It isn’t! If nobody questions Tyler Florence, Ina Garten, Emeril, and over 335,000 Google hits, you don’t get to question me when I do it! And you certainly can’t be surprised by my combination when cheddar cheese and apple pie shows up in chain restaurants.

Pear and Goat Cheese Triangles

Besides, my approach was more subtle than cheddar and apple pie. I wanted to make little appetizers of crisp phyllo dough around a pear, blue cheese and honey mixture. Fold these into triangles, then bake until the phyllo begins to brown and the cheese melts. You’ll be left with a very tasty appetizer. I have to say, I even impressed myself.

If you have never worked with phyllo dough before, it can seem to be a little intimidating. The dough is very thin and can dry easily. Don’t worry though, a gentle hand and some plastic wrap to cover any unused dough is the best solution. Work on a large counter with enough space so the dough can remain flat. Any dough not immediately in use should be covered to prevent to becoming brittle and hard to work with.

Pear and Goat Cheese Trianlges

Be sure to wrap it completely around the filling or the cheese will ooze out onto the parchment paper as it bakes–I had a few leaks the first time I made this. In the end I found the best method was to use a double-wide strip and fold the dough over itself before folding into triangles (like little paper footballs). See here (here for video) for some folding tips, it’s not difficult. You don’t have to tuck the dough into the last bit as you would with paper, simply use a tiny bit of water to stick it to itself.

Pear and Blue Cheese Triangles

Ingredients
A note about the quantity of cheese and pear: Once the pear is peeled, seeded, and diced, you should have about equal parts by weight of pear to cheese.
7 oz blue cheese
about 2 pears (about 7 oz) peeled, seeded, and diced
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice
phyllo dough

Directions
1. In a small pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the diced pear and cook until it begins to become tender, 2-3 minutes. Add the honey, cumin, and Chinese five-spice and cook for 3-4 more minutes, stirring often, until the pear is very soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Can be refrigerated overnight.
2. In a medium bowl, crumble/smush the cheese. Fold in the cooled pear mixture. Preheat the oven to 400F.
3. Cut a sheet of phyllo dough in half lengthwise. Cover the rest of the dough with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying. Depending on the width of the phyllo dough (and the size you wish to make your appetizers) you will have some leeway with how wide to cut the dough. Put about a heaping tablespoon of the pear-cheese mixture near the bottom corner of the strip. Fold the strip in half down the length of it. Then fold the dough diagonally into triangles (see the links above). Once you get to the end, wet your finger in some water, then trace your finger around the last bit of dough to moisten it. Fold this over the top of the rest and it should stick to itself.
4. Place each triangle onto a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Bake (without the plastic wrap) for 6-8 minutes, or until the dough browns and becomes crispy.

Pear and goat cheese trianlges.

Cookies: Chewy, Thin, and Puffy.

Changes in brief

The modifications were kicked off with a dangerously chewy chocolate chip cookie. The important changes to the recipe were to use bread flour, melted butter, one egg plus one yolk, more brown sugar than white, and to chill the dough before baking. These changes allowed the cookies to stay moist and chewy.

The super thin cookies (a favorite of mine) developed both a pleasing crunch and a slight chew. This was achieved by using all-purpose flour, softened butter, one egg plus milk, and more white sugar than brown. These cookies were not refrigerated, which meant that they spread and ‘melted’ as they baked.

The puffy cookies were last. The distinction here was to use cake flour, shortening (not butter), two eggs, baking powder (instead of baking soda), and chilled dough (like the chewy cookies). These tweaks allow the cookies to rise and puff as it baked.

But whyyyyy? Sure, you just read the differences in the recipes, but what actually happens? What is the difference between the three kinds of flour? Why change from butter to shortening?

