Razors: The Perfect Fry

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

These Pacific razor clams freshly dug from an Alaskan beach are ready to be cleaned for New England style clam chowder, a fry (see recipe below), fritters, or sautéed with garlic and served on pasta.

Two summers ago on our favorite clamming beach we couldn’t dig ’em fast enough. Each time we spotted a tell-tale dimple and sunk our shovel or clam gun into the wet sand, the disturbance would cause a half dozen other clams to show. The beds were dense and we sometimes dug up prized razors two at a time. It took us barely an hour to each fill our 60-clam limit – and a good bit of the afternoon that day to clean those 120 clams.

This year the digging was considerably slower. Heavy winter storms had wreaked havoc on the beaches, washing out beds and decimating populations. The Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife lowered the limit from 60 clams to 25 per person, but few clammers are finding even those numbers. Still, with low tides exceeding -5 feet and a morning in late May filled with sunshine, there was no reason not to go. It was warm enough to dig in nothing more than sandals, shorts and a a short-sleeved shirt – clamming attire I hadn’t worn since the days when I used to dig in Oregon.

With king salmon fishing closed or limited on the Kenai Peninsula, our “secret” beach had a few more fellow clammers than we’d seen in the past but it still wasn’t at all crowded. And there were the usual assortment of bald eagles, sandpipers, gulls and a whimbrel with its long, beautifully curved bill prying the sand for worms and silvery little sand lances that had been left exposed by the neap tide.

There were clams, too, but we had to work for them. We arrived at our spot about two hours before dead low and dug till the tide turned and began coming back in. Thirty clams between the two of us. Thirty-one counting the stray butter clam we added. Barbra had the eye for the shows on this morning, allowing us to do considerably better than most of our fellow clammers. The state’s decision to reduce the razor clam limit to 25 seemed both wise and in a way unnecessary, as we suspect very few clammers found anywhere close to 25 clams.

clam chowder bowl_n

Overall, the size of the clams was good and the reward for our morning of digging was a feast of fried razors and New England Style Clam Chowder. We paired this meal with three different premium sakes, the first wines of this summer’s wine appreciation course we and another couple are taking.

You can follow this link to our Alaskan Clam Chowder Recipe. After years of making fried razors a number of different ways, following is the recipe that gets the most frequent requests. (Incidentally, this is also an excellent recipe for onion rings.)

Fried Razors (Serves four with two medium to large clams per person)

Ingredients: Have ready a cutting board or plate on which to position breaded clams, and another plate with paper towels to drain fried clams.

8 medium to large razor clams, shucked, gilled and cleaned. It does not matter if the “foot” of the clam remains attached or is separated. (See note below.)
1 or 2 packets Saltine crackers, crushed medium-fine
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs
1/2 tbsp Cholula sauce or similar chili-pepper-based hot sauce
healthy pinch salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp rub/seasoning such as a Southwest rub, mesquite rub, or other rub featuring chili peppers. Our own blend features smoked chipotles, smoked paprika, oregano, and arbol chilis.
2 quarts light olive oil or other frying oil (This can be reused.)
lemon wedges and tarter sauce

Directions:

In a Ziploc bag, mix flour, salt, pepper and seasoning to taste.
Place crushed Saltines on a plate.
Place eggs in a wide bowl. Add Cholula and thoroughly whisk together. Position in this order: cleaned clams, flour mixture, egg mixture, Saltines, plate or cutting board for breaded clams.
In a deep fryer or on the stove in a deep pot, heat olive oil to 350 degrees F or slightly hotter.
Use tongs to drop clams one-at-a-time into flour bag. Shake so that clam is thoroughly coated. Next, coat clam with egg mixture. Lift clam from mixture and let excess egg drip off, then roll in cracker crumbs. Set breaded clam on cutting board to rest. Repeat till all clams are breaded.
Oil is ready when a few cracker crumbs bubble when placed in oil. Use tongs to place clams two-at-a-time in oil. Do not overload. Breaded clams should bubble fairly vigorously. Cook for one minute. Remember, clams will continue cooking even after they are removed from oil. Do not overcook. Place cooked clam on paper towels to drain. Repeat till all clams are cooked.
Add a squirt of lemon and dip in tartar sauce. (Beaver tartar sauce is our favorite.)

