Recipes Archives - Culinary Crafts (2024)

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.

by Michelle Hamby

Event Team and Reluctant Chef

I consider cooking a Necessary Evil. If I’m the one making a meal, it’s probably going to be hamburgers or grilled cheese sandwiches, and maybe, if I’m feeling fancy, I’ll add tater tots. My husband, on the other hand, is an excellent cook and actually likes doing it. He even teaches cooking at a local university . Our children, and pretty much anyone who eats at our house, are very grateful I did such a good job picking a husband.

Early in our marriage, my husband made a pasta dish for me that I absolutely LOVE. Unfortunately, I got pregnant six months after we got married. That came out wrong. Actually, I was thrilled to be pregnant. It was only unfortunate that becoming pregnant nearly ruined this dish for me. As most people who have been pregnant (or had to deal with someone who was pregnant) can confirm, pregnancy plays havoc with your eating habits. I have been pregnant three times, and I can tell you that I ate more corndogs in those 27 months than I have in the entire rest of my life. On the other hand, I used to love V8 juice, but in the twenty years since I became pregnant with our daughter, not a drop of the stuff has passed my lips.

This dish was banned in our house

The pasta dish my husband made for me has two main ingredients: bacon and cauliflower. Now, the smell of cooking bacon is one of my love languages, but the smell of cooking cauliflower is like Hell just burped in your face. I could tell from the very beginning of my first pregnancy that if I were to smell this dish being made, I would never be able to eat it again, so I banned it from the house. Each time I became pregnant, the ban was reinstated, which is how this dish has remained my absolute favorite.

You don’t get more authentic than this dish. My husband learned it from a little old lady in Favara, a tiny town just south of Agrigento, when he lived in Sicily. The way he tells the story, the first time she made it for him, he ate “an embarrassing amount.” Afterwards, he begged her to teach him how to make it. Over the years, he modified the recipe slightly. It’s much harder to find good quality pancetta in America than it is in Italy, so he substitutes bacon in its place. The smoky flavor of the bacon complements this dish very well. Just be sure to find good, thick-cut bacon, and cut off the end parts that are just fat.

CAULIFLOWER BACON PENNE

Ingredients:

• 1 lb penne pasta
• 1 large head cauliflower, broken into 2-inch florets
• 1 lb thick cut bacon, with the fatty ends trimmed off, cut into 1-inch squares
• 1-2 cups grated parmesan cheese
• salt

Instructions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Put in the cauliflower florets to cook.
2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large skillet until crispy. Drain most of the fat.
3. When the cauliflower florets are cooked, but not yet soft (around 10 minutes depending on your preference), remove them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and put them in the hot skillet with the bacon.
4. Fry the cauliflower with the bacon until it is lightly browned.
5. Meanwhile, put the penne to cook in the still boiling water that the cauliflower was in.
6. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it in a colander. Do not rinse it.
7. Put the pasta back into the pot that the water was in, and pour the bacon cauliflower mixture over the pasta. Stir gently until well mixed.
8. Add in the parmesan cheese, and stir gently until well mixed.
9. Salt to taste and serve while still hot.

by Nick Bergstrom

Mom and Dad are both the youngest of eight kids, so when my extended family all get together for Christmas, it’s huge!

Each year, the task of hosting the big family get-together rotates between the aunts and uncles. On the day before the main event, my siblings and I meet at my parents’ house for a much smaller celebration of our own, where we swap stories, enjoy each other’s company, and…who am I kidding? We get together to eat Mom’s plättar.

Plättar are Swedish pancakes, basically a lighter and fluffier version of crepes. Like crepes, they can be enjoyed as a savory meal with eggs, ham and cheese, steak and mushrooms, etc., but the true and righteous way to eat them—the reason God put plättar on this good green Earth in the first place—is as a dessert! Drown them in buttermilk syrup, spread them with Nutella or a mixture of whipped cream and jam, sprinkle powdered sugar, add orange liqueur sauce or vanilla ice cream or mascarpone…you can’t go wrong with plättar.

A Family Secret

Anyway, one year as we were gathering at my parents’ home in anticipation of our annual plättar pig-out, there was a knock at the door. My aunt was standing there with a big bowl of Swedish meatballs. She walked in and started setting up in the kitchen, chattering about her day, as the rest of us looked confused and wondered which of us was going to tell her that the big event wasn’t until the next day. Then there was another knock at the door and another relative walked in carrying food. And another. And another.

My dad dipped into another room and came back with panic in his face. He whispered to us that he’d checked the invitation, and even though we’d printed the right date, we’d given the wrong day of the week. “Well,” Mom sighed, “I guess we’re ready with one dish.” She got out her special pan and started cranking out plättar.

