ReLocavore: Redefining "local"

Back to Wisconsin, my cheesehead friends

Tag Archives: chocolate


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I’m on a roll… 2 weeks. 2 cakes.

2014-09-14 16.12.44Much to the dismay of my waistline, I seem to be on a roll with baking cakes. This week? Chocolate and vanilla marbled bundt cake. I based my cake on this recipe at Allrecipes.com. I thought the marbling would be difficult, but it just involved making the batter, splitting in half, then mixing cocoa powder into half. I spooned big dollops of alternating flavors of batter into the pan, then ran the back of my wooden spoon through the batter to create the marble texture. The batter texture was very thick, I think to allow the chocolate and vanilla to stay separate. To top the cake, I dusted the whole cake with powdered sugar, then cut a slit in a piece of parchment and used that template to coat the narrow strips with cocoa powder.

Pro tip: Before filling your wire mesh strainer with powdered sugar or cocoa powder, run it through the flame of your gas burner for 5-10 seconds to make sure it’s very dry.

This cake baking binge is starting to eat away at our store of butter. With the price of butter expecting to spike, I may have to stock up if this cake binge is going to continue.

What’s next week? I was thinking apfel kuchen. Other ideas?


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Abundant Zucchini Recipes: Zucchini Bread

There are so many recipes for zucchini bread on the internet that there is NOTHING that I could possibly add…

Top Google Hits

  1. http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/18/award-winning-zucchini-bread/
  2. http://www.chow.com/recipes/30429-zucchini-bread
  3. http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/zucchini-bread/5f75d183-d3e9-431a-9a93-22f0c957b56a
  4. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/zucchini-bread-10000001072157/
  5. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipes/seasonal/zucchini-bread-recipe

Famous Chef’s Take

Puffing up to be “the best” 

Novel (Weird) Additions

Special Diets

If you can’t get rid of a few zucchini from these recipes, then there’s no way I can help you any more.


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S’Mores with Homemade Marshmallows

ImageSo, I found three packets of unflavored gelatin in my pantry today. You know what that means? HOMEMADE MARSHMALLOWS! I lubed up the stand mixer, got some cooking spray and set to my task.

Alton Brown has an episode of Good Eats, (Season 11, Episode 12, “Puff the Magic Mallow”) where he describes making marshmallows. It’s an involved process that requires boiling a sugar syrup to the “soft ball” stage then whipping the hot sugar syrup into gelatin, and continuing to whip as the mixture cools and the gel sets with lots of air lofted in… The final product is super-duper sticky… it took Pidi about 6 minutes to lick a smear off the floor. Go ahead and follow his recipe… I cut my marshmallows into squares.

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Once the marshmallows were set and cut… S’mores!

Campfire-free S’Mores

Start the broiler preheating. Arrange the rack about 6″ below the heating element.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Arrange 2 graham cracker squares per person. Take the marshmallows and tear in half lengthwise, exposing the sticky inner surfaces. Stick marshmallows to the graham cracker. Cut chocolate into small, irregular pieces – about 1 cm on each side. Stick into the marshmallow at odd angles, leaving marshmallow exposed.

Broil for 1-3 minutes, depending on the heat of your broiler and your preference for toasted or burnt marshmallows. Since these are cooking via the direct heat of the broiler element, you can leave the oven door open an inch and watch the cooking, so you can remove the s’mores when they’re done to your liking.

Once they’re out of the oven, let them rest for a minute or two (if you can wait that long) to set up. Eat them open-faced, or press two graham crackers together to make a more traditional “sandwich” style s’more.