New Toy: The Zoku

My Aunt D. gave us two Zoku Quick Pop Makers for Christmas. You're sure to witness more of my experiments with them if you stick around on Snackreligious, but for starters I made the kiddo a quick milk popsicle. As you can see, it works just fine (though I forgot to snap on the drip guard before handing it over). I didn't taste this particular pop, though. Just for babies!

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From the Vaults: Cake and Bake

I've managed to create a few homemade desserts in the past several months, even with a rug rat taking up much of the time I'm used to spending in the kitchen.



Here's a slice I remember fondly.  It's from a Tres (actually Cuatro!) Leches Cake.  This cake was amazing.  I doubled the recipe and made two -- one for a friend's birthday and one for myself.  Thanks go to Zach for the recipe.


Cake:
6 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping (leches):
1 can coconut milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream

OVEN @ 350

Use a mixer: Beat egg whites till soft peak, slowly and sugar to stiff peaks, add yolk one at a time making sure to incorporate each one. Alternate dry and wet ingredients. Make sure to do this part quickly (to not lose volume). Put in a greased rectangular cake pan and bake until golden- maybe 25 mins.

To make the milky topping: in blender/processor- combine all ingredients.

Remove cake from oven, while still warm, poke holes all over the top. Use all the liquid.

You can make this double layered by using two round or square cake pans.

Once you poke holes in the cakes and pour all the liquid in, it works well to wrap the pan up really well with saran wrap an put in the fridge to cool. To get the cakes out of the pans once they have chilled, set the pan directly on your stove burner on low for a bit to warm up the bottom. Then when you flip it over it will pop right out! I just left it in the pan, though, and ate it that way.

Frosting: Top with whip cream blended with sugar and vanilla. In the middle of the two cakes (if stacking), spread whipped cream and some sprinkles of cinnamon.

 



Oh, and I managed to turn out a pretty tasty Plum Cake -- honestly, I'd forgotten where I got the recipe, but I think I used this one. Yum.




And we had a plateful of Apple Fritters -- These came from a kids' cookbook I have.  They were only really right when freshly made (and then quickly got soggy), but were quite good at that point.

Just looking at these photos makes me want to get back to my mixer.  Got any recipes for me to try?

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Shake and Say Hello

Momofuku Milk Bar? Hello at last!



Rootbeer float milkshake? Happy to make your acquaintance! I wish you weren't so teeny, but I can deal.

Oh, and decadent birthday cake truffles? [not pictured] Super-nice to eat you!

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A Question

I think the flavor of organic milk is superior to non-organic milk, and I try to buy it whenever I can afford the extra expense. 

But has anyone else noticed that some organic milk has a weird, chalky aftertaste or under-taste?  When I buy milk from Costco, where it comes in bulk, or when I drink the milk in our fridge at work (pictured above), which is delivered to us, I can't get past that odd extra layer of flavor.  I don't notice this taste in organic milk bought at a "regular" grocery store or bodega.

To make things more confusing, I recently discovered that the organic whole milk at work (I had only been drinking 2% or skim) does NOT taste chalky.

What is up?!

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No coffee for me, thanks!

I don't get why people think milk is gross.  I mean, I've heard a lot of "reasons."  I just don't get them.

This said, I tried not to be ostentatious while drinking my chocolate milk on the train platform Saturday morning.  It's not that I think I'm better than non-milk drinkers, but I cannot allow them to squelch my passion for the stuff.  I drink it openly, and in public, but sedately, I hope.

Ronnybrook Farm's dairy products are a true luxury.  Such a beverage should never offend.

Nutella Milk: stovetop edition.

If you've been reading Snackreligious for a while, you know I've been on the search for a hot chocolate-like concoction I call Nutella Milk. I call it that because it should contain Nutella, the delicious hazelnut spread, and milk. They don't mix together well when the milk is cold, because the Nutella chills into clumps, and a neighborhood coffee shop had failed to make a satisfactory version with hazelnut syrup, so I've been back to the drawing board a few time.

Okay, so I can't pat myself on the back too much. Anyone could think of and do what I just tried. I simply guessed that the secret to a tasty Nutella milk that was fully blended would be in heating the milk and Nutella together. Anna came to this same conclusion in commenting on one of those earlier posts linked above. Heating them often makes two things come together, after all. So I tried doing just that.

Turns out I (and Anna, and everyone else who thought this might work) was right. Here's the trick (and it's so simplistic, it can't really be called a trick):

Big Mug Nutella Milk
1 1/4 c. milk
1 T. Nutella Hazelnut Spread (Naturally, you can use more or less Nutella to taste.)

Combine ingredients. Lick measuring tablespoon. Heat milk and Nutella mixture in a small pan on the stove over low heat. Stir or whisk occasionally. The Nutella should melt and be combined, though it might look a little grainy, after about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. For smoother texture, use immersion blender on low speed (and be careful not to splash yourself). Pour into a heat-proof mug.

See how easy that is?

I'm still working on how best to prepare this beverage by microwave. Do NOT put a mug of milk and Nutella in the microwave, set it to cook on high for 3 minutes, and then walk away. I learned this so that you don't have to.

Oh, and also -- I'm aware it's summer and you may not be drinking many hot beverages (though I have heard that hot tea is considered cooling in some cultures). So you want cold Nutella milk? Heat Nutella and milk using "my" stovetop method. Then chill your mug in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes. When it is cold, decant into a more appropriate glass, if that will make you feel cooler. Add ice, if you like that idea. Whatever you do, drink it!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

(photo by the chef)

The household dined on Dan-made tortilla soup (recipe by Kenny Shopsin). Blue tortilla chips were undeniably pleasant on top. The recipe said to put them at the bottom, but they would have been soggy immediately had we done that.