For years, no one outside our immediate family knew about our mistake. All they knew was that they’d been treated to the most delicious non-Christmas Christmas food ever!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 ½ cups milk
• ½ cup sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix until batter is smooth.
2. If you have a special plättar pan, heat it up and coat inside of each individual mold with melted butter. If you’re using a regular griddle, spread butter on the hot griddle.
3. Spoon batter into the plättar pan molds or onto the hot griddle. Use only 1-2 TBSP of batter for each plättar.
4. Cook for about 1 minute until light golden brown on the bottom. Then flip and cook for an additional minute.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you’ve used all the batter. Rebutter your pan or griddle as needed.
6. Enjoy your delicious (and always timely) plättar!

I was raised by a single mom who worked full time, so she wasn’t home in the mornings to send us off to school or make us a hot breakfast. But Christmas was always extra special for me because I knew Mom would be there in the morning, and we would share a hot breakfast as a family.

A few days before Christmas, Mom would make what we call, "Tomorrow's Breakfast." It’s a tradition I continue to make for my family. Since you can prepare it in advance, it can bake in the oven while you open presents together on Christmas morning. Your home will be warm and cozy with the delicious smells wafting from the kitchen. It is the perfect way to begin Christmas Day!

My mom’s "Tomorrow's Breakfast" always made plenty to fill us up, but since she only had two kids and I have six, I also complement it with a sweet dish to feed my small army. My go-to is the Overnight Crème Brûlée French Toast Bake that I borrowed from the fabulous online site, Mel’s Kitchen Café.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2½ cups (1 bag) croutons
• 2 cups hand-shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 lb breakfast sausage, cooked
• 4 large eggs
• ¾ tsp dry mustard
• 2½ cups milk (or 1 can of cream of mushroom soup + ½ cup of milk)
• salt and pepper to liking

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place croutons in a grated 9x13 pan. Top with cooked sausage and cheese.
2. Combine eggs, dry mustard, milk/soup, salt, and pepper. Pour over croutons.
3. Refrigerate at least overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 300° F.
5. Bake at 300° for 1.5 hours or, for a better crisp, bake for 30 minutes at 300° and then 40 minutes at 350°.

by Meagan Price

Growing up at Culinary Crafts and working events from a young age, I learned the art of putting out fires. I don’t mean literal ones (well, sometimes literal ones), but being a full-service caterer means constantly dealing with problems on the fly, from changing a tire to repairing a bride’s dress to figuring out how to cook the entrée when the venue’s oven breaks. My childhood gave me an unshakable sense of “I can figure that out.” I’m grateful for the confidence I developed, but sometimes it got me into trouble, like it did on the year of the Miracle Turkey.

During my junior year in college, I worked as a resident advisor in the dorms at SUU . I thought of the students in my charge as “my kids” and loved surprising them with pies, cakes, and fresh-made cinnamon rolls. (When did I ever get any studying done?) As Thanksgiving approached, I worried about my residents who would be stuck in their rooms instead of visiting family, so I decided I would take it on myself to make them a full-blown Thanksgiving meal. I hadn’t done anything like that before, but I was sure I could figure it out. How hard could it be?

The Miracle Turkey

Anyone who knows me will not be shocked to hear that I went all out. Twenty pies, three types of stuffing, seven sides, and dozens of homemade rolls. The pièce de résistance was a frozen twenty-two-pound turkey.

I had never baked a turkey, and attempting it in the tiny oven in my tiny apartment was…well…probably a bit crazy, to be honest. After about forty calls to my mom and dad, three batches of burnt Stove Top, and seven hours of cooking a turkey, I finally had my first ever Thanksgiving meal! It was glorious.

None of us knew how to carve a turkey correctly, so we hacked away at it like maniacs. My dorm didn’t have a dining room, so people were lined up and down both sides of the hallway, on beds and couches, or standing in doorways with plates in hand. As more and more guests arrived, I began to worry that we would run out of food. I had planned on about forty guests, but when 150 showed up, I was freaking out! Then something strange happened. As if by magic, the meal seemed to keep multiplying itself. Somehow, we all got fed. It was the miracle of the Thanksgiving turkey.

With a few more years of experience, I realized that it shouldn’t have taken me seven hours to cook a turkey; I could have done it in one or two hours. How? You can find step-by-step directions here for how to save yourself hours in the kitchen and have your turkey come out perfect every time!

by Mistie Tunbridge

Pastry Chef and Girl with the Golden Smile

A Thanksgiving meal isn't complete until you end it with a slice of perfect apple pie.