Serve clams with a quality daigingo or junmai ginjo sake, a crisp Oregon Pinot Gris, or your favorite Alaskan craft beer.

Note about cleaning clams: Even if you crack a few shells when digging, the cleaning can go quickly and it should be possible to serve sand-free clams and clam chowder. Here’s how to do it.

Rinse clams in very cold water.
Have an ice bath ready for clams: salted ice water in a large pot
Meanwhile, in a medium-sized pot, bring salted water to a boil.
Use tongs to place clams one or two at a time into boiling water. The instant the shell pops open, remove the clam and plunge it into the ice bath. The shell and most of the sand will now easily come off. Additional rinsing after cleaning will remove residual sand.

Honeymoon Crabs: Dungeness Crabs in Miso and Beer with Lime, Soy, Olive Oil, Butter and Garlic Sauce

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

By themselves, freshly caught Dungeness crabs make the Pacific Northwest a worthy food destination. Steam boiling them in a large, covered frying pan results in a gourmet meal for two. This recipe works equally well with both fresh and pre-cooked crabs.

Growing up, a highlight of every summer was our vacations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks where a kettle of freshly boiled blue crabs were spread out on a newspaper tablecloth, crab crackers were passed out, and lunch was served. Blue crabs are relatively small, but their succulent meat makes the pickin’ totally worth the effort. In those days, we dipped chunks of crab in straight melted butter or somewhat fancier drawn butter if we were at a restaurant.

A large 12.5 inch skillet is perfect for two Dungeness crabs as each can fully sit in the simmering liquid. Your choice of bread with this meal may be as important as your choice of wine. It’s hard to beat a loaf of good sourdough bread and a buttery Chardonnay. La Crema has proven year in and year out to produce just such a wine at a reasonable price.

Years later I moved to Oregon and discovered Dungeness crabs. Weighing in at around a pound-and-three-quarters each, there’s enough meat in one Dungeness to satisfy a hearty eater. And their flavor? We’ve eaten all kinds of of crabs; our favorites are Dungeness and blues, but other types are delicious as well. This is our favorite cooking method, and after years of experimenting with different dipping sauce combinations, we’ve perfected a combination of lime, soy sauce, olive oil, butter and garlic.

Honeymoon Dungeness Crabs

Ingredients: (You will need a large frying pan with a lid. We use a Swiss Diamond 12.5 inch pan.)

2 whole Dungeness crabs, preferably fresh but pre-cooked is absolutely fine
12 ounces of a good beer such as a red amber
3 – 4 tablespoons miso paste
2 cups of water
1 tsp sea salt

Directions: (A general rule is to cook Dungeness crabs for about 15 – 18 minutes – roughly 7 – 8 minutes per pound.)

Rinse crabs. Use a brush to remove any mud.
Over high heat, mix ingredients thoroughly and position crabs bottom side down.
Bring to a low boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 7 minutes.
Use tongs to flip crabs onto their backs and continue simmering for 7 minutes.
Remove crabs from skillet and let them rest on their backs for a few minutes before flipping over and serving belly side down.

Lime, Soy, Olive Oil, Butter and Garlic Dipping Sauce

Ingredients: (measurements are approximate)

6 tbsp butter
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 – 3 tbsp soy sauce
a few cloves of garlic either chopped fine or minced
juice from 1 large lime or 2 small limes

Directions:

In small pan over medium-low heat, melt 2 tbsp butter. Add the garlic and lightly sauté for a minute or two.
Reduce heat to low and add the rest of the butter and completely melt.
Add the remaining ingredients, mix and heat through thoroughly.
Pour into separate dipping bowls and serve.

