Eat My Charlotte

Where do the recipes on the back of cans of beans, boxes of cereal, bags of candy, jars of jam and other packaged foods come from? And more importantly, are they any good?

I figure they’ve got to be some of the best of the best recipes if they are worthy to be printed on every single container and were chosen by the corporate food gods, or test kitchens, if they have one, to best showcase the ingredient being sold.

Well, I’ll test out those recipes for you as part of a new Eat My Charlotte series: “Back of the Box.”

The first Back of the Box (or Bag, in this case) recipe to test: Hershey’s Kisses: Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies.

I forgot how good these classic peanut butter and chocolate cookies are. Warm out of the oven, the peanut butter cookie is soft and the chocolate is melty (not fully melted, but not hard either).

Making them is a cinch: Make the dough, roll the dough into balls, roll the balls into sugar, bake. The fun part is mushing the Hershey’s Kisses into the cookie balls when they come out of the oven.

I’d say this recipe is pretty darn good. There are a lot of impostor recipes out there, but I have absolutely no complaints with this one, so it’s a winner. The cookies even stay soft and yummy on the second day.

Delightfully Delicious Hershey’s Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms

48 Hershey’s Kisses Milk Chocolates
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Granulated sugar

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl. Add 1/2 cup granulated and brown sugar, beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk, vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat into mixure.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Back 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press at Kisses Chocolate into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

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Now that it’s cooler outside, my ice cream maker is working so much better. It has finally decided to cooperate. During the hot summer months, I could churn and churn without results because the frozen canister would defrost so quickly in the 80 degree weather. Now, it works like a charm – I can get ice cream in 20 minutes. Luckily, I appreciate ice cream year ’round, so eating massive amounts of ice cream now makes me just as happy as eating it during the summer.

So now I’ve started churning out batch after batch of ice cream. The most current flavor is pumpkin pie ice cream with molasses cookie crumbles.

As you can see, this ice cream makes for great ginger molasses and pumpkin pie ice cream sandwiches. For the cookies, follow this recipe.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 egg yolks
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 splash bourbon
A handful of gingersnap crumbs or ginger molasses cookie crumbs.

Directions:
1. Heat the cream, milk, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a sauce pan until it almost boils, about 5 minutes.
2. Reduce the heat to low.
3. Add one tablespoon of the cream mixture to the egg to temper it.
4. Add the egg to the sauce pan.
5. Cook at low heat without boiling, until it is slightly thickened and coats the back of a spoon.
6. Strain mixture with a sieve to remove clumps.
7. Add pumpkin puree and stir.
8. Chill the mixture in the fridge.
9. Freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine. (Add crumbs when the ice cream begins to become the texture of soft serve.)

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There’s nothing that says “celebration” like a few dozen cupcakes. Cupcakes are cute, festive, whimsical, and bite-size (well, that depends on the size of your mouth I guess). And they don’t require plates and utensils.

So to celebrate my friend landing a new job in Atlanta, we made her a cupcake buffet. For my cupcake contribution, I decided to go with a crowd-pleasing flavor combo of peanut butter and chocolate. It’s win-win. These rich, thick chocolate cupcakes are filled with a Reese’s-esque peanut butter filling and topped with a creamy peanut butter frosting made of cream cheese, whipped cream, and peanut butter.

So how good are the treats? These cupcake cuties are profanity-proclaiming good. Explicatives spewed from friends’ mouths as soon as their teeth sunk into the filling. Just check out this photo:

(more…)

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Amateur and pro chili chefs battled it out at the Good Eats Chili Cook Off at Jackalope Jack’s on Sunday, Nov. 15. Twenty teams brought their best chili to the table and competed for the best traditional chili (beef and bean), the best specialty chili, and the People’s Choice Award. The entire neighborhood was invited out to taste-test the chilis and also watch the Panthers play on a projected screen in a make-shift outdoor stadium. Admission was free and for $10, guests were given 10 tasting cups and a free beer.

Among those competing were self-proclaimed chili masters, grandmothers, a teenager, and professional chefs from Nolen Kitchen and Tavern on Park.

Although I didn’t win anything at the Cook Off, it was a great first-time cooking competition for me. My friend and I made a Buck Wild Chili with real bear meat, venison, pork sausage, bacon, bourbon, and beer. After ladling out samples of chili from 1 to 6 pm, I was starting to feel like a cafeteria lady (minus the hair net). We had some die-hard fans who asked if we had a web site or restaurant through which they could buy more, but I can’t say the entire crowd went wild over the Buck Wild Chili. I guess there is always next time … And next time I’m playing dirty – I’m bringing all the fixings and even homemade cornbread. Maybe I’ll pass out free beers too to win over the tasters.

Congrats to all the winners!

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If you are interested in other food competitions and food events around Charlotte, join the Charlotte Good Eats Meetup group. Membership is free.

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Creative Loafing’s next Eat My Charlotte Foodie Tour is being planning for January. Our last tour on Nov. 7, featured tacos from restaurants down South Boulevard. The response we got back from our first tour was wonderful — tour-goers said had a great time and everyone is eager to buy tickets for our next tour asap.  So now we’d like your input: What food should our next food tour feature? We’ve got a lot of tasting and testing to do, so we’ve got to narrow down our next food item soon!

