Times, they are a changing ⏳

Hello denizens of the world wide web,

Thomas Mates is back in your inbox, whether you like it or not.

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I am going to be making some subtle changes to the ol’ Florida Foodie newsletter. Nothing drastic, but I think I can give you a better, more streamlined product — something sleek and efficient, like it was designed by Elon Musk.

Unlike Elon though, you don’t have to worry about me challenging authoritarian dictators to fist fights on Twitter. I prefer to bottle up my emotions and let them slowly eat away at my soul.

So, along with the changes, I want to hear more from you. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? BLOOD?

[TRENDING: 14-year-old dies in fall from thrill ride at ICON Park in Orlando | Florida ‘Home Hardening’ bill touted as insurance relief, but puts costs up front | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]

Whoops... there’s those pesky emotions slipping out again. Any way, what would you like to see in the newsletter? What kind of recipes would you like to see? Do you have a recipe you would like to share with the group? Do you have any burning foodie questions you want answered?

Let me know what would make this a more enjoyable experience for you and I will do my best to deliver. Drop me a line at tmates@wkmg.com. I’ll be sure to get back to you and you just might see your message end up right here in the newsletter.

Check out the Florida Foodie podcast. You can find every episode in the media player below:

Phat Ash makes fat cookies 🍪

Who doesn’t love a big cookie? That’s a rhetorical question, so please don’t email me if you don’t like cookies. I already know we can’t be friends.

Ashley D’Acunto runs Phat Ash Bakes with her husband. Her business grew out of the pandemic. She’s gone from making shady cookie deals in a Target parking lot to a full brick-and-mortar business that she shares with Grilled Cheezus.

D’Acunto shared her story with Lisa Bell and myself. CLICK HERE to give it a listen.

Small bites 🍩

More pizza 🍕: Pizza Bruno makes a damn fine pizza, but it can be a schlep to get there, depending on where you live. Well, the owner is opening up a second location with an expanded menu. Click here to find out where and when it will be opening up.

Edible ears 👂: You read that correctly. Personally, I think this is a genius piece of marketing. What the heck am I talking about? Click here to find out.

First in Florida 🍔: Shake Shack is opening it’s first restaurant in Florida with a drive-thru. It’s happening this week. All the details are here.

More openings: Looking for late-night sandwiches? Check this out. Fast casual Vietnamese food? Try this. Can’t decide between burritos or sushi? How about both. BBQ on the Space Coast? Yup, that too.

Celebrating with fancy food 🥂: Edible Education Experience is celebrating five years as nonprofit teaching kitchen and culinary garden. They are hosting dinner catered by local chefs to commemorate the occasion. Tickets can be bought here.

Something to try at home 🍽️

I am going to preface this by saying that I might be expressing an unpopular opinion.

I am from the Northeast and as such I have very strong opinions about sandwiches. People don’t know this, but Pennsylvania has some of the best hoagies that can be found. A big part of that is the bread.

Here’s where I get to the unpopular opinion. Publix’s bread is just OK. It’s fine, it gets the job done but its too soft. The crust is all wrong.

So, I’ve started making my own. I found a super simple recipe that works great and I am going to share it with you now.

This recipe comes from Josh Weissman.

Ingredients:

• 1.25 cups (295ml water)
• 1 tablespoon bread machine or instant yeast (10g)
• 3 1/2 (500g) cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar (13g)
• 2 teaspoons salt (5g)
• 2 tbsp lard, bacon fat or shortening (30g)

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer (if you have one, you can also do this all by hand), add your flour, sugar and salt. Whisk it all together. Also, preheat your over to 400 degrees.

Step 2: Then add your bacon fat, which is what I use, to your flour mixture. Then, using two forks or your whisk, thoroughly incorporate your fat into the flour mixture until it forms fine crumbs.

Step 3: In a bowl, warm your water to about 100 degrees. That should only take about 30 seconds in the microwave. Then, add your yeast to the water. I recommend using bread machine yeast here. It helps keep your bread soft but it will still develop a nice crust. Let your yeast bloom, should take about 3-5 minutes and your water should look foamy.

Step 4: Fix a dough hook to the stand mixer and set it to low. Then, slowly add your water and yeast mixture. Once the dough comes together, bump up the mixer to medium and let it mix for 5 minutes.

Step 5: Move your dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it proof at room temp for an hour or until roughly doubled in size.

Step 6: Now, on a lightly floured work surface, cut your dough into the desired number of rolls. This recipe can make two 16 inch rolls or a four 8 inch rolls. Roll your dough into balls and then gently with your hands roll and stretch your dough out into logs. Then place the logs onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (you may need two baking sheets), cover it with a damp towel and let it proof for another 20 minutes.

Step 7: Once proofed, take a sharp knife or razor and make three, shallow, 45 degree cuts on the top of the roll. You can see what I mean in the photo above, but pardon my bad photography and messy counter top. I was making bread, get off my back.

Step 8: Get a 10 inch skillet or small sauce pan and fill with an inch of water bring to a boil. Once boiling, put your in the dough, and slide the steaming water on a rack underneath the dough. Close the door and let it bake for 8 minutes.

Step 9: Remove your water pan from the oven and let the bread bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Step 10: Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool to room temperature on a wire rack. If you want, you can also brush it down with some melted butter before it cools and then sprinkle some salt over the top. It’s optional but it adds a lot of flavor.

That’s it. I know it seems like a lot, but it’s actually super easy. I used it for cheese steaks the first time I made it. They turned out great.

OK kids, that’s it for today. Remember, tell me what you want to see from the Florida Foodie newsletter in the future.

Until next time, you can stay up to date on Central Florida’s foodie community by checking out the Florida Foodie page of our website. We also have a Florida Foodie business directory there. If you have a restaurant or food-related business that you want to add to it, just click here.

Please take the time to rate and review the Florida Foodie podcast, I would appreciate it. The reviews help new people find our podcast and we work really hard to make it fun and interesting.

Be sure to reach out to me as well. You can share your favorite recipe and we might feature it in our next newsletter.

- Tom