I have tried several others, as well as my own homemade – and nothing compares. Can you get their recipe for me? -Frances Leen, Fort Lauderdale
Tropical Acres Steakhouse (2500 Griffin Road, Fort Lauderdale; 954-989-2500, tropicalacres.com) has been serving steaks and seafood for more than 60 years. They offer a number of traditional sides with their dinners. Owner Carolyn Greenlaw, whose parents became co-owners with founder Gene Harvey in 1964, was happy to help me break down the recipe for creamed spinach that feeds the dining room nightly.
“It’s one of our most-requested dishes,” she says.
A little ground nutmeg and real cream and butter give the spinach the rich flavor steakhouse-lovers fancy. You can cut the fat by using half-and-half instead of full cream, and you could substitute a low-fat butter spread for the butter, but it will certainly change the flavor. I used whole-leaf spinach because I like the texture, but chopped spinach also works well. Just remember to drain it well after thawing by wringing in a clean towel before using.
I can no longer find Zwieback Toast in the supermarket, and I need it to make the crust of my cheesecake. My Best cheesecake you ever had won a blue ribbon for me at our office baking contest one year. If you can’t find the toast, can you suggest a suitable substitute? I tried graham cracker crumbs, but they turned too soggy. -Christy Davis, Royal Palm Beach
It’s apparent that Nabisco has quit making Zwieback Toast, which is a loose relative to biscotti and mandelbrot. These are made by forming a low, round loaf of dough, baking it, then slicing it into the well-known finger shapes and rebaking the pieces till crisp. The Zwieback Toasts would keep seemingly forever, and their hard texture worked as perfect teething biscuits for tots before silicone teething rings came along. Grinning toothless kids were often on the package labels. We looked and found Brant Zwieback Toast online, but you wanted a local product. After a discussion, you decided to try out vanilla wafers, but found they stuck to the pan, though they were the right flavor. I have used Stella D’Oro Breakfast Treats Cookies, which when crumbed work well for my tastes. To keep my e-mail box from being shut down by all the requests I know would come, I’m printing Davis’ award-winning best cheesecake recipe here.
Can I use yogurt as a substitute for sour cream in a cake recipe? – K. Stillwell, Boca Raton
Yes, yogurt is easily substituted measure-for-measure for sour cream in most batters, especially if they’re the same fat contents. If you regularly bake with low-fat sour cream, reach for a low-fat yogurt – or use full-fat if that’s your preference. You can get a flavor boost by choosing flavored yogurts. I add lemon-flavored yogurt to my lemon sour-cream pound cake and it gives it an added tang. Note that if you use fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt, you’ll need about 1/3 cup more plain yogurt per cup measure to equal the amount of 1 cup plain sour cream called for.
