Thursday, December 29, 2011

S'More Bombs

Food Arts Magazine provides demos by some of the great chefs, some have recipes you might enjoy for your wedding, rehersal dinner or other special pre-wedding occasion. For photos see Ben Roche at an Buick Discovery + Wine Event.  To read more about Ben Roche and his restaurant Moto go here.  He and his partner are one of the top trendy restaurants using chemistry instead of the food you think you're eating.  They're basically food chemists.

Awhile ago I came across a "I Can't Resist This!" dessert.  It brought together my childhood camp memories of s'mores around the campfire sans mosquitoes with my adult gourmet palate (oh yeah, I'm soooo adult now, and such a gourmet, which is why I adore s'mores ya know?)

One of my favorites (partially because I can actually replicate it at home) is S'More Bombs made by executive pastry chef at Chicago's Moto.  Roche liquefies the milk, graham crackers, dark brown sugar and salt and finds a way (genius that he is) to form them into tiny bombs of flavor by using a 2 part ice cube tray that make spheres (for me this was the hard part--I'm a mess in the kitchen!)  Then he melts the chocolate and cocoa butter and uses lollipop sticks to dip the balls into the chocolate.  You make wicks from cellophane noodles that are deep fat fried--GENIUS!  I'll put the exact directions as published in Food Arts for you to use because you don't want to depend on my 'cook by the seat of your pants' cooking directions!

Recipe From Food Arts Magazine from Executive Chef, Ben Roche

S'MORE BOMBS
50 Servings

Graham cracker puree:
2 packs (240g) graham crackers
3 cups (700 ml) WHOLE milk
2 T (30 g) dark brown sugar
salt

Graham Cracker Puree:

1. Place all the above into high speed blender, blend 1-2 min. until puree becomes warm so the fat from the graham crackers can emulsify with the milk.
2. Chill puree in an ice bath or covered in the refrigerator.
3. Pour into ice cube trays, preferably a 2 part ice cube tray that makes spheres for the 'bomb' like look.  Freeze overnight.
4. Remove frozen graham spheres from trays.
5. Reserve in freezer.


Chocolate Covering:

6 1/2 T (100 g) cocoa butter
17 1/2 oz (500 g) dark chocolate

1.  Heat cocoa butter and chocolate together in your microwave to approximately 100 degrees F or until completely melted (stir occasionally so cocoa butter doesn't separate from the chocolate.)
2. Press a wooden skewer (I used lollipop sticks but a pointed skewer would probably work better) into each frozen graham cracker ball. 
3. Dip in chocolate coating.  Tap each ball a few times to remover chocolate and get a thinner and crisper chocolate shell.
4.  Place on a plate or try lined with plastic or a non-stick baking mat.
5. Remover skewer when chocolate has set. (a few seconds).  Make sure to leave a hole for the 'wick.'
6.  Reserve in refrigerator a minimum of three hours for the frozen graham crackers to melt back into a liquid state.


Marshmallow "wicks:"

12 Dried cellophane noodles (thicker varieties work best)

1.  Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium low heat to 350-400 degrees. 
2.  Deep fry cellophane noodles until the pull and crisp up (about 10 seconds); remover from oil.
3. Set on paper towels to drain and dry.
4. Break into 1 1/2 to 2 inch long 'wicks' by hand; reserve in a dry place.

Assembly:

1. Insert wick in ball. 
2. Plate a single ball on each plate
3. Light the wick; once it burns out eat the bomb and wick all in one bite!







Saturday, December 10, 2011

Lily Pulitzer, Weddings and Cookies


OK, I know, Lily P, weddings and baking... an odd combo.  But if you stop and think about it, Lily is all about great design and so are designing your cookies and planning your wedding.  These cookies, courtesy of The Sweet Adventure of SugarBelle will knock the socks off your guests.  Perfect for your sweet table or to give as favors, your guests will remember these cookies. 


The design for these cookies is based on Lily Pulitzer's 2011 Optical Confusion design in navy and pink.  Lily weddings are perfect for the preppy bride looking for some bright colors and an up to date look for her wedding.

Ombre Cookies - Easy For The Home Baker


Are you a bride who is loving the ombre look for your wedding day? These ombre cookies, from The Sweet Adventure of SugarBelle one of my go to blogs for great cookie ideas, has a tutorial to show you just how easy it is to make these great looking cookies. 


Sugarbelle's site shows you the easy way to 'airbrush' the cookies using Wilton's Color Mist.  Wilton Master Color Mist Food Color Spray Kit give you a choice of eight different colors. One is sure to fit your palette. It's a super tutorial and I highly recommend heading over to see the ombre cookie tutorial as well as her other great how-to posts, must reads for the serious, and not so serious cookie baker.


Monday, December 5, 2011

Gold Thread Cookies


Amber Spiegel strikes again! And I don't mean strikes out! If you liked her campy Twilight cookies, these gold thread Orange Vanilla Spice Cookies iced in muted colors with "embroidered" royal Icing flowers will blow you away!  The cookies are painted with gold pearl dust that's actually edible! Cookies measure about 3-1/2" in diameter. This set of lacy cookies contains 2 dusty blue, 2 pink and 2 light brown cookies.
Each cookie has zest of orange, cardamom, and vanilla bean with vanilla flavored Royal Icing topping each cookie.  Enjoy this unique flavor combination. 


 
Cookies are wrapped individually and heat sealed for freshness in a cellophane.  Cookies will be shipped to you in a beautifully packaged gift box and your cookies will stay fresh for up to three weeks.  Order today!  These are a little bit pricey but well worth it when you hear all those oohs and ahs from your guests! 
 
Keep an eye on SweetAmbs for more great cookies for weddings and other special occasions.  If you love the design on these cookies she currently has some with a leaf design as well.  Other designs include monograms, crowns, hearts, cameos, teapots, apples and hearts.

 

 


Cookies For Twi-Hards


Twi-hards will love these cookies by Amber Spiegel.  Amber sells these through her store on Etsy.com Sweet Ambs.  Twilight theme weddings are all the rage so Amber wisely chose to cash in on it by creating her own Twilight design cookies


Whether you're Team Edward or Team Jacob these cookies have something for everyone. 


Choose the iconic chess pieces or the apples, both are equally represented in her collection.  Serve these at your Twilight theme wedding, its so good that the movies have all been spread out, giving fans a chance to become addicted to the brand and to gain the type of following that legends are made of. So have a Twilight wedding.  Just lend Grandma the book first or you'll spend all night explaining why you're serving hearts dripping with blood at your wedding!