[1] A treat for National Soft Pretzel Month, with an extra “twist” (that’s a pun): chocolate filling. Bake a batch (photos #1 and #2 © Beyond Good).

[2] One of the nine different bars from Beyond Good. The company specializes in ethically sourced, single origin dark choccolate bars.

[3] Brown sugar is added to the dough, cinnamom sugar (photo #4) to the top of the pretzel (photo © Grafvision | Panther Media).

[4] The pretzels come out of the oven to a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar (photo © King Arthur Baking).

[5] Twisting the ropes of pretzel dough (photo © Pampered Chef).

[6] Six classic soft pretzels sit on a parchment-topped baking sheet (photo © Williams Sonoma).

April is National Soft Pretzel Month; April 26th is National Soft Pretzel Day. This year’s treat, a recipe for Chocolate-Stuffed Soft Pretzels, is compliments of Beyond Good, a producer of organic chocolate bars made with a rare heirloom variety of Madagascar cacao

Beyond Good is a feel-good artisan brand. The world of cacao beans has long been structured so that too many middlemen walk away with too much of the profit, keeping the small farmers in poverty.

Beyond Good has pioneered a trade model of sourcing heirloom cocoa directly from the farmers who grow it.

Hopefully, more craft chocolate producers will follow, to change the industry, forever.

Beyond Good sells chocolate and vanilla products. In addition to its cacao, Madagascar is one of the world’s great producers of vanilla—the variety known as Bourbon vanilla*.

The company has expanded its ethically-sourced cacao with organic beans purchased directly from farmers in Bundibugyo, Uganda.

Beyond Good products are available in stores nationwide and online at BeyondGood.com.

There are more soft pretzel recipes below.

The original pretzels were soft pretzels, baked by monks to encourage their students. Here’s the history of pretzels.
 
 
RECIPE: CHOCOLATE-STUFFED SOFT PRETZELS

These snack (or dessert!) pretzels are delicious and easy to make. They are stuffed with Beyond Good Salted Caramel Chocolate, a 73% cacao chocolate bar. If you prefer milk chocolate or lower-percentage-cacao dark chocolate, use the bar of your choice. You need 2.64 ounces or more.

If you prefer a sweet-and-salty profile, you can sprinkle the warm pretzels with kosher salt or other coarse salt instead of cinnamon sugar.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the ganache first. Heat the heavy cream in the microwave for 30-40 seconds until it is hot, but not boiling. Pour it over the chopped chocolate bar and let it sit for 1 minute. Then whisk until the chocolate is melted and completely smooth. Set aside to come to room temperature, stir occasionally, it will thicken as it cools.

2. STIR together in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, the warm water, and yeast. Let sit for 1 minute, then whisk in the brown sugar, and butter.

3. ADD the flour 1 cup at a time, then knead on medium for 4-5 minutes. If the dough is still sticky, add 2 tablespoons of flour at a time until you can press the dough with your finger and it bounces back. Cover with a towel and set in a warm spot for 15 minutes.

4. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and prepare the baking soda bath by adding the water and baking soda to a large stockpot and bringing it to a low boil.

5. DIVIDE the dough into 12 equal pieces, then roll out into 24-inch ropes. Press the dough flat, then spoon the chocolate ganache down the center all the way down the dough.

6. FOLD the dough over and pinch to seal. Then using your hands, roll back into a rope.

7. FOLD into a pretzel, then dunk the pretzels one at a time into the baking soda bath for 30 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pretzels, shake off any excess water, then place 6 pretzels on each baking sheet.

8. Brush the pretzels with egg wash (1 egg mixed with 2 tablespoons water), then bake for 12-13 minutes.

9. REMOVE the pretzels when they are golden brown. Brush with melted butter and toss in the cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately.

10. The pretzels will keep on the counter, wrapped in plastic, for up to 3 days.
 
 
MORE SOFT PRETZEL RECIPES

 
 
________________

*The term “Bourbon vanilla” refers to the vanilla beans’ provenance. They come from the Bourbon Islands, which include Madagascar, Mauritius, and Réunion. The name comes from the period when the island of Réunion was ruled by the Bourbon kings of France.

Bourbon vanilla has no direct relation to Bourbon whiskey, which is named for Bourbon County in Kentucky. The county also took its name from the House of Bourbon, but otherwise has nothing to do with the vanilla beans.

Not April Fool, but April fun: a fun surprise for dinner. This cheese stuffed meatloaf recipe came to us from Roth Cheese, created by Meggan Hill, executive chef and head of the Culinary Hill Test Kitchen.

Meggan gave her mom’s meatloaf a “cheese upgrade” using Roth Organic Havarti cheese. “The leftovers make great sandwiches, too,” she says.

You can use your own mom’s recipe, of course.

And you can use any good melting cheese: Cheddar, Fontina, Gruyere, mozzarella*, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Provolone, and numerous others.

You can find other stuffed meatloaf recipes online. For starters, here’s an Italian Stuffed Meatloaf recipe, and a Spinach Stuffed Meatloaf with provolone cheese and prosciutto.