Settle down, settle down, all will be revealed…

Let’s take it in order…

Chewy

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

• The most obvious change was to use bread flour. Bread flour is important because it has a higher protein content than other flours. The proteins, when mixed with water, form gluten. More gluten equals more chew. This is why bread is kneaded for before baking. It’s also why biscuits and muffins are generally just quickly combined instead of kneaded (ever seen a chewy biscuit? Neither have I).
• The butter is liquefied and milk is added. When the butter liquefies, the fat and water can easily separate. This means that the water in the butter (and the milk) bond with the proteins in the flour and form the gluten we just talked about.
• The recipe also called for a higher proportion of brown sugar to white sugar. The extra moisture and molasses in the brown sugar not only helps keep the cookies together as they bake, but also keeps the dough moist.
• Removing the egg white from one of the two eggs is important too. Have you ever seen a meringue? The main ingredient is, of course, egg whites. After it’s baked, the resulting dessert is dry and crispy. In the case of meringue, that’s a good thing; however, in chewy cookies-not so much. The removal of the egg white stops the cookie from drying out.
• The standard leavening of baking soda is unchanged in this recipe. The object is to provide the cookies with a little ‘give’, so when you bite into them they aren’t as hard as rocks. Baking soda is sufficient on it’s own to achieve this.
• Finally, the dough is chilled before baking. If you keep an eye on these cookies in the oven you notice minimal spreading. By the time the heat softens the chilled dough, the shape has already started to set.

Thin

Thin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

• All-purpose flour, which has a moderate amount of protein, was used in this recipe. AP flour is suitable for, well, all purposes. It can be kneaded into a bread dough, or it can be lightly stirred into a muffin mixture. When used in this recipe, the mixing incorporates the flour with the ingredients and forms some gluten, but not so much as to make it chewy. Even if gluten does form, there are a few more tricks to ensure it does not adversely affect the cookie.
• The butter is softened to room temperature, not turned it into a liquid. This means that the water in the butter doesn’t have as much time to bond with the proteins to form gluten.
• Only one egg was used, the second egg was replaced by a couple ounces of milk. Why remove an egg? Eggs set and puff when they are heated (soufflé, anyone?). Liquids… well… spread.
• Leavening is provided by the baking soda. This gives the cookies enough power to stay together and have a bit of chew, but not so much as to prevent them from spreading.
• In direct contrast to the chewy cookies, more white sugar is used than brown sugar. The lack of moisture and molasses normally found in brown sugar allows the cookies to spread as they bake, while the dry white sugar adds a crispier texture.
• Finally, this dough was scooped out and baked right after mixing. This room temperature, buttery dough beings to spread as soon as it is placed into the oven. By the time the dough sets, it has already spread into a thin (and might I add, delicious) cookie.

Puffy

Puffy chocolate chip cookies.

• Cake flour, not bread or AP, is used in this recipe. Cake flour has the lowest protein content of all the flours-meaning less gluten can develop-so these cookies have the least chew.
• Shortening is used instead of butter because it has a much higher melting point. This means that there is less spreading of the cookie as it bakes.
• Baking powder is used instead of baking soda. Baking powder has a more powerful leavening effect than baking soda due to the acids that react with liquids in the dough. The acidic baking powder releases carbon dioxide, which forces air into the dough. This is why these cookies develop that Chips Ahoy style crunch, and are so well suited for dunking.
• Lastly, the dough is chilled before baking. This same technique is used in the chewy cookies to help keep them mounded as they bake. If you watch the baking process, they spread out a bit first and, as the shortening starts to melt, the baking powder reacts, giving the cookies a lift half way through the baking process.

Now you know. Go forth and make chocolate chip cookies!

Unfortunately, this bowl is no longer with me. It’s not lost or broken, it’s at my parent’s house. So I can’t drink my hot chocolate from it with any regularity. These days I’m forced to use a mug, but I still hold onto the same technique…

It's a good mug, but it's not my bowl :( ... The hot chocolate is good though, so I'll live.

You see, this bowl had “ears” and a lip on the rim. I could easily lift the bowl to my mouth and take long sips while the steam rose and warmed my face… But that wasn’t my preferred method.

What I would love to do is to get a piece of freshly buttered baguette, preferably still crispy, and dunk that into the bowl. Most mugs would be too narrow to successfully dip a big tartine into. Using a bowl allowed me to enjoy a combination of several of my favorite things: fresh baguette, good butter, and chocolate. But that still wasn’t how I normally started drinking the cocoa.

I would start, quite simply, with a spoon. The still scalding cocoa was much too hot for me to drink by the mouthful. It was even too hot to dunk the bread into (besides, the butter would melt to fast!). But I was impatient, I wanted to drink it now! Waiting for it to cool would have shown too much restraint, and I had scalded myself one time to many already. I devised another way that would allow me to drink it immediately. I would take a large spoon, fill it with the hot cocoa, and sip from that. The logic was that the smaller quantity would cool faster than the large amount of liquid in the bowl. This allowed me to begin my chocolate before anybody else!

