Classic Snacks Made from Scratch (23 page)

Pairing port wine and cheese in a spread (and rolling it into a ball or log, then coating it with walnuts) might appear to be a midcentury invention, like chicken liver rumaki and ham canapés. But the tradition of pairing sweet port with a strong cheese actually reaches back centuries. There are some things that just taste good together, you know? Make sure to use a white port or wine, lest your spread turn an unappetizing shade of mauve.

YIELD:
about 2 cups

TOTAL TIME:
10 minutes, plus overnight chilling time

DIFFICULTY:
1

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
food processor

1 (8-ounce) block sharp Cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded

1 (4-ounce) goat cheese log

1/2 ounce (about 2 tablespoons) crumbled Maytag blue cheese

1/4 cup white port or other sweet white wine (such as Moscato or Riesling)

3 tablespoons buttermilk

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup crushed walnuts (optional)

I
NSTRUCTIONS:

Blend all the ingredients (except the walnuts) together in a foo
d processor until a smooth paste forms. Transfer to a lidded jar or bowl and chill overnight.

Roll the chilled cheese mixture into a ball or log and coat with crushed walnuts, if desired, before serving.

Store the spread in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.

The presence of spinach in this dip is misleading to so many people: some use it as a “healthy” excuse to hoover up a warm, cheesy bowl of dip while watching the game at their favorite neighborhood bar, while others avoid it like the plague because spinach = vegetables, and nary a veg shall cross their lips. Let me set the record straight: no, it ain’t healthy at all, and no, it doesn’t taste like healthy vegetables at all. But it is creamy, gooey, and worth every slurp. So what are you waiting for?

YIELD:
enough for 6 people to stuff their faces

TOTAL TIME:
1 hour

DIFFICULTY:
2

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
oven-safe casserole dish, fine-mesh strainer

1 head garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 (10-ounce
) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 (14-ounce) can water-packed artichoke hearts

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (1-3/4 ounces) coarsely grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Provolone cheese

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup whole or reduced-fat milk

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Slice the tip of the garlic head off the bulb so the tops of the cloves are just barely exposed. Place the cut head of garlic on a piece of foil, drizzle with the olive oil, and seal into a foil packet.

Roast for 30 to 35 minutes, until the garlic is very soft and just turning golden brown. Carefully peel open the foil (watch out—steam may escape) and let cool to room temperature.

Drain the thawed spinach in a fine-mesh strainer, pressing to make sure most of the water is squeezed out. Transfer the spinach to a large mixing bowl.

Drain the artichokes and chop coarsely. Add to the spinach in the bowl. Over the bowl, squeeze the cooled head of garlic from its base: the softened, roasted cloves will pop out of their skins into the bowl. Some will be so soft they’ll have puréed within their skins; squeeze well to get the majority of the purée out.

Stir the cream cheese, Pecorino and Provolone cheeses, and salt into the spinach-artichoke-garlic mixture until all ingredients are well blended. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk and check to see if the consistency is creamy enough for you; add the rest of the milk a tablespoon at a time until it reaches your desired creaminess.

Transfer the mixture to an oven-safe casserole dish. Bake for 20 minutes, until the dip is bubbling and golden brown at the edges. Serve warm with chips or toasted baguette slices for dipping.

Store the dip in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.

Southern purists, get ready to clutch your pearls: this isn’t the creamy Cheddar spread you grew up with. This is full-on from-a-jar Kraft pimento spread, the kind that hides out with the other faux cheese dips in the refrigerated aisle. In fact, there ain’t even a lick of Cheddar in this stuff—it’s a little sweet, a little tangy, and totally different.

YIELD:
about 1-1/2 cups

TOTAL TIME:
10 minutes, plus overnight chilling time

DIFFICULTY:
1

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
mini food processor

6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1 (4-ounce) jar diced pimentos, drained

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon good balsamic vinegar, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Blend all the ingredients in a mini food processor until smooth. Transfer to a lidded jar or bowl and chill overnight before serving.

Store the spread in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.

While everything (and then some) is available on Amazon, sometimes it’s nice to go where everybody knows your name. These are the producers and vendors whose doors I darken way too often, both on the Internet and in the brick-and-mortar world:

ATLANTIC SPICE COMPANY

atlanticspice.com
or 800-316-7965

2 Shore Rd., North Truro, MA 02652

Vanilla beans and sundry spices

BOB’S RED MILL

bobsredmill.com
or 800-349-2173

Various unusual flours (including corn flour, graham flour, rice flour, and tapioca flour)

