Candy Bar Cupcakes

I think I’ve started a tradition, and I think it’s a good one. You see, every year my spinning instructor starts dropping hints about his birthday a couple of weeks before it arrives. Last year, I took the hints and decided to bring some cupcakes to class on his big day. Having cupcakes in the spinning room was so wrong, so antithetical, so naughty, and so great. One year later, I had to do it again, and this time, I looked to Demolition Desserts for a completely decadent cupcake. The candy bar cupcake is intended to taste like a Snickers bar. It’s a brown sugar cake with caramel filling, a rich chocolate and peanut butter frosting with roasted peanuts on top, and a sprinkling of sea salt. A woman at the front of the room, near the tray of cupcakes, said: I love smelling chocolate while on a spinning bike. It is very good motivation.

The cakes themselves are made with dark brown sugar and were tender and nicely flavored by themselves. As they baked and cooled, the caramel sauce was made from water, cream of tartar, sugar, and light corn syrup. After that mixture came up to temperature, butter and cream were added, and then it was simmered briefly. I chilled the caramel in the refrigerator before piping it into the cupcakes. The technique is a simple one. You push a one-quarter inch tip on a bag filled with the sauce into the top of a cupcake and squeeze in the caramel until the top of the cake just begins to rise a bit. A little caramel dribbles out on top, and that’s fine. The frosting was next, and that was made with milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, peanut butter, and buttercream frosting. I thought it was a little strange that one of the ingredients in the frosting was a half cup of buttercream frosting from another page in the book. Instead, this recipe could have just called for enough butter, confectioners’ sugar, milk, and vanilla to make up one half cup. At any rate, I mixed a little buttercream separately and added it to the chocolate peanut butter frosting, and the finished product was delicious. That was swirled onto the cupcakes and topped with roasted peanuts and sea salt.

These were definitely adequately decadent. Using a natural peanut butter with no added sugar, the bittersweet chocolate, and a touch of sea salt kept them from being too sweet. And, the chocolate, peanut, and caramel mix was reminiscent of a Snickers bar in the best way. Now, I just need to find a way to propel a tray of cupcakes in front of me when I’m out running.

Watermelon with Shrimp

Recipes from an Italian Summer is a new book by the Silver Spoon kitchen from Phaidon Press, and I recently received a review copy. It’s a collection of easy, breezy summer dishes for picnics, light meals, and summer entertaining. The recipes in this book are meant to be enjoyed at relaxing gatherings, and so most can be prepared in advance. These are simple dishes that take advantage of the best of the season. Fresh fruits find their way into desserts as well as savory dishes. This watermelon and shrimp salad is a perfect example of that. When I read about this dish, I was sure it would be a winner. Last summer, I became addicted to a watermelon and halloumi salad, and I quite like watermelon in savory applications. Kurt was less sure. He didn’t say a word as I prepared it, but his silence spoke volumes. Yes, this is a mix of shrimp, green olives, and mayonnaise served with watermelon balls. Is that weird? I didn’t really think it was. After a taste, Kurt realized his apprehension was unfounded.

I was glad to use some nice, big Gulf shrimp for this. I peeled and deveined them and roasted them in a 400 degree F oven with just olive oil and salt and pepper. Christina from the Central Market Cooking School gave me a great tip for shrimp at the last class I attended. Her tip is: "C" is for cooked, and "O" is for overcooked. You want to stop cooking your shrimp before they curl into an "O" shape. For the 20 per pound shrimp I used, that was about two minutes on each side. I let the shrimp cool before combining them with mayonnaise, chopped mint leaves, and halved green olives. For serving, the recipe directs you to use a hollowed watermelon half as a bowl and to season it with salt, pepper, and brandy. Then, the shrimp salad is to be placed in the watermelon bowl in alternating layers with melon balls. Since I was serving two people, I instead sprinkled some brandy on the melon balls, used smaller boat-shaped pieces of watermelon rind, and sort of layered or stuck melon balls into the salad as I could. I topped ours with basil chiffonade.

I can tell you that I now have two favorite, savory salads made with watermelon. Salty green olives, sharp mint, and shrimp in mayonnaise mixed with crunchy, sweet melon was a mix of contrasts that worked. The brandy added some complexity too. The best thing about this, though, was watching Kurt as he tasted and enjoyed. Then, he admitted that he was worried about this one but was surprised because it was actually really good. I knew it would be.

Soup Peddler, What Are You Reading?

I read David Ansel’s book, The Soup Peddler’s Slow and Difficult Soups, when it appeared in 2005 and then met him in person for the first time last year at a local food blogger potluck which he and his wife hosted. The book tells the story of The Soup Peddler business that David started in 2002. He emailed some friends, offered to bring them soup, and he delivered it with his bike. These days, The Soup Peddler offers not only soups but entrees, side dishes, and desserts, and the delivery area has been significantly widened with the use of other vehicles. This fall, David will be opening a soup and juice kiosk with Matt Shook founder of Daily Juice. 'Juicebox and Soup Peddler' will be located at the corner of South Lamar and Manchaca. He’ll also be launching wholesale soups sold to restaurants and coffeeshops this fall. Despite the exciting new projects keeping him busy, I knew David would have a great answer when I asked him what are you reading?

David:
I think there's a lot more to enriching your cooking mind than just reading about food. There are indirect ways and means of broadening your culinary experience that have more to do with culture, spirit, family, arts, religion, community, fortune, misfortune, growth, quest, or emotion than they do with emulsion, fond, umami, or crispy-on-the-outside-juicy-on-the-inside.

That said, I don't read nearly as much about food as I used to, and when I do, I look for writers who can convey those themes I mentioned above with vigor and ease. The last book that really hit me in that regard was The Soul Of A Chef. Ruhlman rules because nobody in this genre combines strong wordcraft and depth of feeling with culinary knowhow like he does, except probably Bill Buford. I think there's something about mashing up journalism and culinary that produces these special works.




As far as non-culinary goes, I'm reading That Old Ace In The Hole by Annie Proulx. My first read of hers, and I'm very impressed. I feel like I'm in good hands. I just finished Under A Hoodoo Moon by Mac Rebennack (Dr. John). I'm chipping away at The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin between other books.

I always have a stack of cookbooks on my desk at work, and I'd say that my go-to book right now is Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian. He has such a non-holy approach to things, I'm glad he seems to be holding strongly to that as his star rises. It makes him the closest thing to an everyman cook, the way no chef could be. People who inspire curiosity and joy in culinary are ultimately the ones that we need the most to help re-invigorate the can-do culinary spirit in our country and put the dreck purveyors out of business. So my money is on Bittman.

Thank you for participating, David! Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.

Previous WAYR posts:
Jaden Hair
Michael Ruhlman
Monica Bhide
Michael Natkin
Sara Roahen
Andrea Nguyen
David Lebovitz
Rick Bayless
Tara Austen Weaver
Mollie Katzen
Deborah Madison