. Readers can try out the recipes and vote for their favorites in both the professional and amateur categories. A total of ten finalists will be selected and the overall winners will be selected based on the number of votes (in the amateur category) or by a panel of pros (in the professional category).
Read on to get a taste of one of the drinks, The Baileys® Vanilla Bean:
I'm often surprised to realize that many of the groceries I buy can be simply made at home. I tend to presume that cottage cheese just grows on supermarket shelves, for example, or that making vanilla requires complex machinery. So while it may be more convenient to throw these items into your cart than to cultivate them in your own kitchen, try making any of these eight treats at home the next time you're feeling bold.
A former Slashfoodie herself, Nicole is the extraordinary baker behind 
So what's the best way to celebrate both the 
OK, that title is slightly misleading I guess. 
A lot of you gave me some tips for trying to find great-tasting teas that would help me cut down on my 
Entries have closed in 
10 More Dirty Restaurant Tricks
5 Things You Didn't Know About Turducken
10 Catchiest Food Jingles We Love to Hate
