Anyone who has been in a Starbucks lately has seen Starbucks Via. The coffee company has been promoting their new instant coffee like crazy, so it’s pretty hard to miss. If you were lucky, you might have even gotten a free sample or two in a promotional taste test. I say “lucky” because Via is actually excellent for an instant coffee (and quite a bit better than some regular coffees). Starbucks came up with a new process to produce it, so it is not the same as the freeze-dried instant coffee that populates store shelves, nor does it taste anything like that watery, bland stuff. Via comes in two flavors - Colombian and Italian roasts - and tastes fresh and strong. It also dissolves easily in both hot and cold water, thanks to that new production process, so it can be used any time.

While I actually have taken a big like to taking a few packets of Via when I travel, I have found that it is an excellent baking ingredient in the home, too. Adding it into a recipe that calls for coffee flavoring is like adding a whole cup of  coffee with just a little bit of powder. It definitely packs in much more flavor than regular instant coffee and incorporates much more seamlessly. This means that there is no need to dissolve it in a bit of hot liquid before adding it to a batter; you can stir it into dry ingredients just as you would with any ground spice, and it will blend perfectly into your finished product. The Colombian is good, but the Italian has a darker and stronger flavor, more like espresso. Via is a little more expensive than a generic instant coffee, but definitely well worth the price for the flavor and the convenience. I think that it is actually easier to use than the instant espresso powder that I usually use, and pretty much ties with Trablit coffee extract for flavor. Definitely worth keeping a box around the pantry if you like to use coffee flavoring in your baked goods or other dishes.

Homemade cookies just about always beat store bought, prepackaged cookie doughs. They’re more fun to make - especially if you’re looking for an activity to do with your kids - they’re tastier and they don’t have any strange ingredients, like preservatives, in them. The only advantage of the prepacked doughs is that they’re quicker and more convenient if you absolutely don’t have time to make dough from scratch. Pillsbury recently introduced a new line of prepackaged cookie dough called simply Cookies that give packaged cookies a push closer to homemade. The real selling point is that they are not made with any artificial ingredients. In fact, the ingredient list of the cookies reads just like a recipe ingredient list would (flour, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, etc.). I had a chance to taste the Peanut Butter Cookies when I visited General Mills a few weeks ago and was quite impressed with them. They were nice and chewy, and they had a great peanut butter flavor. They are made with shortening (non-hydrogenated), so they don’t have a real buttery flavor to them, but that’s not a drawback in a peanut butter cookie where you want the peanuts to be the star.

Now, I’m still going to make my cookies from scratch, but I do think it’s nice to know that there is good store-bought option out there if I need some cookies in a pinch or if a friend who is short on time (or ingredients) needs a recommendation.

Even though I could inhale raw cookie dough when I was little - and did, if no one was there to keep an eye on me when I was making chocolate chip cookies. I still eat raw cookie dough, raw eggs and all, but the practice is somewhat frowned upon these days. Raw eggs carry a risk for salmonella, and even though the risk is very small (only 1 in 20,000 eggs might have the bacteria, and even then might not cause illness), it is still recommended that children under the age of 10 and pregnant women avoid them or eat pasturized eggs instead. Science isn’t going to stop kids from wanting to eat raw cookie dough, however, so if you want to play it safe, it is best to look for a safer alternative before you let your kids indulge a little.

One alternative is the Safe-to-Eat Cookie Dough from Bliss Candies, made without eggs, this cookie dough is designed to be eaten straight from the container. It’s made to order from scratch, and is shipped out in small containers. You can eat it straight from the packaging, or you can use the cookie dough in homemade ice creams (or store-bought, of course) and other treats that might need a little bit of cookie dough. The chocolate chip has a lot of chips and stays softer in the ice cream than the cookie dough that comes in premade cookie dough ice cream, which is nice. It’s also nice that you can control how much cookie dough goes into each serving. The dough was much better raw than it was baked (I tested a few and they were just “ok”), but that is really the point of this product. Even though you don’t quite get the satisfaction of licking the spoon that comes with homemade dough, it’s less work and less cleanup (and less worry, if kids are a concern) to dip a spoon into this container and indulge.

The Julie/Julia Project was a blog about one woman’s - Julie’s - adventure of cooking her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child. The blog was eventually turned into a book, Julie and Julia, and that book has now been turned into a major motion picture of the same name. It stars Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell. Luckily for me, I was recently invited to a screening for bloggers, along with Matt Bites, Cooking With Amy, Food Blogga, Daily Dish, Squid Ink, Eater LA, Steamy Kitchen and Food GPS, where we got to see the movie a few weeks before its official release on August 7. I can’t give a full review right now, but I will say that I enjoyed the film a lot. It definitely made me want to do some French cooking - almost as much as my recent Paris trip did. Doesn’t Meryl (below) make a great stand-in for Julia ?

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Popsicles are even easier to make than ice cream because you don’t need an ice cream maker or any other special appliance to make them. What you do need, however is a mold to shape them with. The simplest way to make a popsicle is to use a small paper cup or yogurt container, fill it with juice (or whatever else you choose to use as a base for popsicles) and put a popsicle stick into it as it firms up in the freezer. If you’re going to make them on a regular basis, popsicle molds can make things a whole lot easier. Inexpensive molds are easy to find, but the Orka 4-Ice Pops have a few features that make them stand out from the rest of the pack.

The base of the pop is made of silicone, which just pops off of the frozen popsicle when you’re ready to eat. Most popsicle molds have hard plastic bodies that are difficult to remove, or require you to run them under hot water to loosen them before serving. Also, the pops have cup-shaped popsicle sticks that will catch drips. A small stand holds the popsicles upright while they freeze, too. Finally, the swirly shape of these popsicles is very appealing on its own. It’s easy to eat and reminiscent of some of the fancier popsicles you could buy from ice cream trucks as a kid, rather than typical the plain Jane homemade popsicle mold.

I’ve seen a lot of little gift cooking kits popping up over the past few months, and The Cupcake Kit is one that catches my eye every time I see it in a book or gift store. The kit comes with a 64-page book on cupcake recipes and decorating techniques, a pastry bag, a variety of decorating tips and 250 cupcake liners in two different sizes. Everything is packaged neatly an in easy-to-wrap box, perfect for giving as a gift to a baker.

The kit is a good way to start off for bakers who may be young or inexperienced, but want to improve their decorating skills. The fact that it comes with a pastry bag and tips, not to mention that the shot book covers a lot about decorating technique, is great. The pastry bag and cupcake wrappers also make it a good gift for more experienced bakers. I don’t know too many home bakers who wouldn’t appreciate getting a whole bunch of new stuff to play with in the kitchen! It also makes a good “gift” for yourself, since it is a pretty good value for everything that you get.

In addition to the equipment, the book is very good, and though it contains on 24 recipes (compared to some super-sized cookbooks that seem to have hundreds), they are easy to follow and produce good results. There are ideas for every day cupcakes and for fancier cupcakes/decorations in here, so the book and kit will probably come in handy on more than one occasion.