[1] Brussels sprouts with bacon jam, as an appetizer or beer/wine snack (photo © Pampered Chef).

[2] While large Brussels sprouts are tempting, smaller ones are more tender (photo © Sweetgreen).

With St. Patrick’s Day ten days ahead, we begin a series of festive recipes.

This recipe from Pampered Chef is both fun and tasty: Brussels sprouts, cooked in bacon drippings, topped with bacon jam (photo #1).

You can serve it as an appetizer, a side, or a beer/wine snack.

Use any leftover bacon jam with crackers or brie (baked brie or on a cheese plate)—or on toast.
 
 
RECIPE: BRUSSELS SPROUTS BITES WITH BACON JAM

Ingredients For 30 Pieces

 
Preparation

1. COOK the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove the bacon from the skillet and drain on paper towels. Drain the grease from the skillet, reserving 1½ tablespoons of the bacon drippings.

2. ADD 1 tablespoon of drippings back into skillet. Add the onions, garlic and thyme. Cook over medium-low heat 2-3 minutes, or until the onions are tender.

3. CRUMBLE the bacon into a small mixing bowl and add the onion mixture, preserves and vinegar. Mix well.

5. ARRANGE the Brussels sprouts cut-side up on a serving plate or board. Top with bacon jam.

While National Pie Day is January 23rd, March 14th, 3.14, is National Pi Day.

The date format 3.14 is the same as the first three digits of pi. The first 10 digits are 3.1415926535.

There are many more: Pi has been calculated to more than one trillion digits beyond its decimal point.

Some people are obsessed with memorizing as many digits of pi as possible. The Guinness Book Of World Records names the record holder as a man named Lu Chao.

He set the record in November 2005 at Northwest A & F University in the Shaanxi province of China. It took him 24 hours and 4 minutes to recite the 67,890th decimal place of pi without a mistake.

(Want to try it? Start here.)

It’s a great achievement, but we’d prefer to eat pie than to memorize pi. For March 14th, bakers and mathematicians alike have fun baking pi-themed pies.
 
 
WHAT IS PI?

If you’ve forgotten high school math, pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The number is constant, no matter what the size of the circle.

The pi symbol is the Greek mathematical symbol that represents the ratio.

Because pies are round, it’s particularly fitting to have one today.
 
 
CELEBRATE PI WITH PIE

We use Pi Day as an excuse to have a different type of pie each year. Almost any pie can be decorated for the occasion, from apple or other fruit (photos #2 and #3) to Key lime to pecan or pumpkin (photo #1).

You have enough lead time to have a Pi Day dessert party. Eight people can share one pie.

For a larger event, invite friends to bring their favorite pies.

If you don’t have time to bake, pick up a pie and the garnishes to create the pi symbol (berries, marzipan, mascarpone, etc.).

To see some different creative approaches to decorating the pies, search for “Pi Day pie” on Google and Pinterest.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF PI DAY

Pi Day was founded in 1988 by Larry Shaw, a physicist at the San Francisco Exploratorium. On that first day, both staff and visitors celebrated by marching in a circle, and then eating fruit pie.

On March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (111 H. Res. 224) recognizing March 14, 2009 as National Pi Day.

The tradition expanded across the globe among countries that use the month-day format (i.e., 3.14). Who on this earth doesn’t want a reason to eat pie?

Some bakers make a pastry cut-out of the pi symbol to decorate the top crust (photo #1). Some actually decorate the rim of the pie with the first 31 digits of pi (or however many fit—photo #3). You do it with cookie cutters in the shape of numbers.
 
 
OR, HAVE A PIZZA PIE

If you go for savory rather than sweet, a pizza pie fits right in.

[1] A simple pie pie: A single crust pie with the pi symbol cut from the rest of the dough (photo courtesy From The Mixed Up Files).

[2] Get cookie cutter numbers to create the formula (photo courtesy King Arthur Flour).

[3] We wish we had the patience to apply all these decimals of pi (photo courtesy Great Minds Of Science | Tumblr).

[4] If you’d rather have a pizza pie, it counts. This one is decorated with pepperoni (photo courtesy Real Life At Home).

We conclude with one of our favorite pie quotes, from Yogi Berra:

“I cut my pie into four pieces. I didn’t think I could eat eight.”

[1] It’s National Cheez Doodle Day. Dig in (photo © The Foodie Patootie)!

[2] Why use a bowl: Eat from the bag! (photo © Wise Snacks)

[3] Cheetos launched 10 years before Cheez Doodles, yet no one has registered a holiday for them (photo © Webstaurant Store).

[4] Cheez Doodle Chicken Tenders. Here’s the recipe (photo © Savory Moments Blog).

[5] Cheez Doodle Sushi, rolled in Cheez Doodle dust. Here’s the recipe (photo © The Spiffy Cookie).

[6] Swedish sticky chocolate cake with a Cheez Doodle-chocolate topping. Here’s the recipe (photo © ICA | Sweden).

Some brands are regional. Some start out that way and become so popular they get national distribution.

Such is the case with Cheez Doodles from East Coast manufacturer King Kone (now Wise), vs. Cheetos from Dallas-based Frito-Lay.

