Blog Archives
Food 101: How to Make Basic Frosting
I am very particular about frosting. I find a lot of frostings to be too sweet and often times are piled on too thick on cakes. Then there’s also the frostings (generally I’ve encountered them on store bought cakes) that don’t have much flavor at all but are weirdly artificial and greasy in texture. No thank you. This means that I pretty much have to make my own frosting if I want it to be to my tastes. Fortunately basic frosting is really easy to make at home. We’ve covered basic icing on the blog before, but while some people using “icing” and “frosting” interchangeably to me they are different things. Icing is more thin and glaze-like, whereas frosting is more thick and fluffy. This is primarily due to the addition of fat in the form of butter. Icing is mostly just sugar and milk, while frosting has sugar, milk, and butter.
This is a good place to mention why making your own frosting is better than using the kind that comes out of a can. While flavor-wise store-bought can frosting isn’t terrible, its ingredients aren’t really great. In order to be shelf-stable it tends to be full of things like hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, preservatives, and artificial flavors and colors. Even if you’re someone who is anti-butter I would think one ingredient you don’t like is better than a whole list of potentially sketchy ingredients.
Recipe Time! Chipotle Brownies
As some of you may know, I’m on a continuing quest to find ways to use up leftover chipotle peppers (the canned ones in adobo sauce). Even after using them in the original dish I needed them for, making chipotle butter, and chipotle ranch, I still had some left. It was time to expand my thinking. Since the combination of chocolate and spicy is a popular thing now, I turned my mind to dessert. Now, I may have mentioned before (though I’m too lazy to actually go back and check) that I’m not the biggest fan of brownies. I know, I know…I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But in this case brownies seemed like the perfect subject to turn to for my chipotle experiments. Actually considering I’m kind of a weenie when it comes to spicy it’s somewhat surprising that I’m the one who came up with these brownies. And that I actually like them! But the chipotle adds a nice subtle, smoky kick without setting your mouth on fire. So I guess the point you should take away from this is that if someone who isn’t a huge fan of brownies or spicy likes these brownies they must be really good. 
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The Snack Report: S’Mores Oreos
It seems like more and more food companies are joining in on the ‘limited special edition’ bus lately. What once used to be this short exclusive list which included breakfast cereals, ice cream, and a couple restaurant chains, has expanded now to huge proportions. Taco Bell went from a couple recurring menu rotations per year to miraculously managing to pump out limited time menu items on what seems like a bi-monthly basis now, simply by stacking cheese, meat, and tortillas in different orders. Lay’s has been doing the “Do Us A Flavor” with whacky chip varieties every Summer for a few years now. And especially Nabisco, namely with Oreos, has been finding various new ways to inject the longtime standard cookies into your veins under the guise of new ridiculous flavors. We’ve covered quite a few of these on PCFG for better or worse (was red velvet cake really frigging necessary guys?), and lo and behold a new variety has popped up for Summer 2015.
The Snack Report: Entenmann’s French Toast Donuts
I think everyone can agree with Homer Simpson that donuts are great. They’re a breakfast, they’re a dessert, and even just a snack. They’re one of the great “on the go” foods because they’re so easily portable. Unfortunately if you eat too many donuts you’ll end up sharing a waistline with Homer Simpson and not just a food appreciation. I suppose this has been my roundabout way of saying that I’m reviewing donuts this week.
I first saw Entenmann’s French Toast Donuts in the grocery store last week, and since they happened to be on sale I decided I couldn’t pass them up. They sounded too yummy not to try, and obviously I always like things better when they’re on sale. Besides, I’m all for interesting breakfast food mash-ups (we did come up with francakes after all). I could already faintly smell the hints of French toast when I picked up the box, so I was excited to give them a taste. So, how’d they do?
Pizza Lab #29: Cheesecake Pizza
Okay folks, let’s talk cheesecake. It’s a cake, sorta… but it’s filled with cheese. Cream cheese, to be specific. And it’s quite a delectable-ass dessert. When you think of just the name alone, it does sound kind of silly though. Most people default the idea of cheese to old favorites like cheddar, swiss, limburger, etc… Few people hear the word cheese and go “Oh yeah! Mascarpone!” On the flipside, one thing we do think of when cheese comes up, is obviously pizza.
Whoa, shit, do you know what this means?!
It’s exactly what it looks like.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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