I have no photo of it, but I would like to mention that there was also a "Nutella Milk" experiment performed after dinner. It was not unpleasant, but I'm going back to the drawing board!

Strawberry Afternoon Letdown

I love strawberries, especially tiny wild strawberries on a hillside in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

I love milkshakes, especially at the gone-but-not-forgotten Glass Onion in Lawrence, KS.

I remember liking Whoppers and that "malted milk" flavor in general when I was growing up, though Whoppers were always my dad's candy. Each year someone (my mom, my sister or me) would purchase a big carton of Whoppers and wrap it up to go under the Christmas Tree. The gift was easy to spot and unmistakably noisy if one picked it up, so it was never a surprise.

Then, one year, Dad said he didn't need to get Whoppers every year anymore. He seemed to have had enough.

It only took me a few bites to tire of Strawberry Milkshake Whoppers, though I couldn't stop eating them right away (which is kind of scary). They taste fake and smell faker. To me, it seemed like the fake (a blend of natural and artificial flavors, according to the box) strawberry taste covers up any malted milk angle. It suggests there's not much actual strawberry in there. It protests too much, if you get my drift.

Also, there's no cocoa butter, though there is a little cocoa. Palm kernel oil stands in for that, making any chocolate in these actually mockolate. Is this (or the original Whoppers) a product that would formerly have contained cocoa butter but has been reformulated to cut costs? If so, shame on you, Hershey's! You certainly didn't make this product better tasting by avoiding real chocolate in there.





Me: The aroma is so strong. It's like the smell of the kisses that my neighbor's Strawberry Shortcake doll blew. You know, those dolls they had where when you squeezed their stomachs they blew scented kisses at you? [Editor's note: these dolls]

Dan: You're right. They do taste like Strawberry Shortcake dolls.


I guess Dan was even less taken with them than I was.


p.s. Thanks for the snack scouting and procuring, Paul!

Yogurt on the top

I have been digging Greek yogurt with honey lately, but decided to switch things up when I noticed Old Chatham Sheepherding Company offers a ginger flavored sheep's milk yogurt.

At first bite, I was disappointed -- not much ginger in there. But the sour tang of sheep's milk kept me spooning it into my mouth. After a few more tastes, I idly stirred the yogurt remaining in the container, only to unearth a treasure trove of the ginger I'd been hoping for. Suddenly, the root's flavor was everywhere I wanted it to be! Bits of what I thought was raw (but turned out to be crystallized) ginger crunched between my teeth, answering the smoothness of the yogurt appropriately. And when I was done with the container, a light gingery burn lingered in my mouth.

I thought it was just the old Dannon "fruit on the bottom" yogurt that needed stirring, but I've learned my lesson. If you give the black sheep a whirl, don't forget to stir.

It's so hard to hide the scientist inside.

I am a dunker. If I have milk in a glass near a plate of cookies (this applies to the hard and store-bought more than the soft or homemade), it's hard for me to keep my cookie out of there. Which means people don't share beverages with me while I eat Oreos. Which, actually, is okay by me.

After my foray to the dentist this morning (no root canal necessary! huzzah!), I have an aching jaw and instructions to chew neither the hard nor the sticky (nor the gum) on my new temporary crown. The aching jaw part is a little worse than I was expecting. I left work in need of a comforting, soft snack to lift my spirits. A soft snack and a new lip gloss, but the latter isn't edible so I won't comment on it further here. When Dan asked me to bring home some cookies, I decided the comforting, soft snack might as well be Oreos dunked in milk.

What you're about to read might at first suggest my brain was somehow addled by the Procaine Hydrochloride I was given this morning (I turned that movie off after 15 minutes, btw!), but it's related, so stay with me. Today I read about Stefania Follini, who lived alone (communicating with the outside world by computer) in a specially constructed habitat within a New Mexico cave for over 4 months in 1989. She took 400 books, her guitar, some art supplies, a journal, and a deck of cards for entertainment. The book I read did not mention snacking supplies, though she did make tea with yeast. But even if she was, probably, rather more Oreo deprived than you or I, her participation in the experiment helped scientists discover more about what can happen to our bodies and minds when not subject to the light-and-dark cycles contained in Earth's 24-hour days (potentially applicable, in part, to the experiences of astronauts). Pretty fascinating stuff.

Thus and therefore, my dentist's treachery (I jest! He was nice and efficient and it was painless until the numbness wore off) and an Italian woman's bravery (she was a volunteer and interior decorator, not a scientist or spelunker by profession), made today's after-school snack possible. Upon arriving home bearing comforting, dunkable chocolate cookies and fresh milk, I was inspired to conduct a science experiment of my own -- in Stefania's honor, of course. Its full title:

How many Double Stuf Oreos can I eat (each one being dipped in milk) before I start to feel slightly ill?

My findings:
The answer is 10. But I ate 12. For science!

Edible me

[A version of this post was first published on Bakespace.]

On Serious Eats, someone posed this question:
"If you had to introduce yourself to someone by cooking them a three course meal that best described you, what would it be?"

I tried to make my choices accurately (if incompletely) reflect my personality, rather than simply choosing foods I'd like (though they are all foods I like to eat). What would this say about me?

1st course: Cornichons and assorted cheeses
2nd course: chicken roasted using Nigel Slater's method (as described in The Kitchen Diaries), mashed potatoes with lots of garlic and bacon, a little bit of garlic chicken gravy, asparagus and homemade bread.
3rd course: Sweet, fried plantains AND a small peanut butter brownie.

Beverage: Milk!

I realize that I do not make a very gourmet first impression.