Another cup please.

I sometimes drank my entire bowl one spoonful at a time. I relished the idea that my hot cocoa could last so long. Every sip was a chocolaty pleasure that would bring a grin to my face.

In those days I didn’t make my own cocoa though. This version is truly better. It is very easy to make and can keep well stored in an airtight container. A food processor is required for this, but you basically dump everything in and let the blades pulverize everything.

I used to use Alton Brown’s food-processorless version, but since Cooks Illustrated had the idea to pulverize some white chocolate chips into the mixture, I have not looked back. In fact, I now add dark chocolate chips to the mixture as well. The addition of chocolate helps give a thicker, more luxuriant feel to the drink, even when made with water. (The powdered milk also helps.) But to be really enjoyed, it should be made with whole milk.

I have included two variants below. The first is my preferred darker, richer style and the second is closer to the store bought style. The amounts can be changed to make smaller batches. The powdered milk tends to either come in a large box, or individual packets measuring about one cup each. The ingredients below can be easily divided by three to use just one packet of milk for a smaller batch.

Hot Cocoa
Use about a third of a cup of powder per cup of hot milk or water. It makes about 20 servings.

Dark Chocolate Cocoa
3 cups powdered milk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate or bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Store-bought Style Cocoa
3 cups powdered milk
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 cups dark chocolate or bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
In a food processor, pulse the ingredients until everything is a fine powder. Work in batches if necessary.
Store in an air-tight container.

Dried Cranberry Scones

Scones, in the US at least, tend to fall into one of two categories. The first can be identified as the overly sweet, cakey desserts sold in overpriced coffee shops. The second type are the wedge shaped triangles that are so hard that they can be used to drive nails into a wall. Either variety may be so chock full of nuts, berries, or other things that they resemble trail mix wrapped in bread. Somewhere along the way the real scone was lost.

Scones should be slightly flaky, have a moist interior, and be made with plenty of butter or even cream. The fattiness and moisture is what helps keep a proper scone tender. The dough itself is folded a few times, but not overworked to get flaky layers of biscuit-like texture.

Though these scones were largely a success, I’ll have to make them again. I presented these to my family and though they were very much enjoyed, my father took issue with the chosen shape. The scones he was familiar with back in England were traditionally round, not triangular. He also claimed that he did not remember his mother using cream in the dough. The only way to settle this is to find a recipe my father has tucked away in the house somewhere and make those. We may have to wait a while for the results as I may not be back home in a while, but you can be sure the result will be documented here.

Dried Cranberry Scones.

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, refrigerated
4 1/4 cups unbleached AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1 cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the butter. Press the butter into the flour with your fingertips to make large flakes. Add the cream and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together. Then add the dried fruit and stir to combine. Continue stirring/kneading in the bowl until the dough clumps together as one. You can do this on a counter-top if you find it easier.
3. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured counter to make a long rectangle (approx. 8×12x1 inches). Fold the dough into thirds and repeat two or three more times. Work quickly, the dough will stick as it warms up. I usually put it on a baking sheet in the fridge to buy some time between each time I roll it out. This keeps the dough cold and workable.
4. To make rectangles, roll the dough out to approximately 8×12x1 in. Trim edges if needed to strighten the dough and cut lengthwise down the center to make two 4×12x1 lengths of dough. Cut each portion into triangles about 3×4x5 inches, each length should make about 8 pieces.
5. Bake the scones for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges and top turn golden brown. Rotate the scones after about 10 minutes. Err on the side of under baking if necessary. They can always be reheated in the oven.

The scones keep very well frozen if well wrapped. Simply reheat for 6-10 minutes in a 350F oven.

Dried Cranberry Scones.

Toasted Ravioli.

I served small plates of these to guests with little ramekins of marinara sauce as appetizers. It went over really well and many of the guests had never heard of toasted ravioli before, so everyone was interested to try it. I’ve managed to get the hang of frying, so I can quickly and easily keep a continuous stream of fried treats coming out of the pot. The trick is to be organized and to get a good staging area. It does take a little space to set everything up, but it makes everything move like clockwork.

