Posted in Dessert, tagged Apple pie, dessert, recipes on October 6, 2013| 1 Comment »
Apple picking is one of those seasonal markers in New England. With four seasons to pack in over 12 months it’s easy to sometimes forget to participate in annual rituals such as filling a plastic sack with MacIntosh, Macoun, and Empire apples or picking out a perfect pumpkin. This weekend, some friends and I managed to squeeze in a visit to a local orchard to harvest the fruit and pick up some cider doughnuts.
Posted in Dessert, Holiday dishes, tagged chocolate, Fourth of July, popping sugar, recipe, strawberries on June 27, 2013| 3 Comments »
Remember Pop Rocks and how fun it was to have a little explosion taking over your tongue?
Molecule-R, which makes molecular gastronomy kits for the “amateur chef” to make edible and unusal delights in your own humble kitchen, has packaged popping sugar in 2.8-ounce canisters. I thought popping sugar would be a great treat for the Fourth of July – fireworks in your mouth!
Posted in Dessert, Holiday dishes, tagged Fourth of July, rhubarb, shortcake recipe, strawberries on June 23, 2013| 5 Comments »
Red, white, and blue shortcakes are a standard Fourth of July treat in our family. Just a simple, warm shortcake topped with red strawberries or raspberries and blueberries with whipped cream. This year I got to dreaming a bit. What if I kicked up the flavors a notch? And that is how candied ginger shortcakes with strawberry rhubarb sauce came to be.
Posted in Dessert, tagged chocolate, dessert, Nemo, recipes, Valentine's Day on February 10, 2013| 4 Comments »
When the word came that Nemo was heading our direction blowing 65 m.p.h. winds and bringing at least 2 feet of snow, my friends Nathan and Emily, who live a few blocks away, extended the invitation for homemade chicken pot pie. I was in charge of bringing brownies.
I knew immediately that I wanted to bring The Pastry Chef’s Baking Frosted Brownies, since these are so decadent and delicious I definitely did not want to be left in the house alone with a pan. I have very little self-control around chocolate. Bringing them to a group dinner was the perfect solution!
Posted in Dessert on January 13, 2013| 6 Comments »
There’s not a lot to say here except that this will be the best chocolate cake you ever bake. Ever. It has stood the test of time, fads, and the convenience of box cake mixes. This chocolate cake recipe first appeared in The Christian Science Monitor in the 1930s or ’40s. It was reintroduced to readers a few years ago in this essay.
Posted in Dessert, Holiday dishes, Mary Baker Eddy Library, tagged Mary Baker Eddy, Pumpkin pie, recipes, Victorian on November 18, 2012| 4 Comments »
On most American Thanksgiving tables, pumpkin pie is as much a presence as the turkey centerpiece. In modern forms it may appear as a flan, a cheesecake, or a frozen whipped delight.
In a Victorian-era cookbook, “The Art of Cookery: A Manual for Home and Schools” by Emma P Ewing, I found a recipe for a pumpkin pie that surprised me for two reasons: the heavy use of molasses and no cinnamon.
Posted in Dessert, tagged dessert, elections, Historic recipes on November 5, 2012| 3 Comments »
The first known recipe for Election Cake, one of the first foods to be identified with American politics, was published as early as 1796 in Amelia Simmons’ “American Cookery” cookbook. In the 1800s, the cake was served at election time and by the 1830s it had became popularly known as Hartford Election Cake. (more…)
Posted in Dessert, Mary Baker Eddy Library, tagged dessert, Mary Baker Eddy, Victorian recipes on November 4, 2012| 5 Comments »
An easy place to begin for a month of Victorian recipe testing is custard pie. With its short list of ingredients, not much go wrong with this simple dessert.
Posted in Dessert, tagged apples, dessert, food, pie, recipes on October 26, 2012| 1 Comment »
This is my second apple pie of the season. My first apple pie came after an annual trek out to an apple orchard to ride in the tractor pulled wagon, pick a bag of apples, and eat way too may cider doughnuts and fist-fulls of kettle corn. It’s one of those things we do to mark the passing of time in New England.
Posted in Baked goods, Dessert, Recipes, tagged Blondies, Brownies, chocolate chips, dessert, food, recipes on October 12, 2012| 1 Comment »
This is a blondie recipe I put together while watching the vice presidential debates. I wanted to make something simple that wouldn’t have me babysitting the oven the way a batch of chocolate chip cookies would. I also needed to use up the miscellaneous ingredients I had in my pantry leftover from making Presidential Cookies with recipes from Michelle Obama and Ann Romney.
After poking around online, I found this recipe to serve as my base and then added white and dark chocolate chips, walnuts, and toasted coconut to make a blondie brownie bar. (more…)
Kitchen Report 