Food For Thought

July 21, 2010

Hot Mocha Souffle

Filed under: Baking Tips, Recommended Cookbooks, Writing — Tags: , , , — Theresa H Hall @ 4:16 pm

This is a delicious chocolate dessert and I found it in the cookbook “Desserts & After Dinner Treats”. They provide you step-by-step instructions and I did mention the book before. You cannot go wrong with a souffle, and you’ll gain the admiration of your dinner guests. You’ll want to do this on a day you have the extra time * to devote to making it.

Hot Mocha Souffle

* Preparation time: 25 minutes. Total cooking time: 45 minutes. Serves: 4-6

1 Tbsp caster sugar

40 grams butter

2 Tbsp plain flour

3/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp instant expresso-style coffee powder

! Tbso hot water

2 Tbsp caster sugar, extra

100 grams dark chocolate, melted

4 eggs, separated

Dusting at end with 10X sugar

Preheat Oven to 180º C

1) Brush a 5-cup capacity souffle dish with oil or melted butter. Sprinkle sugar in dish, turn dish to coat base and sides evenly; shake out excess. Wrap a double thickness of baking paper around dish to sit 3 centimeters above rim; tie securely with string.

2) Melt the butter in a medium pan, add flour. Stir over low heat for 2 minutes or until the mixture is lightly golden. Add milk, gradually to pan, stirring between each addition until mixture is smooth.

3) Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Boil for another minute, then remove from heat. Dissolve the coffee powder in hot water, add to the milk mixture with sugar, melted chocolate and egg yolks; beat until smooth.

4) Using electric beaters, beat the egg whites in a clean, dry mixing bowl until stiff peaks form. Using a metal spoon, fold one third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to soften it slightly. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Spoon the mixture into the prepared souffle dish. Bake for 40 minutes, until souffle is well risen and just firm to the touch. Remove from oven, remove the collar from dish. Dust souffle with 10X sugar and serve immediately.

Storage time: Souffle is best made just before serving time.

ISBN: 978-0681020580 These instructional cookbook series is available at your local Borders Bookstores and are about $5.00.

July 19, 2010

What’s The Buzz About?

Filed under: Did you know?, Writing — Tags: , — Theresa H Hall @ 5:03 pm

In the brand new August edition of Bon Appetit magazine, I read about a New Yorker who is involved with bee keeping. She does it right in Manhattan, on the rooftop of an apartment building. I learned quite a bit from the article, including the fact  that the reason for the biggest demise of the honey bee, during the 1990’s was due to the varroa-mite, a pest that loves the honey bee’s blood, and then again in the late 2007-2008 due to a mysterious disease. It almost wiped out the bees and thanks to many local farmers, bee keepers and individuals giving bee keeping a try, they are assisting these tiny creatures to produce honey and pollinating our planet.

I remember my eldest sister telling me that she had read that Einstein said when the bees disappear, we have four years until our own collapse or demise. Not a pleasant thought at all and coincidentally, four years would be the year 2012. It behooves us to support bee keepers and even for some of us to investigate how we may either become bee keepers ourselves, like amybyrd21 has done, or to join groups that are into doing this, and offer some help or financial assistance. We are all doing the planet a favor in this. Here is a photo I took of page 80, to show you how beautiful and busy these bees are.

It takes one bee his whole life to produce only 1/12 of a teaspoon of golden honey. What a sweet little bee. And that one hive can produce 150 pounds of honey in a summer! Even the White House pastry chef Bill Yosses, uses honey in many recipes and it is produced by bees on the W.H. lawn; 140 pounds to be precise.

Check the internet for a Bee Association in your area, to see what you can do to help keep the bees alive, happy and making honey.

July 5, 2010

Dessert Floats

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — Anne Coleman @ 10:37 am

Root Beer FloatDrinks are so overlooked, aren’t they? I freely admit that many nights I’m so engrossed in the preparation of food that I forget to even think about drinks with dinner. Sad, really because there are so many types. One of our favorites is lemonade filled with fruit. Another is homemade green tea with honey and lemon. The benefits of having a decent drink with your meal are many, easing digestion not being the least of them, but they can also help you eat less by making you feel fuller.

What about drinks for drinks’ sake? One of our favorite dessert drinks is the all-American ice cream float. So simple, and the variations are just about endless. This time of year they really hit the spot, too. Start with a favorite soft drink, a favorite ice cream, and create!

A single scoop of ice cream (or two, if you like!) in a tall glass topped with your favorite soft drink produces a fizzy mass of creamy goodness just waiting to be brought to a delicious demise with a straw.

Some of our favorites:

Vanilla ice cream and root beer – a true classic.
Chocolate ice cream and cherry cola.
Vanilla ice cream and cream soda – mmmm – my very favorite!
Raspberry ice cream or sherbet and ginger ale.

The list goes on and on and on, limited only by your imagination. Try one today and make sure to share yours with us!

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