The Perfect Pantry

Tonka beans, a Pantry Special (Recipe: spice snap cookies)

Pantry Specials are great ingredients that find their way into my pantry from time to time, but not all the time. In this occasional series of short posts, you'll find information and recipes for foods that might not be on your local supermarket's shelves, but are available online.

Did you know that can you toss seven tonka beans into a river to make your wish come true? You can, but it's so much more fun to bake with them. Tonka beans are the seeds of Dipteryx odorata, a tree native to northern South America. The inch-long, black, wrinkly seed has a hard shell, but when grated on a Microplane, it smells sweetly like vanilla, for which it's sometimes used as a substitute, and almonds. (Tonkas also lend that sweet smell to perfume and pipe tobacco.) Though popular in other countries, in the United States tonka beans cannot be used in food, because they contain coumarin, an anticoagulant that can be toxic in large doses. If you have health challenges, please use caution; for most people, however, tonka beans used a pinch at a time present no danger, and enhance the flavor of baked goods with a slightly exotic flavor. Some cooks suggest substituting mahlab, or a mix of vanilla and almond extracts, if you find yourself tonka-free.

Powdered buttermilk (Recipe: pear spice cupcakes)

When you drive toward my town from pretty much anywhere, you pass a mall or two.

Big box stores, little box stores, grocery stores and discount stores. Drive-through doughnuts, drive-up banking. Hardware, software, sportswear.

It's hard to believe that, a century ago, apple orchards and dairy farms, punctuated by occasional clusters of tiny wood-shingled houses along the road, were all you'd find around here. Today, what remains is the name -- Apple Valley -- and just a handful of orchards.

Our house is on the outskirts of Apple Valley, five or ten miles from here to one of those grocery stores, not far to drive in good weather but not fun in the winter. So, at this time of year, I always keep shelf-stable milk and powdered buttermilk in my pantry.

Cinnamon (Recipe: chocolate chip banana bars)

The final guest post by one of the food bloggers I've adopted through the Adopt-a-Blogger mentoring program. (Please be sure to visit their terrific blogs.) Today, meet Maris of In Good Taste, the third blog I adopted. An account executive with a large public relations firm, Maris writes about healthy cooking -- with some indulgences -- for worknights, date nights, and the rare at-home nights of a busy twenty-something woman in New York City.

Guest post and photos by Maris of In Good Taste.

When Lydia adopted my blog last year, I immediately learned that we had a lot in common. Of course we share a love for cooking and writing. Beyond that, we both grew up in the New York/New Jersey area, we're both avid fans of Top Chef, and we both like to travel.

There is, however, one undeniable difference between Lydia and me.

I am a self-proclaimed dessert fanatic, and she doesn’t have a big sweet tooth.

I would turn my oven on in hundred-degree heat if it meant chocolate fudge brownies, while Lydia prefers cooking to baking any day of the week.

When the mood to bake strikes me, chocolate chip cookies, yeast breads and quick breads tend to call my name. I like to follow rough formulas –- this much flour to that much baking soda, this many eggs to that much sugar. Once I have the foundation for a recipe in mind, I tinker with it and make it my own, by adding nuts or fruits, or some of my new Vietnamese cinnamon.

Dulce de leche (Recipe: dulce de leche milhojas)

Now for a special treat: guest posts by the three food bloggers I've adopted through the Adopt-a-Blogger mentoring program. (Please be sure to visit their terrific blogs.) Today, meet Rebecca of From Argentina With Love, the first blog I adopted. A former teacher, she writes about Argentinean food, wine, and life in and around the small town of Bowen, where her husband's family lives. She's a wonderful cook who teaches classes in the Denver area, and her charming stories of the people and food of Argentina will enchant you.

Guest post and photos by Rebecca of From Argentina With Love

Along with tango and Evita, dulce de leche is one of the first things that comes to mind when people think of Argentina.

The sticky, sweet caramel spread plays so beloved a role in the culinary culture in Argentina that, in 2003, the country declared it a "national product" and lobbied UNESCO for official designation -- much to the chagrin of neighboring Uruguay, who argued that they have been making dulce de leche just as long as Argentina has.

Dulce de leche’s legendary status comes complete with a saga of mythic proportions.

White whole wheat flour (Recipe: carrot cake cupcakes with lemon frosting)

In a famous series of television commercials from the 1970s, we watched the patrons in restaurants around the country as a male voice-over whispered, "We are here at (insert name of fine-dining restaurant), where we've secretly replaced the fine coffee they usually serve with (the instant brand). Let's see if anyone can tell the difference."

Of course, nobody could tell the difference. Not one single coffee drinker.

That's how it works in TV land, but that's also how it works in my kitchen when I substitute white whole wheat flour for the all-purpose unbleached white flour I usually use.

Sugar, cookies (Recipe: the world's best sugar cookie)

We interrupt our regular programming to celebrate Mothers' Day, which in my kitchen is synonymous with sugar cookies. Three hundred and fifty sugar cookies, decorated by friends in my kitchen, and donated here in Rhode Island to a shelter for homeless women, a residential program for pregnant and postpartum women with addiction issues, and six emergency shelters for women and children who are victims of domestic abuse.

Please share these cookies with someone you love, courtesy of Drop In & Decorate™ and The Perfect Pantry.

Ground black pepper, and a cookbook giveaway (Recipe: chocolate double ginger cupcakes)

On my list of 23 pantry items you absolutely, positively, have to have, black pepper sits at #3.

Now that I think about it, pepper should be #1. Tied with salt.

Because salt and pepper are an item.

Whoever first paired salt and pepper was a genius, like the person who cast Ginger Rogers with Fred Astaire, or Doris Day with Rock Hudson. Or the person who discovered that chocolate always tastes better with a tiny bit of vanilla.

Almonds (Recipe: amaretti cookies)

Adapted from an archived post, with new photos, links and recipe.

I'm a sucker for princess tales, especially when food is involved.

According to Greek mythology, the lovely princess Phyllis was dumped at the altar on her wedding day by Demophon, her fiance. She waited for years for him to return to her (why, we wonder?), but eventually she died of a broken heart. The gods took pity and transformed her into an almond tree.

When Demophon wised up and returned to find Phyllis turned into a flowerless tree, he embraced her, and the tree burst into bloom, proving that his love was greater than death -- or that he loved almonds.

Cloves (Recipe: Chocolate spice cookies)

Baked Desserts Week, Day Two. 

Ten things I know about cloves (you'll be glad to know them, too):

Walnuts (Recipe: walnut squares)

When I was growing up, my parents hosted lots of bridge parties. 

In the 1950s and '60s, card-playing evenings were all the rage. My parents invited one couple, or sometimes three couples, for bridge, cocktails and snacks. As these parties never started before 8:00, my brother and I were allowed -- no, commanded -- to appear in our pajamas to greet the guests ("Hi, Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So. Yes, it's fun to stay up late. Yes, I'm being good in school.") before we toddled off to bed.

On a tray table, within easy reach of the players, my mother set out bowls of Chex mix that she'd made herself. And whole walnuts, too, with a heavy nutcracker and a dish for the shells.

In the morning, my brother and I descended upon the leftover nuts. We didn't eat them; we looked for wrinkly faces in the wrinkly shells. Sometimes we'd find one that looked like my grandfather, or one of our teachers, or Richard Nixon.