It’s hard to resist this rich, gooey Snickers pie!
There’s nothing to snicker with this recipe, unless you find yourself unable to stop eating it and friends and family post You Tube videos of you, snickered and crumb-faced. A Snickers Pie is a cream pie made of cream cheese, peanut butter and chopped Snickers bars on a chocolate crumb crust. The top is typically decorated with chopped Snickers Bars and sometimes, caramel and /or chocolate drizzles. There are many variations of the recipe; a Snickers ice cream pie can be made with vanilla or peanut butter ice cream, along with the chopped Snickers bars. While this recipe from New York City’s famed Magnolia Bakery doesn’t include them, some bakers like to mix chopped roasted peanuts into the recipe as well. Try your own variations, and see our Pie & Pastry Glossary for a bakery full of pie and pastry types.
No one tells us they’re going to Paris anymore, because they know we’ll beg them to bring back two boxes of macaroons from Ladurée, the international temple of macaroon holiness. The great success of Ladurée’s macarons is threefold:
The tenderness of the meringue.
The quality of the fillings.
The vivid flavors and colors.
So, if you love macaroons, put a visit to Paris’s Ladurée on the “100 Things To Do Before You Die” list. Until then, try your hand at making the elaborate macaroons at home with their recipe.
Think all macaroons are the same? Learn why “macaroon” means different things to different people in our History of Macaroons.
Create an easy but elegant dessert by filling your champagne glasses (or wine goblets) with 3 or 4 different flavors and colors of sorbet. Even supermarket brands taste good, but if you can, buy specialty brands in flavors like apple mint or pear cognac. It’s all the more special for your guests. For something really special, get the real champagne and wine sorbets from Wine Cellar Sorbets—read our review. Serve with a fancy cookie and garnish with something interesting—a blackberry or a sprig of rosemary. Note: As you’re scooping sorbet for six or eight people, things can start to melt down. You can scoop balls in advance and keep them on covered plates or in containers in the freezer; then assemble quickly in the goblets and serve. Don’t pre-assemble and freeze in the goblets because moisture will condense on the glass when you remove them to room temperature.
Do you carry your own grocery tote to the supermarket instead of taking bags that just get thrown away? Good for you! Another way for environmentally-concerned people to save the environment: reusable produce bags let you BYO to the supermarket, so you aren’t throwing plastic into the landfill every time you buy lemons, apples and cucumbers.
The bags are made of fine mesh with a drawstring, are machine washable and virtually weightless. They’re see through, so cashiers can scan or input the code. Using these three bags just once a week can save as many as 150 plastic bags per year!
Go green with reusable produce bags.
Sold in sets of three bags for $7.50, two of the bags measure 11.5 X 14.25 inches and one is 14 X 16.25 inches to hold large items. Get some for yourself and note them on your holiday list as a good, inexpensive green-conscious gift. At 3Bags.com.
For a twist on the campfire classic, try these Cinnamon S’Mores.
Good tortilla chips are always welcome at a party. But there is so much more to tortilla chips than salsa, guacamole and Margaritas. To celebrate their four new tortilla chip flavors, Food Should Taste Good, a company that specializes in gourmet flavored corn chips, (so good, they were a NIBBLE Top Pick of the Week—read our review), has glamorized chips and dips by hiring a top French chef, Florent Tourondel of New York City’s BLT Market, to create party fare. Tourondel and his team combined the flavored chips with gourmet dips and cocktail recipes. We attended a party with four “tasting stations”: Check out the recipe links below, and host your own pairing party. There’s every level of sophistication, from a cheese fondue with amber ale to cinnamon s’mores with a cappuccino cocktail.
