What is Breakfast Pie? It is the pastry of pie, the spices and crumb of coffee cake, the fruits of summer and a little healthy oatmeal thrown in for good measure. Eat it cold or warm it up. Eat it plain or top it with vanilla yogurt. It’s the best breakfast ever! What is Breakfast Pie? It is created from some of the best moments of my life. The inspiration for this pie came from my Instagram friend and fellow Asheville Baker, Jill Worthy of The Worthy Baker She posted a picture of her award winning Breakfast Pie on Instagram which went right to my heart, leftover pie ...
Baking
HOW DO I MAKE THAT? A THREE LAYER “NAKED” CAKE
TRICKS AND TIPS FOR MAKING A THREE LAYER "NAKED" CAKE Pinterest Fail. We’ve all been there. Looked at something on Pinterest or Instagram and thought, “I could do that” but then it turns out harder than it looks. My most memorable fail? Mirror Glaze. That turned out to be much harder than it looked! Recently I took an online cooking class with Christina Tosi. Chef Tosi is widely credited with popularizing the Naked Cake, a cake with multiple layers and minimal icing. She says it’s because she isn’t a decorator, she is “just” a baker! In fact the icing is not all that minimal. ...
THE EASTER “SUG-CUTERIE” BOARD: AN EGG-CELLENT SHELLECTION
Think outside the basket this year and make a "Sug-Cuterie" Board of Easter Candy. A dazzling array of sweets inspired by the Charcuterie Board trend of the past few years, it will be the star of your table! Growing up, Easter was one of my “Big Three”. Christmas, Halloween and Easter: each is full of anticipation, tradition and ultimate reward! Easter started with Palm Sunday. After a church service filled with song, my sister and I paraded up to the altar to be gifted with a long piece of palm frond, which we waved and curled into shapes before letting them dry in a corner of our ...
MEYER LEMON BARS
Some time, during the 27 odd years I lived outside of my home country, a new lemon came to town and it was all people could talk about it. I came back to the United States and I remember thinking “What’s all the fuss about a Meyer Lemon and what is a Meyer Lemon anyway?” Every year, when Spring rolls around, I start seeing posts on social media from friends and other foodies who are so excited that their Meyer Lemon trees are producing orange-colored lemons for their enjoyment. This year was no different except this year my local supermarket had them in stock. This year is ...
LIMONCELLO CAKE
Mediterranean flavors of olive oil, lemon, thyme and Limoncello liqueur are the basis for this dairy-free cake. No family stories or dives into my past this week. Instead I am going to do a little geeking out on the science of baking. There are times when you need a substitution for one or more ingredients. Allergies, preferences, and an empty fridge or pantry can all come into play here. So let’s say you want to bake a cake for someone but that someone has an allergy to milk proteins. That tosses out butter and milk but it doesn’t toss out the possibility of making a cake! Why? ...
CHICKEN POT PIE
What do you think of when you think of when you think of chicken pot pie? I think of my childhood. Swanson's Frozen Chicken pot pie was what my mother left for us when she couldn’t be there to make dinner. My older sister would take them out of the freezer, one for each of us, and bake them in the oven. Sometimes, rarely, when they were ready, she let us take them downstairs to the playroom to eat in front of the TV. The thick white gravy would be bubbling up through the crust as I used my fork to break through to the pieces of chicken, peas and carrots inside. The salty ...
MANGO AND RASPBERRY FRANGIPANE TART
Once upon a time, a long long time ago, an Italian Nobleman travelled to Paris. He brought with him gloves made of the softest Italian leather which he had scented with an almond perfume. The nobleman and his gloves were an immediate hit with French Society. And the French did what the French do. They set out to make a dish inspired by the Nobleman’s almond scented gloves. The nobleman was the Marquis Muzio Frangipani and the dish they created was a tart filled with an almond cream which they called “Frangipane”. The classic French Frangipane tart consists of a sweet short ...
A WALK IN PARIS—AMERICAN STYLE
An easy-to-make Almond, Toffee and Cherry Cookie Last week I took you to Paris in 1982 and gave you a recipe for a cookie which, while admittedly delicious, contained a number of steps and processes which made it more than a simple walk in the park to make. This week, I am going to take you on a walk in the USA in 2021. Where a cookie is a special treat but relatively easy to make. It is something Moms make for their children, friends bring to friends and it is the cornerstone of the American Bake Sale. I am doing this because I want my blog to be about making baking easy for people, ...
A WALK IN PARIS COOKIE
A walk through the streets of Paris is the inspiration for this Strawberry and Almond Brittle Studded Cookie. I took a break from my blog and I went for a walk in Paris. I was 28 years old and lived on the Avenue Du President Kennedy where I could see the Eiffel Tower from my apartment window. In the evening the lights of the Bateau Mouche, the tourist boats, on the Seine raced across the ceiling of my bedroom. It was a morning in June and I had just taken a dance class at a nearby studio. As I walked home I stopped in a small boulangerie at the entrance to a market street. In the ...
PFEFFERNUESSE: A GERMAN CHRISTMAS COOKIE
“Pfeffernuesse”, it’s almost as much fun to say it (feff er noose) as it is to eat it! It is not a gingerbread cookie although it is filled with spices: anise, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper. It is a soft cookie and, like so many traditional cookies of the season, it doesn’t look like much, even after being covered in icing sugar. But it delivers a punch of flavor!, Pfeffernuesse has been around for ages, more than 200 years so there are a lot of recipes out there. I am not laying claim to the recipe or reinventing the wheel. My recipe comes from Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor Michigan. ...
