A high-school friend on Facebook posted a link to Lottie & Doof’s recipe for brown butter shortbread, and it sounded so good (and it’s shortbread, so it’s very, very easy) that I had to try it since I’ve been baking a lot while I’m not working. Read more »
I mention ice cream not only because I love it and it has a lot of nostalgic value for me, but also because we’re going to be carrying ice cream, or at least its Italian cousin, gelato. John and I are hoping Palazollo’s, a great gelato/sorbetto company in Fennville, MI, will work with us to create an exclusive flavor for Tulips. They already make a ton of flavors, and we used some of Asian-appropriate ones at the Buddha: Chinese green tea, mango, fresh ginger, and toasted coconut. We had a devil of a time dealing with the gelatos at the Buddha, mostly because they have to be stored at a slightly higher temperature than ice cream which calls for a separate freezer to hold them, and our freezers were very temperamental (no pun intended), so we lost entire 3 gallon buckets at a time. Hopefully John will see the necessity to have good and appropriate refrigeration for them.
The caramel ice cream (ok, soup) Read more »
I made a delicious salted caramel ice cream with praline yesterday (from David Lebovitz of course). Actually there are a couple things not quite right with that statement. First, I started on the ice cream Wednesday night by making the praline and the custard, and then refrigerating all of it overnight (yes, even the praline. It was a simple praline, just sugar and salt, and my apartment is so warm that it would have sweat itself into a puddle before I got to making the ice cream.).
Then I made the ice cream the next day. Or I should say I tried to make the ice cream. Read more »
Anyone who’s spent anytime around me over the last couple of years knows I’m already a huge fan of David Lebovitz’s chocolate almond buttercrunch toffee. And when I make it, anyone who’s around me is too. Making it is very easy and very impressive. Anytime you can take a very short list of very simple ingredients – sugar, butter, vanilla, chocolate, and almonds in this case – and turn them into something truly delicious and beautiful, I think it’s as close as it gets to performing magic in the kitchen.