Both are puffed, cheese-flavored cornmeal snacks. Both began as regional brands, and became national powerhouses.

March 5th is National Cheese Doodle Day. You’ll find online that some small sites claim March 5th is National Cheetos Day, but it isn’t.

Even though they are more than 15 years older than Cheez Doodles, and a global brand versus a regional brand like Cheez Doodles, Cheetos has yet to establish its own holiday. What’s up with that, Cheetos?

Below:

> The history of Cheez Doodles.

> Recipes with Cheez Doodles.

> The history of Cheetos.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> The year’s 90 snack holidays.

> The year’s 30 cheese holidays.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CHEEZ DOODLES

Cheese puffs, cheese curls, cheese balls and cheesy puffs are all names for a puffed corn snack, coated with a mixture of cheese or cheese-flavored powders. They are manufactured by extruding heated corn dough through a die that forms a particular shape.

Fans eat them from the bag, from a bowl, or for very neat people, they’re shaken onto a plate and serve with a napkin to avoid “orange fingers” from the orange Cheddar cheese.

Cheez Doodles superfans have used them as an ingredient in other foods, notably crushing them as a substitute for breadcrumbs. See some uses in the next section.

The Cheez Doodles brand was originally developed and manufactured by King Kone Corporation of the Bronx.

The company was founded by cousins Harry Tatosian and Robert J. Yohai, originally a manufacturer of food machinery. Around 1920, they decided to manufacture foods instead of just selling the machinery.

Their first food product, in 1921, was Old London Ice Cream Cones. Old London Melba Toast followed.

In the 1950s, the company launched Dipsy Doodles corn chips, extruding cornmeal into corn chips. When the company was seeking to produce a new salty snack, Robert’s son Morrie Yohai and his colleagues discovered they could alter the Dipsy Doodles machine.

They configured it to process cornmeal mixed with powdered Cheddar cheese into a long, tubular shape. Using a high-speed blade, they cut the tube into three-inch-long pieces.

Voilà: Cheez Doodles, the follow-up to Dipsy Doodles.

To provide a positive angle regarding the health concerns of snacking, the pieces were baked instead of fried.

The melt-in-your-mouth, very cheesy Cheez Doodles became the leading cheese puff snack on the East Coast.

In 1960, King Cone Corporation was renamed as Old London Foods. In 1965, the company was bought by Borden, which made Cracker Jack and Drake’s cakes. It is part of Borden’s Wise Snacks division.

Other major U.S. brands include Cheetos, Herr’s Cheese Curls, and Utz Cheese Curls.
 
 
RECIPES WITH CHEEZ DOODLES

Beyond snacking from the bag or bowl, we found these 10 additional uses for Cheez Doodles that include Cheez Doodle Pie, Cheez Doodle macarons (photo #7), Cheez Doodle Snickerdoodles, chocolate-dipped Cheez Doodles, Peanut Butter & Cheez Doodle Sandwich.

This article has similar ideas for Cheetos: top the cheese on a cheeseburger or grilled cheese sandwich, Cheetos nachos (instead of tortilla chips), mac and Cheetos and Cheetos sushi (photo #5).

We’ve even seen Cheetos Marshmallow Krispie Treats. But for more conventional applications:

 
 
FOOD HISTORY: CHEETOS ARRIVED FIRST

Cheetos were invented in 1948 by Charles Elmer Doolin, who created Fritos corn chips in Dallas, in 1932.

The snack sold briskly, but Doolin did not have the capacity to produce and distribute the snacks nationwide. In order to expand, he subsequently partnered with potato chip producer Herman W. Lay to market and distribute Cheetos.

The success of Cheetos prompted Doolin and Lay to merge their two companies in 1961, forming Frito-Lay Inc. (In the never-ending cycle of mergers and acquisitions, Frito-Lay merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1965 to form PepsiCo.)

Now a global brand, Cheetos generated some $4 billion in sales last year.
 

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A crêpe is a type of very thin pancake, that can be served unfilled, with only a sprinkling of confectioners sugar, or with sweet or savory filling.

 
In their native region of Brittany, France, crêpes are made with wheat flour. Those made with buckwheat flour (photo #2) are called galettes*. In the U.S., you can use either term.

Buckwheat crêpes are a gluten-free alternative to a traditional crêpe. A common galette filling in France is ham and cheese with a sunny-side-up egg on top.

Play with the ingredients and make yourself a breakfast galette filled with the types of eggs, cheese and breakfast meat you prefer. You can also use combinations of:

 
Galettes are just one type of buckwheat pancake. Blini are smaller and thicker, buckwheat pancakes, often served with caviar and sour cream. Here’s a photo.

> December is National Buckwheat Month.

Below:

> The buckwheat galette recipe.

> What is buckwheat and the history of buckwheat.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> Soba noodles and soba salad recipe.

> The year’s 7 pancake holidays.

> The year’s 35+ grain holidays.
 
 
RECIPE: BUCKWHEAT CRÊPES (GALETTES)

This recipe for galettes is from King Arthur Flour. Prep time is 20-35 minutes, cook time is 20-25 minutes.

