peach shortcake w/ buttermilk biscuits and white chocolate-whipped cream

My great grandmother Mimi, one of the relatives I was very close to, most drawn to because of her cooking and baking skills. She had this knack of baking with grace, ease and wonderment--all the while chatting away, explaining to me the smallest details of everything from pie crusts to getting all the air out of the freshly canned bread & butter pickles. She lived in the lower part of Washington state. In a small, very rural town. How rural? Well, there was no mail delivery, only a post office. The local pharmacist still served soda jerks on the marble bar. The soda fountain stools were bright red and they rotated; I always chose the broken stool as it would still turn, but turn unevenly--giving the best ride. Most of the roads in town were not yet paved and some even had tumbleweeds!
I would visit Mimi almost every summer. She was one of those people who made you cookies, cleaned and ironed fresh sheets for your bed AND sewed you brand new clothes all before you came for a visit. Then during the visit she would spend all of her time with you reading, baking, showing you how to chop wood, explaining various insects to you and telling you the best way to plants tomatoes. She wanted to teach me everything. I did my best to listen and absorb, but gardening was not my thing. I paid attention to baking though.
Mimi was an avid baker. What impresses me most about her was the fact that she didn't have a stove stove. She had a fire burning antique stove; those old fashioned kinds. I didn't think anything of it as a kid, but looking back I think how hard it must have been to bake cookies? Getting the right temp even for cakes?
Every morning she'd be up by 5am, taking from her pile of chopped wood out back, stuffing them into the four burners along with sticks and paper, lighting it, getting a good fire going, stoking it with some more wood, then placing the metal covers back on. From there she'd heat up her water for coffee and heat up the giant old cast iron pans for bacon and eggs. Amazing.

The summers up by her would be hot, desert like hot, and on those days we would gather up the picnic baskets, filled with meats, cheeses, and just from the oven peanut butter cookies--head up to the local river to swim and eat. On our way home we'd stop for fresh peaches, as well as aplets and cotlets
The peaches. Man, I remember those peaches, they were like candy, so sweet, so juicy and what I remember most, they were HUGE. Sure I was a kid and everything is bigger as a kid, but even watching my Mimi eating a peach, it looked giant in her hands. We'd take home peaches for shortcake. Her shortcake biscuits were so good. They always fell apart in your hands because they were so light and airy. Her biscuits were made with lard and a touch of bacon grease. I remember watching her use buttermilk too, thinking how gross it was because it was so thick and chunky. Always asking her why is she using sour milk? She always reply with "it makes the biscuit tasty!" And when she said that I knew to pay the chunky, sour milk no mind, to just wait for the finished biscuit--it'll be fine.

The real show stealer of this recipe is the white chocolate infused whipped cream. Frankly my husband said that you could just serve the whipped cream on its own and call it dessert. He's right. This is a super tasty treat-- Decadent for sure. We indulge in this a couple times during the summer. Would go wonderfully with strawberry shortcake, blueberry, cherry...oh the possibilities are endless.











peach shortcake with white chocolate-whipped cream
print recipe

for the buttermilk biscuits:
Use whatever recipe you like best.

I love this one from epicurious.com AND
I love this one from pinchmysalt.com

for the peaches:
6 large peaches, ripe
3-5 TB sugar (use as much sugar as you like; I used about 4 TB)
½ ts vanilla extract (optional)
juice of one lemon

white chocolate sauce:
¾ cup white chocolate chips
2 TB heavy cream

white chocolate-whipped cream:
½ cup heavy cream
1 TB crème fraiche, room temp
1 TB confectioners sugar
the melted white chocolate sauce from above

Cook notes:
Place the bowl and beaters you will use for the whipped cream in the freezer.
Once your white chocolate sauce is melted and done, you will have to work fast to get the whipped cream done, as we don’t want the white chocolate sauce to harden.

for the peaches:
peel the skin off the peaches and do a rough chop. Place in small saucepan with the juice of one lemon, the sugar and the vanilla. Cook over low-medium heat until peaches are nice and soft (about 15-20 minutes). Stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, taste test and see if it’s sweet enough for you. Set aside.