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Do you appreciate a fun guy?

I hope so. This recipe for stuffed fungi (hardy har har), aka. Stuffed Mushrooms, is fabulous. Even those people who don’t like the slimy, mushy texture of cooked mushrooms might enjoy this appetizer recipe — the mushroom caps are only sauteed and still hold their crunch. You just fill them up with a mixture of cheeses and pop them in the oven. I served them up at my dinner club last night and they were quite the hit … as fun guys usually are at parties. (Stop rolling your eyes. Can can see you.)

To make these, you only need six ingredients. Which is a good thing because recipes with ingredient lists over 10 items scare me. I used Gorgonzola cheese here and I halved the recipe easily. You can assemble the dish in advance and store it in the fridge until you are ready to broil them.

The ingredients: (clockwise) Worcestershire sauce, mushrooms, green onions, Gorgonzola, cream cheese and butter.

Decapitate the bad boys.

Mix up the stuffing goodies.

Stuff 'em good.

Stuffed Mushrooms

2 lbs medium mushrooms
6 tablespoons butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 dash Worcestershire sauce

1. Remove stems from mushrooms; chop enough stems to equal 1/2 cup.
2. Cook 1 pound of the mushroom caps in 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat for 5 minutes; drain off fat.
3. Repeat with remaining 1 pound of mushroom caps and 3 tablespoons butter.
4. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese and blue cheese, mixing until well blended.
5. Stir in chopped stems and green onions; fill mushroom caps.
6. Place on cookie sheet and broil until warm and tops are golden brown.

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Yes, I know, ice cream is for the summer! But this is a special fall edition flavor of ice cream – Maple Pecan.

And they’re not just any regular plain pecans in this ice cream, they are buttery toasted, candied pecans.

This custard-based ice cream is sweetened with maple syrup (the real stuff – none of that Aunt Jemima gunk). Oh yes, and it has a splash of bourbon. The recipe says it is optional, but I demand that it is mandatory.

Maple Pecan Ice Cream
Recipe courtesy of Closet Cooking

3/4 cup pecans (roughly chopped)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
4 egg yolks
1 splash bourbon (optional)

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a pan.
2. Add the pecans, toss to coat, sprinkle on the sugar and heat until the pecans are nice and toasted, about 3-4 minutes.
3. Remove the pecans from the heat and let cool completely.
4. Heat the maple syrup, cream and milk in a sauce pan until it almost boils, about 5 minutes.
5. Reduce the heat to low.
6. Temper the eggs and stir them into the cream.
7. Cook at low heat until it thickens and can coat the back of a spoon.
8. Remove from heat and stir in the bourbon.
9. Strain the mixture at this point to remove any bits that may have formed while warming.
10. Chill the mixture in the fridge.
11. Freeze the maple custard and toasted pecans according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.

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For some reason I am feeling generous today and I am going to share the recipe for one of my favorite cookies with you, my faithful reader. It must be the upcoming holiday season…

These Ginger Molasses Cookies have an amazing soft and chewy texture. The trick is to refrigerate the dough 24 hours before baking. I’m thinking this has something to do with achieving the chewiness of the cookies.

Because the balls of dough are rolled in a mixture of granulated and demerara sugar before baking, they have a sugary crunch when you bite into them. What’s demerara sugar? Demerara is a type of unrefined sugar with a large grain. When sugar cane syrup is dehydrated, it forms the large golden brown crystals. Using demerara gives the cookies a bigger crunch than just using granulated sugar alone.

The cookies will puff up while they bake. To ensure a chewy texture, be careful not to overbake.

Sparkley! This picture doesn't show how pretty and glittery these cookies really are.

If you want to go overboard (like I always do), serve them with homemade Maple Pecan Ice Cream.

Ginger Molasses Cookies

1 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup cup dark molasses
1/8 cup water
1/4 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
3 1/4 cups unsifted flour
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 heaping teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup mixed sugars (demerara and granulated sugar)

Cream butter, molasses, water, salt and brown sugar together. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Sift dry ingredients together and add gradually to the creamed mixture. Mix well (dough will be stiff). Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into 1.5-inch balls and roll each ball in the sugar mix to cover. Bake for 13 to 16 minutes.

The recipe for the Maple Pecan Ice Cream to come…

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Creative Loafing hosted our first Eat My Charlotte Foodie Tours on Saturday, Nov. 7. The tour featured authentic tacos from restaurants down South Boulevard, along with Mexican beers and churros. Did you happen to see a red double-decker bus driving around town? That was us!

If you missed out on this tour, we’ll have another Foodie Tour hitting the streets in January. Stay tuned for info about which food we will feature next…

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Photos by Alison Henry and Priscilla Tsai.

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For those of you who are attending our Saturday “Eat My Charlotte Foodie Tour: Tacos,” get excited.

Today I went out with our publisher to hand pick your beer for the double-decker bus ride. We stopped at Supermercado Romero’s on South Boulevard and hauled out these authentic goodies for you:

Modelo and Tecate!

And while we were there, we couldn’t resist purchasing some of the warm baked goods from the panederia y pasteleria!

The yummy scent of sweet breads and cookies envelope the store calling customers over to the display of goodies spanning an entire wall. The store bakes all their breads and pastries in-house throughout the day so they are amazingly fresh.

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