Archive for the ‘New Products’ Category
Fans of Starbucks’ ultra-convenient instant coffee, Starbucks Via, are definitely going to take note of the brand new flavored versions of Via that Starbucks has just released. These instant coffees are flavored with natural flavorings and sweetened with a little bit of sugar. This makes them more of an all-in-one product that regular Via, which comes plain and unsweetened, although it is available in different roasts. They’re available in Vanilla, Caramel, Mocha and Cinnamon Spice and incorporate easily into both hot and cold water, just like regular Via does. The flavors come through very well (especially the Vanilla!) and compliment the coffee. You might have to add your own milk or cream to the coffee when using these, but this works out well for me because I’d rather add my own milk than have powdered milk of some kind already blended into the coffee.
And how to they work for baking? While regular Starbucks Via is great for baking because it has such good flavor and is so easy to incorporate into a recipe, the flavored Vias are not quite as versatile because of that small amount of sugar in the mix. It might be nice to get that extra boost of vanilla flavor in a recipe, but the sugar can throw off the ratios a bit and might end up making your dessert a bit too sweet. That being said, it is not a huge amount of sugar and if you’re not a fan of black coffee, it might be more worthwhile to keep these around for drinking and just keep in mind that, if you are going to use them to bake, you might want to cut back on the sugar in your recipe by a tablespoon or two.
When you think of an all purpose baking mix, you might think of something like Bisquick. Bisquick is a mix of flour, salt, leavening and fat – shelf-stable shortening – that can be used in a huge variety of different recipes just by adding a few simple ingredients to it. You can make pancakes, biscuits and casseroles, just for starters. But although it can be used in so many ways, Bisquick really is a savory mix and when you use it to make a coffee cake or something, you can taste that salt in the finished product. There are cake mixes, but there really aren’t any all purpose sweet baking mixes that can be used in the same way. Or there weren’t, until the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens developed the Betty Crocker Dessert Mix. This dry mix is much the same as Bisquick, but it is sweet and has vanilla added to it. You can use it for cakes, muffins, cookies, quickbreads, scones and other sweet baked goods just by changing what you add to that mix. It’s very versatile, and adaptable enough that you can still feel like you’re making real homemade baked goods even though you’re using a bit of a shortcut.
The mix is good, and easy to use. I liked it a lot better than most cake mixes, for instance, because it really gave baked goods a good texture – not that overly tender/fluffy boxed cake mix texture. Cookies had a cookie texture, and muffins (like those pictured below) had good solid muffin texture. The mix has a great vanilla flavor and comes with some quick vanilla icing if you’re looking for an easy way to finish off those desserts, as well. The mix is a new product and won’t be in all stores for a couple of months, but chains like Costco have picked it up and you’ll probably start to see it there before anywhere else.
Finally, you can have your cookies and eat them, too. Actually, you could always do that – assuming that you could make or buy the type of cookies you wanted to eat. A weird new invention know as Meta Cookie was just unveiled this week in Los Angeles that simulates the visual and sensory experience of a cookie flavor, regardless of what type of cookie you’re eating. A plain cookie is tagged with a visual marker so that the machine can recognize it, then it projects the image of whatever cookie the user has selected onto the marked cookie so that as you handle that cookie, it looks like the flavor of your choice. When you pick up the cookie to take a bite, an air pump on the machine floods your senses with the smell of that type of cookie, which actually makes you think that you are tasting that flavor of cookie.
The reason that you need to eat a cookie of some kind when using the machine is that the stand-in cookie is what gives you the texture and feel of eating a cookie, even though the look, smell and taste (by way of smell) come from a virtual source. It’s not the coolest look in town, so the practical applications for such a thing are limited, but it is amazing to see how your basic senses can be manipulated like this when we tend to think that food is simply what it is.
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Every kitchen should be stocked with a good set of knives. Whether you’re a cook or baker, a good knife will always come in handy. Good quality knives that are kept sharp will last for years and can save time in the kitchen on a daily basis, shaving minutes off of prep times (which add up after a while) and generally making life easier. You don’t need a super expensive knife to have a good quality one, but since they last for such a long time, they’re often worth a little splurge in my book. A new knife I tried recently is from Fusionwood line, which is part functional kitchen tool and part work of art.
The Fusionwood knives have handles made with hardwood veneers that are dyed bright and beautiful colors and layered together, then sealed with resin to create a durable handle. They come in a whole variety of colors and styles, from little paring knives to 6-inch Chefs’ knives (like mine, pictured) to big bread knives. I particularly like the colorful knife block that is designed to contain a whole set of them.
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The only way to get those classic Girl Scout Samoas (a.k.a. Caramel de Lites) is to wait for another Girl Scout selling season to roll around – or to set aside some time in the kitchen to make your own homemade Girl Scout cookies. Although I can and do make them at home, I still look forward to “cookie season” and when I saw a box of cookies with that familiar Samoas design on the packaging at my local grocery store, I stopped in my tracks to check it out. They were Keebler’s Coconut Dreams, a new cookie from Keebler’s that is just like a samoa. I will always prefer homemade cookies to storebought, but I could not resist giving these Samoas look-a-likes a try.
I am very surprised that it has taken this long for a Samoas knock off to appear in stores. They’re always a hot item during the cookie sales. These cookies are simply described as fudge, caramel and coconut cookies, and yet there is no mistaking their chocolate-drizzled, ring shape for anything but a Samoa. Flavor-wise, they are very close, if not identical, to the Girl Scout cookies, with a nice fudge flavor and a great toasted coconut and caramel topping.
I’m still very partial to homemade ones these days, but would buy these again in a minute if I really wanted a quick Samoas fix and didn’t want to wait a few more months for Girl Scout cookie season to come around again.
