Ben Starr – The Ultimate Food Geek

Category: Desserts

  • 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…

  • 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. …

  • 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…

  • Rhubarb Pie

    In Texas, where the climate is too hot to grow rhubarb, it’s not an ingredient most folks here are familiar with.  When it does appear on market shelves in the spring, it can cost upwards of $6 a pound…pricey for a vegetable.  But occasionally I’ll run across it on sale, or we’ll splurge on it…

  • Bourbon Preserved Figs

    If you’re lucky enough to have a fig tree, or a neighbor who has one, you have figs coming out your ears in early summer…and perhaps again in late fall, especially if you live in a Southern state.  This fall crop of figs often gets interrupted by early frosts.  The figs are still green when…

  • “Ambassador Hotel” Black Bottom Pie

    The “black bottom pie” is an ancient staple of Southern home cooking…most often found at church potlucks, family reunions, and Sunday suppers.  It’s not common in home kitchens these days, but a unique institution in Los Angeles, of all places, gave this regional favorite a solid spot on the national dessert roster.  The Ambassador hotel…