Galley and Kitchen: What’s on our Spice Racks

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

So that we’re ready to hit the ground running (or to hit the kitchen cooking) when we return to Point Hope in August, we place our Penzeys Spices order in April.

Onboard our summer home, the sailing vessel Bandon, galley space is limited and so the question If you had to choose just a few herbs and spices… is answered out of necessity. Sea salt, Tellicherry pepper, powdered garlic, powdered wasabi, an Italian seasoning blend, herbs de provence and a couple of spicy chili-pepper-based blends or rubs are essentials in our kitchen. We also keep on hand soy sauce, Cholula sauce, olive oil (both light olive oil for frying and extra virgin for other uses), and when we can, sherry. Our meals tend to center around fresh seafood, and these minerals, herbs, spices and condiments go well with fresh fish.

Up in Point Hope where our kitchen is much larger, our herb and spice collection is far more extensive and includes a variety of extracts as well. We’ve discovered that even something as basic as salt can vary greatly from one type to another. For example, smoked sea salt can be the “secret ingredient” that makes a stew, soup or chili stand out. And if you haven’t tried grey sea salt on fish, you’re in for a pleasant surprise when you do. It’s usually packaged coarse or slightly coarse, but it’s damp, so don’t be tempted to put it in a grinding mill. Use it in its coarse form. Also called Celtic sea salt or sel gris, this mineral-rich salt from the Brittany region of France is especially nice on broiled salmon. Like many others in this food-appreciating time we live in, we’ve come a long way from the days when Morton’s Iodized was the only salt in our kitchen.

Another change we’ve been making is a gradual shift away from prepared spice and herb blends toward our own hand-crafted blends. We keep our old bottles of blends like Northwoods Fire, Southwest Seasoning, Italian Seasoning, Curry Seasoning and so forth, but these days those bottles are filled with similar-but-unique creations. The modifications we make to the original recipes have resulted in blends we are really pleased with, and it’s satisfying to grind and mix our own chili-pepper-based rubs. Carefully considering the ingredients that go into these blends has led us to a fuller understanding of herbs and spices.

This past year our “great discovery” was Penzeys Spices’ whole smoked chipotle chili peppers. Ground with our immersion blender as we need them, these peppers add a rich, smokey heat to chili, squash soups, cloudberry or raspberry chipotle sauce, and chicken noodle soup. Blended into a rub, smoked chipotle’s add another dimension to broiled halibut, salmon, moose or pork.

The spice we’re most anticipating using in the coming year is high-grade Kashmir Mogra saffron. We’ve been using Spanish Coupé which is very nice, but we’ve been wondering if the higher quality Kashmir Mogra is worth it. We’ll let you know what we conclude this fall.

Less than two weeks till we’re back aboard Bandon in Seward!

Cloudberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Make these! Really, we couldn’t believe how good these jam-and-cream-cheese bars came out. You’ll have to patiently wait while they chill in the refrigerator to get the most flavor.

The end of our school year provides us with an education on amounts over or under-ordered in our annual shopping. We ended up a little short on all-purpose flour and a little heavy on whole wheat. The challenge with 100% whole wheat is the heaviness and denseness it lends to baked goods. Mixing finely chopped nuts into the whole wheat crust and layering lighter flavors on top solved the problem in a delicious way.

This recipe would work with any jam. Of course, we love cloudberries and as long as we’re in the Arctic these delicious, rare berries will be our fruit of choice.

Cloudberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Crust

1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
3 tbsp granulated sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake layer

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Top layers

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 cups cloudberry jam

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter 8 x 8 inch glass baking dish. Set aside.
Mix crust ingredients until coarse meal forms.
Press crust mixture into bottom of glass baking dish.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.
Prepare cheesecake layer while crust is baking.
Beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
Pour cream cheese mixture evenly over baked crust.
Return baking dish to oven and bake for an additional 25 minutes, until layer sets.
Mix the remaining ingredients for top layer (except jam) until crumbly.
Evenly and gently spread jam over cream cheese layer taking care not to disturb the cheese layer.
Sprinkle crumble on top of jam.
Return to oven and bake for another 20 minutes, or until top begins to turn golden brown and jam bubbles.
Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
For best results, chill pan in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight before cutting.

