Polka Dot Pudding Recipe

A few months ago, I got this idea:  boba in bubble tea are tapioca, why doesn't anyone make pudding with them?

Classic Camp Crafts - Lanyards: the Cobra Stitch

Did you go to camp? I did, and while I was there, I used to spend as much time on the Arts&Crafts shack as possible. We made all sorts of things that were very often useless and ugly, but we also got to do the cool stuff like tie dye, clay pottery, and friendship bracelets. 

Lanyards were not on the list of cool or useful things  that you could make, but they were my favorite.

I made these 2 videos for all the ex campers out there who want to get nostalgic. It's also a great way for parents of kids that do not go to camp to share in the fun.

Banana Dogs

As cookout season approaches, people start to look for ways to use up uneven amounts of hotdogs and buns. Taking a note from Japadog, a Japanese style hotdog stand from the US and Canada (they serve ice cream on a bun instead of a cone), I've come up with this sweet treat in a bun that may help use up your extra bread products.

The banana-dog.

Did you ever notice that bananas fit perfectly on hotdog buns? Well, they do. It might seem like a strange combo, but its just another arrangement of the classic peanut butter and banana sandwich but open-faced and with a dash of humor.

Ingredients:
Bananas
1 bun for every banana ( I used Martin's Potato Rolls)
2 Tbs of peanut butter, Nutella, or even Marshmallow Fluff
chopped nuts or candy toppings of your choice (I used 2 mini Reese's peanut butter cups and 1/3 of a Heath Bar)

It could also be fun to add fresh sliced strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, or anything else you might find on an ice cream sundae.

Start by toasting your bun. When the bun is finished toasting, let it cool a bit, then peel the banana and place it in the bun as you would a hotdog. Gently spread the peanut butter or Nutella on top of the banana. Prepare your toppings so they can be sprinkled on top of the banana dog. I chopped my peanut butter cups into quarters and smacked the heath bar against the counter a few times to break it up. Sprinkle/drizzle the toppings on, they should stick to the peanut butter and stay put.

Now eat!

Have a good Memorial Day!

Triple Hazelnut Pudding Cookies

Last week while browsing recipes on pinterest, I came across the pudding cookie, a supposedly foolproof way to make the perfect chewy cookie. Having totally missed the main part this recent internet craze, I just had to try it and see if one readymade ingredient really could make all the difference.

So I studied a few of the available formulas and modified my signature Nutella cookies to work with the instant pudding. The result is something even better: the perfect chewy cookie with 3 kinds of hazelnut goodness and 4 types of chocolate in the recipe.

I made a full recipe of these and it was gone in days. Try it for yourself and see if your family can keep their hands off.

Xandy's Signature Chewy Chocolate Hazelnut (PUDDING) Cookies

Takes approx 45 min
Makes approx 40 cookies
Preheat oven to 350° F

Ingredients
2.25 cups all purpose flour
1 box Jello Instant Chocolate Pudding
3/4 cups thawed butter
1/2 cup Nutella
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 alarge eggs
2 Tbs Dutch process cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs Fra Angelico (hazelnut) Liqueur (bottle looks like a monk brown robe and cotton belt), substitute with vanilla extract.
1 cup salted roasted hazelnuts, chopped
1 cup nestle semisweet chocolate chips

Start by preheating the oven to 350° F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.


Add butter, sugar, and Nutella to mixer, can't bake without the kitchenaid,and cream on medium speed until the mixture lightens and has some air beaten into it.

Add eggs, remember to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure you are getting a uniform mixture.

Add flour, Baking soda, and cocoa to mixer in increments on slow speed continuing to scrape sides periodically.

Add Fra Angelico, roasted nuts, and chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop or spoon, portion out 1Tbs balls of dough. Flatten and place on cookie sheet with space to expand (at least 2").

Bake in oven for 10 min per sheet.

Cool cookies on racks and eat,and eat, and eat.