You can halve the recipe if you need five or fewer servings.

Ingredients For 10-12 Crêpes

 
For The Filling

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the crêpe batter: Combine all the ingredients except water in a blender, and blend until smooth.

2. COVER the batter and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight. When you’re ready to make the crêpes…

3. THIN the batter with water, using less water for thicker crêpes and more water for thinner ones.

4. PREHEAT a crêpe pan or non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the pan with butter, oil, or pan spray. Pour in enough batter to thinly coat the bottom of the pan. Swirling the pan as you pour the batter will help ensure an even coating.

5. COOK the crêpe for 1 to 2 minutes on the first side, until it’s golden and lifts from the pan easily. Flip it over and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes on the other side.

6. TOP with 2 tablespoons of grated Swiss cheese and a thin slice of ham. Cook until the cheese is melted and the underside is browned. In a separate pan, fry an egg to desired doneness. Place the egg in the center of the crêpe, sprinkle with herbs, then fold the edges towards the center to make a square.

7. TRANSFER the cooked crêpes to a plate, keeping a towel over them to hold in the warmth. Fill as desired; serve immediately.

NOTE: While the crepês won’t keep—a stack of unfilled crêpes will start to adhere to each other—you can follow up the ham-and-egg crepes dessert crepes, filled with jam, fruit, ice cream, etc.
 
 

[6] American-style buckwheat pancakes. Here’s the recipe (photo © Taste Of Home).
 
 
WHAT IS BUCKWHEAT

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is not wheat, but a highly nutritious, gluten-free pseudo-cereal, derived from the seeds of a flowering plant related to rhubarb and sorrel.

A pseudocereal is a seed used like a grain, and its used like wheat: in grain salads, pancakes, and as a porridge, soba noodles. Toasted, it’s known as kasha.

[1] A buckwheat breakfast crêpe, also called a galette in Brittany*. The buckwheat crêpes are famously folded into a square—often called a “complete” fold—leaving the center open to show off the fillings. are slightly crispier and more “structural.” (photos #1, #4, and recipe © King Arthur Baking).

[2] White flour triangular crêpes contain sweet fillings or garnishes, like these Crêpes Suzette. Here’s the recipe. White flour crêpes are softer, more elastic, and delicate, which makes the triangle fold easy (photo © Monika Grabkowska | Unsplash).

[3] A rolled crêpe. Here’s the recipe from Let The Baking Begin.

[4] Buckwheat groats.

[5] Buckwheat flour (photo © Anson Mills).

Plus, it’s sustainable: a fast-growing, hardy crop that often requires fewer resources and is great for sustainable, organic farming. Its hulls (outer shells) are used for making pillows and as organic garden mulch.

Pseudocereal seeds’ high starch content enables them to be cooked and consumed like a cereal.

Today, buckwheat, renowned for its nutty flavor and gluten-free, is used worldwide in savory and sweet dishes, nutritious profile. Eastern European kasha, French galettes (savory crêpes), Italian pizzoccheri pasta, Japanese soba noodles, and Russian blini are just some well-known international dishes.

It’s also a staple in Indian cuisine, for breads, dosas, dumplings, fritters, puddings, stews, and more.

Buckwheat is also made into tea and whiskey, and the flowers of the plant provide buckwheat honey.
 

[7] This buckwheat galette uses just three ingredients to make the crêpe. Here’s the recipe (photo © Cooking With Elo).
 
________________

*Two pastry types are also called galette. First is a crusty flat cake (an inch or two high), such as an Epiphany Cake (galette des rois). The term is also given to a French pastry similar to a tart or a pie. Created in the days when most people lacked pie pans, the pie filling is placed atop the pastry dough on a work surface, and the dough edges are turned up to create an edge. Here’s a photo.
 

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[1] Cream cheese pound cake bundt from The Baker Chick.

[2] Vanilla beans (photo by Claire Freierman | The Nibble).

March 4th is National Pound Cake Day. The original cake was created in England in the 1700s. Here’s the history of pound cake.

Dense, buttery pound cake is one of our favorite cakes. This recipe is even richer, thanks to the added cream cheese.

The recipe was sent to us by one of our favorite bakers, The Baker Chick. Easily made in a bundt pan, the recipe has a glaze for drizzling.

We left off the glaze and enjoyed ours with ice cream, mascarpone and whipped cream (not all together!).
 
RECIPE: CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE BUNDT

Ingredients

1. PREHEAT the oven to 325°F. Spray well or grease a 10-inch bundt cake pan.

2. CREAM together the butter, cream cheese and sugar for about 5 minutes or until very light and fluffy. Stir in the extract orr zest.

3. ADD the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour slowly and gradually. Do not over-mix—you’ll get a tough cake.

4. POUR the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool. Meanwhile…

5. MAKE the glaze. If you start the glaze when the cake goes into the oven, it will be ready when the cake is cooled. Pour the milk into a glass measuring cup and scrape in the vanilla bean.

6. STEEP for an hour to give the milk mixture a strong vanilla flavor. Then add the powdered sugar and whisk with a fork until it’s thick and the right consistency for drizzling. Drizzle over the cooled cake.