Cooking with Bruce and Mark

We've talked about mistakes home cooks make and one of the most basics is about tools. We've talked about getting bowls that are big enough to toss things around in and now it's time to talk about cutting boards. Skip the postcard sized cutting boards and get yourself a large new bamboo or plastic cutting board. Something large enough to cut up a chicken on with it falling on and contaminating your counter. Or something you can use to peel and slice a few pounds of potatoes, a whole bag of carrots, or a large head of lettuce. Trust us, once you start in with a large cutting board you'll see an even larger improvement in your enjoyment of cooking and of the food your prepare

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough. We've written three ice-cream and frozen-dessert cookbooks. So we were recently asked to celebrate National Ice Cream Month on one of the national (U.S.) morning news shows.

We went on the air and tasted some absolutely delicious browned butter butter pecan ice cream (which you can find on another episode of this podcast) as well as cherry cheesecake ice cream.

Both flavors are from our book À LA MODE: one hundred and twenty desserts, with sixty cakes, pies, and such, and the sixty ice creams or frozen concoctions that go with them.

Join us in the kitchen as we make cherry cheesecake ice cream. We're having a blast--and we want you in on the fun.

Being a better cook is all about having the right tools. And most home cooks out there are missing the one tool that makes cooking so much easier - a large mixing bowl. We're not talking about the large bowl of your nesting set - even that is probably too small. What you need is a large mixing bowl, or two. Something that you can toss a large salad in without having lettuce or radishes fall over the side. Something you can whip up a cake batter in without having to put the bowl in the sink for fear of spilling half the batter on the counter. Most housewares stores and even hardware stores sell individual mixing bowl. So go upgrade your bowls and you will instantly upgrade your cooking. 

Hi there! Welcome to our kitchen. We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, veteran cookbook authors with dozens of titles under our expanding belts.

This week, we're tackling a classic British dessert, a perfect summer treat: summer pudding.

If you like bread and jam, you're going to love summer pudding. First, mix a ton of fresh (or frozen) berries and sugar in a sauce pan and cook it 5 minutes until it's jam-like. Then layer that jam mixture with slices of white bread in a soufflé dish. Then weight it and chill it. When you unmold it you have a deep purple cake that is moist with berry goodness that you can cut into wedges just like a cake.

Join us in the kitchen for lots of fun. Don't forget to bring the whipped cream.

Here's the first of a series of bonus episodes of Cooking with Bruce and Mark. In these bonus episodes, we're tackling common cooking mistakes. Here's a simple one to fix and improve your cooking. List in and find out why and how. 

Use a turbo blender like a VitaMix or a BlendTec to make the custard for this decadent ice cream. You don't even need to heat up the stove. The friction of the blades will help set the custard before it goes into an ice-cream machine.

You MUST use a high horsepower, high RPM blender for this recipe.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of several dozen (!) cookbooks. In this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK, we're using a turbo blender to create the custard for an ice cream that tastes just like a Snickers bar, partly because we add them right to the blender with the eggs and sugar.

What could be better? Snickers bars in ice cream form. Join us in the kitchen and let's having fun making this chill treat.

Today we're taking on an American classic candy - MARSHMALLOWS. If you've never had a homemade marshmallow you're in for the treat of your life. Chewy and sticky, light and yet dense all at the same time. And only 5 ingredients. Water, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Gelatin, and Vanilla. Make them now and have them all summer for s'mores or just for eating out of hand. And they make a unique and delicious house gift if you're invited for dinner, a BBQ, or a weekend in the country. All you need is a mixer and you're good to go. 

Let's use the pressure cooker to make something that will up your cooking game dramatically. Garlic Confit.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, veteran cookbook authors of dozens of books including THE INSTANT POT BIBLE, which you can find here.

We love a pressure cooker! This machine can turn garlic, submerged in olive in jars, a rich golden brown. The garlic becomes incredibly sweet and aromatic.

It also infuses the oil with flavor that you just can't get in purchased garlic olive oils.

On this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK, we're making this fun recipe. The results can stay fresh in the fridge for months. Try it and garlic on pasta, bread, roast chicken, and more.

Listen to the whole show for how to make garlic confit and all the incredible things you can do with this amazing condiment

Ever made banana bread in a waffle iron? You haven't lived!

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of dozens of cookbooks, including THE KITCHEN SHORT CUT BIBLE which you can find here.

Sure, we make waffles in a waffle iron. But we can make much more, including this easy banana bread that has with much less sugar than the kind you might need if you were to bake it the traditional way in an oven.

The waffle iron turns this batter into crunchy tender not too sweet rounds of banana bread in just about ninety seconds. Listen in and get the recipe.

Slab pies are almost as good as sheet cakes. Maybe better. They're giant pies, almost cafeteria-style, that you can make to feed crowds at your next family reunion, dessert party, committee meeting, or afternoon get-together.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, veteran cookbook authors with several dozen cookbooks from multiple New York publishing houses under our ample belts. We wrote ALL-TIME FAVORITE SHEET CAKES AND SLAB PIES a while back and here's one of our favorite recipes.

Join us as we make a no-bake apricot cheesecake slab pie, a pretty simple recipe you can put together for your next holiday event.

Learn how to make this tasty cheesecake "pie" in a giant, 18 x 13-inch sheet pan. Join us in the kitchen for some fun.