A couple of months back, Uproxx and Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey teamed up with Benny Blanco for “Skrew The Usual” — a must-watch dissection of Benny’s superpowered creative approach.
But Benny isn’t the type of artist to be pinned down to just one thing, the producer, songwriter and chef is multi-talented — so in addition to talking about how he crafted some of his most beloved hits of the past decade, we also got to talking about his work in the kitchen. That conversation led us to Benny’s Sticky Icky Sundae (as well as a custom cocktail that is also a must-try).
So what is this sundae? It’s an addictive whiskey-infused banana split that has easily become our dessert of the summer.
The sundae features brûléed bananas, Salt & Straw’s famous “Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons” ice cream, a Skrewbal Whiskey-infused magic shell, and Skrewball Whiskey-soaked cherries and whipped cream. Trust us, it tastes even better than it sounds. So to help level up your summer and close the season’s final full month in delicious style, we’ll walk you through how to make Benny’s Sticky Icky Sundae.
But before we talk about the sundae, we need to get an essential ingredient out of the way first — the Skrewy magic shell.
Skrewy Magic Shell
Uproxx
Ingredients:
4 oz. natural peanut butter (any brand you love)
4 oz. coconut oil
3 Tbsp Skrewball Whiskey
The Skrewy Magic Shell is the essential peanut butter and coconut drizzle that pulls all the ingredients together and makes this decadent treat so addicting. It also levels up this simple dessert to gourmet status. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to make and will have you feeling like Carmy Berzatto.
Method:
Combine all three ingredients in a mixing bowl into fully emulsified
Pour into a squeeze bottle
Fully cool prior to use
Bam, you’ve just made delicious magic. On to the sundae!
Benny’s Sticky Icky Sundae
Uproxx
Ingredients:
1 Brûléed banana cut into halves
3 scoops of Salt & Straw “Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons” ice cream
Skrewy Magic Shell
Three Skrewball-soaked cherries
Skrewbal candied peanuts to taste
Skrewball-infused whipped cream
Edible gold leaf
A couple of caveats with these ingredients. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of making candied peanuts or Skrewball-infused whipped cream, you can sub those ingredients with regular candied peanuts and whipped cream. But, if you truly want to impress, we suggest you go all the way and make those simple ingredients from scratch.
Any candied peanuts recipe on the internet will work, simply add a dash of Skrewball to the recipe to give them that decadent whiskey goodness. For the whipped cream all you need to do is take some heavy whipping cream, add a glug of Skrewball to taste, whip it together and voila! You’ve got whiskey-infused whipped cream.
For the Skrewball-infused cherries, simply soak maraschino cherries in whiskey overnight.
What You’ll Need
Sundae bowl
Torch
Edible gold leaf
Method
slice a banana lengthwise and brûlée by topping with sugar and torching the top of each halve.
Place 3 scoops of ice cream on top of brûléed banana halves
Top with signature Skrewy magic shell.
Add peanuts.
Top with whipped cream and cherries.
Add gold leaf.
Bottom Line:
This dish is the perfect combination of sweet and rich flavors, resulting in a decadent, addicting (in the best way) and boozy dessert. It’s also deceptively simple, making it a visually impressive dish to whip up for friends!
It’s a Thanksgiving blessing. While each family has their own traditions like binge-watching their favorite holiday movies and shows (i.e.Bob’s Burgers Thanksgiving specials), a commonality in each household is leftovers. The abundance of leftovers from Thanksgiving is bound to keep the family fed for the remainder of the weekend. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re making the same Thanksgiving plate day after day. Leftovers typically have a shelf-life of three to four days in the fridge or two to six months in the freezer. Ultimately, the best part about leftovers is turning them into a brand-new recipe. Below, we’ve broken down five ways to remix your Thanksgiving leftovers.
It’s time to take that leftover turkey to a whole new level. Slice up that bird and drop it into a flavorful ramen broth with fresh veggies and noodles. Add some ginger, garlic, and a dash of soy sauce for an East-meets-West fusion. The broth will not only add more juiciness to the turkey but it’ll also enhance the overall flavor.
