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


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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Lisa’s Cookie Shop

NIBBLE readers have the option to read our Top Pick Of The Week product review on TheNibble.com, or get it by email. It is emailed on Tuesday mornings at 8 a.m. By 8:37 a.m. on Tuesday, we got an email from this week’s Top Pick, Lisa’s Cookie Shop, saying that their “website was being hit like crazy” and they were “receiving a ton of online orders.” What does this mean?

1. People really like chocolate chip cookies, and Lisa’s other offering, bar cookies.
2. Photographer Claire Freierman did a very convincing job, making those cookies and bars look great on the page.
3. People are up really early reading their email, because the Top Pick has a national readership, and only about 25% live on the East Coast.

  Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lisa’s crunchy chocolate chip cookies.
The crisp, crunchy, wonderful chocolate chip cookie group includes Chocolate Chip Coconut Chocolate Chip cookies and Kitchen Sink (with cranberries and macadamia nuts). You could make meal of these cookies and never feel ill, they seem so wholesome and nutritious. We know, as we’ve done it five or six times while “researching” the review. Just the fragrance of butter, chocolate and other fine ingredients leaping out of the bag might be satisfying enough for those who feel the need for restraint. The soft, chewy Pecan Bars and Raspberry Bars are equally magnificent. The Pecan Bar is like a pecan-coconut pie-in-a-bar. And THE NIBBLE staff flipped over the moist, tender Frazzleberry Cookies—shortbread thumbprint cookies, rolled in coconut with a big well of lush raspberry jam. Everything is baked to order, so read the full review and order yours. Find more of our Top Picks Of The Week in the Top Picks Archives on THE NIBBLE online magazine.

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CONTEST: Be A Milk Rock Star

Rascal Flatts

Drink milk and rock with these guys.

We love milk, we think it rocks. So do country rockers Rascal Flatts. Want to sing live on stage with them, in front of 30,000 screaming fans? Just go to MilkRocks.com to pick your favorite Rascal Flatts song, then upload a karaoke-style video of you (or your kids) singing it. The top 10 winners (decided by the Milk Rocks! community) will win signed Les Paul Gibson guitars plus CDs and posters signed by Rascal Flatts. Rascal Flatts themselves will choose the winner from the top three entrants, on April 15th.

Visit the Milk Rocks! website to hear the band speak about milk nutrition facts, also visible on more than 100 million milk cartons, 40,000 school lunch room posters and at Rascal Flatts concert venues.

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NEW PRODUCTS: Starbucks Chocolate

Chocolate lovers: New temptation has been put in your path. Starbucks has launched a new collection of artisan-style chocolates, developed with the Artisan Confections Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hershey Company (the subsidiary includes Dagoba Chocolate, Joseph Schmidt Confections and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker). Master chocolatiers have created a portfolio of chocolates with flavors inspired by Starbucks coffees and Tazo teas. And, they are darned good. Made with high-quality cacao and other premium natural ingredients, the collection is artistic, flavorful…and extremely affordable. It includes Tazo Chai, Passion[fruit] and Citron tea-infused chocolate tasting squares; Caffè Mocha, Chai, Espresso, Caramel Macchiato and Madagascar Vanilla Bean Truffles; and Milk Chocolate Covered Caffè Verona Coffee Beans. For those who like their chocolate plain, there are dark, mocha and milk chocolate bars and tasting squares. The tea-infused tasting squares are dynamite—perfect with a cup of coffee or tea, or just a burst of fine chocolate. The Citron square is an epiphany, Passion is perfect, and the Chai is enchanting. The milk chocolate-covered coffee beans are among the best we’ve ever had, plump and robust (and let’s face it, if these two companies together can’t master a chocolate-covered coffee bean, who can?). And yes, the truffles are very good too.   Starbucks Chocolate
Look closely at the shape of these bonbons, filled with chai-flavored creme: They’re tea cups!

But the best thing is the low price: The various bags and boxes retail for $2.99 to $5.99 (individual packages) at grocery, mass retailers, club and drug stores nationwide. Alas, the chocolates are not available in Starbucks stores at this time…but I suppose we’re lucky. It would be just too easy to get a bag of chocolate with that cappuccino. Every day.

