We all have our favorite kitchen staples. Depending on the time of year, those can and do change.
Here are a few of our regular kitchen staples.
Flaky Sea Salt
This is a great addition to any kitchen. It is not to replace salt, kosher salt, or sea salt even though those are also our favorites. We use flaky sea salt when we make a dessert made with dark chocolate or caramel. Add just a sprinkle to the finished dessert and you might be surprised how it balances the sweetness.
Whole Peppercorns
This kitchen staple gets used daily in our kitchen. The whole peppercorns go into our pepper grinder to be used as we need to add pepper to any dish. We grind our pepper instead of using already ground pepper.
Vanilla Beans
This kitchen staple is a must as we make desserts, cream fillings, frostings, custards, and more. Slit the beans lengthwise and scrape the seeds directly into what you are making. When you finished scraping the whole bean, put it in a jar of sugar to infuse it. We like a teaspoon of vanilla sugar in our coffee. Read our post about vanilla beans at https://www.forkscorksandbrews.com/vanilla-beans/
Vanilla
High quality vanilla is important to us as we bake. This kitchen staple is used in everything from Belgian Waffles to cookies to French Pasty Cream. Be sure to check the label to make sure you are buying actual vanilla and not imitation.
Good Quality Chocolate
We have a couple of favorites for this staple. Guittard 66% chocolate works well in our recipes. So does a 70% chocolate from IKEA. Both give us the true chocolate flavor we want in our desserts, cookies, and tarts.
Be sure to store this in a cool, dark place.
Neutral Oil
As a kitchen staple we keep some neutral oil on hand for those recipes that call for vegetable oil. Avocado oil is a favorite of ours.
Olive Oil
We like quality olive oil for cooking. We also like a different olive oil for salad dressings. What is the difference? Depending on what taste you are looking for, olive oil from Spain differs in taste from olive oil that comes from Italy. We will post more on the differences. Stay tuned.
Find more ideas for your kitchen staples at https://www.forkscorksandbrews.com/forks/