That Other Holiday Bread Pandoro

 Everyone knows that seasonal favorite panettone.It's that large Northern Italian based sweet bread. People either love it or hate it's slices dotted with raisins and orange peels bits. Most pick those out. However there is bread's simpler version  - pandoro or "golden bread". This elegant  bread is simply heaven on earth thanks to the amount of butter used in it.

Fashion designer and New contributor Christopher Petkanas wrote about this leavenly bread in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. Pandoro is  a favorite treat  during the holidays (there is an Easter version 'Colomba Pasquale a dove shaped bread filled with creme Anglaise.)Ot is a tall star shaped bread that is meant to be sliced horizontally and dusted with the powdered sugar that comes with each b read.It's more like a giant brioche, both in crumb and flavor.Few bakeries bake it .There is  Settipane's that has branches in Brooklyn, one in Harlem and Bruno's in Freehold ,New Jersey . They create pandoro as well as panettone, however they only bake about one hundred of one while they mass produce about four thousand loaves of panettone this season.Pandoro is not as known as its' cousin,.The company's chief baker, Bilena Settipane wishes more people would come to appreciate it. She suggests serving ti with marmalade, nociola, pistachio spreads vin Santo and even gelato. To be honest pan doro is just good sliced as a luxurious breakfast or snack,

.Can it be made at home? Yes , but it is is difficult according to Roy Schvartzapel whose company From Roys' supplies panettone in California and will be introducing pandoro shortly. It shouldn't even be a recipe because it has no leavening. The delicate enriched dough uses a starter or biga , a mix if yeast and flour that has to be mixed with a few drops of water. The second dough or the bulk of the bread is made from flour granulated sugar,honey egg yolk and lemon zest. Vanilla and salt are also added   . After this is mixed  half cup of melted butter is slowly added to the dough and mixed in.The special pan also has to be buttered and then the bread has to be proofed two times There is also factoring in the right ambient temperature and humidity.this could result in a gummy texture and an informed crust. It takes seven to nine hours in total but two days  or more is more traditional according to Iginio Massari, the universally known high priest of panettone. Home bakers also don;t have access to vanillan, one for the preservatives that can lengthen pandoro's shelf life.

Pandoro is best when  bought and it still can be during this time of year. Buy it for its' truly heavenly taste. It is a different, more buttery spin on panettone.

Top Chef'sTop Draw

 One of the most interesting reality shows is Top Chef. It's a fascinating look at chefs and their dishes along with how they can  be up for a challenge.This is why it's one of the longest running realty competition shows on TV these days. It appeals to humanity's two favorite  things blood lust and food.

Regular contributor Brett Anderson wrote about this crowd pleaser in today's New York Times Food section. Top Chef is such a part of the zeitgeist.It has introduced audiences to various chefs , previously unheard of along with broadening people's horizons by visiting various cities.It now has a global audience of millions and the winner not only receives interantional attention but $250,000. The twenty seasons show has made its'host Padma Lakshi a household staple  along with promoting such vibrant and bold chefs as Eric Adejepong, Nini Nguyen and Kristin Kish to name a few. It gives viewers a window on such diverse cities as Portland Oregon and Paducah Kentuvcky,bringing tourism and adventurous foodies to their local restaurants.How did this show come about? Thank Project Runway, the first successful show of their shared production company Magical Elves. Food was also th e focus of another one of their shows , the famed "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy". It also helped the show that Tom Colicchio, a famous chef in his own right pushed it.

Yet there were some qualms. Early on food writer Gail Simmons was nervous about the genre. She had nightmares that it could be like a food version of another famous and long running reality show "Survivor" she feared she 'd be tied to a tree and eating insects. Yet Top Chef was more.It took from the widely popular Japanese cooking competition program "Iron Chef" with behind the scenes  of such reality hits like "Real World". It was an instant hit.In the process it  conditioned a large segment of the population and a generation of chefs to believe that cooking professionals should be able to prove their worth in a spectacle , worthy of the gladiators at the Colisseum. Unfortunately for the contestants there are down sides to  being on the show. They have no idea how they'll be portrayed in story lines created by producers until they watch the episodes. There is cyber bullying witnessed by Season 11 winner Nicholas Elmi  he was called a coward under a reposted picture of his young son dressed as the Cowardly Lion. Then there's the isolation where contestants  basically are treated like sequestered jurists during a high profile murder trial. They're cut ooff from family friends and all forms of communication. It is a lonely , sometimes frustrating period. They are also paid next to nothing, which is similar to young cehfs working gratis or for pennies at popular eateries.

No matter how people feel about it Top Chef will always be a top rated show. foodies love the recipe challenges as well as the drama.It combines hmanity's favorite things, competition and food.

