Starbucks sells Christmas Blend in both ground and Via Ready Brew (instant coffee packets)
K-cup users can enjoy Santa’s Buzz from Coffee People or Tully’s Evergreen, which is organic and Fair Trade Certified (the name refers to the sustainability—there’s no evergreen flavor)
And of course, you can make your own holiday blend by adding a touch of cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, rum extract or other favorite seasonal flavor to your ground coffee prior to brewing.
What’s a crostata, you ask? It’s Italian for a pie or tart with a rustic-style crust. Invented by some clever baker before the advent of the pie pan, the filling is placed in the center of a circle of dough. The edges of the dough are folded up and over the filling to hold it in.
It’s not as fancy as a pinched pie crust that creates a high “ruffle” around the pie; but today, this casual technique looks charming.
This week’s cooking video shows you how to make a Raspberry Chocolate Almond Crostata. It’s perfect for holiday entertaining: Try it instead of your regular favorite pie.
Want to know the difference between a crostata and a croustade? Check out our Pie and Pastry Glossary.
Registration is now open for the Oregon Truffle Festival, January 28-30, 2011—a fantasy for fans of the fabulous fungus. Activities include:
Truffle and wine dinners
Cooking classes and seminars
Winery luncheons
Truffle hunt
Farm tours
A fresh truffle marketplace to bring home a truffle “souvenir” or two
The sixth anniversary Grand Truffle Dinner will feature Oregon’s native winter white and black truffles in a sumptuous five-course meal paired by some of Oregon‘s top chefs—and of course, paired with acclaimed Oregon wines.
Hunt your own truffles! Photo courtesy
Oregon Truffle Festival.
An inexpensive luxury: truffle butter on
bread. Photo by Melody Lan | THE NIBBLE.
We’ve just written about a pricey truffle food gift. Here’s how you can enjoy the delicious flavor of truffles for just $10.00: truffle butter.
You can enjoy the flavor and aroma of black and white truffles every day of the year with 3-ounce tubs of truffle butter for $7.99 or 8 ounces for a few dollars more.
D’Artagnans truffle butter, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week, is our favorite little indulgence. For the price of a cocktail, you can have a three-ounce tub of precious, sweet butter, chock-full of black or white truffle pieces. It’s almost as satisfying as a fresh truffle dish that costs more than $100.00 at fine restaurants.
Spread truffle butter on French rolls or slices of baguette as a snack, with meals or as an hors d’oeuvre with wine.
Make truffled scrambled eggs. Add an ounce of buttermilk for each egg and scramble in truffle butter. Garnish with finely snipped parsley and serve with a slice of toasted baguette “crouton” spread with more truffle butter.
Toss truffle butter with angel hair pasta.
Butter a baked potato.
Add a spoonful to sauces.You’ll be in truffle heaven for less than $10.
It’s the fresh truffle season. Alas, few of us can afford fresh truffles—$220/ounce for the Italian white Alba truffle (Tuber magnatum pico) and about half that for the French black Périgord truffle (Tuber melanosporum).
One way we enjoy truffles in a more affordable form is through truffle cheese and truffle honey, which incorporate small pieces of truffle that have broken off from the fab fungi. They smell and taste as wonderful as the whole truffle.
Murray’s Cheese has put together a truffle lover’s gift set that includes:
The three luxurious truffle foods are handsomely packaged in a reusable wood crate for $70 at MurraysCheese.com. If truffles and goat cheese aren’t what you had in mind, Murray’s has a build-your-own-gift-crate.
