Nestle’s oh-so-convenient tubes of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough are being recalled by the company due to several reported cases of E. coli illnesses that may have originated by eating raw cookie dough. So far, 65 people in 29 states have come up positive, according to the FDA. The E. coli strain has not been definitively linked to the cookie dough, but as there is reported to be a strong correlation between the raw dough and the illnesses, Nestle launched a voluntary recall this morning of all refrigerated cookie dough products. None of their other products are included in the recall.

It is worth noting that the directions on the cookie dough package strongly discourage eating the dough raw, as tempting as it may be, in all situations.

Sounds like a good reason to bake some chocolate chip cookies from scratch!

• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Giant Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

The 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off began accepting entries a few months ago, and now the deadline for the famous contest is fast approaching. You only have one week to iron out the kinks in your recipes (or come up with new ones!) because entries close on Monday, April 20th. Don’t stress out if you aren’t sure what recipes you’re going to submit; several of last year’s finalists told me that they submitted their recipes on the last day of the contest.

The final cookoff will be held next spring in Orlando, Florida, and finalists will get a free trip down there (it’s a fun time!) to cook their dishes for a panel of food experts. The grand prize winner takes home 1 million dollars - the largest prize in any cooking/baking contest out there - and it’s worth tinkering with a favorite recipe that doesn’t use some of the eligible products to take a chance at that kind of prize. There are also prizes given out for each category, an award for the most innovative recipe and even two $5,000 prizes for the best recipes using Jif® Peanut Butter and Crisco® Cooking Oil (qualifying ingredients from sponsor companies).Not bad incentives to get in the kitchen and start cooking!

Some tips for coming up with winning recipes are below:

(more…)

Do you remember the scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Willy Wonka introduces some three-course-meal gum, which gives the chewer the flavor experience of eating a full meal without any of the actual food (or the calories)? It seems that science has come up with a Wonka-like gadget that delivers the flavor of chocolate at the touch of a button - without the user ingesting a single calorie. The device, called Le Whif, is an inhaler that delivers a burst of flavored air, created using a flavored powder, to the user. It comes in plain chocolate, as well as in raspberry chocolate, mint chocolate and mango chocolate, and will be sold starting at the end of April.

The inventors speculate that they could move from these simple flavors to more complex ones - three course meals, a la Willy Wonka - in the near future.

I tend to think that these gadgets, while they may be satisfyingly novel, aren’t going to replace real food any time soon. This is partly because we do still need to eat to survive, but also because feel and texture are a huge part of eating and deriving satisfaction from food. A “whif” might taste like chocolate, but there is no way it is going to feel like cococa butter smoothly melting on the tongue.

Pizza is not a difficult food to find. There are tons of places that will deliver a hot pie to your door in less than 30 minutes, what seems like hundreds of different brands in the freezer case of the supermarket, and too many pizzerias - good and bad - to count. Most people would say that the best pizza is one made from fresh dough and baked in a super-hot stone oven. But what about a pizza made with fresh dough that is baked in a vending machine?

Researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy, in conjunction with Unilever, have developed a pizza vending machine that, for a few Euros, will bake a fresh pizza in under three minutes. The machine includes technology to mix ingredients and roll out the dough, spread sauce and toppings, and cook the pizza itself; each one is essentially made to order. The pizza is baked using “infra-red rays” as opposed to a traditional oven (which might be something of a fire hazard in a vending machine), but there are windows on the machine so you can watch the process from start to finish, much as you would in a “real” pizzeria. A video demonstrating how it works is available online.

Unilever is planning to launch the machine in Italy in a few weeks, and hopes for a launch overseas in the near future. While the pizza probably won’t compare to a hand-tossed, artisan-made pie, I can think of a few frozen brands that it will definitely be better than. And if any of the US launches are near college towns, this pizza vending machine just might have a real future.

Cornell University researchers studied nearly 800 family cooks and determined five distinct types of cooking personalities, types which supposedly influence the types of dishes that you make and what your “food biases” are. The study was done mostly to show that what we think we’re eating - healthy, tasty home-cooked meals - isn’t necessarily what we’re putting on the table because homemade doesn’t necessarily mean health food (although it certainly can). The quiz is fun to take, if nothing revolutionary, but I did notice that they really seemed to overlook baking - even though there are distinct types of bakers out there, as well! I tweaked the quiz a little bit. Take it and post your “baking personality” in the comments!

1) When I bake, I typically:

a) Opt for one of a handful of very familiar recipes that I make all the time.
b) Pick a recipe and follow it step-by-step.
c) Tweak the ingredients of a recipe to cut down on fat or sugar.
d) Go all out and create impressive, professional-looking delicacies.
e) Rarely use recipes as written and like to experiment with ingredients and flavors.

2) Some of my favorite ingredients are:

a) Chocolate, butter and vanilla.
b) Flour, eggs and sugar.
c) Applesauce and brown sugar.
d) Scratch puff pastry and browned butter.
e) Herbs and edible flowers.

3) In my free time I like to:

a) Visit with friends and family with baked goods in tow.
b) Organize the house and clean the kitchen.
c) Exercise or take a fitness class to burn off those extra cookies.
d) Read cookbooks or take cooking classes.
e) Watch cooking shows and read food blogs to stay ahead of the food trends.

4) My favorite things to bake are:

a) Classics, like chocolate chip cookies and brownies.
b) Cakes, because there is a lot of variety in the flavors, but the technique is always similar.
c) Recipes that include whole grains, or cut down on the added fat.
d) Breads, where I can try to achieve the perfect crumb.
e) Ethnic sweets and desserts from other countries.

5) Other people describe me as:

a) Really friendly.
b) Diligent and methodical.
c) Health conscious.
d) Intense and passionate.
e) Curious or innovative.

Which letter did you choose most often? Don’t worry about overlap - most of us fall into more than one category, and the quiz is just for fun. Here’s what your answers say about your baking style:
(more…)

The UK’s Times Online, which is the online version of The Times newspaper, ran a big article on the world of food blogging this week and included their picks for the 50 Best Food Blogs in the World - a list that included Baking Bites, along with many other wonderful sites. It’s an honor to be recognized, and I want to say congrats to the other bloggers and thanks to the readers who support this site and others by visiting, commenting and trying recipes at home!

I’m reprinting the entire list below, so if you have a few minutes (or hours, as the list is very long) to spare, browse through and maybe you’ll be able to add some new favorites to your blogroll.

(more…)