Notes: Any alcohol in these cookies is cooked off by the time they leave the oven, using Liqueur as a flavor is comparable to using extracts. THESE ARE KID SAFE.

If you cannot find roasted Hazelnuts at the store, you can roast raw or blanched hazelnuts for 10 min at Preheat oven to 350° F to develop flavor before adding a bit of salt and chopping. I did this and the cookies came out very well.

Overall evaluation, though I'm not sure exactly sure anymore how chewy these are without the puds you can really tell that these are not just another Nutella cookie.

Midnight Curry

I am not a big fan of daylight, you may notice that usually my posts go up around 3-4 AM. It can make eating kind of tricky because I'm not usually awake during grocery store hours. Left in the middle of the night with limited ingredients, an excess of frozen IKEA meatballs, and a coconut craving, some strange things happen.

To make IKEA Coconut Curry you will need:
2 cubes or packets of Japanese style curry
 300ml water OR the amount of water in the box's instructions
1/3 cup of Baker's sweetened Angel Flake coconut
12 frozen IKEA meatballs
Rice

Start by heating the meatballs according to the instructions on the package (4 min in the microwave).

Combine the water, coconut, and curry cubes in a pot over high-medium heat.

While the curry mix is coming to a boil, quarter the meatballs. For maximum fun, use scissors.

When the sauce starts to thicken, add the meatballs.

Serve over rice garnished with some shredded coconut, flavor improves with some fridge time. This will make about 4 servings.

There are no pictures of the cooking process because it was dark when I made it, but this is my leftovers lunch. I'm not a huge fan of the well-done, ground beef flavor of the meatballs unseasoned and so letting the flavors blend overnight and mellow a bit made this recipe a lot better. Adding coconut to basic curry makes it sweeter and less like the usual cheap boxed curry.

If you are daring, bored, or ever wondered what the food tastes like on the show CHOPPED, you might want to try this out.

How to make old fashioned matzo balls

I am the family matzo baller. For the last 15 years it seems I've been at least helping out with this part of the meal. Every year we have been working from the same recipe passed down from my great grandmother. Unfortunately, we make a lot of changes to the matzoh-to-egg ratio and never write them down. Sometimes the changes work, but there have been some years where things have been a bit heavy.  This year, I have decided to record the recipe so there will no longer be any issues.

Ingredients for 12 large balls:

4 matzos
3 large eggs
2 tbs matzo meal to make a loose dough + extra for rolling
1 cup of seltzer water
1/2 cup of  melted butter, marrow if you're kosher
2 Tbs of chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ginger
(1 tsp baking powder) not during passover though

1 quart of chicken broth for cooking
1 quart of water

chicken soup for serving

This will take 2.5 hours including resting time.

Put the matzos in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin. My recipe was tripled, so you may notice my pictures show more of all the ingredients.

When you're finished, you should have pieces about this big, none larger than a penny.

Pour the matzo into a mixing bowl with plenty of extra room. Pour the seltzer over the matzo and let it soak in. Stir if it is not evenly distributed. Chop your parsley and melt your butter as the moistened matzo begins to soften.

Add the matzo meal, salt, pepper, ginger, and parsley to the matzos. pour on the butter and mix everything well.

Separate the eggs, whites in one bowl, and yolks in another. Add the yolks into the matzo mixture and mix them in.

Beat the whites until they make stiff peaks.

They should look like this.

Add the fluffy whites to the matzo mixture and fold them in. Do not stir them.

Put the bowl in the fridge covered with saran wrap. It needs to sit for an hour or more.

After an hour, everything will be more like a dough. If it is more like an oozing goo, fold in some more matzo meal to make a shapeable yet still wet batter.

Pour out some matzo meal on a clean surface, and take a scoop of batter from the mixing bowl. Put it on the matzo meal and cover it to keep it from sticking to your hands and falling apart.  Roll the scoop into a ball without smushing it. I made this video of how I do mine because it is an important step. If it isn't passover and you added the baking powder, you can worry less about smushing the air out, but your balls will still be more tender if you treat them gently.

