Dessert lovers: This one’s for you. Today’s tip is adapted from an article by Ann Pietrangel on Care2.com. To get recipes attached to the tips, see the original article.

Pietrangel interviewed Chicago-based pastry chef and restauranteur Malika Ameen, a Top Chef Just Desserts contestant and proprietor of By M Desserts.

Ameen recommends five ingredients that she always has on hand to give her desserts that extra something special. They happen to be popular with us as well:
1. Candied Citrus Peel

Candied citrus peel—grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange—adds brightness, freshness and texture to cakes and cookies. The peel of the fruit is julienned and boiled in sugar syrup, which preserves it. Here’s a recipe (along with a delicious lemon chiffon cake).

Candied red grapefruit peel, served with a mascarpone dip. Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

 
2. Dried Lavender

“Used sparingly, dried lavender enhances food with a mysterious and distinctive flavor,” says Ameen. She steeps it in cream to pair with berries, makes lavender-infused simple syrup syrup for lemonade and iced tea, and combines it with a crunchy sanding sugar to garnish cookies and pound cake. Here’s our recipe for lavender whipped cream.

If you’re buying lavender outside of a food store (at a farmers market or general merchandise store, for example), be sure that it is organic. Lavender that is grown for ornamental display or potpourri can be coated with chemical pesticides. You want culinary lavender.

This aromatic and slightly sweet spice, a relative of ginger, is one of Ameen’s favorites. While it is known for its use in Indian cooking, it is a popular addition to Scandinavian breads and breakfast pastries, as well as to Middle Eastern desserts.

Cardamom pairs beautifully with chocolate: Use it to accent anything from chocolate pudding to brownie batter; add a dash or two to a chocolate milkshake. You can use cardamom pods to brew a delicious cardamom tea.

Cardamom plants grow wild in the monsoon forests of southern India. They had been gathered and traded for 1,000 years until the British began to cultivate it in the 19th century. Cardamom was called the Queen of Spices. Black pepper, also Indian in origin, was the King of Spices.

Vanilla beans are expensive, but they have a second life. Used vanilla beans can (and should) be used to make vanilla sugar.

Use vanilla sugar instead of plain table sugar to add a lift of flavor as an ingredient or a topping. Try it with baked goods, berries, beverages, cereal and grapefruit, for example.

To repurpose vanilla beans, simply place one in a sealed pound canister of granulated sugar for at least week. It can remain there infinitely; just shake the jar occasionally. You can add more used pods and can give containers of your artisan vanilla sugar as gifts.

If you don’t use vanilla pods, you can buy ready-made vanilla sugar as a gift for your favorite baker.

NOTE: Vanilla powder is not the same as vanilla sugar. Vanilla powder is a combination of sugar and ground vanilla that is used in recipes where a dry ingredient is preferred, instead of vanilla extract. More about the different types of vanilla.

5. Fleur De Sel

Sweet and salty has emerged as a flavor hit (although everything old is new again). Salt helps to lift the flavor of other ingredients. That’s why cookies, cakes and other sweets all have a pinch of salt in the recipe.

Fleur de sel (“flower of the sea”), a fine French sea salt is simply delicious with chocolate. That’s why there are so many artisan brownies, chocolate bars and chocolate chip cookies garnished with it.

Sprinkle a few crystals of fleur de sel sprinkled over any chocolate dessert to add a burst of flavor and crunchy texture.

Here’s more about fleur de sel in our Artisan Salts Glossary. Who knew there were so many wonderful salts?

Dad may have a favorite pie, cake or cookie that he really wants to enjoy on Father’s Day. If not, let Father’s Day cupcakes be the hit of the party.

At Crumbs Bakery, Father’s Day cupcakes are garnished with chocolate moustaches. If you want to do the same at home, anchor the chocolate with a toothpick.

Seeking additional inspiration, we looked at different themes for Father’s Day cupcakes and found cupcakes:

 
You can bake from scratch or buy cupcakes and decorate them. A stroll through a candy store will give you more ideas; or head to your browser and type in “Father’s Day Cupcakes.”
  

The prettiest recipe we’ve seen with ramps:
a ramp-stuffed torta from chef Catie Baumer
Schwalb of PitchforkDiaries.com. Here‘s the
recipe.

An early spring vegetable, ramps are so delicious—a combination of garlic and onion flavors—that they are worth seeking out and enjoying, simply sautéed.

Ramps are wild leeks, also known as spring onion, ramson, wild garlic and wood leek. In French, they are called ail des bois, garlic of the woods.

Ramps grow wild and are found in clusters. The entire plant is edible, from the long, smooth, green leaves to the scallion-like bulb.

Since ramps grow wild, they can easily end up in a yard where, alas, they are typically pulled out and thrown away—not only because they appear to be weeds, but for their strong garlic aroma. Should you come across something smelling of garlic, bring it to the kitchen instead of the trash.

While ramps can be enjoyed in any recipe that uses a member of the onion family, the easiest preparation is simply sautéed as a side or in combination with other spring vegetables. Combine ramps with asparagus and morels for a heavenly spring feast. There are more serving suggestions and a delicious recipe for eggs, potatoes, bacon and ramps, below.
 