2. Sensational Sweet Potato Mash Pancake
(Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Flip the script on those sweet potato leftovers by turning them into sensational sweet potato mash pancakes. Mix in some flour, baking powder, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Fry up these golden delights and serve with a dollop of cranberry sauce for a sweet and savory remix.
3. Funky Cranberry Jam
(Photo by Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Don’t sleep on the cranberry sauce. Take those cranberries and cook them down with some orange zest and sugar until they break into a smooth jam. Slather this sweet and tangy jam on toast, mix it in yogurt, or even use it as a topping for cheesecake.
4. Stuffing Waffle & Gravy
. (Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post via Getty Images; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Let’s flip the leftover stuffing into waffles! Ball up the stuffing and press it into a waffle iron until it crisps up into a golden brown masterpiece. Serve it with leftover gravy for the pairing of a crunchy outer layer with a pillow-soft inside, like the perfect beat drop.
5. Pumpkin Pie Milkshake Madness
(Photo by Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Take that leftover sweet pumpkin pie, and crumble it into a blender with some vanilla ice cream, milk, and a pinch of nutmeg. Blend it up until smooth and pour it into a glass rimmed with crushed graham crackers. Sip on this dessert remix that’s creamy, dreamy, and downright addictive.
Taylor Swift took the food corner of the internet by storm over the last week with a … resurfaced… sugar cookie recipe. It’s a pretty simple but very unique sugar cookie riff that has people on X and TikTok baking cookies left and right. And we’re jumping on the wagon too to see what all the fuss is about.
To really test the strength of Swift’s recipe, we’re baking three other beloved sugar cookie recipes to pitt against her take. And then we’re going to rank them all, so that Swifites can destroy us in the comments and on every other social platform forever if we fail to pick hers as #1.
Once the recipes were sorted out, I kept the process and baking all the same. I made the four dough varieties, properly chilled them, and then baked them according to their respective recipes. To keep this tasting even more equal (and to really test the mettle of the actual cookie), I’m also icing them all the same way, following Swift’s instructions. This will give me a chance to really keep the playing field as equal as possible while judging the greatness of the cookie beneath it. Amazingly, my local grocery store is already stocking eggnog, so I was able to re-create this recipe exactly.
“just mix 1 cup powdered sugar with 1/4 T-spoon of nutmeg, 1/4 T-spoon of cinnamon and 3 TAYblespoons <—-(I’m so annoying, it astounds me sometimes) of milk or eggnog if you can find it this time of year. The more milk/eggnog you add, the more your icing will become a glaze. But glazes are legit too so basically just LIVE YOUR LIFE.”
Here’s how it looks once mixed:
Zach Johnston
Okay, let’s dive into whether or not Taylor Swift really does have the best sugar cookie recipe ever!
Check Out These Other Recipes From Flavored For You:
This is the most classic sugar cookie recipe out there. It’s so old-school it uses potassium bitartrate (cream of tartar) as a secondary leavening agent. It’s a standard and almost feels like the control group cookie for this taste test.
Ingredients:
2.5 cups AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup softened unsalted butter
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
0.5 tsp. almond extract
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Mixing bowl
Cookie sheet
Parchment paper
Plastic wrap
Rolling pin
Cookie cutter
Method:
Prep:
Combine the sugar, egg, butter, vanilla, and almond extract in a mixing bowl and combine until creamed.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar together, and then slowly add to the creamed mixture until a dough ball forms.
Divide the ball into two flat discs and wrap each one in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours (up to overnight).
Bake:
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Roll out one of the chilled discs to about 1/4-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies.
Place the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 7 minutes.
Bottom Line on the Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies:
Zach Johnston
These are fine. They taste nice as a plain sugar cookie but are full-on crunchy. That’s fine but there’s not much more to savor here without the icing coming in to save the day.
