Category: Desserts
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The easiest way to turn a whole pumpkin into food
I know you. Because you’re like me. You pulled out all the stops for Halloween, but now there’s still a few uncarved pumpkins sitting in your front yard. They’re okay there for awhile. (Maybe people will think you’ve decorated for Thanksgiving. Riiiiiight.) Most pumpkin varieties will even endure sub-freezing temps for a few nights, so…
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One-Bowl No-Mixer Pumpkin Muffins
So it’s no secret that I’m enamored with pumpkin, and I have dozens of pumpkin recipes that get busted out in the fall. But for many folks, the idea of setting up the stand mixer to cream butter and sugar…or having multiple bowls and measuring cups to clean up afterward…it’s just too much to contemplate…
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Hatch Green Chile Peach Pie
It’s that time of year again! Grocery stores all over Texas have the unmistakable spicy-smoky aroma of roasting Hatch chiles out front, and the big chile roasters are rolling almost nonstop during open hours. It’s my favorite culinary time of year. While most recipes for Hatch chiles are savory, I decided to post a sweet…
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Laughably-Easy Lard (or Bacon Fat) Pastry Crust
The perfect pastry crust eludes most of us…seemingly thousands of infinitely-thin layers that are tender, but shatter in your mouth while still remaining moist and succulent. It usually involves massive amounts of butter cut into the flour at just the right temperature to just the right texture…then a chill in the fridge…then the addition of…
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Tobacco Chocolate Ice Cream
Tobacco is little-used in cooking, which is a shame, because it has a marvelous flavor. Tobacco contains nicotine, a stimulant that is deadly in the right dose, most folks shy away from cooking with it. But the National Institutes of Health has done plenty of research about nicotine toxicity, and I published an article that helps consolidate…
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Buttermilk Sweet Potato Ice Cream
At FRANK recently, we did an Americana menu, and needed to conceive an ice cream to go with our bourbon pecan pie. Chef Jennie suggested a sweet potato ice cream, but that just sounded too sweet to me. After all, pecan pie is very sweet, and to pair it with a super-sweet ice cream would…
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Chocolate Chili Pots de Creme
Makes 6 six-ounce servings, or 8 four-ounce servings. I’ve always been uneasy with the title “Pots de Creme,” probably because it sounds so pretentious. But it’s just French for “cream pot” so I don’t know why it bugs me so much. A pot de creme is a sort of intermediate step between pudding and custard. …
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Calas (Creole sweet rice fritters)
At our last FRANK, we wanted to serve a few Creole and Cajun classics that would be unfamiliar to the majority of our diners. After all, everyone knows beignets, etouffee, gumbo, jambalaya, and boudin. Calas (pronounced cah-LAHS) turned out to be a perfect option. These lovely little yeast-risen rice fritters were typically eaten at breakfast…