Howdy Florida Foodie friends,
It’s the last living survivor of the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919, Thomas Mates.
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I hope everyone is doing well.
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I am doing pretty good myself. I spent the last weekend repurposing some old pallets into a verticle garden. Check it out.
I know it looks a little rough at the moment, but we’re going to fill it out with some more plants and clean it up a little. I think it will come out pretty nice. Hoping to get some herbs, onions and peppers coming out of there — along with the flowers to keep the pollinators happy.
I’ve had an itch to do some baking recently, though I’m not very good at it. Unfortunately, the garden was way more labor-intensive than I anticipated and I just have not had the time. Hopefully, I’ll have some free baking time in the next couple weeks. I’ll keep you posted.
Speaking of baking, I have a bit of a treat for you a little later in the newsletter. It’s a special guest recipe from my colleague and the host of Your Florida Daily, Katrina Scales.
OK, with that tease in mind, let’s jump into it.
Catering with a cause 👩🍳
It’s never too late to take a new path. Chef Jill Holland didn’t find a career she was truly passionate about until her mid-30s. She went to Valencia College’s culinary school at 36. That was in 2011 and she is now the head chef for Plate Above Catering.
Plate Above is not just an average catering business. All the business proceeds go toward funding Second Harvest Food Bank’s Culinary Training Program.
You can learn more about the business and the chef’s conversation with Candace Campos and Lisa Bell on the latest episode of Florida Foodie.
>Find the full episode here<
Don’t forget you can also find every episode of Florida Foodie on YouTube.
Small bites🍮
Bad cluck 🐔: The Guy Fieri-back chain Chicken Guy! opened a flagship store in 2021 but now just a couple years later, that restaurant might get the boot. The property’s landlord filed to evict Chicken Guy! from the property. You can find the details here.
New taco spot 🌮: Torchy’s Tacos is a quickly growing Tex-Mex chain out of Austin. It recently opened its first Central Florida store in December and another location is set to open next week. Here is where and when you can give it a try.
Healthy soda 🥤: Can a soda be healthy? That is a question Consumer Reports sought to answer. You can find the results here, but you have to be a News 6 Insider. It is free to sign up!
Asking for support 🌿: A vegan diner in Casselberry, which is a favorite spot of News 6 Investigator Erik Sandoval, fell on some hard times and put out a plea for support. You can hear the story from the owners here.
Something to try at home 🍽️
As promised, we have a special recipe from Your Florida Daily host Katrina Scales.
Katrina is quite the amateur baker. Last week, she brought in a pie that had the newsroom buzzing. So I asked her to share the recipe and here we are with her Sweet and Salty Guinness Chocolate Pie with Beer Marshmallow Meringue.
This recipe will yield two 9-inch pies or you can split it into 10 mini pies.
Pretzel crust:
- 2 cups crushed pretzels
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar (firmly packed)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, mix together pretzels, graham cracker crumbs, butter and brown sugar.
Stir together with a rubber spatula until well incorporated.
Divide mixture between two 8 or 9-inch pie plates.
Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely before filling.
Guinness chocolate filling:
- 8 large egg yolks
- 1 cup sugar
- 14.9 oz. can Guinness Draught, divided
- 2 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 7 oz. high-quality bittersweet chocolate, evenly chopped
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
Whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a non-reactive bowl.
Pour 1 cup of Guinness in a heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan (reserve the rest for later use – no drink!).
Add heavy cream and whisk to combine.
Set over medium-high heat and cook until very hot but not boiling.
Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate.
When chocolate has melted, whisk in the egg mixture in a very thin stream as to not scramble the egg.
Whisk in cornstarch and return to heat source. Whisk over medium heat until thickened.
Divide mixture between pie pans. Use a rubber spatula to effectively remove all the pudding from the saucepan; quickly smooth the chocolate into the crust.
Refrigerate while making the marshmallow topping.
Beer marshmallow topping:
Note: This marshmallow meringue is really gooey and not your average dry, fluffy meringue. It’s more like melted marshmallow fluff. And it makes A LOT.
Place the remaining Guinness in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until reduced to 3 tablespoons.
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 jumbo marshmallows (or about 18-20 large) cut into quarters with kitchen scissors
- 3 tablespoons beer reduction (as instructed above)
Whisk sugar, egg whites, water and salt together in a large metal bowl.
Set bowl over a simmering pan of water; whisk constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture is hot to the touch.
Remove bowl from simmering saucepan and stir in marshmallows pieces.
Let stand for 3-5 minutes until marshmallow pieces have softened.
Return bowl to simmering water and beat together using a hand-held mixer.
Beat for several minutes until mixture thickens.
Remove bowl from simmering water and add beer reduction. Continue to beat mixture until it has cooled slightly.
Preheat oven to broil.
Divide mixture between two pie pans and place under broiler in oven. Watch constantly – it’s easy for the marshmallow to burn! Remove from oven when nice and toasty.
Refrigerate pies until well set – about 3-4 hours.
Note: Use a warm knife (dipped in hot water then wiped dry) to achieve cleanly cut slices of pie. That marshmallow topping is sticky!
That’s it for today.
Also, please take the time to rate and review the Florida Foodie podcast.
Send me your recipes so I can share them with everyone. My email is tmates@wkmg.com.
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