For the white chocolate sauce:
In a small saucepan, over LOW heat, melt the white chocolate chips with the heavy cream. Stirring constantly. Do not walk away, just keep stirring. White chocolate chips have a tendency to melt then harden fast; just keep stirring, scraping the bottom of the saucepan. You will end up with a nice thick white chocolate ganache.

For the white chocolate-whipped cream:
Now working fast, take your bowl and beaters out of the freezer. Pour in the heavy cream, add in the confectioners sugar and the crème fraiche. Beat until “just” whipped. Then slowly, with beaters running, add in the white chocolate sauce in drizzles, not one lump sum, but drizzle the white chocolate sauce while the beaters are running. Stop when you have “almost” stiff peaks. Don’t overbeat.
This will not be a light airy whipped cream because of the heavy melted chocolate. If you want to be fancy, pipe the finished whipped cream in a pastry bag and pipe over the shortcakes.

Interview: Adam Ried of Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes

Today I’m extremely happy to have Adam Ried as the guest interview. Adam Ried has many titles, or should I say many jobs? First off he is the author of Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes, he writes as a cooking columnist for the weekly Boston Sunday Globe Magazine and Culinate.com, and he’s a kitchen equipment specialist on the shows America’s Test Kitchen and on Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen. Adam’s biography is a lot more in-depth, for more info visit his website bio.

The book Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes is no doubt about milkshakes: a modern twist on the old classic milkshakes. Modern creations like: cold buttered rum, orange blossom honey, maple-bacon… Not just modern creations, but shows us how to make the old fashioned ones too like: "Hal's Inauthentic Egg Cream", the "Rhode Island Coffee Cabinet" homage to the infamous Autocrat coffee syrup, and variations on the old "black & white" shakes.

(see my post and recipe for the infamous mocha-cardamom shake)



The book is laid out as first the finer points in key ingredients and equipment recommendations, basic shakes, vanilla shakes (salted cashew, vanilla honey sesame), chocolate shakes (coconut patty, chocolate-Guinness, chocolate-chipotle) tea and coffee shakes (ginger-chai, Vietnamese iced coffee), fruity shakes (bananas foster, avocado shakes), unconventional shakes (malted caramel, tarte tatin), and finally shakes from other countries with a bit cultural history like: licuados, batidos, cholado.... Within each chapter you get the basics of the shake and modern-kicked up ones as well; literally something for everyone, and a shake for almost every season.

Questions:

Adam, I gotta be honest, when word got out that I was doing an interview with you, I got flooded with questions about your kitchen tech job at America’s Test Kitchen. Everyone wanted to know what were the best kitchen gadgets to buy and more importantly wanted to know how to go about getting a job as a “kitchen tech guru” at America’s Test Kitchen.

But let’s start with the book “Thoroughly Modern Milkshake”, what a great idea to come up with a ‘modern twist’ on milkshakes; taking the old classics and making them a hint better.
The one that caught my eye the most, and the first one I wanted to try simply because of the flavor-curiosity was the mocha-cardamom milkshake. What a truly delicious milkshake.


What made you decide to create a book of milkshakes?

I wish I’d been smart enough to have had the idea myself, but I must admit that I wasn’t. You mentioned that I write a weekly cooking column for the Sunday Boston Globe Magazine, and I had run a column on new wave milkshakes. A publisher saw it and approached me about a book.
The idea for that column came very late one night as I mauled a pint of chocolate sorbet in front of the TV. Chocolate sorbet has such a deep, resonant cocoa flavor; I’m not sure why, but it dawned on me to try it in a shake. Combined with coffee ice cream the sorbet produced a stellar mocha shake. So I decided to do a column on using sorbet to boost the flavor in milkshakes.
A friend who came over to sample the recipes sprinkled a little cardamom into his mocha shake, after the Middle Eastern custom of spiking coffee with cardamom. We both loved the combo, and the notion of giving otherwise familiar shakes fun little flavor twists was born.


I know you did a fair amount of research on the classic milkshakes to come up with this idea? Which ones, that you researched, didn’t make the cut into the book?

