Recipes Discovered

Green Tea Ice Cream Recipe

Candied Red Beans Recipe

Shiratama (Japanese Dumplings) Recipe

There is a sushi restaurant nearby that Seth and Harry always are giddy about going to. Not for the sushi, although it’s excellent, but for the slugs. I had no idea what Seth was talking about the first time he told me about these slugs, but eventually found out that they are actually Japanese dumplings made from rice flour. The dumplings are typically served with sweet azuki beans, which are very common in Asian desserts. In this case, they are also served with ice cream, the favorite being green tea ice cream. It’s a very interesting combinations of flavors and textures. To me, the dumplings don’t really have a taste, but they are very gummy and chewy. The azuki beans are sweet, and have the typical texture of beans. The green tea ice cream has a very distinct, sharp flavor, and of course, is smooth and creamy. Together, it’s a very unique dessert. It’s not that difficult to replicate at home either. The ice cream is simply a custard based ice cream flavored with matcha (green tea powder found at Oriental markets). The dumplings are made by mixing sweet rice flour (also found at Oriental markets and some grocery stores) and water, and then boiling them just like regular flour dumplings. The azuki beans (found at natural food stores) are just boiled and then sweetened with sugar and corn syrup. So next time you want to serve a special dessert, remember, it doesn’t get much better than ice cream and slugs. >> Read more

Almond Joy Oatmeal Cookies

I like Almond Joy candy bars. What’s not to like? Chocolate, coconut, almonds – all very good things. I decided to try to turn the taste of an Almond Joy into a cookie. I found a few recipes, but I really wanted to create the chewiness of the candy bar, so I settled on an oatmeal version. Essentially, the recipe is an oatmeal cookie with the addition of dark chocolate, coconut, and toasted almonds. I had to chill the cookie dough for about 20 minutes so the cookies kept their shape, but other than that, I pretty much just followed the recipe. The cookies turned out good – like an oatmeal cookies with chocolate, coconut, and almonds. It’s not exactly like an eating an Almond Joy, but it’s like eating a really good oatmeal cookie.

Whoopie Pie Recipe

Seth and I were making one of our many drives between State College and Virginia a couple days ago when we stopped at a small mini mart. At the counter, they were selling whoopie pies, which is made with two small chocolate cakes with a creamy white filling. It’s a very traditional Pennsylvania Dutch dessert that I had a lot growing up, and just seeing them brought back a ton of memories. It also made me very hungry, but there was no way I would pay two bucks for one when I could easily make my own. I first had to call my mom for the recipe and then call her again and verify it was the correct recipe, which she assured me that as odd as it sounds, it was correct. The chocolate batter is similar to chocolate cake, but thicker. It needs to be thick enough to keep its shape when dished onto a cookie sheet. I had to add about 2 tablespoons of flour to get the right consistency. The filling was the strange part. The recipe calls for mixing egg whites, vanilla, powdered sugar, and flour together first before adding more powdered sugar and shortening. As my mom said, it sounds odd, but it came out perfectly. At the mini mart, they also sold whoopie pies with peanut butter filling. I was curious, so I mixed some peanut butter into half of my filling. Although it was good, it was too much like a chocolate peanut butter cupcake and not enough like a whoopie pie. Traditional is definitely the way to go with these. And on a side note – apparently whoopie pies are also known as gobs and black-and-whites. Seth claims he knows them as moon pies, but I told him that’s a different thing all together.

Oreo Cheesecake Recipe

There is something about the simplicity of this cheesecake that makes it absolutely delicious. It’s a basic cheesecake recipe, with the addition of Oreo cookies. It’s a very creamy, and the cookies add just the right amount of texture. It’s also a good balance of the rich cheesecake with the slightly bitter-sweet chocolate cookie. It was a pretty easy cheesecake to make as well, just make sure to put a cookie sheet on the oven rack beneath the cheesecake pan because mine did leak some butter. It makes a very tall 9-inch cheesecake, so the recipe would easily fit in a 10-inch pan, just add some more cookies to the crust.

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Hummingbird Cake Recipe

While browsing through some old magazines that my aunt gave me, I came across a recipe for this Hummingbird Cake. A cross between carrot cake and banana cake, it incorporates bananas, pineapple, and pecans into the batter. I’m not sure where the name came from, but according to Internet folklore, it’s because of its intensely sweet taste, much like hummingbird nectar. The recipe originally came from Southern Living magazine back in the 70′s, and is still a very popular in the south. The cake is really easy to make, and requires no mixer. Just combine the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients, and then fold them together. For the frosting, I mixed in toasted pecans with cream cheese frosting, which gave it a unique, caramely taste. Just how sweet is the cake? I am still waiting for Seth to bring me a piece home, but I’m anxious to find out!

Update: Yum! Hummingbird cake taste like a super moist banana cake. If you like banana bread or banana cake, you must try this recipe. It’s delicious!