Desserts

291/365: National Chocolate Cupcake Day

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s a sweet holiday if you’re a party of one. October 18 is National Chocolate Cupcake Day!

Cupcakes are miniature cakes designed to serve one person. In other words, they’re a marvel of modern baking! They are baked in thin paper cups or an aluminum muffin pan. Cupcakes were first mentioned in 1796 in Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery cookbook; one recipe called for “a cake to be baked in small cups.” They were originally baked in individual ramekins or molds, such as tea cups, from where they took their name. In England, they were (and still are) called fairy cakes due to their diminutive size (they tend to be smaller than American cupcakes). Australians refer to them as patty cakes. Cupcakes have been popular for decades, but in the past few years have become especially trendy thanks to Americans’ thirst for nostalgia, and their appearance on the popular television show Sex And The City. Which I’ve never seen, because I’m a guy, even though it’s got the word “sex” in the title. I’ll just trust that cupcakes played a role and move right along.

To celebrate, we picked up some two-bite miniature chocolate cupcakes from WinCo. They made a perfect after dinner palate cleanser!

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

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283/365: National Angel Food Cake Day

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s food of honor is a heavenly treat. October 10 is National Angel Food Cake Day!

Angel food cake is the culinary opposite of Devil’s food cake: a light and airy sponge cake made with no fat (butter, cream, or egg yolks). It was named for its angelic light color, and was described as a “food of the angels.” Personally, I think angels would be more into wings, but what do I know? It is made by whipping egg whites until they’re stiff, adding cream of tartar as a stabilizer, and then folding additional ingredients in. The Pennsylvania Dutch, who began mass-marketing bakeware in the early 1800s, are given credit for inventing angel food cake, which perfectly fit the specialized cake mold they developed at the time. The first angel food cakes were baked by African-American slaves in the American south, and soon became a popular post-funeral meal. Perhaps the name had something to do with that? An early recipe for a “snow-drift cake” appears in Mrs. Porter’s New Southern Cookery Book, and Companion for Frugal and Economical, published in 1871, and a recipe for a similar “silver cake” is printed in What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc. in 1881. Angel food cake was a favorite of Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of  Rutherford B. Hayes, our 19th President.

We picked up some mini angel food cakes to celebrate, rather than messing around with making (or buying) a whole cake. They were like angel food cupcakes (though sadly, without frosting) and were just freakin’ adorable. I wanted to hug mine. But I ate it instead, with a cup of coffee before work.

National Angel Food Cake Day

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278/365: National Apple Betty Day

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Midwest Mark

An apple a day might keep the doctor away, but it won’t keep Betty from crashing your party. October 5 is National Apple Betty Day!

Apple Betty (also known as Apple Brown Betty, Brown Betty, Apple Crisp, and Apple Crumble) is an American dessert dating back to Colonial times. It’s like a cross between a cobbler and a bread pudding, and consists of layers of apple seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar, and buttered or sweetened bread crumbs. It reminds me of a deconstructed apple pie (I’ve always thought “deconstructed” was a cop out chefs use when they run out of time to properly finish a dish). The recipe first appeared in print in the Yale Literary Magazine in1864, though there is no record of who Betty was, or why she had a dessert named after her. We do know that the “brown” refers to the brown sugar used to sweeten the apples, and that it was a favorite dessert of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

My mom once again helped out with this challenge. She made an apple betty and brought it over for dinner. Tara’s mom, Tracy, is in town visiting for the weekend, so we all had dinner together. Mad props to my mother-in-law for making a perfect whipped cream swirl on top of the apple betty. Which, by the way, was wonderful! It was like an apple pie with a crumb topping instead of a crust. Delicious stuff. Thanks, moms!

IMAG1699

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276/365: National Caramel Custard Day

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today we celebrate a food that is known by several names: it is called either caramel custard, crème caramel, or flan, depending on where in the world you are ordering it. Officially, October 3 is National Caramel Custard Day!

Caramel custard is like crème brûlée, but with a layer of soft caramel on top instead of a hard caramel coating. It used to be especially popular in European restaurants; explains food historian Alan Davidson, “In the later part of the 20th century crème caramel occupied an excessively large amount of territory in European restaurant dessert menus. This was probably due to the convenience, for restaurateurs, of being able to prepare a lot in advance and keep them until needed.” Nowadays, it’s harder to find in Europe, but is extremely common in Latin American countries, where it is eaten with dulce de leche.

It’s a little tricky to prepare, requiring the use of a ramekin and a water bath, but at least you don’t need a blowtorch as you do when preparing an authentic  crème brûlée. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous heading into this holiday, because the last time custard was on the menu, it was a near-disaster. It didn’t set right, melted during transport (this was during our spontaneous road trip to Ely), and was an unappealing “watery sour cream” color and consistency. Blech. Easily the most challenging of our challenges to date. Fortunately, we had much better luck with the caramel custard. We bought a packaged flan mix in the grocery store, and Tara prepared it for dessert. This time everything set up perfectly! We found the consistency a little unusual – not as smooth and creamy as pudding – but the flavor wasn’t bad. And it looked beautiful!