You can either buy fresh ravioli or make your own. Fresh ravioli can be found in the refrigerated sections of many grocery stores. Don’t use the canned stuff though, it’s covered in sauce and not as good quality as the fresh versions. The homemade or fresh raviolis don’t need to be precooked. They are already soft and ready to use, frying will take care of any remaining cooking that needs to be done.

Ingredients
The ingredients can be scaled to make more.
Fresh ravioli
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
oil for deep frying

Directions
The first thing is to get all your hardware ready and in it’s place. Take out three shallow bowls, two large plates, and some paper towel. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper together in the first bowl, the beaten egg goes in the next, and the bread go in the last. Arrange the bowls so you can go from one to the next, with a final rest on one of the large plates before going into the fryer.
Your order should be 1)Flour -> 2)Egg ->3)Breadcrumbs -> 4)Plate.
So coat each ravioli with flour, then transfer them to the egg mixture. Make sure the egg gets everywhere over the ravioli or the bread crumbs will not stick. Press the breadcrumbs into the ravioli and then transfer to the plate to rest.
Once the ravioli has rested for a few minutes (to allow the batter to set). Place them into the 350-375F oil until they become golden brown (about 1-3 minutes).
Remove the hot ravioli to your remaining plate lined with paper towels to cool slightly before serving.

The Puffy.

Asking me to rank these cookies is like asking a parent to pick a favorite child. Like the parent, I can’t say which cookie I love the most (but if I was the parent, I would secretly lead each child to think it’s the other, so they compete for my love! I’m going to be an awful dad).

These cookies represent the “puffy” variety. I’m going to go ahead and say that these are the perfect dunking cookie. The light, airy texture wicks in the liquid and the entire cookie becomes a transportation medium for your drink. Normally I’d say grab a glass of milk, but in this case, I went for chocolate milk. What? Too much chocolate? Nonsense!

Dunkage achieved. Chocolate chip cookie in chocolate milk, yeah, I'm kinda a rebel.

These cookies have the least chew of all three of Alton Brown’s cookies, so fans of chewy cookies are generally disappointed by these. But it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t get at least some joy dunking a cookie into a big glass of milk, so these still find a willing audience. Personally, I am not usually a dunker; I generally eat my chocolate chip cookies the way they come out of the oven; but I gladly make an exception for these delicious treats…

Ingredients
1 cup butter-flavored shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Add the shortening and both sugars together and cream on medium-high until light and fluffy.
3. Meanwhile, sift the cake flour, salt and baking powder together into another bowl. (If you don’t have a sifter, just put everything in a bowl and run a whisk through it a few times to mix everything.)
4. To the creamed shortening and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla one at a time. Increase the speed until thoroughly incorporated.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough at least 2 hours.


Shaped dough.

6. Scoop the cookies into balls and place them onto parchment-lined baking sheets. AB suggests putting only 6 cookies per sheet and using a #20 disher (each cookie will weigh about 1.5 ounces). I don’t have a disher, but if you end up with about 30 balls of dough, then you have made them the right size.
7. Bake for about 14 minutes. Rotate the cookies after about 6 minutes, and check after 5 minutes more. Once they are just turning golden brown, remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
8. Cool and dunk in milk.

To get maximum puffiness, make the cookies smaller than the 1.5 ounce suggestion. If you like the cookies to be really crunchy, let them bake for the full time. If you only want a bit of crunch, take them out as soon as the edges take on a golden color.

Close-up of cookies.

Stack o cookies

Thin cookies are not normally a favorite. Most are dry and crumbly and lack consistency. It’s not surprising that most people gloss over thin cookies and move on to the chewy or cakey ones. Overlooking this recipe would be wrong, wrong, wrong. These are a surprise of goodness. This recipe produces one of my favorite cookies; they are crispy around the edges, and the thin dough is punctuated by bursts of chocolate. Don’t let the flatness fool you. They are definitely the types of cookies you can still sink your teeth into.

I must admit, I did something crazy with these cookies over the weekend. I was tired and craving cereal, but had none in the house. The cookie jar was on the counter freshly filled with these cookies, teasing me. Naturally, I made my own Cookie Crisp! Just break the cookie into bite sized pieces, put in a bowl, pour milk over it, eat, and repeat until you feel sick. (I recommend skipping the last part of the instructions there-everything up to my third bowl was going so well.)

Cookies, cooling.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
2 ounces milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 sticks unsalted butter (Bring to room temperature, do not melt in the microwave.)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.


Dough, ready to bake.

2. In one mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking soda). In another mixing bowl, combine the wet ingredients (egg, milk and vanilla) and let come to room temperature.
3. Cream the room temperature butter on low speed. Add the sugars, increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg mixture and mix on a low speed. Once it begins to be incorporated, increase the speed and mix until well combined.
5. Slowly add the flour mixture. Reduce the speed again so flour doesn’t get everywhere and scrape the edges of the bowl down every now and again to mix everything well.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Scoop the cookies in balls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. AB suggests putting only 6 cookies per sheet and using a #20 disher (each cookie will weigh about 1.5 ounces). I don’t have a disher, but if you end up with about 30 balls of dough, then you have made them the right size.
8. Bake for about 14 minutes. Rotate the cookies after about 6 minutes, and check after 5 minutes more. Once they are just turning golden brown, remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. They may look puffy as you remove them from the oven, but they will thin out as they cool.

Smarties, the British chocolate candy.

These are the British M&M style candies, not those silly candy disks that go by the same name in the US. Why am I obsessed about these? Only because they are so much better than M&M’s.

It’s the subtle differences that make these the best candy coated chocolate candy out there.

M&M vs. Smartie

M&M vs. Smartie

England may not be known for its gastronomy, but they certainly got this candy right.

Smarties chocolate candy

The best chocolate glazed doughnuts ever.

Despite putting away over a dozen on my own, I’m not the biggest fan of doughnuts. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing bad about them, but I’m sorta jaded by the Dunkin Donuts and the Krispy Kreme ones now. I’ll skip over those brands and go straight for a chocolate chip cookie every time. But find a good local bakery or a doughnut shop that does authentic yeast doughnuts and I’m hooked.

Freshly fried yeast doughnuts are second to none. Even without the glaze, these were amazing. I literally burned the roof of my mouth trying to eat these right out of the fryer (totally worth it). As the dough fried, the little rings puffed up and became soft, tender and airy. The little holes cut out were tossed in at the end for a few dozen tiny doughnut holes. These were possibly more addicting than the full sized doughnuts.

Keep the holes you punch out and fry them all!

If you do make these, don’t think you can get away without making the chocolate glaze. Trust me. Make the chocolate.

I’m not going to say that these were easy. It is time consuming and does dirty quite a few pots and pans. It’s absolutely worth it though. These are possibly the most addicting doughnuts I have ever eaten. Which is fortunate, because they don’t keep very well. They are best the day of, and quickly lose their quality. You can resuscitate the glazed ones by briefly microwaving them and the unglazed can actually be passed through a toaster with amazing results.

You get bonus points if you make them prettier by tossing sprinkles on the top. I actually bought sprinkles to do this, but started eating the doughnuts before I got around to shaking the sprinkles out of the jar .

Fried, unglazed doughnuts. These are so good. It was hard enough waiting to eat them until they were glazed.

Yeast Doughnuts
Recipe by Alton Brown.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 ounces vegetable shortening, approximately 1/3 cup
1/2 ounce instant yeast (that’s about 4 1/2 teaspoons, or 2 packages instant yeast)
1/3 cup warm water (95 to 105 degrees F)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (optional)
23 ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surface
Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying (1 to 1/2 gallons, depending on fryer)

