All posts filed under: dessert

The Best Vanilla Tapioca Pudding

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This was supposed to be a recipe for scones. I had all of the right ingredients: the good organic milk, the heavy cream, fresh blueberries, buttermilk and sweet cream butter. In case you’re curious, I had planned to make either this beauty from Tartine or this one from Sally’s Baking Addiction.  I couldn’t go wrong with either one. Bright and early Saturday morning, I stood in front of the refrigerator and the urge to bake just left me. We both had a laundry list of chores for the day–I was still on my wild decluttering tear (still am!) and The Husband had his own list of honey-do’s to accomplish. Hauling out flour and grating butter was a little more than I could fathom so I declared scones a Sunday project because time was ticking and there is no shorter day of the week than Saturday…Sunday being a very close second. Sunday morning came and went and I still hadn’t made the scones. To me, Sunday breakfast requires bacon and eggs, toast and orange juice (I’ve never been able to get …

Pear, Gorgonzola and Thyme Galette and My Favorite Ice Cream

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  My mother was not a cookie-and-cake baking mother, nor was ours a household where dessert was a normal part of our daily meals. So, as a result, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, except for one thing: ice cream. Ice cream is the one treat that stands out in my memory as my oldest food obsession. Who doesn’t remember hot summer days, ice cream trucks and drippy, sticky ice cream fingers? I just cannot resist ice cream and it’s the one treat that I can eat any day, at any time of the year, regardless of season.  And of course, the perfect delivery system for any ice cream is pie! Is there anything better than a slice of pie, still warm from the oven and topped with a fluffy scoop of rich, creamy, melting ice cream? I don’t think so! But here’s the thing. I still have yet to bake an entire pie! The mere thought of baking a pie sends me into panic-mode because of one thing–pie crust. Surely, I’ve mentioned to you before …

Chocolate Cherry Crisp from “Bountiful”

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I really want to tell you about this Chocolate Cherry Crisp that I made from White on Rice Couple’s cookbook, Bountiful.  I want to tell you about these gorgeous cherries and about how excited I am that cherries are back in season and are inexpensive enough that you won’t have to take out a home equity line of credit just to buy a bag! I want to tell you how absolutely luscious this crumble is–how the sweet, tender cherries and rich dark chocolate smoosh together perfectly under that crumbly topping.  But before I do any of that, I want to tell you that I am having the hardest time writing these days.  I’m not sure what’s causing my words to jam up inside of me like a spoonful of cold peanut butter, but they are.  I mean, I just used the word “smoosh” in a sentence and I’m 100% sure that’s not a real word, but it’s going to have to stay that way, because the other word I’m thinking of just vanished into thin air.  Have …

The Year I Learn to Bake: Ina Garten’s Baked Chocolate Pudding

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My stand mixer has been sitting on the countertop, patiently waiting for me to remember my New Year’s resolution to learn how to bake.  I’ll bet you thought I’d forgotten about it, too!  More likely, I’ll bet you thought it would be so much more fulfilling to resolve to be more organized or eat fewer calories…or perhaps even exercise more?  And not that there’s anything wrong with being virtuous, but aren’t most resolutions broken by the middle of February anyway? So, this was my way of setting myself up for success.   This is how you WIN at resolution-making:  make resolutions that you actually don’t mind keeping long-term! Being that it’s Valentine’s Day and I’m not adept at this whole baking thing yet, I decided to try something easy; something fairly fool-proof that didn’t contain anything terribly exotic and could be whipped up in mere minutes.  This recipe for Baked Chocolate Pudding fit the bill perfectly! I found it in Ina Garten’s “Back to Basics” cookbook and true to Ina’s form, there were only seven …

When Life Gives You Key Limes: Key Lime Pie Bars

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One of the things about eating seasonally that has always confused my tastebuds is the fact that citrus season is in winter.  I mean, when you think of a tart, cold glass of lemonade, you think of summertime, not the dead of winter when lemons are ripe for the picking!  I’ve given this some thought, and perhaps this is Mother Nature’s way of perking up our palates after a long season of pumpkins, apples and winter squash. Over the past two years we have planted a few dwarf citrus trees in our backyard:  Eureka lemon, Meyer lemon, blood orange and a key lime tree.  They are still young at this point and I cannot wait until they are all bearing fruit!  I’ve had this Barefoot Contessa recipe for Lemon Bars on my Pinterest board for months, just waiting for that glorious day when the Meyer lemons on my little tree finally ripen (likely some time in December).  But, it so happened that the key limes ripened first, and boy are they wonderful!  They are super …

Lemon-Herb Shortbread Tea Cookies

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Monsoon season is upon us and I can’t think of a better way to enjoy it but to sit and watch the rain over a nice cup of hot tea and a plate of cookies.  Some of you are probably thinking that it’s too hot for tea, but I drink green tea each and every day, throughout all four seasons.  I decided to make these cookies after listening to The Splendid Table this weekend.  This week’s episode featured chef and author Sally Schneider who demonstrated making herb salt, which I definitely plan to make soon.  But what really caught my attention was when she started talking about adding the herb salt to chocolate cake and butter cookies!  I rarely make cookies, but one of my favorite cookies is shortbread.  I love that it’s not too sweet and has a texture that stands up to a cup of coffee or tea.  I adapted Ina Garten’s basic shortbread cookie recipe and added lemon zest and Herbes de Provence to the dough.  It resulted in a cookie that …