Category

SWEETS

12/12/13 • CRANBERRY-WALNUT-CLAFOUTIS

12/12/13 • CRANBERRY-WALNUT-CLAFOUTIS From Sunday Suppers at Lucgues (Knopf) Several Sundays ago what had been planned as a simple meal at home for Alfredo and me turned into an impromptu dinner party for six—a last-minute gathering calling for that additional flourish known as dessert. Time was limited, though, and so I turned to one of my favorite dessert-in-a-pinch options: clafoutis. Let’s start by addressing tha
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11/20/13 • SHORTBREAD PECAN BARS

11/20/13 • SHORTBREAD PECAN BARS From the March, 1999 Gourmet I’ve made a lot of Thanksgiving dinners over the years, enough to know the importance of pre-planning and not being overly ambitious with the menu—something I’ve struggled with given my weakness for many of the dishes associated with this favorite meal. Practice has made me pretty good on the planning and strategizing end of things—I now know to cook
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09/03/13 • FIG AND ALMOND CAKE

09/03/13 • FIG AND ALMOND CAKE From the Wed., Aug. 21st edition of The New York Times This past weekend got off to a sweet start with a visit to Briermere Farm in Riverhead, NY, a farm stand on the north fork of Long Island with a well-deserved reputation for turning out some of the East End’s very best pies, as well as for having one of the largest pie selections anywhere. On the day we visited I counted 27 varietie
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08/06/13 • BLUEBERRY HAND PIES

08/06/13 • BLUEBERRY HAND PIES Adapted from the July, 2013 Bon Appétit For a multitude of reasons I won’t bore you with, the last few weeks have slipped into hyper-drive, making it difficult for me to sit down and write a proper posting, much less get home in time to turn on the oven. My hope is that in the coming days there will be some sort of planetary realignment and I’ll begin to see a few rays of light pe
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06/18/13 • PEACH OLIVE OIL CAKE

06/18/13 • PEACH OLIVE OIL CAKE From the June, 2013 Food & Wine A few weeks ago I had a misshap while playing tennis: I lunged for a ball, felt a pop in my right calf, fell, and limped off the court trying to convince myself that I’d simply pulled a muscle. But after several days of dragging my leg around like a piece of lumber, I was forced to confront the reality that it was something more serious—an instinct c
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03/29/13 • CREAM SCONES

03/29/13 • CREAM SCONES From the April/May, 2013 Fine Cooking Ninety-nine postings ago—back when I first started this blog to be precise—I’d often define my vision for the site by jokingly telling friends the one thing it would never include: a scone recipe. (I know; hilarious.) At the time I genuinely felt like scones were overplayed in the U.S. (I still do, actually), which wouldn’t have mattered much except for th
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01/31/13 • APPLE CREAM CAKE

01/31/13 • APPLE CREAM CAKE Adapted from the Sept./Oct., 2012 Fine Cooking I’ve been waiting months for the right moment to make this cake, and a few days ago the opportunity finally presented itself. Waiting, of course, is a little uncharacteristic for me in matters such as these; when a recipe speaks to me as loudly as this one did, I tend to go directly from page to kitchen (or at least to the market to purchase t
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12/20/12 • HOLIDAY SPICE COOKIES

12/20/12 • HOLIDAY SPICE COOKIES Adapted from the Dec., 2012 Food and Wine It’s hard to know how to write about food—holiday food no less—after a week like the one we’ve just witnessed. “Unspeakably tragic” is the phrase I keep hearing in connection with the sickening events that unfolded in Newtown, Conn. last Friday, and while I can fully appreciate that response, “speak” is exactly what we all must do—about the ne
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11/29/12 • BANANA BREAD UNBOUND

11/29/12 • BANANA BREAD UNBOUND Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Although this posting is nominally about banana bread, in a larger sense it’s also about cravings, since that’s the category for me in which this particular item falls. Of course, we all have certain foods we find ourselves yearning for from time-to-time, it’s just that some of us (arrow pointed to self here) seem to have more cravings than others—a
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10/04/12 • PERFECT PLUM TORTE

10/04/12 • PERFECT PLUM TORTE Adapted from the Sept., 1997 Gourmet Several months ago, back when the AC was set to “high” each day and the sun was still out when I’d tuck into dinner, I stumbled across this recipe for a plum and hazelnut torte. It’s a dessert with a decidedly fall flavor, in large part because it calls for Empress plums—which are only available in the very early autumn—but also because it just looks
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