The classic flavors – vanilla, chocolate, coffee, strawberry and peach all made it in, some with several variations in fact. A couple of my more esoteric flavor ideas, however, didn’t pass muster.
For instance, goat’s milk in a shake turned out to a bad idea. I wanted to riff on the classic Spanish combination of membrillo with goat cheese, but no matter how I tweaked the formula tasters gave it the thumbs down. Eventually it morphed into the Sweet Guava and Crème Fraiche Shake. Also, at the suggestion of a friend who is a grain fanatic and expert, I tried to corral the toasty flavor of popcorn in a shake, which went nowhere.


Do you have a favorite milkshake?

This is a Sophie’s Choice sort of question! But the answer is yes, I do have a fave – Mocha Cardamom. Like many readers no doubt, I’m a chocolate fiend. I also love coffee (and anything flavored with it), and cardamom is among my favorite spices. To me, the three combined is like Nirvana. This was the very first shake I developed for that Boston Globe column



Are there any other “milkshakes” from other countries that you did research on that didn’t make it into the book but wish they did?

Yes indeed. At the beginning of the summer I did a Globe column on lassi, the Indian yogurt drink (I make mine with ice so they’re super cold and frothy, more like a thin shake). Now I wish I’d included more lassis and some of the other middle eastern yogurt drinks in the book. Some lassis combine sweet and savory flavors, such as grape with a tiny bit of cumin, which really intrigues me. When you choose lowfat yogurt these drinks are relatively low-cal and low-fat compared to shakes, and the tart yogurt makes them seriously refreshing in hot summer weather.


Did you travel to other countries to “research” their cultural version of milkshakes?

I WISH I had! I’ve spent some time in France and Italy and Mexico, all of which inspired shakes in the book, but I didn’t take any trips specifically for the book.


As with every guest interview I do, I’m always curious to learn about their taste-testers. Who were your taste-testers? Did Christopher Kimball partake in the taste testing?

Alas, Chris wasn’t one of my tasters, though his input certainly would have been welcome. I developed these recipes on my own time, so my friends and neighbors did a lot of tasting. Also, my sister is a professionally-trained and fabulous cook, and she and I worked on the recipes together, so her friends and neighbors were called to tasting duty as well. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult to line up tasters. The words “milkshake tasting” seem to be pretty powerful.


What kind of blender did you use to create the milkshakes?

I used a bunch of blenders, maybe eight or nine, to develop the recipes, everything from Vitamix and Blendtec to Waring, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, Breville, Hamilton Beach, Oster and Magic Bullet.


malted caramel shake pg. 175

Your job at America’s Test Kitchen, I’ll only ask a few questions, since a lot of people want to know:

How did you land such a fun gig as a kitchen guru tech? Imagine all the new, fun toys you get to test? Who wouldn’t want that job?

My job at ATK, which was just plain old Cook’s Illustrated when I started working there a million years ago, resulted from a classic “right place at the right time” encounter. Totally by chance I met the features editor. We hit it off, and once I learned what her job was, I pestered her mercilessly.
My pestering resulted in a little freelance work, which slowly but surely snowballed into more and more freelance and finally a job. I was really lucky.
Originally I was not hired to do equipment testing, but somewhere along the line I did one story – I think it was on V-racks if I recall correctly – and it worked out well so the editor asked me to stick with it.


Do you get to eat all those recipes they create at America’s Test Kitchen? I can only imagine the leftovers there are pretty incredible.

Every day test cooks develop recipes for both magazines, multiple cookbooks, shows, web and blog outlets and special projects. The tastings come fast and furious all day long. All the leftovers are packed and placed in the “take home fridge” to which everyone from every team in the company can help themselves. Suffice it to say that the staff there is very well fed.


Which do you like better? Creating new recipes or testing new kitchen appliances?

The bottom line is that I love to cook. Since both recipe development and equipment testing necessitate cooking, I’m very happy doing both.


peanut-molasses shake pg. 159

When you buy a new appliance or household item for your home, do you do a lot of research?