3. Zach’s Bourbon-Soaked Sugar Cookies
Zach Johnston
This is my take on the whole thing. I do make a mean chocolate chip cookie but rarely make sugar cookies. That said, I’m going with my strengths here and using spirits as flavoring agents with more white sugar and a 50/50 split of brown and room temp unsalted butter.
Ingredients:
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
0.5 tsp. cream of tartar
0.5 tsp. kosher salt
0.5 cup brown butter
0.5 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
1 large egg
1 cup granulated sugar
0.5 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp. bourbon
1 tsp. amaretto
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Mixing bowl
Cookie sheet
Parchment paper
Small pot
ZipLock bag
Knife
Method:
Prep:
Add the butter to a small pot on medium heat. Melt the butter (stirring occasionally) until the fats just start to brown. Remove from heat immediately and place the butter in a small bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes to bring back to room temp.
Sift the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Add the butter, sugars, and egg in a mixing bowl and mix until creamed. Add the bourbon, amaretto, and egg and continue to mix until well integrated.
Add the dry ingredients slowly while mixing until a dough ball forms.
Roll the dough into a log, place it in a ZipLock bag, and refrigerate for at least two hours (up to overnight).
Bake:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Cut the log into 12 pieces and roll each one into a small ball.
Place the ball on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and gently press each one down until it’s about half as tall as it was as a ball.
Bake for 8 minutes.
Bottom Line on the Bourbon Sugar Cookies:
Zach Johnston
This does have a nice flavor profile and the brown butter takes this one to new heights. But there’s a crunchy texture to the cookie that holds it back. The middle was a tad chewy but I’ll have to make these again and just leave them thicker to get a true sense of chewiness.
Overall, the flavor was dialed otherwise with a nice hint of spice and almond next to a deep brown butter finish.
2. Taylor Swift’s Sugar Cookies
Zach Johnston
Taylor Swift’s sugar cookie recipe is based on Joy Baker’s classic recipe. The twist with Baker’s recipe is that she uses powdered sugar and granulated while also using oil with the butter (most recipes call for just butter). This helps add to the chewiness of the cookie. Swift’s big change is that she adds a sachet of chai tea — literally the spiced tea leaves from a tea bag.
It’s interesting and really adds a great seasoned flavor profile to the cookie.
Ingredients:
2 cups AP flour
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
0.25 teaspoon salt
0.5 cups unsalted butter (room temperature)
0.5 cup vegetable oil
0.5 cup granulated sugar, plus extra sugar for topping
0.5 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 vanilla bean (just the seeds)
1 bag of chai tea
Cinnamon
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Mixing bowl
Cookie sheet
Parchment paper
ZipLock bag
Knife
Zach Johnston
Method:
Prep:
Combine the butter, oil, and sugars in a mixing bowl and cream until well integrated. Add the egg, vanilla bean seeds, and chai tea into the creamed sugar and mix until well integrated.
Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and then slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until a dough forms. Scoop out the dough ball and form into a log. Put in a ZipLock bag, seal, and place in the fridge for at least an hour (up to overnight).
Bake:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Once chilled, cut the log into 12 pieces and roll them into small balls.
Place the balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and gently press each cookie ball down into a disc (you want it to be about 1/4-inch thick still). Sprinkle each cookie with fresh white sugar.
Bake the cookies for 9 minutes.
Ice once the cookies come out of the oven.
Bottom Line on Taylor Swift’s Sugar Cookies:
Zach Johnston
Okay, these are really good cookies. The base cookie is soft and chewy. The chai tea bag (I had to quadruple-check that this is what’s called for) is a bit baffling, though. As a flavor profile as it doesn’t ~quite~ meet the eggnog cinnamon icing. It’s just a touch wrong, in my opinion.
1. Brown Butter Sugar Cookies (Sally’s Baking Recipes)
Zach Johnston
This recipe from Sally’s Baking Recipes is a classic brown butter base sugar cookie. Using brown butter always made sense to me but it does change the consistency of the cookie dough. Still, you’re adding a wonderfully deep and nutty flavor profile thanks to browning that butter in a pan.