Cloudberries, also called aqpik in the Eskimo language of Inupiaq, are a sublimely sweet, berry that grow in the extreme north. Read more about them in these articles:

Coconut Aqpik Thumbprints

The Year-End Pantry: Applesauce Caramel Cookies

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Wrapping up another year in the Arctic before we go to our summer home in Seward, these caramel-topped applesauce cookies were a terrific way to work through the last of our supply of applesauce.

A few lonely jars, bottles and boxes remain atop the cabinetry that lines the walls off our kitchen. Over five meters (sixteen-and-a-half feet) of uninterrupted shelf space that in August was packed tight to the ceiling with everything from chocolate to olives to nuts to jarred jalapenos is now mostly space. The remaining jars of salsa, soy sauce, sun dried tomatoes, Cholula and assorted other items stand like lonely sentinels overlooking our kitchen. It is the same throughout our house as freezers and pantries that had once been packed and piled with nine months worth of food are now nearly empty. And while our spice racks look full, it’s a deception. Many of the bottles are empty or nearly so. Our bulk order for next year went in to Penzeys Spices last week.

Applesauce is a healthful moistening agent in a number of baking recipes. It’s also terrific in oatmeal, as a blintz topping and in pancake batter, and makes for a light snack on its own. When we lived within driving distance of Northern California’s Apple Hill and the numerous orchards there, we made our own applesauce. Up here, we annually purchase a couple of cases of Tree Top Organic from Costco. The cookies in this recipe feature the fall flavor of applesauce in a light, soft cookie. The crunchy carmel-flavored topping adds another layer of sweetness and texture.

Applesauce Caramel Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground mace
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 cup applesauce
caramel topping (see below)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and mace. Set aside.
Cream sugar and butter together.
Add eggs and applesauce and mix well.
Add in dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
Drop tablespoons of batter onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 1 – 2 inches apart.
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until edges of cookies begin to become golden brown.
While cookies are cooling, prepare topping.

Caramel Topping

Ingredients

3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, heavy cream, brown sugar and granulated sugar.
Cook, stirring occasionally until mixture just begins to boil and the sugars are melted.
Remove from heat.
Stir in vanilla.
Scoop caramel mixture from pan with a teaspoon and drip onto cookies.
Let caramel topped cookies fully cool before enjoying them.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Recipe adapted from Chef In Training

Waiter! There’s a Whale in my Soup! Beluga Chowder

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Not your everyday ingredient, beluga whale has a firm, slightly crunchy texture and delicious flavor making it a perfect ingredient in traditional seafood chowders.

When a friend who is on a whaling crew recently offered us a few pounds of fresh beluga, we jumped at the opportunity to work with what for us is a new ingredient. The beluga chowders we’d sampled till this point had all started with beluga being added to canned clam chowder. We couldn’t wait to try beluga with our own recipe. The result was a rich, creamy, flavorful chowder.

We view all seafood through the lens of sustainability. Although commercial whaling and environmental factors have endangered a few of the world’s 29 separate beluga populations, in Arctic Alaska’s Chukchi Sea the species is abundant and appears to be unaffected by the relatively few numbers harvested for subsistence by Inupiat hunters. Typical belugas range in size from about 10 to 18 feet long and weigh between half a ton and two tons. Salmon and cod are among their preferred prey, but they feed opportunistically on a long list of other sea creatures. Interestingly, beluga’s closest relatives are narwhales.