National Meatloaf Day is October 18th. National Cheese Day is June 4th.
 
 
RECIPE: CHEESE-STUFFED MEATLOAF
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. HEAT the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet or dish with foil for easy cleanup.

2. COMBINE in a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a spatula, the beef, onion, eggs, oats, ½ cup ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Mix on the lowest speed until combined.

3. RINSE a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with water. Pack the meat mixture tightly into the pan. Leaving a ½-inch wall on each side…

4. CARVE out a well about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide and set aside the meat you pulled out. Fill the well with the shredded cheese. Using the reserved meat mixture, cover and seal the shredded cheese carefully and thoroughly.

5. FLIP the pan over and carefully jiggle out the loaf onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 60 minutes and remove from oven.

6. INCREASE the oven temperature to 400°F. Brush the remaining ¼ cup of ketchup all over the meatloaf. Return to the oven and bake 10 minutes longer. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes before serving.

________________

*Why isn’t mozzarella capitalized? All of the other cheeses are formal place names. Monterey Jack has two formal names! Mozzarella, on the other hand, is named after its specific production process. In Italian, the verb mozzare refers to the way the curd is hand-stretched in strips and then cut into balls. Food history: The term “mozzarella” first appeared in print in 1570, in a cookbook by Bartolomeo Scappi, chef to the papal court. However, the cheese may have existed for centuries prior. Cheese-making with water buffalo’s milk was first recorded in the 12th century, although the name “mozzarella” was not used.

[1] Cheese-stuffed meatloaf (photo © Culinary Hill | Roth Cheese.

[2] Roth havarti is a good table cheese and a good melter for grilled cheese and other recipes (photo © Roth Cheese).

[3] This recipe uses rolled oats (a.k.a. Old Fashioned Oats). Some cooks prefer bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (photo © Quaker Oats).

†This means 80% lean, 20% fat. That might sound like a lot of fat, but a large amount of the fat will render out as the meat cooks.
 
 

March 30th is National Hot Chicken Day. That’s hot as in hot and spicy, cayenne-coated fried chicken. It’s Nashville’s signature food, just as Baltimore has its crab cakes, Boston its clam chowder, Buffalo its wings, Chicago its deep-dish pizza, Denver its omelet, Memphis its barbecue, New York its bagels, New Orleans its po’ boys, and Philadelphia its cheesesteak*.

And just as those foods have expanded beyond their home turf, hot chicken restaurants sprouted up first in Music City (Nashville), then nationally and beyond. Even KFC created its version.

It’s not easy to get your share. In Nashville, residents and tourists alike stand on long lines at the original, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, Bolton’s (see the history of hot chicken below), Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish, at Pepperfire Hot Chicken, and Hattie B’s Hot Chicken.

The Music City Hot Chicken Festival, is celebrated annually on July 4th.

And if you can’t get to anyplace that sells hot chicken, here’s a recipe to make your own (photo #1).
 
 
SO WHAT’S HOT CHICKEN?

It’s spicy-hot fried chicken—searingly hot, some say. The bird with the spicy red crust has become the signature dish of Nashville.

First sold at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville in the 1940s, the original hot chicken was coated with a paste of cayenne pepper and lard, other seasonings, and flour. It’s served with a slice of white bread and pickles (photo #2).

Other chefs use everything from ghost peppers to hot sauce—or both.

Originally only fried bone-in, some places now offer boneless tenders for those who don’t like to wrangle with the bones.

The fried chicken is served with typical sides: fries, coleslaw, dill pickles; and less typically, it is served with a slice of white bread. The bread, along with the pickles, is the classic accompaniment to the chicken as presented by Prince’s and those eateries that followed.

Some places have even more sides to tempt you. At Hattie B’s in Nashville, you can add baked beans, black-eyed peas, pimento mac and cheese, red skin potato salad, and Southern greens.

Waffles with your chicken, anyone? Yes, they’re on more than a few menus. Coleslaw? Of course!

And if you still have room for dessert: banana pudding (Lea Jane’s has it in Dulce de Leche, Nilla Peanut Crumble, and Sea Salt), peach cobbler, ice cream, and floats. And don’t forget the pie: apple, pecan, Mississippi mud pie?

Perhaps the most quirky spin is the signature dish at Pepperfire Hot Chicken. This Nashville mainstay serves three jumbo hot chicken tenders, set atop a deep-fried grilled cheese sandwich. That’s it, in photo #6.
 
 
HOW HOT IS IT?

It’s as hot as you want it to be.

Over time, to please more palates, hot chicken emporia have come to offer levels of spice. In a survey of five different places, we found Plain (no spice), Mild, Medium, Hot, and at more than one spot, an even higher level of heat: Damn Hot, Cluckin’ Hot, and Shut The Cluck Up!, the latter from Hattie B’s.

The exclamation point is theirs, and it gets our nod for best name, followed by Pepperfire’s sixth and highest level of heat, called No Refunds (but will they call the EMTs for you?).
 
