Punkinnutters

In the spirit of friendly competition, I prepared these tasty morsels in response to Ken Albala's Homemade Sourdough and Lebanese Halwa-based Fluffernutter--which looks DELICIOUS! Since Fluffernutter traditionally makes use of commonly-available, pre-prepared ingredients, I tried to keep the variations to a minimum.

I started with the same Breton Mini base as in the previous post, then slathered on a layer or whipped creme cheese sweetened with locally-produced Maple Sugar from Fruth's Sugarbush in Vanlue, Ohio, then added another locally-produced product, Pumpkin Butter from Cooper's Cider Mill in Bucyrus, Ohio. Since Dave Cooper does an amazing job sussing the flavor out of the pumpkin, I did nothing else to it other than top it with a pan-toasted, maple sugar and cinnamon apricot kernel and a single lingonberry for a hint of seasonal tartness.

The flavor combination is amazing--if I do say so for myself--crunchy, smooth, fatty from the cheese, tart from the lingonberry. This morsel would be especially tasty if prepared with Amish goat's milk cheese or another soft chèvre. Also, the pumpkin butter could be substituted with apricot butter.

NC

National Fluffernutter Day: A Personal Response

For those of you who follow my daily celebratory foods updates on Facebook, you may recall that today, 8 October, is dedicated to the sticky-sweet-salty Fluffernutter sandwich. What is a Fluffernutter, and how might one go about celebrating National Fluffernutter Day, you may ask?

While I am not much of a fan of the humble Fluffernutter, and I made this clear on my Fb post, I do give props to Ken Albala, Food Historian and author of several books including The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time, for ramping up what might be considered an extremely simple recipe to create an extremely desirable new sandwich. As a response to my post, he rushed home and produced his own version of the time-worn original. Needless to say, I was impressed and sought to respond with my own culinary creation:

A tasty combination of toasted caramel and marshmallow with a light sprinkling of sea salt, garnished with a sliver of a premium German 85% Dark Chocolate, all on top of a Breton Mini.


NC