Beluga soups and chowders are very popular among Eskimos. The skin and a little bit of the attached blubber is cut into slices about 1/16 – 1/4 inch thick (.25 – .5 cm) and about 1/2 – 1 inch in width and length. We cut ours thin – about 1/6 inch. Chunks this size become tender after about 10 minutes of simmering, with the skin retaining just the right amount of subtle crunch to it – a bit like conch or whelk. Using our favorite clam chowder recipe as a base, our beluga chowder had guests mopping their bowls with fresh-baked bread and asking for more. See recipe below.

Sweet corn, potatoes, bacon, butter, olive oil, sautéed onions, garlic, salt and pepper are a great base for all kinds of seafood chowder recipes. After that, whether the featured ingredient is razor clams, beluga whale or the assorted catch of the day is up to you. A little tarragon is nice, too.

Beluga and Clam Chowder

Ingredients:

2 pounds beluga whale (skin with blubber), cut into slices 1/16 inch thick and abut 1 inch x 3/4 inch. Each piece should have skin plus about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of blubber attached.
1 pound razor clams or other clams, chopped coarse (This is the weight of clams after they have been drained. But save and set aside their juice.)
clam juice you’ve set aside. The more, the better.
4 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold or yellow potatoes. (These cook up creamier than than Russets)
2 sweet onions, chopped coarse
1/2 pound bacon, cut into small pieces
4 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
6 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 1/2 pound sweet corn (optional)
1/2 cup flour
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sea salt
1/2 tablespoon Italian seasoning (The Spice Hunter’s Italian blend is excellent)
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper (either black or rainbow)
1 teaspoon dry tarragon, crushed (optional)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
6 – 8 very thin slices of lemon

Directions:

Place sliced beluga in a pot. Add just enough water or clam juice to cover. Add a little salt. Over high heat, bring to a boil then reduce to simmer. Cook till beluga is tender (skin is easily pierced by a fork) but still a bit crunchy. About 10 minutes. Use a colander and a bowl to drain water, but keep water. Set beluga aside.
Fry bacon pieces till tender. Do not crisp. Drain the grease and set bacon aside.
Wash potatoes and remove any eyes, but do not remove the skins. Cut into ½ inch cubes and place in a large bowl. Cover with cold water, rinse and drain.
Return water used for cooking beluga to pot. Add potatoes. If necessary, add additional water or clam juice to cover potatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer till potatoes are tender.
Meanwhile, place olive oil in a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Add onions, flour and seasoning (optional). Reduce heat and stir frequently for about five minutes until onions begin to turn translucent. Add garlic and bacon and stir again, cooking for about 1 minute.
Add onion mixture, milk, cream, beluga, cream, salt and pepper to potatoes and water. Heat thoroughly, but do not boil.

Serve piping hot with sourdough bread.

The Tropics Meet The Arctic

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Sometimes a small batch of cookies is all you need. These thumbprint cookies combine the creamy sweetness of Arctic cloudberries with the tropical essence of coconut in an airy confection.

Sorry to temp you with a berry that rarely sees a latitude much south the Arctic Circle. Our favorite berry has yet to be cultivated on any large scale as far as we know, but almost any jam could serve as a substitute in these cookies. Perhaps there is an equivalent rare berry from another interesting part of the world you could taunt us back with?

Coconut Aqpik Thumbprints

Ingredients

1/4 lb. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water (egg wash)
1/3 cup coconut flakes
cloudberry jam (or jam of your choice)

Directions

In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar.
Mix in vanilla.
With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour and salt to butter mixture. Mix until dough comes together.
Roll dough into about 1-inch balls.
Get a bowl ready with egg wash and a plate ready with coconut flakes.
Dip each ball into egg wash.
Roll each ball in coconut.
Place each cookie on parchment-lined baking sheet.
Press an indentation into each cookie. I used the handle end of a silverware knife.
Fill each indentation with jam.
Bake cookies for 20 – 25 minutes, until coconut is golden brown.
Cool and serve.

Makes 15 cookies.

Inspired by Rice Flour and Cardamom

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Light rice cookies with a pinch of cardamom give zest to your afternoon tea or coffee.

