desserts
Desserts
Lemony Cheese Blintzes
These blintzes are light, lemony and not too sweet. Our office mate Avi shared the recipe with me, which is his grandmother's, and I've been wanting to make it for months now. I finally did, and let's just say I'll be making it for years to come.
Desserts
Chocolate Salami
The recipe is supposed to make one giant confection, but you could get two very nice gift-sized salamis out of it. You could also dust the exterior of the chilled log with confectioner’s sugar to increase the resemblance to a real salami.
Desserts
Macaroons
These are simple, classic, straight-up macaroons adapted from Tamra Davis (director/ chef/ mom/ married to a Beastie Boy). This is a great recipe, they are perfectly fluffy & sweet without falling apart -- the key is really beating the sugar & egg whites. Again, macaroons are a great gluten-free, dairy-free dessert option & the ingredients are most likely always in your kitchen--plus they're super cute.
Desserts
Divine Gluten-Free Chocolate Cookies
This recipe is an adaptation of the one that I'm told originates with Homesick Texan, although I couldn't find it on her blog. (I did become excessively distracted by her other offerings, however, including desserts made with Dr. Pepper WEE OO!) Hers calls for pecans and chili powder, however, which I have eliminated, and upped the chocolate. I can promise you these will be eliminated within minutes so watch out.
Desserts
Blueberry Schlumpf
I got this recipe from my father's distant cousin, Hasso, who serves it each year in Sorrento, Maine. Make a double batch, serve it hot and gooey, and be sure you have some vanilla ice cream on hand.
Desserts
Citrus and Cardamom Baklava with Pistachios and Walnuts
“She’s a real dish.” That vintage nickname for a lovely lady certainly could have been inspired by a pan of baklava, with its glossy layers and sultry spice. Alexandra V. Jones elevates this classic with her recipe. The brightness of cardamom, paired with the citrus zests, ginger, and cinnamon, was a noticeable and welcome departure. The baklava from my favorite local bakery only uses walnuts and I enjoyed the soft richness from the addition of pistachios. Having never made baklava before, this recipe instantly claimed its place as a beloved dish at my house.
Desserts
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
This frosting has a great balance of cream cheese and butter. Sometimes cream cheese can be a little overpowering (or completely disappear altogether), but janeofmanytrade has the ratio down pat. I paired the frosting with vanilla cupcakes and they were a hit! Everyone commented on how light the frosting tasted, even though it contained butter.
Desserts
The Pumpkin Bread I Can't Stop Eating -- You Can Add Chocolate Chips
Happy Halloween! This pumpkin bread recipe is adapted from the "Morning After Pumpkin Bread" in my book, which in turn was adapted from Bon Appetit. This time I used half white and half wheat flour (you can use all white if that's all you have) and I lessened the sugar and put in a couple of chopped apples. (I was going to say "threw in" but then I remembered how Gabrielle Hamilton is against that kind of talk). She's also against optional ingredients. I may continue to use them. I don't think any recipe is a perfect paradigm. There are options.
Desserts
Cory Schreiber & Julie Richardson's Rhubarb Buckle with Ginger Crumb
There's a secret ingredient in here: ginger (times two). Fiery candied ginger is minced up in the crumb topping, and ground ginger in the cake too -- just enough to give it a warm, flirty je ne sais quoi that doesn't try to shout over the rhubarb.
Desserts
Poached Pears in Red Wine
This recipe is adapted from The Still River Cafe, a restaurant whose kitchen I worked in for a stretch. We used to poach huge vats of these, but they're much easier at home. Make a batch, and then eat the leftovers on yogurt and in oatmeal.
Desserts
Parsley Cake
If we can put rosemary in our frozen yogurt and thyme in our cookies, there's nothing stopping parsley from treading over the line. You can even make this very green cake for St. Patrick's Day, with your pride intact and nothing artificial in play. It's festive and shamrock-forward, but also a bright spot at the end of a dense, salty meal.
Desserts
Strawberry Syrup
Use this syrup to make milkshakes, pour it over waffles or pancakes, or add it to soda water to make a sparkling strawberry spritzer.
Desserts
Vanilla-Mascarpone Cream Pie with Honeyed Fruit
This simple filling is great with any kind of seasonal fruit, especially strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and peaches.
Desserts
Mixed Berry and Walnut Crumble Bars
EmilyC’s take on a fruit-filled granola bar is a wonderful after-school snack or a weekday dessert. I love how easy it is, and that it calls for ingredients that I already have in my pantry and freezer. I used some frozen apricots and sweet cherries from last summer and they were divine. If your fruit is a bit tart, consider adding a tiny amount of sugar to the fruit layer.
Desserts
Angel Food Cake
This angel food cake recipe yields a snow-white, crazy airy treat so tender it melts in your mouth (especially when topped with tons of fresh berries and homemade whipped cream).
Desserts
Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Before I met my husband Tad, I’d never been to the Hamptons on the east end of Long Island, and now we go, like his family has for decades, every August. But I went on vacations there for 5 years before anyone in his family told me about the cinnamon swirl bread from Breadzilla, a bakery that’s tucked away in their tiny hamlet of Wainscott. Breadzilla’s piece de resistance is a pan loaf that’s poufy on top with a sugary, cinnamon crust, and is loaded up inside with a curl of cinnamon butter. When we’re there in the summer, I eat it every morning for breakfast, thickly sliced, toasted and spread with butter and a scattering of sea salt.
Desserts
Black Tea Jelly
A few weeks ago, I just happened to be thinking about all those great homemade jellies as I sipped a cup of my favorite tea, and it occurred to me that a tea-flavored jelly could be a wonderful, light end to a meal – or even part of a composed dessert, perhaps with a rich, milky ice cream and a crisp cookie of some kind.