Bite-Size Beignets

Beignets are such a quintessential New Orleans treat that I’m fairly certain there’s a law against visiting the city and not making at least a brief stop at Café du Monde.

And yes, I am aware that you can find a beignet at many other places, but after having tried a few different joints I’m firmly in the Café du Monde cheering section. Whatever it is they do to those crunchy, fluffy, powdered-sugar-bombs is addicting. Add their famous café au lait and if I ever stayed in N’awlins for more than a day at a time you’d have to roll me out of the French Quarter.

In an effort of mercy for my bathroom scale I’ve reduced the size of the beignets for this recipe – though that might have been a bad idea at the rate I was popping these babies in my mouth all morning. Their small size makes them manageable to fry in a small dutch oven and greatly reduces the cooking time. Although the “proper” method of cooking a traditional beignet requires frying them in cottonseed oil – that’s a wee bit difficult to find north of the Mason-Dixie line. Use peanut oil instead, there’s a reason it’s the gold standard for deep frying and it works wonderfully for frying these bite-sized beauties.

Click to read more ...

Tropical Fruit Granita

One of my favorite things about wintertime is the profusion of citrus fruits. I can stuff myself day after day with navel oranges, honey tangerines, ruby red grapefruits, clementines, blood oranges - you name it, I'll eat it.

I suppose, if nothing else, I'll never get scurvy.

That being said, I found myself with a few too many fruits the other day. I had forgotten about the five pound bag of oranges I'd bought one day and came home the next with an eight pound bag. That's a few too many for our house even.

After indulging in fresh squeezed orange juice for a couple days I decided to make a navel orange sorbet. However, even though my ice cream maker attachment was frozen solid and my sorbet base was chilled thoroughly, it refused to set up. I fell back on popsicles, but even then they weren't too my liking. The navel oranges just don't offer enough in complexity of flavor to make a satisfying frozen treat. Best eaten directly out of hand, or squeezed.

Click to read more ...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I'm just going to apologize right now.

Put away your bathroom scale. Break out the fat pants with the elastic waistband.

These cookies are going to rock your world.

Last time I was in Florida my sister made these cookies. She's a genuine badass in the kitchen when it comes to cookies, but this time she even outdid her normally awesome self.

Click to read more ...

Kalamansi-Lemon Curd and Strawberry Tart

I'm so officially sold on this Kalamansi Tree I got last week at the farmer's market.

Click to read more ...