When I was growing up, my grandma always took on the job of making what seemed like hundreds of pies for Thanksgiving dinner. I remember pulling a stool up to the counter, helping her stir, and putting together pies all day long—of course sneaking tastes along the way.

When I got older and more into baking, I decided that I wanted to contribute a pie of my own to Thanksgiving. Thus, my journey began to make the perfect apple pie. Through many trials and errors, from soggy crusts and soupy fillings to pie dry as the desert and sprawls of notes filling a notebook, I finally found the sweet spot of what I consider to be a perfect apple pie: a sweet, flakey, buttery tart shell filled with the crisp sweet flavor of golden delicious apples caramelized in cinnamon sugar. I was finally ready to bring my pie to dinner, thus beginning a new Thanksgiving tradition that's been going on for seven or eight years.

Pie Filling Ingredients:

• ½ cup sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 3 lb golden delicious apples
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp caramel sauce (optional)

Instructions:

1. Peel and chop apples into bite-sized pieces.
2. Mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel, and apples.
3. Melt half the butter in a frying pan and add half the apples. Cook over medium-high heat until golden and caramelized.
4. Transfer to a large bowl and repeat Step 3 with remaining butter and apples. Let cool completely.

Tart Shell Crust Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3½ cups flour

Instructions:

1. Add butter and sugar to a food processor and blend until just combined.
2. Add the eggs and blend for 30 seconds. Add flour in small portions and blend until dough just comes together. (Do not over blend.)
3. Add a tablespoon of cold water if dough is too dry. Divide and shape into two disks and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Assembly:

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Roll out one disk of crust to about 1⁄8 inch thick. Place in a 9-inch pie pan, and trim off excess pastry around edges.
3. Add cooled apples to the pie shell and brush the edge of the crust with water. Roll out remaining crust and place over the top. (I like to do a lattice.) Crimp edges and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.

A while back, I was in a fantasy football league with some buddies I met online. It was a friendly group full of banter and smack talk, and, of course, with money on the line we also got super competitive.

One year, one of our founding members wasn’t sure he would be able to come up with the entry fee because he and his wife had a newborn who was suffering with costly complications. He proposed to the league that instead of cash, he could wager some sports memorabilia, gift cards, and his secret chili recipe. We put it to a vote. Even though his “memorabilia” was an autographed John Elway football—which was an insult to a true Raiders fan like me—we decided to let him enter.

Long story short, I won the league that year. Naturally, I sold the John Elway football to get that abomination out of my house, but the chili recipe stayed, and I have made it several times a year ever since. The chili always gets rave reviews, and my wife’s family specifically requests it whenever we get together.

Working at Culinary Crafts, sometimes I’m able to use left-over short ribs or flank steak for my chili, but you can get great results with almost any cut, even a simple pack of Costco USDA Choice.

When people ask for my secret ingredient, I tell them it’s the amber beer, but really, there’s another ingredient that only I can taste: the sweet, sweet taste of victory!

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup of olive oil
• 5 pounds of stew meat
• 2 pounds of pork sausage
• 3 large onions chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic minced
• 5-6 large dried New Mexico chilies (You can get these pods at Macey’s or Smiths)
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1 can of tomato soup
• 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp oregano
• 2 T of dried cumin
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ tsp of black pepper
• 2 tsp of salt
• 13 oz of beef broth
• 36 oz of good amber beer, divided (I use Fat Tire, but Wasatch's Evo, Epic's Cross Fever, or another local amber will work well.)
• 1 shot of Jack Daniels whiskey (High West Distillery in Park City also makes some excellent whiskeys you can use.)
• 34 oz of beans (optional - I use dark kidney beans)

Instructions

1. Cut the meat into ½ to ¼ inch pieces.
2. Rehydrate the chilis in 12 oz of beer. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 min. Strain, and then puree the chilis. Set aside.
3. In a large stock pot, heat the oil. Add the onions and cook over med heat for 5 min. Uncover, bring the heat to high, and brown for another 5 min. Add the garlic and cook for another 1-2 min until fragrant. Add the cumin and the pork. Stir until the meat browns.
4. Add the beef, oregano, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Brown until most of the redness is gone. Add the chili puree, 24 oz beer, Jack, beef broth, tomato paste, tomato soup and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 1½ hours until it has a chili-like consistency. Then add beans and cook for another ½ hour.
5. Garnish with green onion and cheese.

(Note: For max flavor, cook a day ahead and let the flavors come together overnight in the fridge. Reheat and enjoy some great chili.)

