Bella’s sugar-free biscotti: delicious in four
flavors. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE
NIBBLE.

Thanks to Deanna Bellacicco, owner of Bella’s Home Baked Goods, for affording everyone on a sugar-restricted diet the opportunity to have her delicious sugar-free biscotti.

Her regular biscotti line is just lovely, with classic flavors and the cutting edge (try the Peanut Butter Pretzel Chip Biscotti).

But the good news here is that sugar-free biscotti are available in four flavors: Sugar Free Almond, Sugar Free Cappuccino Chip, Sugar Free Chocolate and Sugar Free Lemon Pistachio.

The all-natural sugar-free biscotti are sweetened with isomalt and acesulfame-K (see the different types of sugar substitutes). There’s a subtle bitterness from the sugar substitutes, but the enjoyment of crunchy biscotti far outweighs it.

The boxes are conventional plastic, but anyone who receives a gift of Bella’s sugar free biscotti will be so excited, they won’t notice that it isn’t a deluxe gift box.

Don’t worry about buying too many boxes: Biscotti have a shelf life of many months (more about this below).

 
The History Of Biscotti

Biscotti date back to ancient Roman times. Because they’re twice-baked (a loaf is baked and sliced, and the slices are baked again), most of the moisture is evaporated and the biscuits (cookies) don’t deteriorate for a long time. The Roman biscotti were more about a durable convenience food for travelers, including sailors who were away from reliable food sources for months on end.

Here’s the full history of biscotti and Mario Batali’s recipe.

Those who know the joys of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or peanut butter cups empathize with those who can’t have them.

But everyone can have sunflower butter!

Sunflower butter is a smooth spread that looks and tastes almost identical to peanut butter. It’s made from sunflower seeds and is completely peanut- and tree nut-free.

It’s healthier than PB, with one-third less saturated fat and 27% of a day’s recommended allowance of vitamin E, along with a much higher iron and fiber content (but 25% less protein).

In jars, it’s available in the same variations as peanut butter: creamy, crunchy, natural, organic, unsweetened, even individual snack-size packs. Sunflower butter is also an ingredient in snack foods that previously relied on peanut butter, including energy bars, granola bars and peanut butter cups.

Sun Cups are chocolate cups filled with sunflower butter instead of PB. They’re made by Seth Ellis Chocolatier in Boulder, Colorado.

They resemble Reese’s peanut butter cups, with a similar flavor (there’s just a hint of sunflower seed tanginess).

How Sun Cups Differ From Peanut Butter Cups

Make stuffing muffins, or stuffins. Photo
courtesy MackenzieLtd.com.

We found a recipe from Tara Kuczykowski, who writes the food blog Unsophisticook.com. And we whipped up a batch.

Add them to your Christmas dinner menu. It doesn’t matter if your main course is beef, ham, turkey or other protein: Stuffing muffins go with anything. We bet they’ll become a year-round reason to enjoy stuffing more often.

If you want to send a gift of stuffing muffins, they’re available seasonally from Mackenzie Ltd.

TARA KUCZYKOWSKI’S STUFFING MUFFINS RECIPE

Yield: 18 “stuffins.”

Ingredients

*Editor’s Note: We love fresh parsley flavor, so we substituted two tablespoons of fresh parsley.

Preparation

1. Sauté the celery and onion in the butter over medium heat, until they turn translucent and caramelize. It pays to take your time with this step, because this is what really makes for a flavorful stuffing.

2. Meanwhile, toast each piece of bread. Tara uses a wheat bread, but you can use whatever your family likes best.

3. Chop the toasted bread up into cubes. In a large bowl, add the celery and onion mixture and the parsley. Salt and pepper the mixture to taste.

4. Lightly beat the eggs with the milk, and pour over the top of the bread mixture. Add some of the chicken/turkey stock and start to mix everything together with a large spoon. Keep adding the stock until everything is moistened—wet but not soupy (you may not need to use all the stock).

5. Give the muffin pans a light misting of non-stick spray. Fill each cup with stuffing.

6. Bake at 350°F for about 60 minutes. If you prefer a stuffing that’s a little more moist, cover with aluminum foil for the first 45 minutes.

If you go to certain Japanese or Asian-fusion restaurants in the U.S.—or travel to Japan—you may have come across tetsubins.

These small, charming cast-iron Japanese teapots are sometimes used to serve tea at restaurants in America—sometimes with matching cups. They can be purchased at some specialty tea shops and online.

But if you’re thinking of buying one for yourself or as a gift for a tea-loving friend, don’t plan on brewing tea in it.

Tetsubins are not meant to brew tea, and they are far from ideal brewing vessels.

That the pots are too heavy for many people to hold steadily with one hand is a minor problem.

But the major problem is that the iron reacts with the tannin in the tea, discoloring the brew and, worse, add hints of iron flavor.

So why are tetsubins made if you can’t brew tea in them?

The tea pots are collectibles and souvenirs—different designs are made in different regions.

So collect as many tetsubins as you like. Just brew your tea in a ceramic, glass, porcelain, stainless steel or other non-reactive pot.

Love tea? Learn more about it in our Tea Section.

These artisan coffee syrups are handmade to
order. Photo courtesy Java & Co.

Made to order, the syrups begin when Java & Co. freshly roasts the coffee beans, from which they brew fresh coffee. The flavors of the coffee are infused into cane sugar syrup. That’s how different these syrups are from those available in coffee shops and supermarkets, which typically use off-the-shelf extracts to flavor their syrups.

Add sweetness to your coffee, in five popular flavors:

 
More information or to purchase.
 
The coffee syrups can be used for more than just coffee. Use them: