it’s all either green or frozen this week!
this feels very right for summer =)
new on bbs
Pistachio Ice Cream
Super creamy, forwardly pistachio flavored ice cream made with pistachios ground into a paste, mixed into a custard ice cream base.
note: you can do this with hazelnuts too ;-)
a must mention whenever those green nuts are a topic
Pistachio Cheesecake
When I published this in fall 2019 there was nothing like it online, now you’ll find quite a few like it but this is my original: Homemade pistachio paste made from toasted ground nuts is added to a super creamy cheesecake that tastes like real pistachios.
note: buy an unsweetened pistachio paste or make your own (the latter is usually greener).
unheard of ice creams
Black Cocoa Ice Cream
Unbelievably smooth, creamy ice cream made with black cocoa. This recipe is eggless and tastes of rich, dark, dark chocolate.
note: this may ruin all other chocolate ice creams for you.
Vanilla Brown Butter Ice Cream
Homemade vanilla bean brown butter ice cream made from a custard base and (optionally) filled with chunks of edible chocolate chip cookie dough.
note: swap out the buttermilk for milk if you don’t like tang in your ice cream.
reader review
“This is STUNNING- and SO good to eat! A friend gifted me with some super plump and juicy local blueberries that were starting to get mushy- and I knew just what to make! I love that this isn’t a super huge, dense cheesecake that takes 5 blocks of cheesecake and 2 hours of bake time- rather it is a creamy, well-balanced, blueberry forward cheesecake that will be a delicious indulgence without being a whole day’s worth of calories. Since my blueberries where so big and juicy, I did have some leftover roasted berry puree, which I shamelessly used as a delicious topping that brought the blueberry flavor over the top! After eating this, my family agreed that this recipe is a KEEPER.” - Adelaide on Roasted Blueberry Cheesecake
weekly reads & notes
‘“Children are like bread,” she explains to me one night at the kitchen table as we talk about the kind of person I am and the kind of person I will become. “You can choose which ingredients you will add to the mix when they are younger and there is still time to shape them after the dough has risen. But once you put them in the oven, it’s difficult to do much else.”
“You’re already in the oven,” she tells me. “It’s all you now.”’ Wisdom You Knead: What I Learned Baking With My Mother, Serious Eats. [this is such a sweet read, the author details growing up baking with her mother and how that changes over time]
“There, a dry, desert-like climate prevails. The sun burns hot, rain rarely falls and strong winds whip along the coast. But the harsh environment has forged ideal conditions for salt production, as water evaporates quickly. Even before European colonisation, the Indigenous peoples of La Guajira are believed to have harvested salt to trade for goods like gold. Salt remains one of the only sources of income for Indigenous communities in the area. To this day, at the crack of dawn, Wayuu residents arrive at Manaure’s salt ponds with picks and shovels to mine the waters and rake up salt crystals.” Can salt mitigate hunger?
Inside the salt flats of La Guajira, Colombia, AlJazeera.
Considering our two recipes this week, I thought it relevant to mention Pistachio Wars which I have not yet seen (it hasn’t screened in the US yet). However, the documentary recently screened in New Zealand and here’s a bit from a local publication that reviewed it: “[Pistachio Wars] reveals a curious connection between the snack food and the daggers drawn stand-off between the US and Iran. "It turns it from ordinary greed into something kind of next level," [the director] says. That’s not all though. Pistachio Wars also zeroes in once more on the turn agriculture has taken towards operating as an extractive industry, at the expense of the environment, and wrestles with the nature of consumer culture and the dangers of monopoly power.”
I rarely have the bandwith for deep dives into her amazing newsletter (because it’s all so informative and I want to remember everything) but I did get through this piece on white chocolate which is not, as Lamb says, the same as, the “kind of imposter chocolate buttons that can be melted down, poured and set without tempering, (which) belong in a universe I do not wish to enter.” Same girl, same.
While reading the serious eats article, I came across this one, ‘how to bake on your grill’ and I fond myself skeptical (how would you stabilize the temperature?) but also… curious. It has instructions for how to bake on a gas or charcoal grill, and even a recipe for a brownie baked on a grill. A brownie with a smoky charcoal taste? I’m convinced I’d either underbake or burn it but I’d still like to taste it!
Next week is a special recipe drop - one you’ve been waiting for! Every year I save a particular recipe to publish in early aug and we’re almost there. I’m not giving any clues (but I mentioned it a few months ago so if you were paying attention you already know what’s coming =) ).
and for members
Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Chewy middles, crispy edges and with every bite: pistachio and chocolate!