THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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TIP OF THE DAY: Leftover Valentine Candy

These Dove chocolate hearts are about to
be pressed into oatmeal cookies. Photo
by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

If you have more Valentine chocolate than you think you’ll consume, you can transform it into something else.

  • Solid chocolate can be chopped up and converted into hot chocolate.
  • It can also be melted and used to dip bananas, strawberries and raspberries—plus cookies, potato chips and pretzels.
  • If you have chocolate-covered caramels, melt and use to coat pretzels. It’s divine!
  • Filled chocolates and caramels can be chopped up and added to brownie batter, cupcakes and Rice Krispies Treats.
  • Take a page from Hershey’s Kisses and press candies into fresh-baked cookies.

Or, just bring them to work and set them out. They’ll disappear like magic.

What would you do with leftover Valentine chocolate and other Valentine candy?

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TREND: The Beer Cocktail

One of our editors doesn’t care for wine: She’s strictly a beer and spirits gal.

There are many people like her. No wonder beer cocktails are on the rise.

Beer has been mixed for centuries. The Black and Tan is a mix of stout plus lager or pale ale; Shandy is a mix of beer and lemonade; the Boilermaker is beer and a shot of whiskey; the Michelada is beer with lime, salt, picante sauce and sometimes, tomato juice.

Now, Nation’s Restaurant News reports a trend in beer cocktails, mixing beer with absinthe, coffee, port and other mixers.

The photo shows a Muddy Puddle, the signature cocktail of JoeDoe in New York City.

Bourbon, iced espresso and simple syrup are shaken and poured over ice into a pilsner glass rimmed with crushed peanuts. The drink is then topped off with Sierra Nevada stout.

Other recipe ideas:

 

A beer cocktail with stout, bourbon, iced
espresso and simple syrup, garnished with
peanuts. Photo courtesy Nation’s Restaurant News.

 

  • Raspberry-tea-infused blanco tequila, ginger, lime and Modelo Especial lager, from Mayahuel in New York City
  • Pineapple-infused mezcal, lime, sugar cane and Negra Modelo dark lager in a glass with a spiced salt rim, also at Mayahuel
  • A Michelada variation with spiced honey stout (stout with port, Madeira and allspice), tomato, lime and spices, from Starbelly in San Francisco
  • Gin, Earl Grey tea-infused dry vermouth and St. Germain elderflower, topped with porter, at Alchemy in San Diego
  • Bourbon, absinthe and triple ale with grated cinnamon and nutmeg, also at Alchemy
  •  
    Call up your inner mixologist to develop your own ideas.
      

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    COOKING VIDEO: Irish Soda Bread Recipe

     

    You don’t have to wait until St. Patrick’s Day to make Irish soda bread. Start now and see how quickly those delicious loaves disappear.

    Soda bread is a chemically-leavened quick bread, using baking soda instead of yeast. Baking soda produces a lighter, airy crumb. Soda bread dates back to approximately 1840, when bicarbonate of soda was introduced to Ireland. It reacted better with the soft wheat grown in Ireland’s climate, and replaced yeast as the leavening agent.

    While the traditional ingredients of soda bread are flour (white or brown), baking soda, salt and buttermilk, soda breads are often sweet breads. Raisins and nuts can be added—and in fact, make soda bread the delight that it is.

       

       

  • Now that you’ve seen the video, here’s another delicious Irish soda bread recipe.
  • We really enjoyed this Irish soda bread mix with Guinness stout.
  • Check out the different types of bread (many!) in our beautiful Bread Glossary.
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    VALENTINE’S DAY: Chocolate Tequila Cupid Cocktail

    Let chocolate and tequila be your cupid.
    Photo courtesy Sauza Tequila.

      If you’re not sharing the evening with someone special, make yourself a special comfort cocktail.

    Sauza Tequila suggests this chocolate tequila drink.

    CHOCOLATE TEQUILA CUPID RECIPE

    Ingredients

  • 3 parts chocolate milk (store bought or homemade)
  • 1 part silver tequila
  • 1 part strawberry purée or daiquiri mix
  • Garnish: Chocolate-covered strawberry
  • Optional garnish: chocolate syrup
  • Optional garnish: chocolate shavings
     
    Preparation
    1. Combine chilled chocolate milk, tequila and strawberry purée in a mixing glass. Stir vigorously to combine.
    2. Line your favorite glass with chocolate syrup (squirt it on the inside of the glass in an up-and-down pattern).
  • 3. Pour cocktail into the glass.
    4. Garnish with a chocolate covered strawberry.
    5. Enjoy it: You deserve it!

    Recipe for chocolate-covered strawberries.

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    VALENTINE’S DAY: Champagne Cocktail

    Rosy and delicious: the Secret Crush
    Champagne cocktail. Photo courtesy
    Macao Trading Co.

      Here’s a Valentine’s Day version of a Champagne Cocktail.

    Called a Secret Crush, it’s a rosy color from the addition of grenadine—a red syrup originally made from pomegranate juice or cherry juice, and sugar. (Grenade is the French word for pomegranate as well as grenade.)

    Today, supermarket brands are made of artificial ingredients; but you can find authentic artisan brands:

    Stirrings Authentic Grenadine, made with pomegranate juice, is all-natural as well as far more flavorful than the red-colored corn syrup. Monin also makes an all-natural grenadine. Natural brands also include spices, such as cardamom and clove.

    Or, make homemade grenadine.

    You can make this cocktail with Champagne or Prosecco, a sparking wine from Italy that’s lighter and more affordable.
    Thanks to New York City’s restaurant hot spot Macao Trading Co. for the recipe.

     

    SECRET CRUSH

    Ingredients Per Cocktail

  • 5 ounces Prosecco
  • 3/4 ounce grenadine
  • 1 brown sugar cube
  • 4 to 5 dashes Angostura bitters
  • 1 lemon twist
     
    Preparation
    1. Pour half of the amount of the sparkling wine into the Champagne flute.
    2. Place the sugar cube on a bar spoon and saturate it with Angostura bitters.
    3. Carefully place the bitters-saturated sugar cube into the flute. Let rest for a moment.
    4. Add grenadine. Top off with the rest of the sparkling wine.
    5. Twist the lemon twist over the drink and discard.

    Bitters, by the way, are a strongly-flavored distillation or infusion of aromatic herbs, bark, fruit and/or roots. The term derives from the fact that the recipe contains no sweetener. While artisan brands contain a blend of flavors—angostura bark, cascarilla, cassia, gentian, orange peel and quinine, for example—the best-known commercial brand, Angostura, is made primarily from the roof of gentian, a flower. If you have artisan bitters, substitute them for the Angostura brand specified in the recipe.

      

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