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Posts tagged ‘dessert’

Feb 15

Caramelized banana malts (and a tiny little excuse)

Hello there! Happy day-after-Valentine’s. I bet what you need right now is another dessert recipe. Yes? Great. We’re on the same page.

Caramelized-banana-malt

Many apologies for my disappearing over the last few months. Three months, to be exact. Three fairly queasy, fatigued, food-averse months. That’s right, I’m using the little, tiny human growing inside me as my excuse, and believe me, it’s a pretty good one. I wouldn’t wish a job working with/talking about/thinking about food upon any newly pregnant lady, not ever.

But I’m coming back to life, step by step, or at least figuring out what life looks like in these somewhat disorienting circumstances. I’m certainly not in fighting form – a few days ago (one of my first non-teaching cooking attempts in the last three months), I transferred a skillet of pan-roasted chicken thighs from the oven back to the stove and almost immediately grabbed the searing hot handle of the skillet with my bare hand. After a few less-than-ladylike words and some quality time with a running tap of cold water, I turned back to the stove – and proceeded to do the exact same thing with the other hand.

This is your brain on pregnancy. Read more

Nov 17

Caramelized apple Dutch baby pancake

As the holidays approach, I can sense a growing anxiety in the conversations about food that I have with other people. From simple office potlucks to special holiday feasts and everything in between, this time of year can be particularly taxing for folks who start to feel overwhelmed by what needs to come out of their kitchens. There’s pressure to make something exciting and to keep up with traditions, to make things that feel special, and to get it all right, even when you’ve maybe never made the dish before. Sharing and enjoying food you’ve made can be one of life’s best moments, but it’s easy to let anxiety build and overshadow the experience. I get that; it happens to me too.

What’s my advice for overcoming it? Oh boy. It’s woven through my classes and through all the conversations I have with anxious home cooks, but it would take a bit of thinking and a fair amount of time to write it all out – and we all know this isn’t a time of year prone to excess time hanging around. So for now, I’ll just leave you with a secret weapon – a caramelized apple Dutch baby.

Apple-Dutch-Baby_2 Read more

Jul 10

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Polenta layer cake with fruit and créme fraîche whipped cream

Cake_duo

Oh doesn’t that look like an amazing cake to make for 4th of July?

I’m so helpful.

I did make this cake for 4th of July, but that means I can’t write about it until after 4th of July, which makes it a little late for all of you. But wait! You can actually make this cake any time of the year. Woo hoo! Now you’re set and I’m not late at all.  Read more

Feb 10

A sweet pair for Valentine’s Day – blood orange and mixed berry-vanilla curds

Sometimes, friends, the best laid plans …

I had a lovely idea for you for Valentine’s Day.  Fluffy angel food cake with a sweet little pair of fruit curds – tangy, creamy, sweet, and romantic. One blood orange, one mixed berries and vanilla. Some whipped cream, some chocolate shavings, some berries. A flirty dessert for your Valentine that won’t weigh you down like some sort of chocolate extravaganza.

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But then my angel food cake testing went a little awry. Tasty, certainly, but a little too sticky the first time, and a little too clumpy the next. A work in progress.

But I’m still going to give you those curd recipes, and know that you can use them on just about anything. Maybe you have an angel food cake recipe that you like. Or maybe you should make a pavlova (another good way to use up all those egg whites left behind by these curds). Shortbread would be great here too. Or vanilla bean pound cake. Or just fingers.

It is Valentine’s Day, after all.  Read more

Nov 7

Chocolate pudding and kitchen memories

When I was young, I spent early mornings before school and many afternoons after school at my great-grandmother’s house.  I knew that split-level house and its uneven, blocky yard inch by inch, from the green shag carpet in the living room, constantly littered with pine needles and ornament hangers from last year’s Christmas, to the exact best place to roll down the hill behind the house, to the back utility closet that opened onto the deck and that served as a clubhouse/office/hideaway for my best friend and me through the early years of elementary school.

GG_house

All of my earliest kitchen memories are from this house.

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