National Caramel Custard Day

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274/365: National Homemade Cookies Day*

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Bad news if you’re a Keebler elf: today’s holiday just might put you out of business. October 1 is National Homemade Cookies Day!

It’s also World Vegetarian Day, but when given the choice between cauliflower and cookies, that’s a no-brainer. I’ve talked about cookies many times in this blog already, so there’s no need to rehash any of that. There’s something about homemade cookies fresh from the oven that awakens the inner kid in us all. I remember visiting my great-grandparents in Trenton when I was a wee lad o’ 6 or 7; they would always put out a container of potato chips and a platter of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Those were the best: rich, slightly chewy, and bursting with flavor. Sadly, homemade cookies are sort of a lost art these days, with all the prepackaged stuff (not to mention the refrigerated dough that only requires you to slice into uniform circles and stick in the oven). Come on, folks…that’s not baking!

The art of making cookies from scratch.

The art of making cookies from scratch.

Tara happens to have some really good recipes for homemade cookies, so I turned all the prep work for this holiday over to her. She says…

It’s that time of year and I’ve been craving one of my favorite autumn season cookies; Pumpkin Chocolate Chip!  These cookies are special for me because I’m reminded of growing up in Springville, UT.  One of the local grocery stores sold these cookies only during certain times of the year…at least from what I remember (feel free to correct me, Mom). Anyway, we never had much money and it was always such a treat to splurge on those cookies.  And then I moved away, grew up, and got married.  For years I kept an eye out for them in the local stores and for any similar recipe in cookbooks.  It was four years before we got our first computer when I finally found the recipe I still use today. 

Pumpkin Cookies
from the kitchen of Elk Creek Ranch; Island Park, ID

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup veggie oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.  Blend sugar, pumpkin, oil, and vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture.  Stir until smooth.  Add chocolate chips.  Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet.  Bake 12-15 minutes.

National Homemade Cookie Day

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267/365: National Cherries Jubilee Day

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Hope you’re in the mood for a celebration. September 24 is National Cherries Jubilee Day!

Cherries Jubilee is a dessert made with cherries and liqueur (usually cherry brandy) that is flambéed and served atop vanilla ice cream. It was created by  none other than Auguste Escoffier, who has been responsible for several of our dessert-themed food holidays this year (Peach Melba, Pears Helene, Melba Toast). He prepared the dish for one of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations, though it’s unclear whether it was her Golden Jubilee (1887) or Diamond Jubilee (1897). The dessert became a very fashionable menu item, and began appearing on the menus of fine restaurants everywhere. Its popularity peaked in the 1950s and ’60s, falling out of favor when those same fine dining establishments began serving a new dessert sensation, Oreos dunked in milk. 

To celebrate, we made Cherries Jubilee using Rachael Ray’s recipe. This uses far less sugar than other recipes I looked at, relying instead on the juice from the canned cherries to act as a natural sweetener.

Ingredients

2 (15-ounce) cans whole Bing cherries in juice, drained and juice reserved
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup kirsch or cognac, warmed
2 pints vanilla ice cream

Directions

In a small dish, combine a little cherry juice with sugar and cornstarch. In a skillet, heat juice from cherries over moderate heat. Add cornstarch mixture. When juice thickens, add cherries to warm through. Pour in warmed liqueur, then flame the pan to burn off alcohol. Remove cherries from heat. Scoop vanilla ice cream into large cocktail glasses or dessert dishes and spoon cherries down over ice cream.

It turned out delicious! Then again, anytime you get to set your food on fire – on purpose – it tastes better!

National Cherries Jubilee Day

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265/365: National Ice Cream Cone Day

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Midwest Mark

There’s no sense waffling around when it comes to this holiday, sugar: September 22 is National Ice Cream Cone Day!

I should also point out that there are exactly 100 days left in our challenge. Tomorrow, we’re into double digits for the first time all year! It’s actually felt like the end was in sight for some time now, and today just cements that fact. We can do this!National Ice Cream Cone Day

We’ve already honored numerous flavors of ice cream this year, but today is the first time we pay homage to the invention of the wafer that allows us to hold ice cream in our hands and eat it without a spoon or a bowl. As with many of the food holidays we celebrate, there is some dispute over the invention of this treat. Julien Archambault’s French cookbook published in 1825 mentions rolling a cone from “little waffles” to carry ice cream, and Englishwoman Agnes Marshall’s 1888 tome Mrs A. B. Marshall’s Cookery Book features a recipe for “cornet in a cone,” in which the cornets were made from almonds and baked in an oven. But it was New Yorker Italo Marchioni who filed a patent on this day in 1903 for an edible pastry cup used to hold ice cream. This was not a true cone, and Marchioni later lost a number of lawsuits he filed for patent infringement. Ice cream cones showed up at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, where no fewer than three men claimed to have created it: George Bang, Ernest Hamwi, and Abe Doumar. I guess we’ll never truly know who invented the first ice cream cone, but we can thank Frederick Bruckman of Portland, Oregon for patenting a machine used to roll ice cream cones in 1912. Prior to that, cones were rolled by hand from hot, thin wafers. Fred later went on to sell his company to Nabisco, which still makes ice cream cones to this day.

