Super Bowl Party Archives - Culinary Crafts (2024)

I was nine when my dad died.

My brain dealt with the grief by shutting down, and over two decades later, I still struggle to find memories of him. But every once in a while, I get pieces:

Him helping me deliver newspapers.

Or the times he’d bundle my sisters and me in layers of snow gear and blankets and pile us into a cheap plastic sled hitched to his snowmachine. He’d drive us around for hours over frozen streets and across icy rivers into the silent forests of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Most of all, though, I remember his joy for food. A surprising number of the few memories I do have of him revolve around his culinary experiments.

Dad's Rice Pudding

One of my most cherished memories is of him turning leftover dinner rice into bowls of piping hot rice pudding. We’d scarf it down, and then, with our bellies full of its comforting warmth, he’d send us off to bed.

But when he died, that recipe died with him.

It had only ever been written inside his head and in the motions of his hands stirring rice that bubbled on the stove. I tried to recreate it over the years, but it never quite turned out the same.

Still, I persisted. Whenever the weight of missing would become too heavy, I’d give his rice pudding another go. Experimenting, just like he did, made him feel closer and the sadness less overwhelming, until eventually the act itself of making—of using my hands to stir a bubbling pot of rice—was enough.

So now, every time I make the rice pudding recipe I created and cobbled together from my attempts over years and decades, I remember.

I remember how much my dad loved me. I remember his hands, stained with grease, holding a wooden spoon as I stood on a chair, my hands on the counter so I could lean in and watch. And even though grief never really fades, making this rice pudding stills its waves and keeps me from forgetting.

Rice Pudding

Ingredients

• 3 cups uncooked rice
• 4 ½ cups water
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 3 tsp cornstarch
• ¾ tsp salt
• 4 ½ cups whole milk
• 6 Tbsp butter
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla
• 6 egg yolks, beaten
• allspice or clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon to taste

Instructions

1. Cook the rice with the water, either over the stove or in a rice cooker. If using leftover rice, skip this step and replace these two ingredients with 8-9 cups of cooked rice
2. In a separate bowl, whisk sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add this mixture, plus the milk, to the cooked rice in a large pot and place on stove over medium to medium-high heat. Heat to a boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.
3. Slowly temper the eggs by adding about 1 cup of the hot rice mixture to the beaten yolks. Once mixed, add the tempered eggs back into the rest of the rice mixture along with any spices you might prefer. I usually start with a ½ tsp of clove or allspice, ¼ tsp of nutmeg, and 1 tsp of cinnamon and then bump it up from there. Mix everything until fully combined and return the pan to medium heat.
4. Let your rice pudding heat up until it thickens and starts to bubble. Remove from the heat and divide into ½ cup portions (or more, if measuring with your heart). Eat plain or finish with your favorite toppings. Mine usually consist of fresh blackberries with an additional sprinkle of spices.

A few years ago, my wife treated me to an extra-special birthday present, a trip to Napa Valley and a meal from one of my personal idols, Chef Thomas Keller. (Chef Keller is the owner and chef of The French Laundry, a three-Michelin-star restaurant that Anthony Bourdain once called, “the best restaurant in the world, period.”) As expected, the meal was exquisite. My favorite moment came at the end of the meal when the waiter brought out a cheese flight for the guests to enjoy.

The second I saw those cheeses, I did a double take. One taste confirmed my suspicion; Chef Keller was serving selections from Utah’s own Beehive Cheese—the very same cheeses we had been featuring for years.

Beehive Cheese

Our relationship with Beehive Cheese goes back to 2005 when they opened their doors in Uintah, Utah. That year they gave us a tour of their facility, and we were so inspired by their dedication to making great cheese that we formed a partnership on the spot.

Every year, our chefs gather ingredients for several new flavors of cheeses they want to create. Then we make the trek up to Ogden where Pat and his team generously share their knowledge and skill to guide us through the cheese-making process. It’s one of our favorite days of the year!

Why is cheddar cheese orange?

All the cheeses we’ve made with Beehive Cheese start with a classic white Irish cheddar base. Wait, white cheddar? Isn’t cheddar supposed to be orange?

Actually, no.

Cheddar cheese, like the cow’s milk it’s made from, is naturally white. The orange cheddar that you see in stores contains coloring that’s been added to give it that characteristic hue. Why would cheesemakers go through the trouble of changing the color? The answer is history.