Dreaming about the fun of making udon noodles and mochi stuffed with adzuki bean paste caused me to impetuously purchase 25 pounds of rice flour during last year’s annual shopping trip… without having first researched how to make these items. Turns out, udon is made with wheat flour and the rice flour used to make mochi is a sweet rice flour. I now had 25 pounds of flour with no inspiration! A “no inspiration item” often transforms itself into an inspiration in our kitchen. We’ve learned that rice flour is a much better thickener in stews and soups than wheat flour or corn starch. We’ve also learned that rice flour makes light and airy cookies. When matched with the exotic flavor of cardamom, you’ve got a trip to India during your afternoon tea!

The original recipe was for Persian rice cookies. The recipe came out way too crumbly. I set the dough in the refrigerator and contemplated how to fix it. With the addition of a couple more eggs, the cookie dough was very soft and looked like scoops of vanilla ice cream while it waited to be baked. Our initial test for the cookie is dough flavor… yum. Again, it was very light with a punch from the cardamom. After they were baked and fully cooled, they were as delightful.

Cardamom Rice Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp orange extract
3 cups rice flour
5 eggs
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp superfine sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
2 tbsp poppy seeds

Directions

Combine granulated sugar and water in small pot over medium heat.
Bring mixture to a boil, stirring well to dissolve sugar.
Reduce heat and summer for 7 – 10 minutes. Mixture should thicken and reduce to about one cup.
Remove from heat. Stir in orange extract and set aside.
In a medium bowl, stir together rice flour and cardamom. Set aside.
In a bowl of a stand mixer, whisk eggs with superfine sugar until smooth.
Add butter and oil to eggs and beat until fluffy.
Add flour to butter mixture, mix until incorporated.
Gradually add in one cup of the sugar syrup and beat well with mixer.
Place the dough in a container, cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for about six hours.
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Use a cookie scoop to drop out rounds of dough onto baking sheets. Flatten drops slightly with the back of the cookie scoop.
Sprinkle poppy seeds on top of each cookie.
Bake for 12-15 minutes. Bottoms of cookies will be lightly browned.
Remove from the oven and gently place on the cooling racks.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Easy Wheat Bread with Complex Flavors of Coffee, Cocoa and Honey

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Tasty wheat bread with subtle flavors of coffee and chocolate goes well with both savory and sweet accompaniments.

While the all-purpose flour stores in our pantry are diminishing, we still have an abundance of wheat flour. The exceptional wheat bread we made earlier this year was fabulous, but it is time and labor intensive. This weekend called for a loaf with more “auto-pilot” in the directions – and more of the work being done by our trusty Zojirushi bread machine. We found a well-reviewed recipe that included wheat flour. After sampling a slice of the finished product with butter and honey, we both agreed it was a delicious addition to our bread rotation.

Infused Wheat Bread

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup water
1 tsp coffee extract
1/4 cup honey
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp yeast

Directions

Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer and select regular bread setting.
Start machine and relax while the machine does the work!

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com.

Rocky Road Ice Cream

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Rich chocolate ice cream coupled with homemade marshmallows put this ice cream flavor in a top-two tie with Cloudberry Sorbet among our all-time favorites.

Really good chocolate ice cream can be made with really good Dutch processed cocoa. But great chocolate ice cream adds in depth of flavor with quality semi-sweet chocolate. This recipe topped the charts by not adding ordinary marshmallows, but adding extraordinary homemade marshmallows to the ingredients.

Rocky Road Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
5 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup sugar
pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup marshmallow pieces
1 cup chopped almonds

Directions

Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa.
Bring to almost a boil (mixture will steam) and whisk in chocolate chips, whisking until smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in remaining cup of whipping cream. Pour mixture into bowl and set aside.
Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the original saucepan.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.
Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula and creates a custard (and reaches 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer).
Pour the custard into the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth.
Then stir in the vanilla.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
During the last 10 minutes of churning, add in almonds and marshmallow pieces.