Tasty Recipes from Recipe Wizards

Choose a good quality beer for the batter. This also can be made with strips of cod or halibut.

For a more pronounced orange flavor, substitute freshly squeezed orange juice for 1/4 cup of the milk.

Cupcakes are so yesterday in the fickle world of food trends. One new must-have dessert with a nostalgic nod to childhood is ice cream sandwiches with flavors for a sophisticated palate.

Sarah Magoon, pastry chef at Stephen Starr’s Steak 954 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., happily shared her twist on this summertime treat. At the restaurant, the dessert comes as a trio of sandwiches with chocolate sauce for dipping. Her variations include oatmeal blueberry cookies with maple pecan ice cream and a brownie base with cherry chocolate chip ice cream.

‘THIN MINT’ COOKIE ICE CREAM SANDWICH

You can substitute a half-gallon of purchased mint-chocolate chip ice cream.

COOKIE

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 egg yolks

1 1/4 teaspoons peppermint oil or extract

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

10 egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon peppermint oil or extract

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Cookie: Combine flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor. Add butter, and mix or pulse until incorporated; mixture should look like wet sand. Mix in the yolks, peppermint and vanilla just till dough pulls together.

Place dough on a clean work surface and divide into 3 equal parts. Working on sheets of plastic wrap, roll each into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap well and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and set aside. Unwrap logs and cut into \-inch slices. Place on baking sheets, leaving at least an inch between. (Extra dough can be frozen up to a month if you prefer making a smaller batch.) Bake about 8 minutes, until set. Cool completely on wire racks. Makes about 48 cookies.

Ice cream: In a medium saucepan, heat cream, milk and 3/4 cup of the sugar over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches a slow boil. Whisk yolks with remaining 3/4 cup sugar until pale yellow. Slowly beat some of the hot cream mixture into the yolks to temper them so the eggs don”t scramble. Return this mixture to the pan and continue cooking, stirring, until slightly thickened; do not boil.

Strain this custard through a sieve. Stir in peppermint and salt, and chill in an ice bath. When cool, process in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer”s instructions, working in batches if necessary. Stir chocolate chips. Freeze ice cream 6 hours or overnight. Makes about a half gallon.

Assembly: Place half the cookies, bottom side up, on a work surface, and top each with a small scoop of ice cream. Top each with a second cookie, bottom side down, pressing gently to form a sandwich. Place in freezer until ready to serve. Makes 24.

Per sandwich: 314 calories (51 percent from fat), 18.6 g fat (10.9 g saturated, 5.6 g monounsaturated), 149.6 mg cholesterol, 3.9 g protein, 35.9 g carbohydrates, 1.2 g fiber, 103.5 mg sodium.

From Linda Cicero’s Cook’s Corner

Q: A couple of questions about the Edisto Shrimp Pie recipe. Why do you measure the shrimp by the cup rather than by weight? Is that two cups packed? Two cups sifted? The recipe also calls for 1 tablespoon chopped celery or parsley. I don’t even think I could dice celery small enough to measure just 1 tablespoon. Or were you trying to insist we use parsley without really being forceful?

-Tim Litsch

A: Sometimes the recipes in Cook’s Corner are as much about a time and a place as they are about the ingredients. I think of it as culinary anthropology. The shrimp pie recipe was for a woman who described it as something her grandmother made when times were tough in the South Carolina low country in the 1940s. Home cooks then didn’t rely much on measuring and certainly didn’t have scales, and the shrimp was not sorted by size but home-caught.

I simply used the least expensive shrimp at the market. You need about 3/4 pound small shrimp in shells to get 2 cups. I should have added that information to the recipe from the cited source, “Charleston Receipts.” As to the celery, I think the small amount is to add just a little flavor, and again reflects hard times. You can certainly adapt the recipe to your tastes.

Another reader, Jackie L. of Miami, sent the richer, custard-like version here, which you may find more appealing. “Here’s the best shrimp pie you will ever eat if you love shrimp!” she wrote. It was “handed down from my great-grandmother to my grandmother, and so on. My grandmother was from Charleston, S.C., and married to a sea captain.”

SHRIMP PIE

1 cup milk

3 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon Coleman’s dry mustard

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper to taste

1 pound raw, cleaned shrimp

3 slices crisp toast, grated finely

12 tablespoons ( 3/4 stick) butter, sliced thinly

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix milk with eggs, mustard, salt and pepper. Stir in shrimp. Pour into a greased casserole (I used a 9-inch round glass Pyrex dish, 1 1/2 inches deep). Sprinkle the toast crumbs over the egg mixture. Dot with thinly sliced butter pats. Bake until custard is firm and a knife comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Serves two very hungry shrimp lovers or 4 with a nice salad.

