Category — Dessert + Sweet Recipes

Wouldn’t it be great, amazing, stupendous even, if you could make delicious cookies using only bananas and oats? It would, right? You could eat like 10 cookies but in reality all you ate was a banana and half a cup of oats. Because you are so smart and so healthy and good at life.

[Read more →]

Winter is one of the best times for baking, because there is so much wonderful citrus to juice and zest. I am not a huge fan of straight lemon desserts, but I really love mixed citrus as a flavoring. For this cake, I used sweet, juicy clementines and Meyer lemons to give it a bright flavor, plus a bit of Greek yogurt and almond flour for an almost pudding-like consistency.

[Read more →]

Lately it seems like everything that’s caramel is salted caramel. Now I like my salted caramel as much as the next gal, but I feel like it’s time to think about other kinds of caramel for a change. Like caramel that’s infused with something wonderful. Like lavender caramel.

[Read more →]

For years my aunts would brag about this dessert from Scala’s, the Bostini – they just couldn’t get enough of it. I finally got to try it, and I was completely won over. Orange chiffon cake laying in a pool of warm vanilla custard sauce, topped with a rich chocolate glaze. It’s like a Boston Cream Pie, only much, much better.

[Read more →]

Do you remember eating sesame candy as a kid? I used to love the sticky little rectangles of sesame seeds suspended in a honey-sweet bar. Great news: it’s actually pretty easy to make at home, and you can add a bit of grated ginger to make it even tastier.

[Read more →]

Today I will be making my fourth non-traditional gingerbread house – I will keep it a surprise for the moment – so I found myself looking back on the last three years of crazy gingerbreading for ideas and inspiration. Since I (and the small group of friends on Team Gingerbread) only do it once a year, I find I sometimes forget crucial technical matters, like: never use Pirouette cookies as structural support (they break down and sag within 24 hours!) and an elaborate gingerbread backdrop is more trouble than it’s worth (too heavy, so there is far too much support needed.) On this eve of another explosive gingerbread creation, I wanted to share a little roundup of the past 3 years’ efforts.

Important note: I am a stickler for everything being edible in these – even structural supports. The only thing you can’t eat is the base, which is usually cardboard covered in foil or wrapping paper.

2009: The Gingerbread Casbah

[Read more →]

I’ve always liked snickerdoodles well enough, but they have never really knocked my socks off. It turns out what they are missing is some brown butter to put them over the top. This recipe from Ambitious Kitchen does the trick – you get soft, chewy, cinnamon-y cookies that pair perfectly with ice cream or a big glass of milk.

[Read more →]

Have you ever had gooey butter cake? How I went 36 years without ever putting one of these in my mouth is a mystery to me. Apparently there is one kind from St. Louis. And some other kind from Philadelphia. And some kind from Paula Deen that really pisses people off.

[Read more →]

When it comes to bread pudding, I don’t f*** around. For one thing, I never just use bread. A cinnamon swirl loaf is acceptable. Banana bread, maybe. Croissants – yes. Chocolate croissants – even better. Slightly stale cake – you betcha. Scrape off the frosting and now we’re talking. This is the first step to great bread pudding – don’t just use bread. Even brioche or challah – too boring, no texture, no sweetness.

[Read more →]

These cookies are delightful! Of course, I ate them all warm out of the oven (with help, of course) so I can’t tell you how they taste at room temperature. But when they are freshly baked… oh boy. They are not too sweet and have a lovely, subtle flavor and a wonderful melt-in-your-mouth texture.

The recipe is from the new Blue Bottle Coffee Cookbook, and elaborated on the always lovely 101 Cookbooks. It’s going in my “make again soon” file. You can see Heidi’s gorgeous cookie photos and get the recipe here.