In case you’ve been out of touch – like, on a trip to Mars – and didn’t hear the news, the New Orleans Saints football team ended 42 years of gridiron futility Sunday night by winning America’s most media-crazed sporting event, the Super Bowl.

Understandably, the citizens of New Orleans have gone wild. Bourbon Street, home of jazz and impromptu dancing (and various interesting traditions involving colored beads) has reportedly been rocking ever since. (more…)

Crème brûlée… cake?

Isn’t crème brûlée that rich, inch-thick slab of vanilla cream covered with a crackly-crisp, caramelized sugar crust?

Yes.

So how does cake enter into this?

(more…)

“Oh, that’s my FAVORITE bread!”

“It never fails. It’s the one I make for sandwiches every week.”

“Walter Sands bread… always and forever.” (more…)

Uh-oh, here we go again. Venturing into prime “You don’t know what you’re doing” territory.

The land of “That isn’t the way my grandma did it so it’s wrong.”

Dare I go here yet again? After much ado (and plenty of a-don’t) about flourless chocolate cake; major differences of opinion regarding how many ingredients go into the perfect pie crust; and most recently, controversy surrounding the absolute authentic way to make Chicago-style deep-dish pizza (hint: there’s no cornmeal in the crust. There IS cornmeal in the crust), it’s with great hesitation that I dip my toe into Italian Wedding Soup – figuratively speaking, of course. (more…)

Inside out. Mirror image.

However you look at it, this fudge-filled vanilla cookie is a 180° twist on America’s favorite store-bought cookie, the Oreo.

A line extension, so to speak, of our original Oreo clone: the Faux-Reo. And its evil (calorically speaking) twin, the Faux Joe-Joe. As well as a bald-faced copy of the “Uh-Oh! Oreo,” one of Nabisco’s variations on their oh-so-popular original theme. (more…)

Oh, boy… Chicago deep-dish pizza. Just the ticket for a cold January night.

It’s been an icon on the culinary landscape since 1943, when the story goes that Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo “invented” deep-dish pizza at their newly opened Chicago restaurant, Pizzeria Uno.

Ike and Ric’s new pizza was fashioned after a traditional Italian tomato pie: a thick crust with 1”-high sides, filled with tomato purée, and sprinkled with Romano cheese. But Pizzeria Uno’s proprietors went a step (or a couple of layers) further, adding mozzarella cheese and sausage to the mix.

I’d always dreamed of sampling deep-dish pizza at its source: in Chicago. And several years ago, courtesy of a trade show, I got the chance. (more…)

Necessity is the mother of invention. And nowhere is this truer than in the King Arthur test kitchen.

I recently watched a couple of my fellow bakers struggle to create Tarte Tatin – France’s classic apple tart – with a perfectly caramelized sugar sauce, and crisp, flaky crust.

While Andrea and Liz had nailed the caramel, they were still trying to figure out the best way to produce a crisp crust underneath that liquid caramel. (more…)

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we’ve no place to go
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

HA. That’s all well and good for romantic winter-istas, who like to imagine beautiful flakes sifting out of a soft evening sky through lantern light.

Or for skiers, snowmobilers, sledders, or snowman-builders. (more…)

Yep, The Big Cheese-y.

That’s what I wanted the headline on the email accompanying this blog to read. I thought it was cute - you know, a nifty cross between The Big Cheese and The Big Easy.

But when I ran it past my Web teammates? THUD. Lead balloon, big time.

So nanananapoopoo, Webbies – it’s headlining this blog instead.

Where it’s absolutely apropos: what could be cheesier, or easier, than that classic comfort-food favorite, mac and cheese? (more…)

When is a waffle not a weekend breakfast treat?

When it’s a sugar waffle. A crisp/crunchy, waffle-pocket cookie, a cookie touched with malt for darkly delicious flavor. (more…)