Directions

1. Heat the milk until warm (microwave or saucepan) and pour the hot milk over the shortening in a bowl. Set aside to allow the shortening to melt into the milk.
2. In another small bowl, heat water until warm (about 95F, warm enough to keep your hand in). Sprinkle the yeast over it and let it dissolve for about 5 minutes.
3. Once the milk & shortening has cooled (to about the same temp as the water & yeast mixture started), combine the two mixtures from steps 1 and 2 in the bowl of your mixer. To that, add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and about half of the flour. Mix everything on low speed with the paddle attachment, then turn the speed to medium to beat everything together. Add the rest of the flour, low speed first so it doesn’t fly everywhere, then increase the speed to med-high and beat.
4. Switch out the paddle for the dough hook, beat on med-high until the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl and is pretty smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. It’ll still be sticky, but it should seem to want to stick to itself more than it wants to stick to you.
5. Let rise for 1 hour (or until doubled in size) in an oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap.
6. Flour your surface and roll the dough to about 3/8-inch thick. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter or pastry ring and using a 7/8-inch ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
7. Keep the holes with the rings and roll the scraps together, let rest 30-60 minutes and repeat the previous step.
8. Heat the oil to 355 degrees F. Don’t let the oil get too hot or it will burn and give off flavors. Put 3 or 4 doughnuts in at a time, cook 30-60 seconds per side, until they get golden. I do all the rings first, then the holes.
9. Transfer to a cooling rack with some newspaper underneath to catch any drips. Allow to cool at least 15 minutes before eating or glazing. Or just wait about 15 seconds and start eating. Do try not to burn yourself…

Sugar Glaze
Recipe by Alton Brown.
Ingredients
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine milk and vanilla. Heat on low heat until it gets warm.
2. Sift in the confectioners sugar while gently whisking. Slowly add all the sugar so that clumping does not occur.
3. To keep the glaze a liquid, place the saucepan over a bow of hot water. Dip the doughnuts into the glaze and place onto a cooling rack (drippage will occur, so put something underneath).

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe by Alton Brown.
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole milk, warmed
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla. Heat on medium heat until butter melts.
2. Decrease the heat to low, add the chocolate whisking gently until incorporated. Then add the powdered sugar, again whisking gently until smooth. Place the mixture over a bowl of warm water and dip the doughnuts immediately. Allow glaze to set for 30 minutes before serving.

Clockwise from top left, Jalapenos, Apples, Blueberries, and Hiili under a pear tree

Long story short, by the time I left, I had in my possession a large supply of jalapenos. Stuffing them with cheese and making jalapeno poppers seemed like a natural thing to do with over a dozen fresh peppers.

Jalapeno Poppers!

Jalapeno poppers are a gift of spiciness, crunch, and cheese from the bar gods to the lowly patron clamoring for something to eat with a drink. The combination presented by this classic bar snack is amazing. The crunchy exterior giving way to the soft, oozing interior is only the beginning. The texture combo is bested by the contrasting spicy jalapeno and cooling cream cheese.

Baked Jalapeno Poppers
I like my poppers really hot, so I add cayenne pepper to the mixture. If you happen to get peppers that are abnormally hot, or if you don’t want the extra heat, leave out the cayenne.

Ingredients
6 large jalapenos
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
2 cloves of garlic, smashed/minced (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
2 ounces Cheddar Jack cheese, shredded (Cheddar, or anything else will do)
4 ounces cream cheese
2 rashers of bacon
(optional) 1 1/2 tablespoons caramelized onions
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup AP flour
1 cup breadcrumbs (I use panko)

Directions

1. Optional: Place the whole jalapeno peppers on a cooling rack set into a sheet pan and bake in a 400F oven for 20 minutes, or until they just start to brown.
2. Place the two rashers of bacon on a paper towel lined plate and cover with another paper towel. Microwave on high for one minute, and check. Continue microwaving for 30-60 seconds until the bacon is cooked. Mine finished in two minutes, but this can vary depending on the microwave and on the age and thickness of the bacon.(If pre-baking the peppers, do not start this step until you have removed them from the oven.)
3. As the bacon cooks (and the peppers cool) combine the cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, cumin, and cayenne (and the optional onions) in a medium bowl.
4. Dice the cooked, cooled bacon into small pieces and add to the cheese mixture.
5. (If the jalapeno peppers were precooked, rub the skin with your fingers to remove as much as possible, leaving the stem intact.) Cut a slit lengthwise into each of the peppers and remove the seeds. Stuff each pepper with the cheese mixture.
6. Lay out three bowls or sauces and place the flour in the first, the beaten egg in the second, and the breadcrumbs in the last. Dredge each pepper in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. You can press the breadcrumbs into the pepper to help them stick. (This is much easier if you have pre-baked the peppers and removed the skins).
7. (Optional: If you have an olive oil sprayer, spray the coated peppers with oil to help them brown in the oven.)
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 400F until the bread starts to brown.
9. Remove from the oven, allow to cool 3 minutes and serve. These are pretty good at room temperature too.