It might take some practice, and don't worry if it isn't exactly like I showed.

When all your balls are rolled, let them sit as you bring your chicken broth and water to a rolling boil in a large pot. this is not the soup that you will serve the balls in. After cooking it is very starchy with a lot of bits in it.

When the balls are done resting and your broth/water mix is very hot you can add the balls. If the liquid is not boiling vigorously, the balls will fall apart, so don't rush things.

The balls will need ten minutes to cook, but cannot really be overcooked. You can leave them on the stove until ten minutes from the time the last ball went in.

I had to remove my balls and pack them for transportation. They're a bit fragile.

We served them in hot chicken soup right after the gefilte fish. They will last about 4 days in the fridge.

Have a happy passover and try making your own balls from scratch, no mixes and less matzo meal tastes a lot better.

Instant valentine

How many times have the baking challenged tried to make something special for someone special on valentines day? Often it ends up being a cute, but not delicious, gesture.

I'm proposing that somewhat challenged cooks turn, this year, to the microwave oven and treat your date to a mug brownie. Some of them are very tasty.

They're all over the internet with a wide variation in flavor and texture. In order to get something with the right texture and a rich flavor, I've been working on my own version. You will find that it is less like cake, and more like a true brownie. It has more cocoa than most other recipes, nutella for added flavor complexity, and a bittersweet characteristic.

The recipe for two cakes (cakes for lovers?) follows

1/2 cup flour
3 tbs of sugar
1/4 cup  and 2 tbs of unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup of nutella or peanut butter
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbs of milk 2 tbs oil
1 tsp of salt
 optional coconut or chocolate chips

Mix all of these ingredients together in a bowl.

Divide between 2 glass pudding cups and microwave separately, Each for 75 seconds.

I finished mine off with some caramel sauce and powdered sugar.  I may not take the best food pictures, but seriously this is worth trying.

chocolate season

The week leading up to and surrounding Valentine's Day is Chocolate week. I thought that some of you who are making big plans for tomorrow might appreciate a really easy dessert (or appetizer) which is a sweet twist on the classic idea of cheese and crackers. For a limited time, you can find these chocolate pretzel inspired fudge covered Ritz crackers.

 I also got some of this nice French processed dessert cheese called gourmandise. It is available in cherry and walnut flavor. Though the flavors are associated with sweetness, there are no sweeteners added to the cheese, making it an interesting savory treat or the perfect complement to desert.

 If you like Chocolate and walnut flavors (or cherry) this is a really great dessert, or a great appetizer for an all chocolate meal. All you have to do is slice the cheese and put it on the crackers.

Chocolate crackers with walnut cheese, yes.

eight days of FRIED - day eight: Marshmallows

For the last day of frying, we saved the most exciting and decadent concoction. Tempura marshmallows were secretly prepared alongside fruitcake slices and then frozen for a few days. My sister, who is a trained chef, recommended freezing as a way of keeping the marshmallow solid in hot oil.

You can kind of see the hot marshmallow and chocolate leaking out of the bottom. Oh yeah, we stuffed the marshmallows with chocolate before battering with tempura batter.

The marshmallows actually taste fruity. Let them cool a bit before you take a bite.

eight days of FRIED - day seven: Latkes revisited with bacon

Tonight we made another batch of latkes (because they are that good) using the basic recipe. If you would like to add bacon to your latkes, you'll want to add one half pound for every 3 pounds of potatoes.

Cook the bacon and crumble it and add the bits to your latke batter.

You can see the bacon pieces in these latkes.

After making your bacon latkes, invite one of your friends over to watch some late '80s Chanukah specials on VHS.

If you too want to watch the classic Bubbe's Boarding House Chanukah special, the whole thing is online here.

eight days of FRIED - day six: Fried pickles and olives

Tonight we didn't make plans before frying, so we went to the fridge for inspiration. There was a jar with one pickle and a jar of olives in the fridge door as well as a bowl of tahini sauce. We sliced up the pickle and dried them and some olives on a paper towel.

