Gastronomica's Marshmallow Fluff Extravaganza

Last month, I was fortunate enough to attend the Marshmallow Fluff forum at the Astor Center. The evening was part of an ongoing series organized by Gastronomica, the wonderful quarterly food journal.

The event itself brought focus to article in the Spring issue of Gastronomica by Katie Liesener which chronicled the evolution of this "food" product in New England and the rather torrid love affair it has experienced in America.

Here are some interesting facts about Marshmallow Fluff that I learned:

~ Marshmallow Fluff was invented in 1917.

~ To this day, Marshmallow Fluff is made in a small factory by the Durkee-Mower Company in Lynn, Massachusetts.

~ New England and upstate New York count for over half of all Marshmallow Fluff sales.


Although I'm not a New England native, I grew up eating the Kraft Foods version of Marshmallow Fluff. For my regular readers, you'll recognize it as the key ingredient in my grandmother's fudge recipe. We also used Fluff to make Rice Krispy treats. To be honest, I don't remember a period of my life when I didn't know what Fluff was. Perhaps my early adoption of the product meant I was destined to move East to the land of Fluff and coastal cities.

Over the course of the panel discussion, the Astor Center provided each attendee with a platter of Fluff delicacies, which included a Rice Krispy treat made with brown butter, a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich (Fluffernutter, for you not in the know), a peanut butter, Fluff, and bacon sandwich, and an unusual combination of a saltine topped with tuna, hot sauce, and of course, Marshmallow Fluff. Although the tuna concoction sounds a bit weird, you couldn't actually taste the Fluff through the overpowering tuna and hot sauce, so it really just tasted as expected. The peanut butter, Fluff and bacon sandwich was probably my favorite - you simply can't go wrong with sweet and savory. It's the world's best combination, in my opinion.


However, the real stand out of the evening was a cocktail designed especially for the event. A take on the classic Aviation, the Astor Center mixologist pre-mixed the maraschino liqueur with Marshmallow Fluff in a blender, and then proceeded with the classic recipe. As someone adventurous when it comes to taste (you should have seen me the first time I was offered haggis - I couldn't wait to try it!), I immediately ordered this special drink. And may I say, it might be my new favorite novelty cocktail. Although the drink itself looked like cloudy water, the taste was incredible, perfect for sipping while I enjoyed the fact that I live in a city that hosts entire evenings dedicated to Marshmallow Fluff.


If you're interested, here is the recipe and "how to" to create the Marshmallow Fluff cocktail at home:

Ingredients (Per each cocktail):
2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons maraschino liqueur, preferably Luxardo, blended with Marshmallow Fluff
1/4 ounce Crème de Violette
Lemon twist, for garnish.

First, blend a healthy amount of maraschino liqueur with Marshmallow Fluff. The final product should be like a normal liquid - not sticky or gummy (Remember: you have to put this in a cocktail shaker at some point!). Combine the gin, lemon juice and maraschino/Fluff mixture in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake to chill well, then strain into a cocktail glass. Drizzle the Crème de Violette into the glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

Yield: one cocktail.

Exciting upcoming dessert events at the Astor Center

The month of May is full of exciting dessert related events in New York City, and the Astor Center is proving to be the hostess with the mostess.

First up, on May 21st the Astor Center, along with Citysearch and iSi North America, will present "Sugar & Whips," in what is being described as an "evening of pure decadence." Six renowned New York City pastry chefs will be serving up desserts, cocktails and even a coffee concoction or two for your pleasure and celebrating the finer (in my opinion, the finest) things in life: Dessert! Pastry chefs in attendance will include Dominique Ansel of Daniel, Heather Bertinetti of Convivio and Alto, Johnny Iuzzini of Jean Georges, Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin, Nancy Olson of Gramercy Tavern, and Robert Truit of Corton. Also, the French Culinary Institute's master mixologist, David Arnold, will be showcasing his incredible skills throughout the evening.

