Coffeecake may be a bit of a misnomer, but I’m not complaining. Coffeecake is one of the ultimate comfort desserts or snacks, a perfect combination of cinnamon and moist cake to accompany a hot coffee or chai tea latte (in my case) , on a cold wintry morning. Indeed, this coffeecake comes together so quickly and effortlessly, it might be ready in the time it takes (more…)
Categories: Desserts
Tagged: Baking, Cinnamon, Comfort Food, Quick and Easy
I didn’t make it back to New Orleans this Thanksgiving. But I still wanted a piece of the city at the table. To that end, I settled on a piece of pecan pie, inspired by the Pecan Pie served at The Camellia Grill.
The Camellia Grill is a local landmark, its Greek columns set right off the streetcar line and the river-bend, and sandwiched between the Uptown and Carrollton neighborhoods. Its patrons run the gamut, with partied-out college freshmen seated elbow-to-elbow with local luminaries, with everyone in between still waiting to be seated.
Two well-worn green couches sit on opposite ends of the Grill, and serve as the designated waiting area. A series of one-legged stools, bolted to the ground, snakes around the counter, (more…)
Categories: Desserts
Tagged: Baking, New Orleans, Pecans, Southern
Cooking is inherently creative.
Standing alone, butter, flour, and bittersweet chocolate chips are nothing to get excited about. No one clamors for a cup of fresh flour or a few handfuls of unsweetened chocolate. But combine these three ingredients with sugar and an egg, and suddenly, you have chocolate chip cookies. After vanilla extract and salt, you can really get creative. Add toffee chips. Or white chocolate chips. Or maybe crushed Girl Scout cookies.
Halloween offers the opportunity to get even more creative in the kitchen. On any other day, (more…)
When you think finger food, you think small appetizers sitting on a counter top. Maybe vegetables and dip, or cheese and crackers.
These scary cookies give a whole new meaning to the term “finger food.” (more…)
Categories: Desserts
Tagged: Baking, Cookies, Halloween, Holidays
Pumpkin isn’t just a scary face anymore.
Carving pumpkins seem to dominate the Fall season, their faces appearing on plastic buckets and billboards, their representatives occupying porch steps and window sills. When we think of pumpkin patches and Halloween, we have carving pumpkins in mind. And that’s sad. Pumpkins have become one of the few vegetables – if not the only one – that has been turned from a food into a decorative device to be discarded. Etching and cutting a design into a vegetable should not be intuitive.
Instead, we should look away from the beasts and monsters, and turn our sights towards sweeter pursuits. Pie pumpkins, unlike the carving pumpkins, are (more…)
Nothing says Fall like the bright orange and reds that surround the season.
The glow of flickering candles set in hollowed-out pumpkins. Crimson leaves swept aside by an errant football. Classroom displays of construction-paper cornucopias and scissor-cut turkey feathers. A scarecrow, straw tumbling from his furrowed brow, as he patrols a lonely field. Thoughts of the harvest and a Thanksgiving meal.
What evokes Fall for you? (more…)
Categories: Desserts · Souffle
Tagged: Baking, Ginger, Pumpkin, Souffle
This weekend, Caitlin and I went apple picking in nearby Belleville, Illinois. Armed with our plastic bags, we each set off to collect the perfect apples. Careful not to overload on the apples, we each filled our respective bag to the half-way point. Yet, when we made it to the scale, we had collectively picked over sixteen pounds of Red and Golden Deliciousness.
Faced with the prospect of an overflowing fruit drawer, (more…)
Categories: Desserts
Tagged: Apples, Baking, Comfort Food, Ina Garten, Pie
As with any recipe by Ina Garten, the question is not whether the dish will be great: it will be. Rather, the question usually is: “How much butter can I leave out, and still have a great dish?”
In this case, Ina called for twelve tablespoons of butter, which struck me as a bit much. I consulted my Cooking Light Dessert book, and found a nearly identical recipe, calling for six tablespoons. Being my judicious self, I simply (more…)
Categories: Desserts
Tagged: Baking, Dough, Ina Garten, Pie
Jewish holidays are nothing if not symbolic. And part of the symbolism naturally encompasses the food. On Purim, it’s hamantashen, triangular confections meant to evoke the villain of the day. On Passover, it’s matzah, unleavened bread meant to evoke the speed with which the ancient Jews fled Pharaoh’s Egypt. On Hanukkah, it’s latkes, fried potato pancakes meant to evoke the miracle of the burning oil.
Rosh Hashanah, which begins this Friday at sunset, is no different. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, and to ensure that the new year is a sweet and good one, it’s customary to eat apples and honey. But unfortunately, where there’s honey, there’s honey cakes – too often a dry, and (more…)
Categories: Desserts · Holidays
Tagged: Apples, Baking, Jewish
Angelo Brocato’s Italian Ice Cream Parlor is an unassuming place, sandwiched between an Asian restaurant unsure about its own ethnicity, and a sports bar with saloon doors for an entrance. On one corner of the street sits a warehouse, with stacks of rolled carpet piled high in all directions; on the other corner rests Junque Antiques, the building itself looking several birthdays older than its wares.
Parking for Angelo Brocato’s is limited to an empty gravel-filled lot, or whatever spaces are available at 45-degree angles on the wide sidewalk on the river side of North Carrolton Avenue. The parlor itself occupies a one-story storefront in the mid-city neighborhood of New Orleans, a safe distance from the reverie of the French Quarter. Inside, the store displays the black-and-white portrait of its founder, and the wire-rimmed chairs, apothecary jars, and (more…)
Categories: Desserts
Tagged: Fruit, Ginger, Italian, Italian Ice, New Orleans, Peach