During the 1600s, milk made in England came from Jersey and Guernsey cows, two breeds that give milk with an unusually high fat content. During the summer when these cows ate a lot of green grass, their milkfat had a slight orange color due to the beta-carotene in their diet. That orange tint came to be a sign of high-quality, high-fat cheese.

It didn’t take long for unscrupulous cheesemakers to realize that they could make more money if they skimmed off the valuable cream and sold it to make butter. Then they added carrot juice or some other coloring to the milk to make it look like it still had that orange fat in it.

Over time, cheddar cheese came to be associated (at least in England and parts of the US) with a distinctive orange color. But don’t be fooled. The highest quality cheddars made today are often white.

Beehive Cheese makes cheddar better

Over the years, we’ve made dozens of different flavors of cheddar with the help of Pat and the other culinary wizards at Beehive Cheese. We’ve learned that cheesemaking is equal parts art and science, with an added dash of luck.

Our favorite step of the process (other than tasting) is adding the flavors. After the curds have formed and been cut into slabs, they are layered on top of each other to press out the liquid whey, a process called “cheddaring.” When enough liquid has been removed, the curds are shredded into smaller chunks again. That’s the point at which we add the cracked pepper, tarragon, black truffles, or whatever seasoning we’re going to use. When the curds are pressed together into blocks, the ingredients will be diffused throughout the cheese in a beautiful marbling pattern.

Alternatively, sometimes we just add the ingredients as a rub on the outside of the wheel and let the flavors slowly seep into the cheese as it ages. That aging process can takes months or even years. The longer a cheese wheel is allowed to age, the more sugars the bacteria inside will consume, and the sharper and tangier the cheese will taste.

It takes time and patience to create a great cheddar, but when you do…it’s all worth it.

Cheese Madness

This month, in honor of March Madness, we’ll be looking back at some of our favorite collaborative creations with Beehive Cheese.

Each day on our Facebook and Instagram stories, we’ll be posting info on a pair of our past cheesy creations. You can vote on which cheese should advance from our “Savory Sixteen” to the next round of voting, and we’ll continue until we’ve crowned a champion!

You can find links to our social media at the bottom of this page or our Home Page.

Wishing you all the delicious cheesiness.

Eat well.

by Kira Rasmussen

Baker and Proud Texas Woman

A friend of mine asked me the secret to making a great Texas sheet cake.

“Ask a Texas woman to make it,” I said. "Just kidding."

(I was not kidding.)

I grew up in El Paso where my mom (also a Texas girl) taught us how to bake. Every Sunday afternoon we made cookies, brownies, pastries, or cakes, including one of my favorites, Texas sheet cake. When I took a job at Target Bakery, it was a huge step down from my mom’s kitchen; Target didn’t make anything fresh, and it was honestly pretty boring. I was glad to move to The Chocolate in Orem where I got to make way more fun recipes, including their awesome pretzel cake. Now I’m at Culinary Crafts, which is about as far from Target Bakery as you can get!

But of all the great pastries and desserts I’ve tried, nothing beats the old classic Texas sheet cake.

The recipe below is my mom’s tried and true cake. However, I have found that in Utah the consistency and fluff are a bit different. I find you need to reduce the baking soda by ⅛ teaspoon. This helps the rise.

But it’s no surprise that sheet cakes made in Texas taste better. Everything from Texas is a little better!(Kidding, not kidding.) 😊

Ingredients

Cake

• ½ cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda (reduce by ⅛ tsp at high altitude)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ½ cup vegetable shortening
• 6 Tbsp cocoa
• 1 cup water

Frosting

• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 6 Tbsp buttermilk
• 6 Tbsp cocoa
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 lb powdered sugar

Instructions

Cake

1. In a mixing bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Whisk until smooth and then set aside.
2. In another mixing bowl, combine and sift flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
3. Bring butter, vegetable shortening, cocoa, and water to boil in saucepan.
4. Pour hot mixture over flour mixture and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Add buttermilk mixture and stir to thoroughly incorporate.
5. Pour batter into buttered and floured half-sheet-cake pan (about 15 in. x 10 in.) and bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until edges of cake pull away from the pan and the cake springs back when you touch it.

