Food — Claudia Herbst-Tait

Bitcoin Consolation Sweets

I feel that everyone deserves a Bitcoin consolation chocolate! Either because you bought, or mined, Bitcoin -- or because you didn't. I am in the latter group and, yes, I have some regrets. But here's a consolation dish, Bitcoin Sweets. Most chocolate will do for this simple mold but, as is my preference, I used semi-sweet.

These sweets are quickly and easily prepared and make a nice gift, too! Here's what's needed:

a double boiler to melt chocolate

one cup of Ghirardelli Bittersweet Premium Baking Chips

small can of edible gold spray

a little butter or oil for the mold forms

cellophane bags and ties (optional)

Corn Bread Bodies

The winter of 2014 was a brutal one. Record temperatures, record snow falls, at least in New York (it was the second warmest February on record in Finnland).

In Brooklyn we relied on some real food: we paired a delicious quiche with corn bread. Here is what's needed for the figures:

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup of white sugar

1 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease figure form. Next, melt butter in large skillet. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Now add eggs and beat until blended well. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture in pan. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared forms.

Speaking of the form, it was made using Maya 13, our software of choice. The model was then output using a 3D printer.

Always a Carnivore? Mix and Match Bars

This dish can be made from dough, or chocolate, or any other food you may want to use. We haven't tried ice cream but now that it's getting warmer, we may give it a shot. We thought of these Mix and Match bars because our heads and bellies are so rarely in agreement when we're in the kitchen.

We used a muffin dough and some white icing for the above version.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large egg (or 2 medium)

2 tablespoon butter

Of course, the key to making muffins is not overmixing the batter. Once the liquid ingredients are added to the dry, mix the batter by hand just until the flour is moistened, for no more than about ten seconds. Too much mixing can cause the muffins to be dry, tough or misshapen.

For the icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon milk

Mix powdered sugar, vanilla and milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until spreadable (mixture will thicken slightly as it sets).

For a chocolate version of the Mix and Match bars, any type of chocolate will do though we’re (as usual) partial to bitter-sweet chocolate...

A Mammary Meal

Lactation is a pretty amazing concept. A lactating woman who hears her child cry in the next room may begin to uncontrollably leak milk -- her breasts are emotionally linked to her child's well being.

Everyone in the kitchen felt that it was time to create a dish that was a tribute to women's fabulous bodies, and to dairy.

This is another dish that can be made using a variety of foods. We began with yogurt and a bit of food coloring (we used yellow and red). Here's what's needed:

1 cup of organic, plain yogurt (we always use whole milk)

1 to 2 spoons of gelatin (dissolved)

a couple of drops of food coloring

Stir the gelatin into the yogurt and quickly add the coloring. The secret to this dish is patience -- don't try to release the yogurt from the mold too quickly, rather gently jiggle the mold. The gelatin will give this dish shape but the yogurt can tear easily and we feel the form needs to be intact for this dish to work.