Quick note: I always like to use brown butter in cookies (and baking in general) as it adds so much more flavor (deep nutty and buttery flavor notes). It’s also very easy to prep. You’ll need a shallow pan or pot over medium heat to gently simmer the butter for no more than five minutes (or until the fats just start to brown). To get it even deeper, take it to it’s boiling and bubbling point and remove it the moment those bubbles fade — but that means you need to watch it closely. That’s it!
Zach Johnston
Ingredients:
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
0.5 salt
1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
0.75 cup granulated sugar
0.75 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Mixing bowl
Cookie sheet
Parchment paper
Small pot
ZipLock bag
Plastic wrap
Knife
Method:
Prep:
Add the butter to a small pot on medium beat. Cook until fully melted (stirring occasionally) and the fats just start to turn a dark beige. Kill the heat and let set as the fat in the butter turns a deep brown. Place the butter in a small bowl and put in the freezer for 10 minutes to cool back down to room temp.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
Combine the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl and mix until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and continue to mix until well integrated into the creamed sugar.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamed sugar until a dough forms.
Form the dough into a log and place it in a ZipLock. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour (up to overnight).
Bake:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Cut the cookie dough log into small balls (about 20). Place the balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
Place the balls on a new cookie sheet (also parchment lined) and bake for 12 minutes.
Bottom Line on the Brown Butter Sugar Cookies:
Zach Johnston
This had the perfect balance of a crunchy bottom and a soft and chewy middle. The icing made a great addition to the overall vibe. But the real star of this show was the cookie flavor. The depth of the brown butter added was lightyears beyond the non-brown butter version. Where the other cookies sort of just petered out on the palate, this cookie kicked into high gear on the finish with a deep, nutty, and salted butter end that adds a wonderfully soft texture and finish to the overall experience.
Winner, winner.
Final Thoughts on the Sugar Cookies:
Zach Johnston
I feel certain that the best cookie recipe on earth is hidden in this post. Will an intrepid Swift fan make it and share it online? I’d take the base of Taylor Swift’s cookie and replace the softened butter with brown butter. And then maybe remove the chai tea bag and replace that with bourbon and amaretto (or a capful of almond oil). I think that’s the sweet spot.
Or keep everything about Swift’s recipe and add some brown butter. That might be the key takeaway here — “brown butter” is killer for cookies!
Lorde is back! Well, she’s back reviewing onion rings, at least, and we’re here for it. In her first onion ring review of 2021, the world’s most famous onion ring aficionado reviewed the Pickled Onion Rings at Auckland’s Hotel Ponsonby, which serves elevated English pub fare.
We’re talking PICKLED onion rings which is a first for this reviewer. I totally vibe the concept — used to eat pickled onions out of the jar as a youngster — however I think if you’re gonna go there, go there, and let acidity rather than sweetness dominate. Absolutely sensational batter, perhaps the best I’ve tried. 4/5 overall ringsperience.
This is a solid review and will surely lead to a ring boom at Hotel Ponsonby. It was also glowing enough to motivate us to break out the ol’ wok and try these rings for ourselves (since we’re probably not going to be in Auckland anytime soon).
To master this recipe, I looked into New Zealand pickled onion culture (yes, that’s a thing). There’s actually a fair number of recipes for pickled onions throughout New Zealand’s food media outlets. The thing is, I don’t really have a week to let something pickle in a dark cupboard. So I took my cues from New Zealander’s recipes and adapted them to make it doable in about an hour with a sous vide.
I’ve used my sous vide to make a lot of pickles (root veg, eggs, fish, etc.) in the past and it really only takes about an hour to have a fully-brined pickle. For this recipe, that sped-up process will do nicely.
