Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category
Fancy but Easy Baking – Cheesecakes, Pavlovas, Souflees & Creme Brulees
Whether you’re hosting the upcoming holidays or are invited elsewhere, wow your family and friends with desserts that seem complicated, but aren’t. Pumpkin and apple pies are ubiquitous with the holiday season, so when I want to show off I try for a dish that sounds like it’s straight off a restaurant dessert menu. But [...]
Basic Baking Ingredients: Tips on Temperature and Treatment
Recently a friend insisted that she couldn’t bake a cookie to save her life-or to have fun with her kids. Every time her children asked, “Mommy, can we bake cookies?” she reached for the mix and watched the excitement in her children’s eyes fade. Her kids want to bake cookies for the baking, not just [...]
How to Bake Cupcakes from Scratch: 10 Things They DON’T Tell You in the Recipe
Those who bake well and often will tell you that making cupcakes is easy. And it is, if you were raised by June Cleaver or born with the Julia Child gene. I was lucky enough to learn from my mom, the daughter of a truly fantastic baker who wasn’t too June to let me “experiment” [...]
Christmas Yule Log Dessert: How to Create A Beautiful Buche de Noel
Of all the goodies I bake for the holidays, I’d have to say that the most fun, and the one that gets the most “Oohs and Aahs” is the classic French Bûche de Noël, know here as a Christmas Yule Log. The cake is super simple, and all the real work goes into decorating. Call [...]
Potato Pie Crust: Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free and Great for Savory Pies
A wheat allergy is no reason to forego the joy of pie! I’ve been experimenting with wheat-free pie crusts, and I think this has some promise, especially for savory pies. Even if you can eat wheat, this is much easier than rolling out your own savory crust.
Coarsely grate a pound or so of potatoes. Mix [...]
Black Pepper as a Dessert Spice: Kick Your Cookies up a Notch
Peppernut cookies are a staple of German and Scandinavian holidays. Here in the U.S., though, we’re used to using black pepper as a savory spice – so much so that people will sometimes look at me with disbelief when I talk about using it in desserts. Maybe I just have the wrong friends.
Anyway, in the [...]
Jazz Up Your Brownies With Candy
Brownies are easy to make and great to bring to a party, however they are rather boring. Chances are if you bring brownies to a party, several others of the ‘dessert’ group will have had the same idea. A fun way to differentiate your brownies is to cook them in cupcake tins and place a [...]
Use Parchment Paper for All of Your Baking Needs
Never having to clean your cookie sheets is a wonderful gift! Even better is having baked goods that are perfectly browned on the bottoms. Keeping parchment paper in the kitchen is a must for anyone who bakes – whether you are baking from scratch or buying pre-made cookie dough!
Parchment paper is very similar to waxed [...]
Nutty Pie Crust: Add Chopped Nuts to an Easy Graham Cracker Crust
I love pie, but I hate fussing with pie crusts, so I usually do quick graham cracker or cookie crumb crusts and concentrate on the filling.
To give the crusts a bit of personality and flavor, I add a handful of finely chopped nuts. Anything on hand in the cupboard will usually work, or you can [...]
Cut brownies without the crumble – Use a plastic knife
Even the most delicious batch of brownies loses a little something when the edges crumble into a mess when you slice ‘em.
So here’s a tip that comes from my mom, which I think she got from the elementary school bake sale circuit: use a plastic knife. It doesn’t tear the brownies and smoothly cuts perfect [...]