Last month, on our Bacchus bartending webpage, we shared a recipe for Milk-Washed Apple Cider. There, we promised to share the recipe for a milk-washed antrim co*cktail that we made for a fabulous event using the same milk-washing technique. To make good on our promise, here is that recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 6 oz cognac or brandy
• 6 oz tawny port
• ½ oz bitters (If that seems like a lot of bitter, it is! But trust us; the milk-washing process will smooth it all out in the end. Don't be afraid to use some strong flavors of bitters. We used cacao, coffee, oak, and tobacco.)
• 3 oz whole milk
• ½ oz lemon juice

Tools:

• 2 mason jars (or other similar container)
• strainer
• paper coffee filter
• kitchen torch or lighter
• fire-safe dish

Method:

1. Combine cognac, port, and syrup bitters in a jar. Allow to marry for at least 2 hours.
2. Put the milk in the second jar. Slowly pour in the liquor mix. Let rest for several minutes. Slowly add the lemon juice. The milk should begin to curdle. Stir until well mixed. Allow to stand in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (longer is preferred if possible).
3. Filter the mix through a fine mesh strainer. Then strain through a rinsed paper coffee filter. The final product should be clear and golden colored. Serve over ice. Garnish with a lemon, fig, cherry, or other fruit as desired. This goes wonderfully paired with a bite of dark chocolate.

Eat and drink well!

Non-alcoholic variation:

Replace the brandy with 10 oz of apple cider. Replace the port with 2 oz of orange juice. If desired, you can simmer the juice mixture with winter/holiday spices in advance for an extra layer of flavor. Then simply prepare as described above.

When my family was young, we rented a home in the Sugar House area in Salt Lake City. The neighborhood was old, and the homes either belonged to elderly couples or were being rented by young folks like us. The LDS ward in our area was jokingly referred to as “Newly Wed or Nearly Dead.”

Our new (old) neighbors were quick to welcome us and invite us to church activities, including their annual chili cook-off. I wasn’t an especially good chili cook, but I found a recipe that seemed interesting because it used liquid smoke, and we made a batch to bring with us. The judging was done by a panel of sweet old ladies who had obviously been doing it for 50 years. They would take a nibble, nod at each other knowingly, and say, Oh, that’s Margaret’s. I can taste the chocolate,” or “Oooo, that one’s got a kick!”

At the end of the night, no one was more surprised than me when my chili took first place. I was careful not to make a big deal of winning because the dear old ladies didn’t seem very pleased that an outsider (a young whippersnapper, no less!) had taken their prize. Still, they were gracious and kind. One of them even offered to watch our baby son if we ever needed a sitter.

The story of the cook-off and my “Championship Chili” would have ended there, an odd little tale in our family history, if it weren’t for what happened next.

Bitter-Sweet Memories

A few months later, that same kind old lady was baby-sitting our son Connor when she found him in his crib, not breathing. In desperation, she called her son who came and tried to resuscitate Connor, but our baby was already gone. The poor woman was distraught. We were heartbroken and devastated.

It’s been over 20 years since those events, but I still make our family’s Championship Chili whenever my daughter Taylor requests it, which is often. Sometimes the smell and taste and texture of certain food is our strongest link to the past. And sometimes, when we go through the motions of preparing and sharing a meal, a part of ourselves is reborn.

To this day, every time I mix up a batch of this recipe I am flooded with the bitter-sweet memories of Connor, that house, and everything that happened there.

Ingredients

• 1 red onion, chopped
• 2 green bell peppers, chopped
• 2 yellow or orange peppers, chopped
• (2) 15 oz cans of tomato sauce
• (2-3) 10 oz cans of Rotel Tomatoes
• (2) 15 oz cans of dark red kidney beans
• (2) 15 oz cans of pinto beans
• (2) 15 oz cans of black beans
• 1 lb hardwood smoked thin bacon
• 1½ lb ground beef
• salt
• ground black pepper
• 3 Tbsp chili powder
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp cumin

Instructions

1. In a slow cooker/crock pot, add all chopped veggies, tomato sauce, and Rotel tomatoes. Drain all canned beans and add them to the pot.
2. Cut bacon into ½ inch pieces and fry in a pan until crispy. Add bacon and half the bacon fat into the pot. Add ground beef to the remaining bacon fat in the pan. Salt and pepper the ground beef, fully cook it, and drain off fat before adding the ground beef to the pot.
3. Add chili powder, cumin, and minced garlic.
4. Cook on high for 4-5 hours, then reduce heat for 1-2 hours.

Note: I also add fresh tomatoes to taste. If the smoked bacon doesn’t give enough of a smoky taste/scent, I add a dash of liquid smoke.