Tag Archives: sugar

Quick-n-Easy-Sticky-Sweety-Monkey-Bread Breakfast Huzzah!

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IMG_1725Do you know monkey bread?

You need to know monkey bread.

Monkey bread is a Southern staple, super easy to make, and stupid delicious.  We used to have it on the regular after church on Sundays, but I rarely make it as an adult.  Perhaps because of this scarcity of monkey bread in my life, I’ve come to think of it as significantly a Christmas thing, an integral part of breakfast, served alongside some kind of spiced juice-tea concoction my mother has served in mugs shaped like Santa and Mrs. Claus’ heads, and after which consuming I will fall asleep on the floor under the tree in a bathrobe or perhaps sweats and a 26-year-old Def Leppard shirt as soft as The Baby Jesus’ fanny.

After making it at home this year for a solo Shannon-&-Jason Christmas, though, I think I’ll be making it on the regular again.  Perhaps Mom always brought it out on Christmas because it’s so damn easy.

And because it’s so sticky sweet gooey yummy blam!

To make monkey bread all you need is Continue reading →

Unordinary Sweets for Your Valentine

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macarons

You're the wind in my mill, baby.

As the blizzard looms, so looms Valentine’s Day. It’s the last weekend to dream up something sweet to woo your Valentine, and people will almost certainly be rushing to snap up the famed chocolates at Jacques Torres and Kee’s. But what if you long for a more unorthodox and inventive way to express your undying love? I have some suggestions.

Papabubble, 380 Broome Street
If you’re one of those people who thinks that hard candies are only for grandparents, you’ve probably never had one flavored with pear and bergamot or raspberry and sage. In this little shop in Little Italy, hard candy is the only thing offered, but it is raised to new heights. The candymakers (all of whom have such ostentatious facial hair and earnest expressions that you’ll wonder how they made it over the bridge from Williamsburg) hang and stretch and color and mold enormous hanks of sugar as customers look on, hypnotized. Special Valentines offerings include a “heavy petting mix” (featuring faces of cute animals) and a double-ended heart lollipop.

Mille-Feuille, 552 LaGuardia Place
I went many years confusing macaroons with macarons. For anyone who has suffered from similar bafflement, the latter are the small French pastries made of meringue and almond flour that look like Day-Glo sandwich cookies. Continue reading →

Holiday Sugar Rush Puzzle

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Egad! The winter holidays have officially thrown down their gauntlet. Are you ready? As a little warm-up, try our Christmas dessert puzzle. Below are groups of ingredients, listed in rough order of largest to smallest quantity. Can you name the sugary treats that they combine to form? If you can get all ten, treat yourself to a little nip of schnapps in that hot cocoa.

  1. cookiesFlour, butter, powdered sugar, finely chopped nuts, vanilla
  2. Chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, chopped walnuts, butter
  3. Flour, eggs, sugar, margarine, baking powder, anise extract
  4. Flour, Hershey’s Kisses, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, sugar, eggs, baking soda, baking powder
  5. Powdered sugar, peanut butter, white potatoes, vanilla
  6. White chocolate, candy canes, mini-marshmallows
  7. Graham cracker crumbs, sweetened condensed milk, coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, pecans, butter
  8. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, cinnamon, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt
  9. Flour, sugar, butter, fruit preserves, egg, vanilla, salt
  10. Powdered sugar, almond meal, butter, egg whites, egg yolks, sugar, milk, vanilla

Don’t click “continue” until you’re ready to see the answers. Continue reading →