Cuisine - American, Places - New England

[photo] Bickford’s Dutch Baby

You all know how much I love Dutch Babies – the oven-baked German pancake delight. So, when I was in Brattleboro, Vt., recently at the Bickford’s Restaurant, I was psyched to see they had a Dutch Baby on their menu. (See my last post on German pancakes.) They also do an apple pancake version.

This was the end result:

Bickford's Dutch BabyBickford’s version wasn’t as dense as some I’ve had but it was still filling. It also didn’t take as long as I had thought. I was anticipating at least a 30-40 minute wait, but it really only took about 20 minutes, and came out along with my other dining partners entrees. In parts, the custard-like interior was more like scrambled eggs. I opted to have it served with powdered sugar and lemon wedges. But you could also have it with fresh Vermont maple syrup (I wasn’t that adventurous.)

It was a nice treat to see it on Bickford’s menu. I think next time I’ll try the apple version dubbed “the house specialty” on the menu.

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Cuisine - Desserts, Foodie Destination

Foodie Destination: Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour

Ice CreamobileFor any foodie, the Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour in Waterbury, Vt., is a mecca. With a tour, free samples, peek at the plant, gift shop and flavor graveyard, it’s a frozen dairy delight wonderland in the middle of New England.

When my hubby and I decided to plan a trip back to New England to visit our family, this was a must-see on our (more mine) vacation itinerary.

Everyone has their favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor. Mine is Phish Food – a glorious chocolate concoction with a marshmallow swirl and chocolate fudge fishies named for the alt-rock band, Phish. With other ingenious creations like Cherry Garcia (named after the Grateful Dead’s late Jerry Garcia), Chunky Monkey (another of my favorites) and Chubby Hubby, Ben & Jerry’s is the brainchild of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Two self-made entrepreneurs who took a love of ice cream and mixed it with a correspondence course and voila! A worldwide phenomenon was born!

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Recipes

Wholy zucchini bread

I was gifted some very large zucchinis this week. We love zucchini bread at our house but we’ve been trying to cut out the white flour and granulated sugars from our diet. So, thanks to Google I found a really great recipe from Lemonbasil for 100% Whole Wheat Maple Zucchini Bread.

The results? Fantabulous! A moist, slightly sweet and refreshing summery quick bread.

I love that you can type anything that you want into Google and find a good recipe. None of our South Beach Diet books had a recipe for whole wheat zucchini bread, so this was a welcome surprise. It came out a lot better than other recipes we have tried. I’m sure you can substitute applesauce or a mushy banana in place of the butter if you want to remove some of the extra fat and calories. We decided to switch out the coconut oil (it can be kinda pricey and hard to find) with canola oil. We have lots of maple syrup in our cupboards from Vermont, but if you can’t find the real thing in your area, try molasses instead.

If you like zucchini bread or just would like to try it now that it’s in season, this recipe is a must! Plus, it has all the benefits of whole wheat flour. So, go ahead and splurge on that second slice already!

100% Whole Wheat Maple Zucchini Bread
from Lemonbasil

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup raw coconut oil, melted (We substituted the same amount of canola oil)
1 1/4 cup real maple syrup
Zest and juice from 1 lemon
3 cups well-packed shredded zucchini
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, butter, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice and syrup together. In a separate bowl, whisk the flower, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir in the dry ingredients into the wet. Fold in the zucchini.

Pour batter into two greased 9-inch loaf pans. Bake 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

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