I saw Michael Laiskonis last month when he was part of a food blogging panel at the New York Institute of Technology, so I'm excited to see him again, but this time, more in his element i.e. making desserts instead of chatting about technology and blogs.

"Sugar and Whips" takes place, as mentioned, on Thursday, May 21st, in the Astor Center Gallery from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. The cost is $25. You can purchase tickets by visiting here.

Next up is "Marshmallow Fluff: A Gastronomica Forum," featuring Cathy Kaufman, Darra Goldstein, Katie Liesener, and Mimi Graney, on May 26th.

I for one am stoked for this particular panel, because as you may recall, Marshmallow Fluff is the key ingredient in one of my all-time favorite recipes - my grandmother's fudge. You can see the recipe by clicking here.


According to the event description, this event will cover everything you wanted to know about Fluff Marshmallow Crème - the origins of this illicit "food" product, what exactly makes Fluff, the controversy behind this delicious sweet treat and how at the end of the day, you either love it or hate and how even the government chimed in on this most random of ingredients.

A fluff cocktail will be served, as well as fluffernutter sandwiches and other fluff-inspired snacks.

"Marshmallow Fluff" will take place on Tuesday, May 26th, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Astor Center Gallery. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by clicking here.

Guest Blogger Post: ChikaLicious - the ultimate dessert experience

I'm happy to feature Puff and Choux's first guest blogger today, and I'm even happier that this person is Bradley Matthews. Bradley is a dear friend of mine and has always been a champion of my crazy ideas - this blog being one of them. I'm telling you folks, you can't ask for a better friend than Bradley - he's got the "greatest friend in the world" title nailed down pretty tight.


ChikaLicious - the ultimate dessert experience
By Bradley Matthews

Firstly, I'm honored to be a guest contributor on Puff and Choux. I (and the other indulgent heffers out there) love this site.

On Saturday I FINALLY treated myself and another dessert whore to the ChikaLicious experience over on 10th Street at 2nd Avenue. I've walked by this place for ages and have always wanted to try it. Something about the white decor...the oblong bar...the minimal seating...and the simple phrase 'dessert bar' were all quite enticing. We realized that the main experience opens at 3pm on Saturday and mistakenly ended up in the 'casual cafe part of ChikaLicious' across the street which offers desserts to go without the experience of getting to watch the chefs MAKE the dessert. I equate it like going to a Benihana 'to-go cart' without getting to see the Japanese chef fling the shrimp tails all over the table and bang the salt/pepper shakers to a beat.

I should preface the rest of the story with the fact that the person whom was with me is a dessert connoisseur. He had been to ChikaLicious previously, so his expectations were high. Upon entry, we were immediately seated at a side-table, so we didn't actually get to watch the chefs prepare the desserts. A Bob Marley mix played throughout our whole ChikaLicious experience, so I was happy as a clam (pretty easy to please on the musical front I suppose).

Let's get on to the desserts. We ordered a Prixe Fixe course with a matching wine (ChikaLicous picks the wine for you based on your dessert choices). We started with the 'Amuse'...a panna cotta of some sort...I honestly can't remember as the portion fit on one scoop of my spoon. I know this is a tasting, but come on people! At least provide us with smaller, more delicate spoons. The heavy monstrosity we were required to use diminished the decadence of the experience. The second dessert is the 'main course' and is the dessert of your choice. I had the white chocolate mousse which I found to be quite smooth and tasty, until I then tasted my accomplice's dessert. He had the chocolate tart with peppercorn ice cream. I think that was the best dessert and ice cream I've had in a while. The chocolate tart was filled with chocolate ooze that ran like a river into the ice cream. The ice cream literally tasted like pepper...I've never experienced that. Something about curling up on a couch watching horrible movies eating peppercorn ice cream sounds a little too bourgeois-esque (bourgy if you will) for me, but DAMN was that scrumptious. I kept having to sneak tastes from him. We wrapped up the tasting with the 'Petit Fours,' which included four bite size samples of cookies and chocolates.