Per serving (based on 4): 428 calories (56 percent from fat), 26.2 g fat (13.9 g saturated, 7.2 g monounsaturated), 383.9 mg cholesterol, 32.8 g protein, 15.5 g carbohydrates, 0.5 g fiber, 1,041 mg sodium.

SLEUTH’S CORNER

Q: I lost a recipe for the best bread pudding I’ve ever had, New Orleans style with pecans and whiskey sauce. It was in The Miami Herald in November 1977. Can you help?”

Marlene Clark, Miami

A: Unfortunately, our library only archives recipes going back to 1982. Over the years, Cook”s Corner has published bread pudding recipes from The Commander”s Palace, The Court of the Three Sisters, Tavern on the Park and Jordan Marsh – but never one with pecans and whiskey sauce. We”ll hope a reader clipped that particular recipe and will furnish it.

From Linda Cicero’s Cook’s Corner

Q: I keep bread flour to use in my bread machine. Can I use it instead of all-purpose flour in cakes, pies and other baking?

A: You can use your bread flour for other recipes, but you might notice a difference in results, particularly in toughness.

Flour types vary in how much protein they contain. Protein is part of what causes the development of the stretchy bands called gluten. Gluten is a part of what gives structure to baked goods. When you see the holes in baked goods – tiny ones in cakes, big ones in bread – that is because gluten creates a structure that can puff up when the bread is baked or when the yeast in the dough emits gas.

For bread, you want lots of structure to hold it up as it rises. So you use a bread flour, which is higher in protein and will develop more gluten. For cake, you want a medium level of protein, so you use an all-purpose flour, which has a little less protein than bread flour.

For tender things like pie crusts, biscuits or delicate cookies, you want lower amounts of protein. Traditionally, the Southern flours, such as White Lily, were made with a wheat that had less protein.

(E-mail questions about cooking to Kathleen Purvis at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com.)

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 11 minutes per batch

Makes 48

After a 20-mile bike ride on the American River trail, Inez Talbott of Sacramento used to indulge in the chocolate-oatmeal cookies she found at Karen’s Bakery in Folsom. She was hoping for the recipe or one close.

Although we haven’t received Karen’s Bakery’s recipe, Ruth Person of Carmichael shares her cookie recipe that she says has garnered many compliments.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt, optional

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

One 11½-ounce package chocolate chips

2 cups rolled oats, (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked)

1 cup chopped walnuts

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter or margarine, sugars, eggs and vanilla until creamy. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt (if using) and cocoa powder. Gradually add dry ingredients to sugar mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips, oats and walnuts.

Drop dough by rounded measuring tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until set. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Per cookie: 138 cal.; 2 g pro.; 16 g carb.; 8 g fat (4 sat., 3 monounsat., 1 polyunsat.); 19 mg chol.; 36 mg sod.; 1 g fiber; 10 g sugar; 49 percent calories from fat.

Mountain molasses stack cake

Prep time: 55 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Serves 8

This dense, rich cake from Joan Aller’s forthcoming cookbook “Cider Beans, Wild Greens and Dandelion Jelly” (a collection of recipes from Southern Appalachia due out in June) is remarkably easy to make, and incredibly flavorful.

She says it is based on cakes assembled at family reunions and other celebrations in the region. She says each family would bring a single layer; the collection of layers then would be assembled into a single cake at the event. For most of us, the two layers in this recipe will be plenty.

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the filling:

2 cups finely chopped apples

1/2 cup water

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the cake, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil and flour the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the brown sugar and butter until light. Slowly add the egg and molasses, then blend well. Beat in the buttermilk, vanilla and nutmeg.

In a second bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the molasses mixture and mix until thoroughly incorporated.

Pour half of the batter into each of the prepared cake pans.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted at the center of each cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in their pans on a wire rack.

While the cakes cool, make the filling. In a medium saucepan over medium, combine the apples and water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender. Stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and is syrupy.

Place one of the cooled cake layers on a serving plate. Spread half of the filling on top. Place the second cake layer on top, then spread the remaining filling over it.

Per serving:468 cal.; 5 g pro.; 86 g carb.; 13 g fat (8 sat., 4 monounsat., 1 polyunsat.); 58 mg chol.; 322 mg sod.; 2 g fiber; 58 g sugar; 24 percent calories from fat.