Frosting

1. About 10 minutes before the cake is done baking, start the frosting. Bring buttermilk, butter, and cocoa to a boil.
2. Quickly remove from heat (it will not be pretty) and add vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
3. Once you’ve removed the cake from over, spread frosting over cake. (It’s important that the cake still be hot to help the frosting spread evenly.) Allow to cool, then cut into squares and serve. (The frosting tends to stick to a metal knife, so using a plastic knife can help you make cleaner cuts.)

by Madison Oliveria

Wedding and Sales Specialist; Kimball Terrace Venue Manager

I’ve always had a huge sweet tooth.

My parents love to tell the story of when I was five years old and our Basset hound, Elvis, stole my cookie. They heard a commotion in the backyard and came running to see what was wrong. Apparently, I had grabbed Elvis by one droopy ear and shoved my entire little arm down his throat (past my elbow), screaming, “GIVE ME BACK MY COOKIE!”

Lucky for the poor dog, my parents came to the rescue. “It’s okay, sweetie! It’s okay!” they assured me. “We’ll get you a new cookie!!”

Since then, I’ve had a lot of cookies and sampled a lot of recipes, but the absolute best are these chocolate macadamia nut cookies that I found at Culinary Crafts. In fact, I had these cookies served as favors when Culinary Crafts catered my wedding. They don’t use much flour, so these cookies have a gooey, fudge-like texture. Seriously, it’s almost like eating brownie batter in cookie form!

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Ingredients

• 12 large eggs
• 1 ⅛ cups sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened chocolate chips
• 2 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
• ⅔ cup butter
• 5 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 ¾ cups macadamia nuts, roasted
• 3 cups white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Whip eggs and sugar for several minutes until light and fluffy.
2. Melt unsweetened and semisweet chocolate over a double boiler. Melt butter in a separate pot. When butter is melted, pour over chocolate and stir until completely melted.
3. Add melted chocolate and vanilla to the egg/sugar mixture. Beat until thick and glossy.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together and add to mixture.
5. Fold in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips.
6. Refrigerate the mixture for several hours or overnight.
7. Let cookie mixture soften at room temperature before scooping.
8. Scoop dough with a #24 (red) ice cream scoop onto baking sheet. Each cookie will have approx. 1.5 oz of dough. Slightly flatten the balls of dough.
9. Bake at 325° for 7 minutes or until set and cracked on top. Cookies should have no glossy spots when taken out of the oven.
10. Enjoy!

by Tricia Garside

Kitchen Manager

When I was a little girl in Singapore, ong lai was the name of the delicious pineapple tarts that people would enjoy on Chinese New Year. In the Hokkien dialect, ong lai means “pineapple,” or it can also mean “fortune comes.”

Pineapple tarts are still a very popular pastry during the festive season in Asia because they taste amazing and they are believed to be an omen of good luck and prosperity in the coming year. We would bake batches of these signature mouthwatering treats and give them as gifts to friends and neighbors...if we didn’t eat them all first!

Chinese New Year Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple Filling

Ingredients

• 6 ripe pineapples
• 3 cups of coarse sugar
• 3 cloves
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 3 segments of star anise

Instructions

1. Remove skin and eye (the core) from pineapples.
2. Grate pineapples and place them in a large aluminum saucepan. Add cloves, cinnamon stick, and star anise. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens, then spoon out the cinnamon, anise, and cloves.
3. Let the pineapple filling cool. Store in the refrigerator overnight until ready for use.

Pastry

Ingredients

• 1½ cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 pound of butter
• 4 beaten egg yolks (set aside ½ egg white for glaze)
• 2 oz of iced water

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture turns into course crumbs.
2. Make an indentation in the middle of the dough and pour in the egg yolks and water. Press the ingredients together gently with your fingers. Be careful not to knead the dough too much or it will lose its flakiness.
3. Gently roll the dough into 1-inch balls, wrap in plastic, and chill them in the fridge overnight.

Pineapple Tarts Assembly

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Lightly flour a flat surface and roll the dough out to ¼ inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut 50 2-inch rounds. Place them on a cookie sheet.
3. Place a spoonful of pineapple filling on each dough round. (Some bakers like to decorate their tarts with thin strips of dough in a crisscross pattern over the filling.)
4. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow tarts to cool before you transfer them off the cookie sheet.