Ice And Fancy

 Who would have thought ice would become a thing It's usedoften enough. Even on a frosty cold day most crave a drink with it. Nowit's becoming more elevated and even glamorous.

Contributor and social media editor Becky Hughes wrote about this staple gone glam in today's New York Times food section. Americans havealways loved ice. even Mark Twain in 1896 wrote that ice has been so inextricably linked with the United States. "There is but a single specialty with us,only one thing that can be called the wide name American." he had written ," That is the national devotion to ice water." It all started in 1806 with Frederic Tudor according to Jonathan Reees, a history professor at Colorado State UNiversity Pueblo who has published three books about the development of American refrigeration. Tudor would give ice away at bars to get people hooked on it. It work, giving the new country a long standing addiction to cold drinks. By 1860 Americans developed a taste for ice year round and by 1875 people regularly had iced delivered to their homes. It was in 1925 however when electric refrigerators came into Americna life and with them ice cube trays. Now there are all sorts, from rounded balls to Korean made ice machine that produced the pebbled ice that cool off drinks at restaurants and fast food joints.

Yet it is "glam ice" that's making headlines. Thanks to Tiktok, developer of all trends these days, ice making has taken on new heights. There are dozens of videos showing how to make ice cubes, ice balls and ice squares along with making "snow ice" (which wou;d be perfect for making Sno-Cones), Home chefs are spending money on expensive pebble making ice machines that give the same size crunchy frozen bites that Sonic puts in their drinks.Ice lovers are combining  coffee in theirs which will go well with milk and even seltzer.Some are  even making hot sauce ice and Spaghettio's ice followed by Pepto Bismo Ice,Bars are putting giant spheres of ice in their drinks.These have to be clear. Drinkers have rejected cocktails with "cloudy" ice in them. There is even a custom ice company founded by Leslie Kirchhoff. Her company sells cubes for up to fourteen (!) dollars a cube. Hers have suspended flowers in them, created by a special method(which she'll never reveal). She'll even create ones with company logos on them . Home chefs can do the same thing by dropping mint leaves or small citrus wedges in prettily cut ice trays. Amazon has a dazzling array of trays that are not that expensive. Take a look at their rose and diamond shaped ones which range in price from $6.99 to $9.99.

Ice is America's addiction. Yet it does wonders to everything from whiskey to cola.They're a fun and now glam to make and use.

The Newest Trend: Old Skillets

At one time or another home chefs hear the family lore about cast iron skillets.How sturdy they were, how they could could everything from eggs to cornbread. It leaves the modern cook, used to Teflon coated ones, with some envy. Luckily this American classic is coming back big time.

Julia Moskin wrote about them in today's New York York Times Food section. Many home chefs as well as professional ones are falling in love with this leftover from the 18th Century and with good reason. They are versatile and can be used to cook up everything from breakfast to dessert.Another reason is that cast iron is a better conductor of heat than the more modern stainless steel and aluminum.It keep the food cooked in it hotter long after the heat below has been turned off. Home chefs looking to buy one should be warned. Don't be lured by price. Yes, Wal-Mart offers one for only sixteen dollars - which is a true bargain but it's not that great. Opt for the more costly Finex ten inch skillet which sells for $165 or the pricier Borough  Furnace skillet at $250. For fifty dollars more home chefs can get the Field one.Home chefs should remember that the more expensive ones are made the same with old fashioned craftsmanship. From the 1700's on skillets were hand poured and polished . The end result was a thinner , lighter skillet with a smooth cooking surface, attributes that the modern ones such as the Wal-Mart Lodge one doesn't have.The new pans do come preseasoned, something that had to be done at home with earlier ones

Many home chefs have a problem with preseasoning and tempering, according to Ms. Moskin Each of the skillet makers have their own preferred system of cleaning and reseasoning.The advice is simple: treat the pan as a 19th Century cook would.Just simple cooking and cleaning will season it.Skillets had natural coatings formed by cooking with fat and bonding the fat molecules to the pan's surface.She recommends using the pan often for projects like shallow frying, cooking bacon or frying chicken.Afterwards, scrape the surface clean with a stiff brush, a bench scraper, a kind of chopper, or just salt. Rinse with very hot water and if needed a drop of soap. Put it back on the stove over a low heat until completely dry, This is what makes the patina.Keep in mind though that if the pan is unused for a long time , the coating will become sticky, rusty or even both, Store skillets in the cupboard or better yet the oven to protect them from dust. If there are a stack of them, then place paper towels between them.Cast iron will last decades if treated properly, and makes a great legacy gift for anyone

An old fashioned cast iron skillet is a modern kitchen must have. It can fry ,bake and saute along with lasting for decades. Forget all these Teflon coated pans. Get the real deal!