Read our full review of Starbucks Chocolates.
– Read about more of our favorite chocolates in the Chocolate Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
– Read our review of Dagoba Chocolate.

– Read our review of Scharffen Berger Chocolate.

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TODAY IN FOOD: It’s National Pound Cake Day


[1] Strawberry shortcake pound cake: Bake the cake in a loaf pan, slice it horizontally, and the strawberries and whipped cream. Here’s the recipe (photo © The Baker Chick).


[2] Pistachio chocolate chip pound cake bundt. Here’s the recipe (photo © King Arthur Flour).


[3] In the summer, add fresh berries to the batter. Here’s the recipe. In the winter, you can use the frozen berries (photo © QVC).

 

A pound cake is a loaf cake, although some people make them in Bundt pans.

The original pound cake recipe, buttery and moist, was made with one pound each of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs (that’s about eight eggs), plus flavoring—hence the name.

Vanilla or lemon are the classic pound cake flavors, but quite a few variations have evolved through the years:

  • Adding buttermilk, cream cheese, or sour cream to the batter.
  • Every flavoring under the sun (amaretto, Black Forest, blood orange, cappuccino, caramel turtle, chocolate/white chocolate, chocolate chip, coconut-macadamia, Grand Marnier, Key lime, peanut butter, pecan, and so on).
  • Fruit or a fruit swirl.
  •  
    See the pound cake recipes below.
     
     
    POUND CAKE HISTORY

    The original recipe, developed in England in the 1700s, made a very large and dense cake. By the mid-1800s, the ingredient proportions had been adjusted to make a smaller, lighter cake.

    The British pound cake is actually a fruit cake containing currants, raisins, sultanas (golden raisins), and glacé cherries. While the cake portion was similar to modern pound cakes, these fruited pound cakes were the traditional wedding cakes.

    Since the ingredients are so simple, it’s hard to make a bad pound cake—just use the freshest eggs and butter you can find, real vanilla extract, and don’t over-bake.
     
     
    POUND CAKE RECIPES

    Pound cakes are so easy to make—why not whip one up to celebrate National Pound Cake Day?

    While a plain piece of pound cake is a joy, some added whipped cream, berries, vanilla ice cream or the full monty—a pound cake hot fudge sundae—makes the occasion even more joyous.

  • Blueberry Pound Cake
  • Cream Cheese Pound Cake
  • Grilled Pound Cake
  • Maple Pound Cake
  • Orange Pound Cake
  • Peanut Butter Pound Cake
  • Pineapple Pound Cake
  • Pumpkin Spice Pound Cake Bundt
  • S’mores Ice Cream Cake
  • Sweet Potato Pound Cake
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    CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

     

     
     
      

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    TIP OF THE DAY: Cupcakes Replace Birthday Cakes

    Have you been to a wedding recently (or seen magazine photos) where the wedding cake has been replaced by a tiered stand of cupcakes? Makes sense, doesn’t it? Few people like the heavy fondant that wraps many wedding cakes; plus, the cakes cost a fortune, and if you’re any kind of sophisticated bride and groom, you really don’t want to stand in front of your friends feeding each other cake while some MC sings “Now the groom cuts the cake, the groom cuts the cake….” So, porting the concept to birthdays, instead of a birthday cake, consider a platter of cupcakes. Beloved by children and adults alike, they eliminate the need to cut and serve, and an assortment provides guests with a choice of flavors. You can further dazzle by serving highly-decorated cupcakes—for example, topped with chocolate medallions or marzipan animals (you can see a photo here).   Cupcakes
    Cupcakes from one of San Francisco’s favorite bakeries, Miette. Visit them in the Ferry Building when you’re in town. One of America’s greatest
    food halls, you can purchase great food—and cupcakes for dessert—and dine outdoors by San Francisco Bay. Wednesdays and Saturdays are farmers market days. Photo by Frankie Frankeny.
    You don’t need to purchase a tiered plate, although ask around to see if you can borrow one. If not, any round platter will do. The cupcake in the center should hold the candle(s). See more of our favorite cupcakes and cakes in the Cookies, Cakes & Pastries Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.

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