Since we ordered different 'main course' desserts, we each were provided with different wines. I received a sparkling sweet blush of some sort...I tasted flower essence of some sort...it basically was a perfect match for my light mousse. He received a dark port to match his chocolate tart. I've never been a huge port fan, and drinking port at 3:30pm just seems wrong for some reason. It seem to overpower the amazing tastes of the chocolate tart and the peppercorn ice cream.

We both LOVED the two owners: Chika (the chef...the cutest Japanese woman I have ever seen) who would come to our table to introduce the dessert courses in a thorough and professional manner, along with her partner in crime (and husband), Don, whose kind personality was a perfect match to Chika's, making me think that if they had a child (which they may), it MAY just be the cutest, most meek baby ever.

All in all, ChikaLicious was an amazing experience. I could have probably scarfed down ten helpings of each dessert easily, but I suppose they don't want to fatten us New Yorkers up TOO much. Most of us don't have Segways (although I would love one...but I hear they are illegal in New York...I digress).

When in New York, be sure to visit:
ChikaLicious Dessert Bar
203 E. 10th Street
New York, NY
P: (212) 475-0929
www.chikalicious.com

A nice way to wrap up your St. Patrick's Day festivities

After the St. Patrick's Day parade and numerous pub crawls, it's time to come home and wrap up the night with one last "hoorah!" before heading to bed. May I suggest a simple but thematic dessert?

It's simple - take three scoops of vanilla ice cream (may I suggest Van Leeuwen's Vanilla Ice Cream) and a pint of Guinness stout.

Here's to a successful St. Paddy's Day and looking forward to the party next March 17th!

My first taste of Portland - Rose's Restaurant and the Kennedy School

Yesterday was my first full day in Portland, OR, and I have to say - I'm impressed. This city is probably one of the friendliest I've ever been to (Funnily enough, I thought that Portland, Maine was super friendly, so maybe it's just the curse of cities named Portland to have welcoming and friendly citizens!). More importantly, I'm having a great time hanging out with one of my oldest friends, my fellow University of Kansas alum Diane. She's a great hostess and doing this city proud by showing me around.

But on to the food. My first dessert was tasted at Rose's Restaurant. According to the menu, Rose Naftalin, a widow from Ohio, moved to Portland in 1956 and opened a tiny restaurant where over the next 10 years she worked in the kitchen preparing many of the dishes herself, including the desserts.

In 1966, Rose became a cookbook author and retired. The restaurant was sold to Max Birnbach who kept up the tradition for another 24 years. He was over 80 years old at that time!

The meal was typical diner fare - it was good, but then again, I ordered the typical burger and fries. However it was the case of desserts I was interested in.


From the Banana Bavarian, French Chocolate, Raspberry Poppyseed, or Coconut Cake, that dessert display case was a sight for my sore eyes that had spent the previous day trying to find a decent sweet snack in various airports across North America. One unique cake that I had never seen before was Rose's Orange Creamcicle Cake. It sounded delicious, but I decided on an old standard and childhood favorite - coconut cake.

Because I was so stuffed from lunch, I opted to take the cake to go. Granted, I only made it about 30 minutes after we left the restaurant before I took my first bite, but at least I made the effort to not overeat.

The cake itself was delicious - delicate double-layered angel food with some of the sweetest coconut flakes I've ever tasted spread throughout the middle. I would have preferred buttercream icing, but I generally prefer buttercream on all my cake-based sweets. I believe the icing was some sort of whipped mousse concoction, but regardless, it was still tasty. Overall, I would give Rose's Coconut Cake an 8 out of 10.

And although this isn't pastry-related, I have to mention an awesome little Portland spot called the Kennedy School that I visited for a pre-dinner beer. This is such a quirky little place that I had to write something about it.

Originally opened in 1915, this elementary school has hosted thousands of students throughout the years. According to the website, when school was not in session the Kennedy served the community as a public meeting hall, polling place, Red Cross blood drawing center, collection site for paper & tin can drives, weekend playground, and even flood-relief shelter.