 
RAMPS VS. SCAPES: THE DIFFERENCE

Don’t confuse ramps with their equally delicious cousins, garlic scapes. Scapes are the curling shoots of young garlic plants. For decades they were cut off in the fields and thrown away (to allow the garlic bulbs to grow larger), before growers realized that chefs and foodies were eager to buy them.

Many people refer to the vegetable as the wild leek, the name ramp is popular in the East. It comes from England. One version of the name source attributes a folk name, œramsen, the plural form of hramsa, an Old English word for wild garlic. Early English settlers of Appalachian a prime ramp regional used the term, which later was shortened to ramp.

Search for local ramps festivals and mark your calendar so you don’t miss next year’s.
 
 
WAYS TO SERVE RAMPS

 
 
EASY RAMPS RECIPE: FRIED RAMPS WITH POTATOES, EGGS & BACON

Ingredients

In the South, this dish is served with sides of Pass pinto beans and cornbread. The recipe is adapted from ChickensInTheRoad.com.

 
Preparation

1, COOK bacon in a large frying pan; remove, chop and set aside, reserving the bacon fat.

2. FRY the ramps and potatoes in the bacon fat over low heat, covered, until the potatoes are tender.

3. CRACK eggs over the ramp/potato mixture and fry, covered, until eggs cooked. Sprinkle on the optional shredded cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and chives to taste.

4. REMOVE eggs with their ramp/potato beds onto serving plates; top with chopped bacon. Makes five single-egg portions.
  

[1] A delicious Negroni at Taralucci e Vino in New York City (photo © Taralucci e Vino)

[2] An idea from Irvington Restaurant in New York City: bottling a Negroni as a party favor (photo © Irvington Restaurant).

[3] The bottled version is a natural infusion of bitter herbs and spices, including rhubarb, gentian, kola nut, roman wormwood and dandelion (photo © Distilleria Negroni).

[4] Adding some bubbly to a Negroni (photo © DeLallo).

It’s time to celebrate Negroni Week. For those not immersed in cocktail culture, the Negroni is one of the classics, dating back to 1919. The recipe follows, but first:

> Negroni food pairings.

> The top 12 gin cocktails.

> The history of gin.

> The history of vermouth.

> The history of cocktails.

> The history of Campari.

> The year’s 14 gin holidays.

> The year’s 49 cocktail holidays.
 
 
NEGRONI COCKTAIL HISTORY

As the story goes, the cocktail was invented in 1919 at the Bar Cassoni* in Florence, Italy by bartender Fosco Scarselli. He created it for a regular patron, Count Camillo Negroni, who customarily ordered an Americano cocktail—Campari, sweet vermouth, and soda water.

The count asked Scarselli to strengthen his cocktail, so he replaced the soda water with gin. He also added an orange peel garnish instead of the traditional lemon to distinguish it from the original Americano.

And he presented it to his client with the greatest honor a bartender can bestow: He bestowed the name “Negroni” on the new cocktail.

The cocktail—a balance of bitter, sweet, and botanical flavors—took off, and family member Sir Guglielmo Negroni seized the opportunity, quickly founding Negroni Antica Distilleria in the city of Treviso, producing Antico Negroni (photo #3), a ready-to-drink bottle of the cocktail.

However, the cocktail was unknown in the U.S. until 1947 when Orson Welles, working in Rome, wrote about it, creating a rush to try it.

But it didn’t remain prominent in American cocktail culture until the craft cocktail renaissance of the 2000s. By the 2010s, it had become a symbol of sophisticated drinking and has become popular worldwide, inspiring countless variations (photo #4).

> Here’s a recipe for a Balsamic Negroni.
 
 
RECIPE: THE CLASSIC NEGRONI COCKTAIL

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE ingredients in a shaker with ice.

2. STRAIN into chilled coupe or serve over ice in a chilled rocks glass. Garnish and serve.
 
 

[5] Negroni Week, in September, encourages you to enjoy one on the patio or balcony (photo © Daniel Kelleghan | Campari Group).
 
_____________________

*Bar Cassoni became Caffè Casoni and is now called Caffè Cavalli.
 
 

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If you haven’t been getting your recommended portions of fruits and vegetables*, how about starting your day with a breakfast salad? You can have one of these fruit-based salads with your regular breakfast foods—cereal, eggs, a bagel—or with a side of cottage cheese, ricotta and/or yogurt.

This recipe comes from Lynn’s Paradise Café, Louisville, Kentucky and was sent to us by the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council.

 
> Find more blueberry recipes at the Blueberry Council.
 
 
RECIPE: BREAKFAST FRUIT SALAD

Ingredients For 8 Servings

 
Preparation

1. TOSS salad greens with 1½ cups of blueberry vinaigrette (recipe below).

2. DIVIDE the dressed greens among eight large plates. Arrange ½ cup orange sections and ½ cup blueberries on top of each salad

3. SPRINKLE each salad with ¼ cup granola. Drizzle remaining dressing on top. Serve immediately.
 
 
RECIPE: BLUEBERRY VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE ingredients in a food processor. Process until mixture is smooth.

2. CHILL at least 30 minutes to blend flavors. Yield: 2 cups.

[1] Breakfast salad (photo © Blueberry Council).

[2] Blueberries growing on the bush (photo © Blueberry Council).

[3] Granola (photo © Good Eggs)

*It used to be “five a day,” but now the government bases the portions on calorie needs for your age, gender and activity level. Calculate your portions with this Fruit and Vegetable Calculator from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

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