We dredged everything in tahini, then coated in plain bread crumbs. A pan of oil was heated to 350 degrees and we began with some pickle slices.

As soon as the water content of the tahini cooked off, the breadcrumbs just fell apart. I am assuming this is because tahini is an oil based sauce. A water based binder will resist mixing with the hot oil, but more oil will not.  The remaining uncooked pickles and olives were dipped in milk and again covered in breadcrumbs.

This time, everything stayed together, browning nicely in the oil.

The result of this night's experiment is some of the most delicious fried food ever made in our house. The pickles are extremely delicious. The tahini flavor is not very strong, but definitely noticeable. You probably have to taste them to understand how well the flavors mix.  The only modification I would recommend is to use Spanish olives which are less salty than kalamata.

eight days of FRIED - day five: Chanukah fried fruitcake

Tonight is Christmas eve. There are a lot of people who celebrate it and we though it fitting to choose something Christmassy so everyone can celebrate together. Tempura fruitcake seemed like a good choice. I like fruitcake, so we always get one at Costco around this time of year. Many people, however, are rumored to really hate fruitcake in any form. They come in festive tins and are endlessly re-gifted.

This year I would advise a different approach. Keep your fruitcake, go look at Martha Stewart's recipe for tempura batter, and deep fry it.

The batter is supposed to be lumpy. Also there is an inch thick slice of fruit cake in there.

There will be a lot of bubbles with this batter. Immediately your kitchen will smell like a Japanese restaurant.With extra batter, we added some fried pecans to the pot, they make a nice snack or garnish.

The tempura batter, as you can see, is very crispy and light.

So, here it is. Tempura fruitcake for Chanukah and Christmas with a garnish of fried pecans. The Kirkland brand cakes use mostly red and green cherries, hence the bright, seasonal cross section. Hope you enjoy. This one really, really is worth at try.

eight days of FRIED - day four: Thai green curry

Three days of really greasy deep fried and sugary food is not very nutritious. Tonight, I wanted to make something that was not as unhealthy. Last month, while visiting a friend, I had a chance to talk to some Thai ladies about the proper method for cooking curry. My friend's mother was kind enough to send me home with some fresh keffir lime leaves and her favorite brand of curry paste. She also told me about the important first step of separating the coconut milk and frying the paste in the rendered oil.

You can see in this picture the main ingredients of the curry. The brand of canned paste is Maesri. It was recommended that I not follow the directions on the can and to use double the coconut milk than used in the instructions. I used one can of paste and two cans of coconut milk. 

I always use coconut milk with no stabilizers. when you open the can, there will be thick white cream on top. before you start cooking, spoon out the cream. This is the first thing to go into the pan.

This is the uncooked cream. You need to heat it until the water evaporates and the solids and oil begin to separate.

You can see the difference in this picture. After the coconut oil is visibly rendered, you can fry the paste. The frying is very important for the flavors of the curry.

When the paste is fully cooked, add the rest of the coconut milk.

The curry will be liquid, it needs to boil before you can add meat and vegetables.

The curry can recommended using eggplant, which turned out to be a very nice color combination. I also added chicken, bamboo shoots, and baby corn.

Anyone who is experienced with Thai cooking can probably find a few mistakes in my process, but the end result is still delicious over jasmine rice. Cooking the curry myself will never be as good as my friend's mom, but it is better than a lot of restaurants.

Definitely worth trying, and frying, some time.

eight days of FRIED - day three: caramel bananas

I personally do not like bananas, but anything fried in butter and sugar is probably good. I saw this recipe a long time ago on some food show and wrote it down without noting the original source.

1 tbs of butter
2 tbs of brown sugar
2 tbs of shredded coconut
2 bananas

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. When it is fully melted, add the banana, coconut, and sugar. Fry everything until the bananas become darker and the sugar and butter blend fully.

I still do not like bananas, but might try frying some apples next time.