I do, and I’m very lucky to have access to such great resources.. But when I buy large appliances (I just remodeled my kitchen at home) I’m in the same boat as everyone else. Even after collecting and evaluating tons of information, making the choice and purchasing can feel like a leap of faith. It’s a whole lot cheaper and easier to replace, say, a coffee grinder that you don’t like than a fridge you’re not mad for.


I’ve always wondered what is the weekly grocery bill like over at America’s Test Kitchen? Any guesstimates?

I couldn’t begin to guess the weekly grocery bill, other than to say it’s hefty. Here’s an indication: When we shot the last season of Cook’s Country TV (which takes about two weeks), we bought 96 pounds of beef tenderloin for a single episode, and a total of 375 pounds of beef for the season. That was for just one of many projects in play during those two weeks.


Outside of kitchen technology and food researching and writing, are there any others hobbies you have?

I love cars, both classic and modern. I get to as many car shows and museums as I can.


When did you realize you were a foodie? Was there a certain event/moment?

Sadly I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes. I had always loved to cook, but it didn’t dawn on me that I might be able to make it into a career until I was in my late 20’s. And even then, it took a push from an office-mate. One Monday she turned to me and said something like “do you realize that every single Monday you come in with stories of all the cooking you did over the weekend? You should go to cooking school.” That comment turned on the light bulb in my head.


cholado pg. 180

Guilty pleasure?

That’s easy… Cheez Doodles. Puffed or crunchy. Full fat or low fat. Orange or white. It doesn’t matter…. I love them all.

Food(s) you won’t eat?

Though I jeopardize any credibility I may have as a food person by admitting this, I hate blue cheese. Also I’m not fond of most commercial sourdough breads, breakfast sausage or truffle oil. And pepperoni equals instant, debilitating heartburn. Never touch the stuff.


When you cook at home, what’s your best dish?

Among the dishes that I make over and over and over again are Basque Piperade with eggs, Italian Tonnato sauce as a dip for just about anything (including my index finger), Greek Avgolemono soup, all kinds of frittatas (my favorite is Tortilla Espagnola, but any frittata is a great vehicle for leftovers); gumbo (I did a Cook’s Illustrated article on it years ago and never stopped making it), and a simple cardamom sour cream cake that I love. And for years and years, when there’s nothing in the house I make something we call simply Tuna Pasta – a big shot of extra virgin olive oil with lots of garlic, a little hot pepper, canned tuna, parsley and lemon juice over pasta. Somehow I am never without those ingredients…. they’re a baseline.


Favorite food person?

Too many to name! Of course, all of the talented, experienced, fun people at ATK, both now and in the old days, many of whom are among my most treasured friends. I love Mark Bittman’s voice, knowledge, and approach to food. John Willoughby (Doc) and Chris Schlesinger, Steven Raichlen, Claudia Roden, and Cheryl and Bill Jamison are all authors whom I trust implicitly. David Lebovitz and Diana Henry are also way up there. My sister Amanda is one of the best natural cooks I know. And of course the late Julia Child, who is on everybody’s list of influences, is on mine, too. She was one of my three childhood heroes, along with Dr. Seuss and my uncle, who was a well-known automotive journalist.


Is there a book 2 in the works?

I have to step on it and finish the proposal!

Thank you so much Adam. I love that you love Cheetos!
For more information on Adam please visit his website
And you can also follow him on Twitter @modernmilkshake



Adam was kind enough to giveaway two of his books.
To enter, simply leave ONE comment, telling using what kind of milkshake you'd like to see "kicked up a notch".

Please have a valid email address in your signature line and/or the comment.
Drawing ends 8/8/2012. Good luck!

blueberry-cream cheese ice cream w/ cookie chunks

Remember the blueberry shortcake I made a few days ago? I know a lot of people loved that post; I got a ton of emails from people telling me how much they loved the donut cake that was served with the fresh blueberry compote. It's a very versatile cake that can be used for anything shortcake, trifle, coffee cake, etc...
Since the cake went much faster than the compote did, I had a little bit of compote left over.
Knew it had to be used in an ice cream. Blueberry compote in a homemade ice cream--as Ina would say "how bad can that be?"
I suppose I could have canned it and saved it for winter, but I haven't dabbled in canning....yet. I want to, and hope to this fall. Canning seems to have gotten quite popular over the last couple years.
Have any of you done canning? There are a lot of books out now on canning. The food item I'm most looking forward to canning is bread & butter pickles. You know the good kind with the onions in it. So good.


any fruit compote would work.