Sadly, at the end of the 1974-75 school year, the school was closed due to poor enrollment numbers (something the entire city was facing), as well as a deteriating building too costly to repair.

However, the local Portland community was stronger than any demolition order that tried to destroy the beloved community center. Neighbors, former students, past PTA presidents, and the Portland Development Commission fought successfully to save the Kennedy School and won.

Today, the "school" continues to serve as a community meeting place. There are several bars, a restaurant, movie theater and meeting rooms on site. The building is also a hotel! It's probably the quirkiest little place I've ever visited ANYWHERE in the world. My favorite part was hands down all the artwork adorning the hallways. It does a great job of telling the history of the building through the eyes of former students and teachers.

My other favorite part of the Kennedy School is the hand-crafted McMenamins' Rube Ale. In 1985, McMenamins became the first brewery in the U.S.A. to legally use fruit in the creation of ales. As I've mentioned before, my favorite berry (and probably favorite fruit) is the raspberry, so you better believe I was stoked to find out that 42 pounds of Oregon-grown and processed raspberry puree are used in every batch of this ale!


McMenamin's Ruby Ale is, hands down, the best ale I've ever tasted. I plan on drinking at least one more pint of this brew before I head back East.

Talenti Gelato and Sorbetto and Blacksmiths' Roughshod Blueberry Brandy - a great combo

Last week, I posted about a delicious dessert wine I purchased while visiting the great state of Maine. The wine is called Roughshod and is a product of Blacksmiths Winery. I had mentioned that I would be combining Roughshod with some vanilla ice cream, and did just that. The ice cream of choice was actually gelato from Talenti Gelato e Sorbetto.

I wanted to keep the flavor simple as to not overpower the blueberry brandy taste of the Roughod, so I chose Talenti's Tahitian Vanilla Bean (interesting side note: these vanilla beans are imported from Papua New Guinea). Talenti achieves this flavor by taking whole Tahitian vanilla beans, splitting them and scraping them by hand to create this paraticular gelato. The flavor is nothing like I've ever tasted before and paired nicely with the Roughshod. The vanilla flavoring of the gelato erased the cough syrup-like initial taste once experiences while drinking Roughshod straight.


I highly suggest you indulge your taste buds and buy some Roughshod (which you can do here) and pour it over some Talenti vanilla gelato. You can buy Talenti at any Whole Foods grocer, but you can also purchase online by visiting here. So plan ahead and enjoy this delicious treat in no time!

For a bit of background on Dallas-based Talenti, I found this interesting article about the company in Entrepreneur Magazine. The company claims its inspiration was found in Bernardo Buontalenti, also known as "Talenti." Talenti was a famed Florentine artist and architect who also happened to be a foodie. Talenti is credited with first introducing court of the Duchess Catherine de Medici's in the early 1500s to a concoction he called "gelato."

However, Wikipedia offers a more colorful history when it comes to the origin of the frozen treat:

"The History of Gelato dates back to the 16th century. There is some confusion in the origin as to where or who really invented gelato. As most stories go, it is credited to Bernardo Buontalenti, a native of Florence, who delighted the court of Caterina dei Medici with his creation. Italians are certainly credited with introducing gelato to the rest of Europe; with Sicilian born Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli who undoubtedly was one of the most influential individuals in the history of gelato, as one of the first to sell it to the public. Summoned to Paris in 1686, he opened a café named after himself called “Café Procope”, which quickly became one of the most celebrated haunts of the literary establishment in France. In Italy meanwhile, the art of traditional gelato making was passed on from father to son, improved and perfected right up to the 20th century, when many gelato makers began to emigrate, taking their know-how to the rest of Europe."

Bourbon Hot Chocolate - you'll never know how great it is until you try...

After posting about City Bakery's 17th Annual Hot Chocolate Festival yesterday, my good pal Bradley and I decided to check out the festivities for ourselves. I'm not sure about Bradley, but I had never been to City Bakery before, despite the fact that I've walked by the place about one hundred times.