 
THE HISTORY OF HOT CHICKEN

Timothy Davis, Nashville chef, writer, and author of The Hot Chicken Cookbook, traces the dish’s origins back to the late 1930s at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, a restaurant still going strong under the management of Thornton Prince’s great-niece, Ms. André Prince Jeffries.

As the story goes, a woman sought revenge on her cheating partner by cooking him some painfully spicy chicken. But the act backfired: The man, Thornton Prince III, loved the dish. He asked her to cook more, for himself and his friends.

Eating well is the best revenge, so Prince created his own recipe and opened a restaurant in the 1940s. Hot chicken took off like a bird out of hell, and Prince’s imitators grew.

And the rest is history.

You can hear Ms. Prince in this video:

Hot Chicken from Southern Foodways on Vimeo.

For more history and insights, pick up a copy of the Hot Chicken Cookbook.

[1] Make Nashville hot chicken at home, with this recipe from Bon Appetit (photo © Bon Appetit).

[2] Leg quarters from the original Nashville hot chicken hot spot: Prince’s. Their hot chicken is always served with white bread and pickles (photo © Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack | Facebook).

[3] Hot chicken moved west, here at Lea Jane’s in Colorado. There are also locations in California, Louisiana and Texas. Note that the white bread turned into a roll (photo © Lea Jane’s Hot Chicken | Facebook).

[4] Hot chicken served the traditional way—with white bread and pickles—at Hattie B’s in Nashville (photos #4 and #5 © Hattie B’s Hot Chicken | Facebook).

[5] How about a side of Hattie B’s red jacket potato salad?

[6] A different take at Pepperfire Hot Chicken in Nashville: hot chicken tenders atop a fried grilled cheese sandwich (photo © Pepperfire Hot Chicken | Facebook).

*Some dishes we’ve never even heard of: Chislic (Sioux Falls, SD), Hot Browns (Louisville, KY), The Coney (Detroit, MI), The Garbage Plate (Rochester, NY), The Half Smoke (Washington, DC), The Horshoe Sandwich (Springfield, IL), The Juicy Lucy (Minneapolis, MN), The Slopper (Pueblo, CO), and numerous others. Check out Food Your City Is Known For.

[1] How about an Easter ice cream gift (all photos © eCreamery).

[2] Four flavors specially labeled for Easter.

[3] The four flavors scooped.

Is there special Easter ice cream? Well: The Happiest Easter Wishes / Are Served in Ice Cream Dishes / Easter Eggs Are Fine / But eCreamery Ice Cream is Sublime.

So rhymes eCreamery, the online specialist in personalized ice cream pints.
 
 
ICE CREAM FOR EASTER!

eCreamery’s Easter Collection includes four pints of “eggstra-ordinarily” delicious ice cream, each with a creative label:

 
If the four Easter flavors aren’t right for you—for example, you don’t want nuts, chocolate, whatever—you can create a custom gift on the website.

The ice cream is sent in an insulated shipper. So even if the recipient doesn’t get home until the end of the day, the ice cream will still be frozen solid.

This year, bypass the conventional Easter basket of goodies in favor of the eCreamery Easter Ice Cream Collection. There’s also a flavor of the month club.

Ice cream is happiness condensed, said one pundit. And an ice cream Easter gift is sure to “make some bunny’s day.”
 
> Get your Easter ice cream at eCreamery.com.
 
> The history of ice cream.
 
> The different types of ice cream and other frozen desserts.
 
 
ABOUT eCREAMERY

Since 2007, eCreamery has been churning out superpremium ice cream: classic favorites, original flavors, and even customers’ unique creations.

Made in small batches, the ice cream is hand-packed and hand-labeled.

You can customize labels with your own photos and your titles, or shop eCreamery’s library of more than 50 artwork designs to create pints for birthdays, congratulations, get well, sympathy, thank you, and other special occasions and holidays.

How can you resist these tiny chocolate lambs for Easter?

New this year from one of our favorite chocolatiers, L.A. Burdick, these works of chocolate art are individually handcrafted.

That means that no molds are used to create the chocolates. Burdick’s skilled chocolate artisans create them entirely by hand.

Burdick is famed for its chocolate mice and penguins, and special editions such as bees, bunnies, cats, elephants, pigs, turkeys, and sheep.

Each lamb has a dark chocolate ganache center flavored with ripe strawberries fresh rhubarb.

They are enrobed with white chocolate and hand-piped to create the fleece and eyes.

The “keeper” wooden gift box is tied with a ribbon and holds eight chocolate lambs.

It will delight any lover of fine chocolate to whom you give them.

The lambs are available to ship now through April 22, 2022.

All Burdick chocolates are made with all-natural ingredients and are preservative-free.

They are gluten-free and are prepared in a dedicated gluten-free kitchen.
 
 
> Get your chocolate lambs at BurdickChocolate.com.
 
 
> The history of Easter candy and the Easter basket.
 
 
> The history of chocolate.

[1] Handmade chocolate lambs from L.A. Burdick (both photos © L.A. Burdick).

[2] The beautiful wood gift box can be used for jewelry and keepsakes—or filled with more chocolate!