Sweets Posts
Buttery Greek Apple Tart
Fall is coming. Boston’s been on the cold side. The stores are starting to fill up with back-to-school supplies. This means one thing to me: Apple-picking season is on its way. And I couldn’t be happier. I have a handful of apple recipes I love. Here’s one of my favorites. It’s amazingly simple to make—and [...]
Hot Chocolate Pots
A few days ago, I posted my version of Mayan Hot Chocolate. It occurred to me that there are all sorts of fabulous hot chocolate-y accessories out there—specifically, hot chocolate pots. Most hot chocolate pots tend to look like long, tall teapots. Many sit on three or four little feet. Lots include some kind of [...]
Drunken Chocolate Pound Cake
Boston has been cold and rainy the last few days, and it’s making me want to bake. Here’s one of my favorite pound cakes. It’s ridiculously rich and bourbon-y. A note on the coffee and booze in the recipe: It doesn’t matter what kind you use, but it should be something you wouldn’t mind drinking. [...]
Mayan Hot Chocolate
I can’t stop thinking about hot chocolate today. Maybe it’s wishful thinking that August will be more forgiving than July—and less oppressively hot and wet. Maybe it’s that the AC in my office is set on Arctic Frost today. Maybe I’m just dying for something sweet after my super spicy lunch. Mayan Hot Chocolate is [...]
Make Your Own Marshmallows
No, really. You can do this. I swear. Contrary to popular (ok, semi-popular) belief, marshmallows don’t grow on bushes. You can actually make them. And it’s not that hard. All you need are a few basic ingredients—and a stand mixer. The mixer part is important, because your ingredients need to be beaten steadily—and hard—for almost [...]
Kourambiedes (Or, Perfect Greek Butter Cookies)
Kourambiedes (pronounced koor-ah-bee-eds) are those little Greek butter cookies that are usually shaped like a moon or a half-moon and are covered in powdered sugar. They’re buttery and melty and perfectly crumbly (and second only to baklava for messy cookies to eat). They’re one of my favorite cookies of all time. They usually show up [...]
Cream-Cheese Frosting
This is another one from my mother. It’s just the right kind of tangy frosting to top any kind of apple or carrot cake. It’s also really good on chocolate cake. I always make this a few hours before I’m going to want to use it, since it stiffens up quite a bit in the [...]
Very Special Batman Cake
There’s a joke between The Angry Chef and one of our friend’s boys. It goes something like this: “I’m Batman!” “No, I’M Batman.” Rinse. Repeat. Late last year, we decided to put one of my newer cake molds to good use—the castle cake pan. (It’s a longer story than this, but I have a great [...]
Duckie’s Rice Pudding
Duckie was my grandmother, and this is her rice pudding recipe. I use whole milk to make it, because that’s the way she did it. A quick note on equipment. You’ll want an actual double boiler to make this. I’ve had disastrous results improvising one with a stainless steel bowl over a pot of simmering [...]
Blueberry Buckle
This is the blueberry buckle I grew up on. According to Epicurious.com, a buckle is a cake where the batter rises above the fruit, “buckling it” while it cooks. It’s a really quick and simple cake to make. A note on fruit If you use whole, fresh blueberries, you’ll get a nice white cake studded [...]