And boy, am I glad we stopped by! As mentioned yesterday, Friday's flavor was Bourbon Hot Chocolate. I for one have never thought about combining these two entities, but let me be honest - I've only made hot chocolate from a mix I buy at the store. City Bakery's concoction definitely trumped my efforts in the hot chocolate department.

Below are some pics of Bradley and I indulging in the booze infused awesomeness...


I'm going back to City Bakery today to check out the Grand Finale flavor. My good friend Amanda is accompanying me, so expect pictures of us scarfing down some delicious cookies and some sort of exotic mix of hot chocolate plus the super secret ingredient!

And finally, I have to post this little gem of a photo. I always tell people that Bradley looks like Hugh Jackman. Please picture this. Now, look at the picture below and I can guarantee that any sort of image of Hugh Jackman you may have conjured will be ruined. Enjoy!

Last two days of the 17th Annual City Bakery Hot Chocolate Festival!

The 17th Annual City Bakery Hot Chocolate Festival is about to wrap up this Saturday, so schedule some time this weekend to make your way to 3 West 18th Street (@ Fifth Avenue) in New York City to celebrate all that is hot chocolate.

According to the event's official site, today's flavor is Bourbon Hot Chocolate. Saturday's flavor is top secret and sure to be a delicious finale.

Let us know if you attend the festival this weekend - we'd love to hear about it in the comments section. Also, if you take any photos, let us know - we'll happily post them on the blog!

Also, check out some of the cool artwork from past City Bakery Hot Chocolate Festivals here.

Today is National Kahlua Day!

Today, February 27, is National Kahlua Day (according to Foodimentary)!

Now I know Kahlua isn't a pastry, but it is dessert-like. Pour some over your favorite vanilla or chocolate ice cream, make your coffee a bit more fun or have one on the rocks - Happy Kahlua Day!

February is Fondue Month!

Ack! There are only three days left in February, so you better hustle your bustle and celebrate Fondue Month!

According to the folks at Bottlerocket Wine Shop, a fantastic little spot on 19th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in New York City, February is the month to celebrate all that is melted and great. So hop to it folks! Whether it's cheese or chocolate, you can't go wrong. And be sure to stop by Bottlerocket for any of your alchohol cooking needs - they've got everything from Kirsch (a traditional element in cheese fondue) to some of the best port I've ever tasted.


One of my favorite dessert (or basically any time you feel like drinking) wines from Bottlerocket is the Familie Bauer Sylvaner Auslese 2005 ($19). The tasting notes describe this wine as:

"Medium Bodied, sweet, high acidity, intense, citrus fruits, honeysuckle, mineral, long finish."

Trust me, the honeysuckle element is delicious!

And for those of you not likely to cook at home, check out Artisinal in New York City for some of the best fondue on the East Coast!

Delicious Dessert Wine, courtesy of the great state of Maine

Over Presidents Day weekend, I took a journey north to Portland, Maine with my pals Erikka and Jessica to have our hand at dog sledding and snow shoeing. The trip was a great success - friendly locals, delicious food at Fore Street and lobster-shaped cookie cutters. Also, I discovered this great dessert wine from a Maine winery called Blacksmiths.

Although we didn't have a chance to visit the winery itself, I did pick up a bottle of their Roughshod which is comprised of 85% Wild Maine Blueberry and 15% 151 proof Oregon Brandy.

Here is the description from the folks at Blacksmiths:
"This is Blacksmiths' original fortified blueberry wine, delicious as an aperitif and hearty enough to use in a unique Roughshod cocktail. The wine is made in a similar manner as our classic blueberry wine, but the fermentation is halted by addition of brandy to preserve the appropriate level of sugar. This provides the balance of alcohol and sugar which is important in producing an enjoyable dessert wine."

My roommate Peter and I cracked open the bottle for the first time last night, and we both agreed that the taste was unusual, but delicious. We suggest small servings as this is definitely a dessert wine meant to be sipped with a potent aftertaste. Also, we're toying around with the idea of pouring it over vanilla ice cream - we'll let you know how that turns out.