This wintery cake combines chestnuts and red wine and has no added fat. Contributing blogger and cookbook author Hannah Kaminsky, who developed the recipe, explains:

“Infused with a generous pour of Cabernet from the start and doused with an additional slug of brown sugar-enriched wine syrup—soaking each nook and cranny with a strong dose of sweet red wine—this cake knows how to party.

“Studded with large pieces of roasted chestnuts, it’s a seasonal treat that’s perfect for the cold winter months.

Though the jubilant days of Christmas and New Year’s feel like a lifetime ago, the current series of snow days are an excellent excuse to batten down the hatches and drown your sorrows—not in a stiff drink, but a strong slice of this tender cake.”

If you don’t want cake for “happy hour,” enjoy it as a snack at any time of day, or for dessert with a bit of whipped cream. Don’t forget—the cake is fat-free.

We’d also recommend it as a gourmet Super Bowl dessert.

[1] Chestnut loaf cake with no added fat (photo © Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

“Purely by accident,” explains Hannah, “the recipe became much leaner than intended by my inadvertent omission of any added fat. So while this isn’t diet fare, it is a better-for-you cake.

“Happily, the texture doesn’t suffer one bit without the oil. I would have never realized my mistake if not for my recipe notes. I guess it’s obvious that not all of the wine made it into the cake!”

[3] Chinese five-spice powder. The recipe is below (photo Marietta Spice Mill).

Ideally, prepare the cake a day in advance to allow the wine syrup to thoroughly meld with the crumb.

Since you need less than 1-1/4 cups of wine, you can use up leftover wine—or serve the rest of a new bottle with the cake.

Ingredients For 8-10 Servings

 
For The Crimson Wine Syrup

1. PREHEAT oven to 325°F with rack in the center. Lightly grease and flour an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan.

2. WHISK together the flour, sugar, five-spice powder, baking powder, soda, and salt in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Add the chopped chestnuts and toss to coat with the flour blend to prevent the pieces from sinking to the bottom of the cake. Set aside.

3. MIX the wine, applesauce, and vanilla in a separate bowl; then add to the wet goods into the flour mix. Use a wide spatula to combine, stirring just enough to blend without over-mixing. It’s perfectly fine to have a few lumps remaining.

4. TRANSFER the batter to the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top before sliding the pan into the oven. Bake for 55-60 minutes, until deeply browned on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. While the cake is baking…

5. PREPARE the red wine syrup by combining the wine, brown sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. If you’d like the wine to retain a bit of its alcoholic bite, cook just until the sugar has dissolved. Alternatively, allow it to simmer for 5-10 minutes for the alcohol to boil out.

6. PREPARE the baked cake while it is still warm by poking it numerous times with a skewer. Go deep to allow the syrup to penetrate far into the crumb. Pour the hot syrup over the cake and let cool completely before removing it from the pan. Although the cake tastes best the next day after soaking a bit, it’s quite delicious to slice and serve as soon as it’s cool.
 
 
RECIPE #2: CHINESE FIVE-SPICE POWDER

What is Chinese five-spice powder?

Like adobo, chili powder, curry powder, fines herbes, garam masala, herbes de provence, ras-el-hanout, togarishi, za’atar, and other global spice blends, the ingredients and the proportion of ingredients vary based on the cook or the manufacturer. Some five-spice recipes include anise seed, black or white pepper, cardamom, galangal, ginger, licorice, mandarin peel, nutmeg, and turmeric.

Since the five-spice powder is also used in other Asian cuisines and in Middle Eastern cooking, there are regional preferences as well.

Blend together:

 
Store any extra spice in an airtight jar.
 
 

Fine restaurants know that exciting presentation of food is almost as important as the preparation of the dish. They don’t serve main courses with mounds of starch and vegetables circling the protein; they use potatoes, rice and veggies as the bed to hold the protein.

In its simplest form, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House in New York City shows how easy it is to put your protein atop a bed of grains. You can center the protein or place it off-center, as shown in the photo.

Whatever the bed comprises—see our list below—you can make it more visually arresting and flavorful with mix-ins. Here, Del Frisco adds diced vegetables to brown rice.

Use a spoon to drizzle the sauce; you can make an easy sauce by deglazing the pan.

Start with grilled, poached or sautéed meat, poultry or seafood (or tofu). For a bed, use:

 
*The asterisk indicates a whole grain.
 
MIX INS

A combination of ingredients is always more interesting than one alone. Would you rather have a bowl of lettuce, or a salad of lettuce plus three or four other vegetables?

Try to enhance any of your beds with at least one other ingredient; for example:

 
Happy bedding!

First of all: What’s a canapé (can-uh-PAY)?

It’s a type of hors d’oeuvre: a small, savory bite on a base of bread, toast or pastry. It is a finger food, eaten in one or two bites.

Canapés are often served at cocktail parties, and in the hands of a caterer or chef they can be beautifully decorated works of edible art. Canapé is the French word for sofa. The idea is that the toppings sit on a “sofa” of bread or pastry.

These Super Bowl snacks are much more down to earth, as befits the occasion. They’re guacamole canapés, a change of pace from the same old, same old guacamole and chips.