KALUSTYAN’S

kalustyans.com
or 800-352-3451

123 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10016

Dried whole corn and hominy

KING ARTHUR FLOUR

kingarthurflour.com
or 800-827-6836

The Baker’s Store: 135 US Route 5 South, Norwich, VT 05055

Cheddar cheese powder, whole wheat pastry flour, white whole wheat flour, and the best all-purpose flour in the world

NY CAKE AND BAKING

nycake.com
or 855-226-7392

56 W. 22nd St., New York, NY 10010

Pastry bags, piping tips, AmeriColor gel food coloring, and crazy baking pans

WILLIAMS-SONOMA

williams-sonoma.com
or 877-812-6235 for locations

Citric acid and, oh, almost every piece of cookware under the sun

HOW TO FILL A PASTRY BAG

Whether you’re using a washable, reusable pastry bag or just a gallon-size zip-top bag, the principle of filling a bag to decorate snacks with marshmallow, frosting, or other sweet goop remains the same.

Fit the pastry bag with your decorating/piping tip of choice. If using a zip-top bag, snip no more than 1/2 inch off a corner. A coupler, or screw-together plastic tube, helps hold your piping tip in place and makes it easy to swap out different decorative piping tips. It’s absolutely
not
necessary for any recipe in this book, but it does keep your piping tip from accidentally sliding back into the bag as you work. Messy.

Place the tip end of the bag in a pint glass or small mixing bowl, then fold the open end of the bag down over the lip of the glass or bowl to form a wide cuff and hold the bag open. Spoon in your filling, using a silicone spatula or spoonula. Unfold the bag and lift it out of the glass or bowl. Gently press the filling down toward the tip and twist the bag’s open end to close it loosely and hold in the filling.

Pipe your filling at a 90-degree angle to the pastry or baking sheet. Use one hand to hold the twisted bag end closed and gently squeeze the filling, the other hand to guide the tip. For some, it’s easiest to squeeze with the dominant hand and guide with the weaker hand, but experiment until you know what’s comfortable for you. If you like, grab a tub of ready-made frosting from the store and try a few rounds on waxed paper to get the hang of the piping process.

ICE CREAM 101

I’m just going to come out and say it right off the bat: yes, you need an electric ice cream maker to make the ice cream recipes in this book.

I’ve heard the arguments from apartment-dwellers; I know the machine takes up space in your cabinet and the bowl takes up space in your freezer. I know it’s a uni-tasker, though I’d make a case that the sheer variety of flavors you can produce with a home ice cream maker far outweighs that fact. It only does one thing, but it does it nearly flawlessly. The problem with many alternative methods is that the texture of the final product is often closer to sorbet or granita than true ice cream. We’re going for full-fat creaminess with these recipes, because no one wants ice chunks in their ice cream sandwich!

My weapon of choice is the Cuisinart ICE-21 ice cream maker, which comes with two bowls—very handy for recipes such as Toasted Almond Bars (
page 103
) and Neapolitan Ice Cream Sandwiches (
page 101
). (You don’t have to keep both bowls in the freezer 24/7.) If you’ve got another model or an ice cream attachment for your stand mixer, by all means don’t run out and buy a new one. Just check your manufacturer’s instructions to see how long a typical cycle runs. The following recipes are timed for a 20-minute machine freeze cycle, but your mileage may vary. Cuisinart also sells extra bowls for its ice cream makers via retailers such as Amazon, Chef’s Catalog, and Chef’s Central.

Once the ice cream’s made, you’ll need something in which to mold your pops and bars. Most of this chapter’s recipes use standard 3 to 4-ounce Popsicle molds. After extensive trial and error throughout the recipe development process, I’ll give two sticky thumbs-up to one brand: Tovolo. Its Groovy pop molds and star-shaped molds are ideal for these recipes, with wide-mouth openings that make it easy to fill the molds and then extract the frozen pops. They’re readily available from big-box retailers such as Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Walmart, as well as from Amazon.

If you’re not in the market for Popsicle molds—and if you only buy one piece of equipment for these recipes, my vote goes to the ice cream maker—Dixie cups are a decent, if not perfect, substitute. For the recipes in this chapter, the 3 or 5-ounce cups will suffice. (Though if you want to make massive 9-ounce Fudgsicles to get you through a humid summer, I’m not going to stop you!)

DEEP FRYING 101

Working with boiling oil isn’t the medieval torture so many home cooks consider it to be. Like rolling out pie dough and shucking oysters, it’s a technique that becomes less nerve-wracking with practice and is simple when you’ve got the right equipment on hand.

Though you can lay out up to $300 for an electric deep fryer, the machine takes care of all your tools in one fell swoop. If you’re thinking about taking the
plunge, look for a model that comes equipped with a digital temperature panel as well as a fry basket for easy dunking and removal of your goodies. Some models even filter and store the used oil for you, which is breading on the nugget, in my opinion.