Lastly, I really focused on the batter. I knew it had to be something “sensational” for Lorde to give it full marks. So I made sure I was devising something that’d have a beautifully crunchy exterior while still providing a softer interior, leading to the briny and savory pickled onion inside. That’s enough preamble, let’s get into the recipe!
A quick note on the brine. This is where I’m drawing acidity from. There’s a low amount of salt and sugar that’ll give you that “briny” edge of a pickle. Then the addition of apple cider vinegar will bring that mild pH acidic vibe to the whole thing.
Otherwise, you do you on the pickle brine spices. If you want it spicier, add more chilis. Mix and match with seeds and barks. Overall, this is a mild pickle brine with a classic edge that leans towards the New Zealand-centric pickle recipes I found online.
Zach Johnston
Ring batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 bottle or can of pilsner (more as needed)
2 egg yolks
Large pinch of salt
White pepper
Other:
Two yellow onions
Neutral oil
Aioli
Salt
Another quick note: As you can see in the image below, I’ve removed the inner skins between the layers of the onion. This is crucial for a bite-able onion ring. If you’ve ever had an onion ring that immediately slid out of the batter, it was because of that slippery film that’s between every layer. It takes a little extra time but is as easy as simply pulling the skin off after you’ve made your rings.
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Large Zip-lock bag
Sous vide circulator
Large pot
Small pot
Large bowl
Whisk
Wok or deep fryer
Slotted spoon
Metal grate and baking sheet
Paper towels
Tongs
Method:
For the pickled onions:
Set the sous vide circulator to 185F/85C in a large pot of water.
Add the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a small pot and bring to a boil to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from heat and let cool for ten minutes.
Peel and slice onions, making sure to remove the film between each layer of the onion as you push out the rings (it should slide right off).
Add the spices and onions to the Zip-lock bag. Pour the warm brine into the bag.
Immerse the bag into the bath and use the pressure of the water to remove any excess air and seal the bag. Use a clip to hold the bag to the side of the large pot.
Cook the onion rings for 30 minutes.
Prepare an ice bath. When the 30 minutes are up, place the Zip-lock bag into the ice bath to stop the cooking and cool the pickled onion rings.
Zach Johnston
For the onion rings:
Combine flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt, and white pepper in a large bowl.
Add the egg yolks and beer while whisking until you get a thin batter (sort of halfway between a crepe and pancake batter).
Lay the onion rings on a paper towel and pat dry.
Heat about one-half gallon of neutral oil in a wok or heavy-bottomed pot (I used sunflower) to 375F/190C.
Using tongs, dip the rings into the batter and then gently lay them into the hot oil, creating a single layer of onion rings.
After about one minute, flip the rings with the tongs to brown them evenly on both sides.
After another minute, remove the onion rings to a rack over a baking sheet. Immediately hit with a pinch of salt.
Repeat until all the rings are fried.
Serve with aioli dip.
Bottom Line:
Zach Johnston
I love fried pickle chips, so I knew I was going to love these. And, wow, thank you, Lorde, for turning me onto pickled onion rings. These are, hands down, some of the best onion rings I’ve ever tasted. And they were without a doubt the #1 best rings I’ve ever made. The onion was soft and hot with a deep pickle brine that had a touch of heat and acidity. The sweetness was there but tied more to the onion than sugar. Really though, the sweetness took a back seat to the overall brininess of the onion.
The batter was freaking sensational. The addition of corn starch allowed the batter to be super crunchy on the outside while still feeling supple on the inside. Moreover, as these rings cooled down (onion rings always get cold too fast), the batter stayed super crunchy.
Zach Johnston
Using aioli as a dipping sauce is a win as well (I used some good stuff from Spain). The lemon/garlic/mayo feel was the perfect counterpoint to the pickle brine and crunchy batter of the ring. This was comfort food in its purest form.
Finally, there was the side-by-side look of these rings compared to Lorde’s. You can judge for yourself below. I haven’t tasted my competition, but I do know that this is the only way I’ll be making onion rings from here on out. Lorde, if you’re ever near Uproxx’s offices — we got you.