Cones are available in a variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors. The most popular are cake cones, sugar cones, and waffle cones. I’m not much of a sugar cone fan (unless we’re talking about frozen Drumsticks™, which were invented by J.T. “Stubby” Parker in 1928), but have always been partial to either cake cones or waffle cones.

I debated about having fun with this holiday and repurposing the cone to hold something other than ice cream. Like beef stew, maybe. Or spaghetti. After all, we’re celebrating ice cream cones – nobody says we need to eat them with ice cream! In the end, common sense prevailed, and we went ahead and had them with ice cream. Yeah, I know….boring. But good!

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264/365: National Pecan Cookie Day

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Midwest Mark

You won’t have to delete your browsing history to enjoy today’s cookies. September 21 is National Pecan Cookie Day!

We’ve already done this holiday. Kind of. June 23 was National Pecan Sandies Day, and what better type of pecan cookie is there? Speaking of the nuts, I’ve already discussed their background on the first of 2 (!) National Pecan Days. You can say we’ve done more than our fair share of honoring pecans already this year, so all that’s left to talk about is pronunciation. Is it pea-can, pea-con, puh-can, puh-con? This is one of those classic potato/po-tah-to quandaries. I’ve always said pea-con, but I’m not from the South, so for all I know I could be wrong.

Do any regular readers have any questions for us regarding the challenge? Now’s a good time to ask! Gotta do something to fill up all this blank space.

To celebrate, Tara and I picked up a package of Pepperidge Farms’ Dark Chocolate Pecan cookies. These guys never disappoint with their cookies!

National Pecan Cookie Day

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262/365: National Butterscotch Pudding Day

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today we celebrate the happy marriage of butter and brown sugar: September 19 is National Butterscotch Pudding Day!

I was surprised to learn that butterscotch really is just a combination of the two ingredients mentioned above. A recipe in the “Housewife’s Corner” section of an 1848 newspaper for “Doncaster butterscotch” calls for one pound of butter, one pound of sugar and a quarter of a pound of treacle, boiled together. Mmm…treacle! (Treacle is simply uncrystallized syrup, but I had to look this up. I was afraid it was something far more disgusting). It was advertised as “The Queen’s Sweetmeat” (huh?) and billed as the best emollient for the chest in the winter season. As for the name itself, its exact origins are hazy. “Butterscotch” may refer to the method of cutting or scoring the confection into pieces before it hardens, a process known as “scotching.” It’s also possible that “Scotch” is derived from the word “scorch,” or is a reference to its creation in Scotland.

Butterscotch isn’t always a confection, and butterscotch pudding is a great example: it is flavored with brown sugar and butter for the taste of butterscotch, but isn’t actually made from a confection.

To celebrate, we bought some butterscotch pudding cups. We sure have had a lot of pudding holidays this year! Didn’t feel like going all out and making it from scratch, either.

National Butterscotch Pudding Day

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260/365: National Apple Dumpling Day

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Midwest Mark

We’re going to have to gang up on you if you don’t help us celebrate today’s food challenge. September 17 is National Apple Dumpling Day!

Whenever I think of apple dumplings, my thought automatically turn to The Apple Dumpling Gang, a 1975 movie starring Bill Bixby, Don Knotts, and Tim Conway. I don’t remember much about it, other than the fact that it features stagecoaches, gold, and orphans.

The original Apple Dumpling Gang.

The original Apple Dumpling Gang.

Apple dumplings aren’t traditional “dumplings” in the sense that they aren’t boiled – though apparently, the original recipe for apple dumplings (credited to Susannah Carter) actually did call for boiling. Apple dumplings are a Northeastern U.S. invention closely associated with the Amish, which means in order to properly enjoy them, they should be consumed by the light of a kerosene lamp. Apples are peeled and cored and placed on a portion of dough. The hollowed-out center is then filled with butter, cinnamon, and sugar, and the pastry is sealed. They are then baked until tender. This sounded both tasty and intriguing, so we decided to go ahead and make our own using this recipe from allrecipes.com.

The result? Well, they were a little overcooked. The apple inside the pastry was delicious, but the sauce caramelized and was too hard to really enjoy. I think with a little less baking time, these would have been really good.

National Apple Dumpling Day

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