I prefer Loran Doone cookies as they stand up better to ice cream. (OK, and they're really buttery too).







blueberry-cream cheese ice cream w/ cookie chunks
ice cream base adapted from Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream
print recipe

ice cream base:
2 eggs (farm fresh, clean eggs)
½ cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
¼ cup whole milk
pinch of sea salt

Shortbread chunks:
¾ -1 cup (or more if you like) of your favorite shortbread cookie, crushed into med-sized chunks

Blueberry-cream cheese compote:
1 pint of blueberries
juice of one lemon
3-5 TB sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
Cornstarch slurry (1 TB of cornstarch in ¼ cup of warm water)

8 ounces of cream cheese, room temp (very soft)

Cook notes:
I used a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream recipe that uses raw eggs. I use farm fresh eggs that are clean and safe. Please use whatever ice cream method you prefer and are most comfortable with. When you mix the blueberry compote with the cream cheese, use as much or as little as you like--all dependent on how much blueberry flavor you like in your ice cream.

For the blueberry compote:
Heat up a small saucepan, heat up the blueberries with the lemon juice and sugar. Bring to a boil until most/some of the berries have broken up and this is visible juice.
Take off heat. Get your slurry ready. Add in the slurry when the berry mixture has cooled a bit.
Mix well, put back on heat and heat over low heat until mixture has thickened a bit.
If it’s too thick, just add some water. I like mine fairly thick.
Do a taste test when mixture is cooled to see if it’s sweet enough for you.
Store the finished compote in the fridge for at least an hour before using.
You want this nice and cold before adding to the ice cream mixture.

For the cookie chunks:
Crush up about ¾ - 1 cup of cookie chunks (I used Lorna Doone shortbread—they hold up really nice in the ice cream)

Make the ice cream base:
Take out the blueberry compote from the fridge and mix it in a bowl with the room temp cream cheese. (you can mix all the blueberry compote or half; all depending on how much blueberry flavor you want in your ice cream).
It’s ok to have lumps. Set aside.
Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue to whisk until completely blended, about 1 minute more.
Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to blend.
Pour this into the ice cream maker and start churning.
The last few minutes of churning and/or when the ice cream just starts to slightly harden, add in the blueberry-cream cheese mixture.
When ice cream is done, pour half the mixture in a glass or ceramic bowl.
Sprinkle the cookies crumbs over the ice cream then place the remaining ice cream on top.
Cover and freeze ice cream until it hardens.
Should make a little over a quart.

friday links

Happy Friday! I've got a lot to share with you--let's just jump right in!

Frozen, boozey drinks? Yes please. How about some that don't require a lot of work? Yes please!
Well that's what I found when I came across this fabulous book Poptails by erin nichols, our blogging friend from erincooks.com
Poptails is a one of a kind book that features all the best cocktails in frozen-on-a-stick form. With 60 boozy recipes and 20 full-color photos. These adult treats are perfect for pool parties and barbecues. This is an excellent book for the hostess that wants to stay hip without a ton of work.

Some of the top ones include:
appletini
lemondrop
tequila sunrise
margarita
irish coffee
bellini (my favorite)
red wine sangria




Wicked watermelon pg. 82


sweet manhattan pg. 54

My latest obsession from Trader Joe's. Have you tried these? So good.



Newest flavor from Salty Oats. Clever little bakers!



17 Tips to make your life easier. (these are good ones, not the boring stupid repeat ones--you'll use these)

which steaks are best served rare?

how to tell if your adrenals are fatigued (plus how to support them)

How to Eat Like Your Favorite Authors

amateur gourmet has a new cookbook coming out: Secrets of the Best Chefs.

where food goes in the fridge. what do you think? Is this right?

everyone wants a "sushi bazooka"! I do.

