Author: Chef M

Whether you call them dream bars, magic bars, or seven-layer bars, these loaded confections should appeal to just about everyone; we certainly remember them fondly from our childhood. But our first attempt at re-creating these bars in the test kitchen led to an undeniable realization: They contain far too many ingredients, making them too sweet for modern tastes. To revamp these bars we ditched the seven-layer idea, nixing the superfluous including chips of all kinds (from chocolate to white chocolate and butterscotch), toffee bits, and graham crackers and choosing only the most essential and traditional ingredients: coconut and pecans. This…

While the buttery flavor and crunchy texture of toffee are incredibly appealing, it can be a pain to make. No shame in this game: Commercial toffee bits can be great. Even so, most toffee bar recipes lack not only toffee flavor but also a solid balance of the sweet, salty, and crunchy elements that should define them. To mimic the flavor of toffee right down to the crust, we added brown sugar to the shortbread; dark brown had the most impact. We also stirred toffee bits right into the dough to up the toffee flavor considerably. When the crust was…

Yes, a small amount of chocolate can be a part of a nutritious diet. The key, apart from portion size, is sticking to a higher cacao chocolate, which contains more antioxidants. A piece of chocolate bark makes the perfect alternative to a candy bar. We filled ours with crunchy roasted pepitas and chewy, tart goji berries; cinnamon and spicy chipotle powder gave it a surprising depth and some heat, while a hit of sea salt brought out all the flavors. Stirring some grated chocolate into melted chocolate proved a simple but effective tempering technique, resulting in chocolate that set up…

These are great to serve at a barbecue, particularly if your bananas are ripening too quickly. My favourite variety is the naturally sweet Lady Finger but, unlike the more common Cavendish banana, these need to be dotted with lots of black patches to be properly ripe, otherwise they have a very drying tanniny mouthfeel which is most unappealing. I have three Tahitian lime trees in pots and they bear fruit so prolifically that I have an embarrassment of riches when they’re in season and am always looking for ways to utilise them. They have a great affinity with coconut so…

Southern cooks know bacon makes everything better.

This is a bit of a French fancy. It has loads of flavour from the dried mushrooms, which are a handy storecupboard ingredient as they instantly perk up most casseroles. If you really want to impress your guests, serve this while wearing a string of onions round your neck. And a beret, of course.

If you can’t find red snapper, just use any whole fish sea bream is always good cooked whole choosing whichever looks freshest. But get the fishmonger to gut it. Life’s too short to do that yourself.