Since the tomatoes and onions are separate from the mashed avocado, this is effectively “deconstructed guacamole.”

The recipes below are courtesy Wholly Guacamole.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SLICE baguette into 1/2 inch slices and toast lightly. Spread approximately 2 tablespoon of guacamole on each slice.
2. TOSS diced tomatoes with onions an cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. DISTRIBUTE tomato/onion mix to canapés. Top with lime slices and serve on a platter.

Most people enjoy a classic wedge salad: iceberg lettuce with blue cheese dressing. Here, we turn it into finger food.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. CUT lettuce into mini wedges, about 3 inches each. The objective is to pick them up by hand.

2. TOP with bacon and tomato slices.

3. DRIZZLE with blue cheese dressing and top with optional crumbled blue cheese. Serve on a platter.

Mini iceberg wedge salad, for when you just want a taste. Photo courtesy Wholly Guacamole.

Dana’s Bakery, a wonderfully creative maker of delicious macarons (a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week—here’s the review), has created two flavors for the occasion:

 
In vibrant team colors, each bite is a victory. Get yours at DanasBakery.com. The line is certified kosher.

Who needs chicken wings, guacamole and pizza? We’re set with our Super Bowl macarons. Game on!

VALENTINE MACARONS

For Valentine’s Day, Dana has transformed the classic Sweethearts candy, also called conversation hearts, into macarons.

Sweethearts are made by the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO), makers of Necco Wafers. Each hard heart-shaped candy is printed with a romantic message: “Be Mine,” “Kiss Me,” “Adore Me,” and “Crazy 4U” are some of the messages.

WHO INVENTED SWEETHEARTS CANDY?

Sweethearts date all the way back to 1866. In 1847, 26-year-old Boston pharmacist Oliver R. Chase invented a machine that cut lozenges from wafer candy—similar to Necco Wafers.

In 1866 Oliver’s brother, Daniel Chase, designed a machine that pressed designs onto the wafers, and began printing sayings on what had become “candy.”

Sweethearts were launched by NECCO in 1901. In 2010 the recipe was changed to allow for bright modern colors; contemporary sayings have been added, such as “Email me” (no doubt soon to be “Text Me”) and “LOL.” NECCO receives hundreds of suggestions a year on new sayings.

Sweetheart macarons are available from DanasBakery.com.
  

You can purchase the six-cup version at Macy’s for $14.99; it also is available in pumpkin orange and cobalt blue. A three-cup version is available at Kohl’s.

Bialetti, originators of the moka pot, make six-cup versions in solid red, orange, blue and violet.

Up until few decades ago, before the introduction of electric-powered espresso machines for the home, people with money made espresso in a moka pot, a manual Italian espresso maker. People without money, space or a frequent need for an electric espresso machine still do.

WHAT’S A MOKA POT?

A moka pot is a stove top coffee pot that makes strong coffee. Instead of the more recent drip coffeemakers, where water drips down through ground coffee into a carafe below, the moka pot holds the water in its bottom half. When heated on the stove, the steam pushes boiling water up through the grounds into a top chamber, from which it is poured.

HISTORY OF THE MOKA POT

The aluminum Moka Express, with its octagonal body, was patented in 1933 by the Italian inventor Luigi De Ponti and acquired by Alfonso Bialetti. It enabled Bialetti, a metals engineer, to transform his company into a leading Italian coffee machine designer and manufacturer.

Before the moka pot, only people of means could brew café-quality coffee at home, using large and expensive commercial machines that required training. Most people drank their coffee at a café or coffee bar.

The creation of the small, efficient, user-friendly and affordable Moka Express allowed anyone to quickly brew at home the bold, robust-tasting coffee beloved by Italians. It replaced the more primitive coffee-makers developed in the late 19th century such as the Napoletana.

Although today there are electric moka pots, it the original survives in its original form—a feat for a kitchen appliance designed more than 80 years ago. The major change has been a move to stainless steel by some the versions, as well as novelty designs like the one above and Bialetti’s cappuccino moka pot with a fun cow-pattern enamel coating (there’s also a plain, elegant cappuccino pot).

WHY IS IT CALLED “MOKA?”

The Red Sea port city of Mocha in Yemen was the major marketplace for coffee—grown in Africa—from the 15th century through the 17th century. The principal port for Yemen’s capital city, Sana’a, it was later eclipsed by the ports of Aden and Hodeida.

Because the name is transliterated from Arabic letters, there are a variety of spellings: Mocha, Mocca, Moka, Mokha, etc.

Even after other sources of coffee were developed, Mocha beans (also called Sanani or Mocha Sanani beans, meaning “from Sana’a”) continued to be prized for their distinctive flavor—and remain so today.

HOW TO BUY A MOKA POT

Remember that a “four cup pot” means four wee espresso cups. If you like a double espresso—or a standard coffee cup full—buy the largest pot you can find—typically nine cups. Bialetti’s largest makes 12 cups.

If you have the option, stainless steel will look better over time than aluminum.

Typically, Italian roast coffee is used in a moka pot; but you can use whatever you have.

 
MAKE TEA IN A MOKA POT

What if you have two moka pots? Use one for tea. See our moka pot tip from ten days ago.