6 Tips to Help You Tap into Your Intuition

brownie sundae bon bons from bakerella.com

excellent tips on making homemade ice cream from food & wine



Great video on the makings of "Notes from a Kitchen: A Journey Inside Culinary Obsession"

This is interesting. 10 Common Food Combinations that Wreck Havoc on Your Health. Have you experienced this?

LOVE these spice kits from plantbrooklyn.com


Chopsticks for the chopstick impaired (for my hubby, found them at Market Basket on cape cod)



Homemade sugar cones from annies-eats.com

Top 5 Places you can't go . Loved this!

Homemade funnel cakes to make at home. Way better than the greasy carnival kind. From Macheesmo.com

I finally saved up enough money to get a new iphone.
Was more than excited to start talking to Siri.



Unique temporary tattoo's

My local airfield place (cape cod airfield) has a couple new planes on their lot.
The red one is available for biplane rides.
I am SO saving up for this one--you have no idea how badly I want to do this! BUCKET LIST bad!
The DC 3 is not available for rides, sadly. Cool right?





I have some new friends in my backyard.



Went to a local greek festival here on cape cod. As always great food, great people, good times.



And after a greek fest one should always close the night off with ice cream.



Have a great weekend!

black bottom coconut-graham bars

Ever try a recipe and it just does not come out? And you think, hmmm, that's weird, it's from a trusted source. I ran into that with the martha stewart black bottom coconut bars (I added in a layer of graham for texture and flavor--quite good actually).
If you read through my cook notes you'll see where the errors were. Don't get me wrong, I do love martha stewart recipes, and always will; I guess every once in a while it happens.
Of course you don't have to add in the layer of graham, I did solely for the reason of wanting to have some graham with my coconut. Graham and coconut, what a great pair.
I might try this again with a layer of marshmallow. Now that's a a trinity: coconut, graham and marshmallow.









black bottom coconut-graham bars
recipe base adapted from Martha Stewart
print recipe

chocolate base:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

graham center: (I added this in, optional but wonderful)
3/4 cup crushed graham crackers, (I like rough chop, not powder, to keep it crunchy)
4 ounces melted butter

coconut topping:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar (I used ½ cup)
1/2 ts vanilla extract (I used almond extract)
1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 package sweetened shredded coconut (7 ounces), 1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling

Cook notes:
The original recipe does not call for a graham center. I wanted to add this in for a nice crunch effect. Up to you if you want to add it in—it does lend a nice flavor and texture.
Also, I ran into a problem with Martha’s original recipe. In Martha’s recipe, it says to pre-bake the chocolate base for 10-15 minutes; I only prebaked it for 7 minutes. On the first batch, I did the 10-15 minutes, it was way too long/much and it ended up being overdone when I had to bake it again. So I highly suggest only prebaking for 5-7 minutes or not even prebaking it at all. The chocolate base is VERY THIN. Maybe if you double the base ingredients, then prebaking would come out fine. Also the original recipe says it makes 24 bars? From an 8-9 inch pan? I only got about 12.

For chocolate base:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a slight overhang; butter bottom and sides of foil (not overhang).
Place butter in a large microwave-safe bowl; melt in microwave. Add sugar and salt; whisk to combine. Whisk in egg, then cocoa and flour until smooth. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake just until sides begin to pull away from edges of pan, 10 to 15 minutes (I only prebaked for 5-7 minutes). Let cool slightly while preparing coconut topping. Keep oven on for next sets of toppings.

For graham center:
Melt 4-5 ounces of butter, let cool a bit. Then mix with the ½ cup of crushed graham. Sprinkle this mixture over the chocolate base. Next move onto the coconut topping.

For coconut topping:
In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with sugar and vanilla. Gently mix in flour and coconut (except 1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling).
Drop mounds of mixture over chocolate base; spread and pat in gently and evenly with moistened fingers. Sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup coconut.
Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes (mine was done at 22-23 minute mark). Cool completely in pan. Lift cake from pan, peel off foil, and cut into 24 bars (mine made 12 bars). Store in an airtight container 3 to 4 days.